Review Summary: Even the sun goes down, heroes eventually die; horoscopes often lie
I guess it all comes down to one question, a lot less simple than it looks – do you believe that anyone deserves to die?
If you're of the mind to make the distinction between those who do and don't, then Gavin Clark would fall pretty firmly into the 'died unfairly' category. A lot of comparisons have been made between him and Nick Drake. This is maybe partly due to their musical tendencies, but in large part to the way they both died: tragically, like Van Gogh, without ever knowing how much their work was loved.
The major difference between Nick Drake and Gavin Clark is that the former has come to be heralded as one of the great singer-songwriters of all time, while the latter is pretty much the golden boy of backroom forums and indie film soundtracks. You've got the Sunhouse material that makes up the first stretch of the album, including top-quality b-sides "Crazy" and "Black Blood" and Gavin solo versions of "Hurricane" and "Spinning Round the Sun"; you've got the wealth of soundtrack material used by a well-meaning friend and solo material from Gavin's later years.
Beautiful Skeletons is a goldmine that very few people care enough to dig up. That's what hurts the most as a retrospective lover of his music – the way
Beautiful Skeletons, in an alternate world, could have easily been either a greatest hits or b-sides collection for the next Nick Drake, or Bob Dylan, or whoever Gavin Clark could've turned out to be. But he didn't, and it wasn't, instead becoming barely a footnote in the history of music – a stunningly gorgeous full stop on a career that barely had an introductory paragraph.
So I guess it comes down to that one question again. That one question determines how much you feel for the strangers who you hear about dying over the TV every day; how well you coped when you experienced your first close personal tragedy; even how you consider your own death, as an objective fact to be accepted or an event to be delayed as long as humanly possible. There's no right or wrong way to it, because those bonds between the atoms of your body are going to give in one day no matter what: I guess the best we can hope for is to leave behind some beautiful skeletons.
