I have barely listened to any Dolly Parton songs ever, but her death stands out to me for one massive reason.
We are entering the earliest stages where we will rapidly lose all of the stars of the 1960s and 1970s, the celebrities who kind of established the mass star system.
Paul McCartney is 84. Bob Dylan is 85. Mick Jagger is 83. Diana Ross is 82. Ringo Starr is 86. Stevie Wonder is 76.
These people don’t feel like historical figures because they’re still here.
But what still feels like recent lived history is becoming actual history.
The 20th century is leaving the room.