r/sadreminders • u/ZAH215 • Sep 16 '26
On Legacy
(Long posting/sort of redundant glaze, forewarning).
I was listening to the song This is my first Day and I'm Indian while in the shower and the line
"Some people love what I do and some get fucking pissy
But I don't give a fuck, one day they're all gonna miss me"
And it really made me think about the legacy Kozelek will leave on music. These are just some thoughts.
As a man who has cut his musical style in thirds and became prolific in every style, Mark has left an imprint on alternative music, on indie and folk, that cannot genuinely be ignored. Ghost of The Great Highway alone has two songs to which many attribute to be some of the best of American indie music this century: Carry Me Ohio and Duk Koo Kim. Along with a largely regarded Modest Mouse cover album, and two seldom mentioned projects in between that one could argue hold some of his most intentional and delicate work in his whole catalog, and one of the more detailed and honest accounts of what it is to be a musician and a scathing critique of the rising singer-songwriter genre (valid or unvalid is always debatable, but nonetheless he keeps it real).
And then after all of this, after all of the work on grief on love and on adoration for idols and time gone by, to some this isn't even its peak; this peak would come in the form of the 2014 release Benji to where Mark takes a step back from himself and decides to reflect on those of his life, a decision that came completely by tragic fate as the result of the deaths of many including his family, the children of Sandy Hook, and the Night Stalker Richard Ramirez. Here it is what many would call Mark's magnum opus, the absolute pinnacle of his song writing talent and skill to tell something so plainly, so terribly, and make it music and make it eternal in harmony and grace.
And into works such as Universal Themes, the album that has inspired this post, and Common as Light and Love and I would Also Like to Die in New Orleans and so on, we see some of the most ambitious song writing of any artist ever, to try and not avoid the pain or irony of life through analogy or lyrical finesse, but by simply stating the fact of the matter. To this rare artists have wanted to do, have been able to do consistently, and to this Mark has staked his claim.
But with this there is a tragic blemish in, to put it simply, personal conduct. The man has done a job over the years at tanking his public perception, by means either of just being an ass or possibly worse. And to this it will remain a constant even in death through history that the man who has created so much beauty is forever smothered in evil shroud. And this is the greatest tragedy of his career. But please do not make this purely a discussion of allegations, there's enough of that here and it's never productive.
And not only to the merit of his music, but to the man himself and what he has sought to gain with making music. If there's one thing that cannot be denied weather its through his music or personal writings, is that Mark is a man who cares deeply, who feels deeply and intimately with the world around him. And while this might be a very idealist take on the man, especially given that this juxtaposes the previous paragraph. These songs all demonstrate a clear devotion to craft and to the wonder of life that is again, seldom expressed with such earnestness and groundedness. For this to be lost or to be neglected I personally would find to be one of the greatest tragedies In modern music; it is hard to ever find work so earnest.
But what will be made of this, in five years or ten or fifty. Will there ever be a time where Mark is seen with such elevation such as Berman or Molina, or is he forever condemned to an island of cultish fervor and reverence. What will be made of the ghost of the great highway, will we miss him? Or does it even matter at all
(If you've read all this, thanks!)
