My bathroom reading lately has been Shakespeare's Complete Works.[1][2] Whilst perusing it this morning I came upon sonnet 8, which a) I had forgotten was one of my favs, and b) is perhaps the earliest recorded instance of smacking down hataz.[3]

Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.
Why lovest thou that which thou receivest not gladly,
Or else receivest with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,
Resembling sire and child and happy mother
Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: 'thou single wilt prove none.'

And then, of course, I realized how much it resembled[4] Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young":

Come out Virginia, don't let me me wait
You Catholic girls start much too late
But sooner or later it comes down to fate
I might as well be the one...
Only the good die young

You might have heard I run with a dangerous crowd
We ain't too pretty we ain't too proud
We might be laughing a bit too loud
But that never hurt no one...
And only the good die young

They say there's a heaven for those who will wait
Some say it's better but I say it ain't
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints
Sinners are much more fun...
And only the good die young

Now, as my pops explained this to me, it's a taunt--only the good die young, and you're not dead yet, so what does that make you? Which is sort of what I want to say to people sometimes: we're all down here in the mud and the muck, so roll around in it with the rest of us. Don't be shy. Also: look, they're all singing for you, and if you don't like it, that just amuses the music. You by yourself ain't no fun. Joy delights in joy.

[1] No, seriously. I'm sorry.
[2] Confidential to Miss Clap: Shakespeare's COMPLETE Works.
[3] Definition there being very biased obvs.
[4] Just to say this going forward: I am being totally sincere about all of this, which may be more worrisome than the alternative, but still.
posted by Mike B. at 12:22 PM 0 comments