My Memories Have a Soundtrack

So, it seems like many people are dying lately.  I realize that death is common and happens all the time, but I am now of age to have memories to go along with the death notices, and that feels a little weird to me.

A notification about the death of Jim Carroll popped up yesterday and it put this crazy punk rock song in my head, appropriately titled, "People Who Died."  Jim Carroll lived a very hard, fast life and wrote a book about it called The Basketball Diaries.  The book, later made into a movie with young Leonardo DiCaprio, inspired the Columbine high school shooters.  I remember Jim Carroll because he was so strange and compelling and he could write, and the song "People Who Died" had been in my head all day.

Then I hear about Patrick Swayze dying.  So the Jim Carroll song is out of my head now, only to be replaced with the soundtrack to Dirty Dancing.  My friend and I cut French class one day to go see the movie (no worries, the teacher was allowing a ditch day because her pom-pon squad asked for one and she just loved all those pom pon girls.  I mostly tolerated those girls.)  I think I saw Dirty Dancing about three times, plus I owned the soundtrack.  My favorite Patrick Swayze moment is probably when I first saw him in "The Outsiders."  That was when I also first saw Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise and Matt Dillon.

I am wondering who will be the next announced death.  The soundtrack of my memories will continue...