Monday, June 16, 2014

Farewell Casey Kasem

And keep reaching for the stars.  Casey Kasem has died.  Mr. Kasem was part of the cultural soup that I swam about in during my formative years.  By high school, he was part of that backdrop that I just assumed would always be there.  Before iPads and iTunes, America's Top 40 was how you heard the latest.  There were other genres I preferred than just Top 40, but I was always keen on keeping up with the latest.

It was a bonus to find out that Casey was none other than the voice for that tripping hipster of the Scooby Doo gang, Shaggy.  And he also had specials and came in and out of various pop culture productions, such as a brief stint as himself in 1984's Ghostbusters.

I especially remember his annual Top 10 Christmas Songs special.  They were typically the same songs, and may have actually been the same show replayed each year.  I like his telling of the classic O Holy Night the most.  He told of a break in the Franco-Prussian war, in which one soldier on one side, then another on the other side, and soon all of the soldiers stopped the fighting to sing this song.  Eventually, Kasem narrated, they would return to the fighting, and many would die.  But for a moment the light of Christ came through that horror for a brief glimpse of peace.  As only he could deliver such a tale.

Thanks for the fond memories.  Thanks for being a decent spirit in an age when culture was becoming increasingly vulgar and crass (he famously refused to speak the title of George Michael's I Want Your Sex).  And just thanks for being part of the memories of my youth.  May the perpetual Light shine upon you.

3 comments:

  1. Casey was a class act and you're right, a lot of us owe him for his voice in some of our favorite cartoons (remember He-Man?).

    Speaking of the WW1 Christmas Peace, there is a movie about it. I'm hoping to see it sometime but have heard many speak highly of it.

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  2. He-Man? Didn't know that. That's a bit past my time I think. But I've heard of that movie. Kasem's story was from the Franco-Prussian war, but the WWI Christmas Peace is more famous. I've got to find that.

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  3. Whoops, my bad (this is how out of it I am on mondays). Casey was the voice of Robin on Superfriends. It was another guy that did He-Man (though he could sound a lot like Casey).

    And as mentioned in the 2nd part of this video Casey was also in Transformers.

    Oh, and my bad on mixing up the wars there. Dunno what I was thinking. It is hard to hear of them without tearing up. Makes you understand what is meant by "Prince of Peace" and "goodwill to all men".

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