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A singer apologized, closed his eyes, dropped his head and died onstage
- rdiddly 7y agoJeez. That's dedication. "Sorry, I must apologize for interrupting the performance."
- neonate 7y agohttp://archive.md/3VkKU http://archive.md/3VkKU
- aerodog 7y agoYou da real MVP
- droithomme 7y agoWaPo paywall junk. Readible - and very good - article: https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/singer-songwriter-david-olney-dies-onstage-during-performance-florida-festival-n1118611 https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/singer-songwriter-... Mods should ban all WaPo links and WaPo daily shills.
- blobbers 7y agoAgree. Not sure why they include paywall content. What % of user base is subbed to WaPo.
- kick 7y agoIt's trivial to avoid the Washington Post's paywall, so there's no point in banning it. Obviously, a substantial amount of people could read it, because it's on the front page. A lot of sites also give exceptions to HN so we all can pass their paywalls, which is great. (Like FT, for example.)
- hu3 7y agoI'd wager that a considerable portion upvotes for the title and comments alone.
- rblatz 7y agoI think this was a good post up until you called HN corrupt. If you finished your post with the word shills your post would be more effective. And if you dropped the shills part Too it would likely be even more effective.
- lykr0n 7y agoDied doing what he loved around people that loved him for what he did. Good way to go.
- undershirt 7y agothank you for that. reminds me of the end of The Wrestler (2008): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_Yn2xOGNhI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_Yn2xOGNhI
- irrational 7y agoI hope I can go that peacefully some day.
- robbrown451 7y agoIt does sound like a lovely and peaceful way to go. Although it was probably a bit traumatic to the audience since it quickly switched from "oh he's closing his eyes and taking a little moment" to suddenly they've laid him out on the floor and trying to revive him. This was an interview of him earlier the same day. Doesn't seem like he's ready to die...very sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v73VQVZpViA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v73VQVZpViA
- thought_alarm 7y agoThat's how any sane person would want to go. It's funny[.] how much time and money and effort goes in to keeping aged people alive in conditions that are terrible. Do what you love, and go out on top. [.]appalling
- xvector 7y agoI cannot wait until we cure aging so we can die on our own terms. The right to death should be as inalienable as the right to life, and nothing short of the heat death should be allowed to make this decision for a sentient being.
- Sevrene 7y agoI really want what you have said to be true, but I think there are upper limits we can reach that prevent us from really ever being the arbiters of our own death. That which allows us to become living, must also force us to become nothing, death is the necessity for life, and life is the necessity for death. Skipping death, means skipping life. If every human that ever lived could live forever, would we have been born? And today, would there be enough space, enough resources, to live a comfortable life worth living if forever? I'm not saying that it makes sense to kill people to create more comfortable life here (as some might take it), what I'm saying is there's an upper bounds to letting people live for a long long time without impacting any future life negatively. One person living forever is not really be a big deal. But everyone? At which point we have to ask, if people have that right to death, how does it impact other's right to life, right to shelter, right to clean water, and so on. They impact each other. On a side note, there's a fantastic albeit cheaply made film called The Man From Earth that follows a conversation with someone who claims to have lived since the dawn of man. It's great concept, and I highly recommend a watch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_from_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_from_Earth
- xvector 7y ago> One person living forever is not really be a big deal. But everyone? I think any society that is capable of letting humans live forever — on the scales being discussed — would probably be virtualizing sentiences instead of relying on wasteful fleshy bodies. Living via a human body would be a novelty experience, a vacation, a limiting of capabilities and senses. Essentially, I think your point would be mostly mute by the time we develop true immortality.
- c3534l 7y agoI've heard a few stories where a person seemed to suddenly acknowledge that they were about to die. Granted, my grandmother repeatedly claimed she was going to die that night and the one time it was true the family lore became that she somehow knew. But to stop what you're doing like that, I wonder what it is they're actually feeling in the moment. Did he know he was going to die? Did he just feel dizzy? What do people feel in these moments just before death?
- userbinator 7y agoI think it's more likely he just felt suddenly unwell and wanted to pause to catch his breath or rest a little bit.
- chrissnell 7y agoI can’t speak for others but I had appendicitis about 10 years ago and ended up spending almost 8 hours in the ER waiting room suffering immensely. I distinctly remember towards the latter half of my wait that I began to feel a strange sensation of impending doom. I can’t describe it exactly but I feared that I might actually die if I wasn’t called back soon. I later heard that this sensation is supposedly one of the symptoms of appendicitis. In case anybody was wondering, I was eventually taken into the ER. They started me on morphine and was in surgery a few hours later.
- aasasd 7y agoConsidering that a bad trip on magic mushrooms can also be pretty effective at the impending doom thing, it seems to me more a question of particular chemistry production than the setting.
