Fading Away

Why did you fade away?
You had everything.
Absolutely everything.

You were a rambunctious
young man in grade school.
You were against any and
all control.
You received a guitar for
your seventeenth birthday.

You ran off to Scandinavia.
You busked in the streets for
money and scraps of food
from generous passerby.
You spent most of your money
on cigarettes.

You returned home from
your life on the streets.
You had impregnated your
sixteen year-old girlfriend.
Your girl's name was
Valerie.

You played at clubs.
You were popular at
Alexis Korner's club,
where you began to master
the slide guitar.
You got better and better.

You went to a concert one night.
You met a woman named Angeline.
She was newly married.
You put a baby in her stomach
after one meager night at
Wooden Bridge Hotel.

You were accepted to
Cheltenham Art College.
You were then denied, for
someone had written to
the school, calling you an
'irresponsible drifter'.

You had a baby with Patricia Andrews.
You lived with Pat and little Julian.
You sold your record collection for
flowers and baby clothes.
Parenting life quickly grew
insanely boring for you.

You moved to London.
You met two kind men named
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.
You three decided to start
an R&B band.
You were best friends.

You created the name 'Rolling Stones'
while on the phone with a venue owner.
He asked the name of your band.
A Muddy Waters record was lying on
the floor beside you. On the song list
was 'Rolling Stone'.

You and your new band skyrocketed.
You quickly became the most popular
band in England.
Then, you took over the United States.
Instead of youth and lust for life,
drugs began controlling you.

Your fellow guitarist, Keith Richards,
stole your girlfriend of two years.
This broke your heart.
You soon got arrested for possession
of marijuana.
You were set free.

There you went again.
You were arrested a second time
for the same charge.
The judge said, "For goodness sake,
don't get in trouble again or it really
will be serious."

Then, you died.
July third, 1969.
You were complaining about the heat.
You went for a quick swim that
turned out to be the longest
swim ever known to man.

But that's okay, Brian.
Your gift will always be on this
little green planet.
Your music will forever be dripping
out of happy homes and
singing speakers.