Whenever the world of music suffers a loss, I recall a few songs from my mental archive. "Yesterday, my star fell, and my heart crumbled" (from the Travel Sketch 'The Star is Falling'). A breeze slips through the crack in the door and questions me, "What does this person's death have to do with you?" The song's fading notes answer for me: "My star is fading away, only darkness is intensifying."
Moving homes doesn't mean that my star has abandoned me. The darker it gets, the more prominent the stars become. When stars disappear one by one from the earth's view, the Milky Way becomes richer. "The backdrop of stars should be dark... Only people who are currently in darkness can give birth to stars." (Poet Jung Jin-gyu's 'Star')
Tina Turner (1939∼2023), known as the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll, spent half of her life covered in scars. Let's take a brief journey to the 66th Academy Awards in 1994, where Laurence Fishburne (as Ike Turner) and Angela Bassett (as Tina Turner) were both nominated for leading roles. They starred together in a film titled 'What's Love Got To Do With It.' When it was released in South Korea, its title was changed to 'Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.' What could be the connection between the two?
Tina's past was filled with sorrow and horror. Born as the daughter of a cotton plantation worker in Tennessee, she met Ike in her early twenties. On the outside, Ike was her musical partner (Ike & Tina Turner), but at home, he was an extremely violent husband. In the movie, there's a scene where Tina, face covered in blood, takes refuge in a hotel and weeps, "All I have now are 36 cents and a gas card."
The title song 'What's Love Got To Do With It' is a reflection of Tina's transition from her painful past to a different present. This kind of declaration of finding oneself is also found in 'Leopard of Kilimanjaro' (original song by Cho Yong-pil). "I am nowhere. What's the matter with being left utterly alone in the middle of this big city?"
Tina Turner, who won 12 Grammy Awards, released her autobiography on her 81st birthday while battling illness. Does being old make her remarkable? "What does age matter?" (DJ DOC 'Dance with DOC'). The title of her book, 'Happiness Becomes You,' is quite significant. It is a confession of faith, and hearing it in Tina's strong voice makes it seem real. It conveys that adversity isn't necessarily bad, and we all have the potential to become happy. She faced and confronted her grim reality instead of hiding or erasing it. Her past of "financial ruin, busted lips, black eyes, dislocated joints, broken bones, psychological torture" became her assets.
The death of a singer leaves behind songs and stories, not land or buildings. It's a priceless heritage given to fans. In her songs, she asks the difference between what is needed and what is important, "Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken." In the condolence book of my heart, I write: "There's no such thing as a flawless life. A flawless life is an unborn life."