- narrator 7y agoFeelings of impending doom are also a symptom of adenosine injection. [1] Interestingly, caffeine is an adenosine receptor antagonist. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine#Side_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine#Side_effects
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- fernly 7y agoDubious about the "heart attack" diagnosis, at least as the phrase is usually understood. More likely "Sudden Cardiac Arrest"[1]: "In over half of the cases, however, sudden cardiac arrest occurs without prior symptoms." Like, the pump just stops. You'd feel faint and then be unconscious. [1] https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/sudden-cardiac-death#1-3 https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/sudden-cardiac-dea...
- echelon 7y agoDoes this happen in young, healthy individuals? I was reading the Wikipedia article linked in another thread [1], and several of the "sudden" deaths were people in their 40s that appear to have been healthy. Do you feel symptoms, eg. during exercise, that you should listen to so as to inform you to stop whatever activity you're doing? Feeling light-headed, short of breath, blurry vision, etc.? I run and also perform in theater, so I'm a little anxious about this. (Not to be a hypochondriac.) FWIW, I'm going to do some research on my own, but I'm always impressed with the well-informed audience on HN that spans many disciplines. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entertainers_who_died_during_a_performance#21st_century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entertainers_who_died_...
- Gibbon1 7y agoI think some people are born with heart defects that can result in sudden cardiac death as a young adult. Also strokes. In half a century I doesn't know of any friends or friends that had that happen. But then again I know of three people that died when the car they were working on fell off the jack.
- WalterBright 7y ago> But then again I know of three people that died when the car they were working on fell off the jack. Yikes. I had my car fall off once when I was standing next to it getting ready to go under. Now I put two sets of jackstands under it, and give the car a hard shake first.
- monksy 7y agoA British comedian did this as well.. The audience thought it was apart of the act and didn't respond for 5 minutes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Cognito https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Cognito Also apparently this is a thing that happens: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entertainers_who_died_during_a_performance#21st_century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entertainers_who_died_...
- pansa 7y agoI was sure your link to a British comedian was going to be: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Cooper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Cooper
- lttlrck 7y agoMe too, I saw it live on TV - along with millions of others... everyone was in stitches because they thought it was part of the act.
- selimthegrim 7y agoRedd Foxx as well
- tetris11 7y agoLink for the morbidly curious: https://youtu.be/HpZq3ul1ld4 https://youtu.be/HpZq3ul1ld4 Cracking jokes one second, and then quietly down the next.
- ljm 7y agoThere's a fantastic elegy to Tommy Cooper in a hip-hop song by Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip. Just one song out of several in a fantastic record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8zi7vcnjVc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8zi7vcnjVc
- thorin 7y agoOr Sid James (a very famous UK comedian/actor). He died onstage in my home town https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/night-sid-james-died-stage-372852 https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/night-sid-james-died-sta...
- adaisadais 7y agoWow, what a way to go. His music reminds me of Blaze Foley’s sound. Deeply American. And much like Blaze Foley I believe Olney will now find fame (as so many artists do) in death. The irony is strong in art (would make a great Latin phrase).
- tingletech 7y agoin case you are out of wapo reads for the month https://outline.com/tqJsCk https://outline.com/tqJsCk
- lqs469 7y agoWhat the way to leave if you know it will happen soon?
- clay_the_ripper 7y agoMy grandfather loved golf. He played golf every day. And he died playing golf. We all gotta go, I can’t think of a better way than while doing the thing you love most. It does make it easier for your relatives (or at least it did for me with my grandfather) knowing that he died doing what he loves.
- usrusr 7y ago> It does make it easier for your relatives (or at least it did for me with my grandfather) knowing that he died doing what he loves. That's a thing to strive for: make those who outlive you feel good about it. I mean besides the inadvisable trivial solution of being a jerk who everybody including their mom wants gone.
- bryanrasmussen 7y agoIf you don't want to go to washingtonpost (which I don't as I feel their GDPR process is not worth it) and was wondering who the article was about the singer was David Olney, age 71. on edit: Guardian link https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/20/david-olney-acclaimed-us-songwriter-dies-on-stage-after-apologising-mid-song https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/20/david-olney-ac...
- cyberferret 7y agoCondolences to his family and friends, but for an entertainer, I can think of no better thing that you remember last in the world, and that is to be entertaining people and to be in the middle of your craft when the reaper taps you on the shoulder. Somehow, me collapsing on my keyboard mid code doesn't seem all that great way to go. I will have to get another passion that I am mid stream in and enjoying life to the max before I have to cross the river Styx...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- jaxn 7y agoHe was a family friend of mine, and everyone I have talked to has the same take. He was a great songwriter and he wrote a brilliant ending.
- spodek 7y ago> I can think of no better thing that you remember last in the world. . . He doesn't remember dying.
- ngvrnd 7y agoI imagine he meant to write "experience last in the world?"
- DoofusOfDeath 7y agoI'm not sure we can know that.
- Koshkin 7y agoIndeed, short-term memory isn't preserved after death.
- wizzwizz4 7y agoWell, unless you get cryonics (and, let's face it, probably that doesn't retain enough, either, given the present state of the treatment), no data stored in the brain is preserved after death. Many people believe that it's backed up somewhere.
- mister_hn 7y agoThat happened years ago in Italy as well: Mango was his name
- yoaviram 7y agoThere's also the interesting case of Paramahansa Yogananda: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramahansa_Yogananda#Death https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramahansa_Yogananda#Death
- davebryand 7y agoYes—Mahasamādhi has been practiced by yogis for millennia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasam%C4%81dhi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasam%C4%81dhi
- silly_rabbit 7y agoPersonally it scares me that this can affect people so young. Heart problems are no joke - if people just take care of themselves and remember to take their pills a lot of lives could be saved.
- steve1977 7y ago71 is not so young... it's about 10 years below average for men.
- silly_rabbit 7y agoOh i guess i meant to respond to the general statement in the thread that heart attack can strike at any age. Try as hard as you can to do your best every day because no one knows how long they have. And stay in touch with family!
- idclip 7y ago“Dropped dead” is, if you ask me, a disrespectful term To dying or passing away. Im not sure why i have a problem with it, but i do.
- exo-pla-net 7y ago"dropped his head" != "dropped dead"
- idclip 7y agoOh my brain skipped that!
- ivanhoe 7y agoI hope he still performed at his age because he enjoyed it, and not like late Dick Dale, because he had to.
- at_a_remove 7y agoMark Sandman of Morphine also died on stage, as did the lead singer of The Beat Farmers. William Bennett, lead oboist of the San Francisco Symphony, died on stage and literally passed his instrument to another on his way down to the ground.
- elfexec 7y agoStrange to see so many comments praising the way this guy died. Do people really want to die suddenly in front of strangers without any time to prepare and get your house in order? So many here say that's the way they want to go, but that's hard to believe. Personally, I'd rather be given a few months or years notice so that I can prepare.
- vidarh 7y agoI'd say that if there are things you need to prepare, then do it now. If there are things you want to do so badly that you'd drop everything to do them if you suddenly knew you were going to die, then do them now. With that in mind, I'd prefer no warning, because I wouldn't want to spend my last time alive thinking about running out of time.
- aspaviento 7y agoIf you know that what awaits you is a peaceful death, well maybe. But if the process implies a lot of suffering (physical or emotional) a quick end sounds way better.
- C1sc0cat 7y agoDepends if you have been in hospital and shared a bay with very seriously ill patients you might not say that. I recall a older guy who had renal failure and had to be fed through the nose, and another who started to become unstuck in time and was calling out for mother at night
- OnlineCourage 7y agoFew of us will decide, many of us will die in pain. You could die any day so prepare now.
- peg_leg 7y agoI'd love to go out playing music.
- glandium 7y agoPlenty of comments about how this is great for him and it might be, but I'm not sure I'd like to be in a crowd witnessing a performer dying in front of my eyes.
- Jamwinner 7y agoOutside of suicide, nobody gets to choose. Death is, as natural and perhaps even more expected than birth, yet we pretend otherwise to shelter our own sense of mortality. Its an odd arrangement to be sure, but I perfer it to the alternative.
- justforyou 7y agoIt's not all about you.
- Merrill 7y agoWomen 'Cross The River - Linda Ronstadt, song written by David Olney; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XElGDuCUUd4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XElGDuCUUd4
- Myrmornis 7y agoThis doesn't seem appropriate content for HN.
- peg_leg 7y agoAll due respect and condolences but THAT is the way to go out.
- sproketboy 7y agonon paywall link?
- pfarrell 7y agoI had never heard this of this guy before, but looks like I’ll be digging into his catalog. Some really incredible stuff. I read Townes Van Zandt (a great songwriter, himself) considered Mr. Olney among the greatest music writers who’ve ever lived [0]. On the level of Bob Dylan. Some high praise, indeed. His passing reminds me of Dick Shawn [1] who, similarly, died on stage. Because he was a comedian known for outrageous irony and meta jokes, people actually thought it was part of his act. You may remember him as Lorenzo Saint DuBois (aka LSD, or Hitler) in Mel Brook’s original The Producers. [0] https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/legendary-songwriter-david-olney-dies-while-performing-onstage/ https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/legendary-songwriter-davi... [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Shawn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Shawn
- astatine 7y agoMy father passed away suddenly when I and my younger brother were still studying, 29 years ago this week. It took us a decade to pick up the pieces and I don't think we ever became whole again. I think the question of suddenness vs a slower passing is very much to do with general state of affairs. Are there people dependent? Are there a lot of open threads which need some confusion? Is it below the average age (not that it should matter)? Or are they enjoying their life, perhaps in comfortable retirement? The passing of a parent would be traumatic in nearly all cases? Can the pain (of an extended illness) be reduced? Or the chaos of a sudden death?
- 0xcraft 7y agoI have been thinking a nice time to go would be at the finish of an evening of tango. If my wife is still alive we share our final dance feeling the depth of our connection. If she has gone on before me dancing with friends and a bunch of lovely ladies 60 years younger works too. Assuming I make it to 90+ yo. Though I would like to say a final good bye to my kids. Hm. They would appreciate me making a tango exit from this life, too. So all good.