And so it goes

…is a song from Billy Joel during his twilight later era – I guess it was from the 1989 album – yes, he was still in his last groove with the "We didn’t start the fire".
All the great artists have their peaks – if the peak is relatively low they might prolong their life or even have another shot. Here, "Lower peak" doesn’t mean the hill at our backyards – it means the highest mountain in the region but still lower than Mt.Everest….You still have somebody who can do better than you at what you are attempting to do.
The likes of Neil Young, Ramones, Kinks enjoyed (or enjoying) a very long lifespan. I guess the secret lies in the fact that none of them created a song that will last 100 years. Maybe their style and legacy will do. And that’s the whole point, for example in Ramones’ case.
The second tier groups are talented enough to create several classics almost everybody in a certain generation know, but are a dollar short to reach the pinnacle – they didn’t write "the one" – perfect song in its own category.
The perfect song doesn’t necessary need to be translatable into a classic music. Basket Case from Green Day won’t convert nicely into a muzak for Sunday afternoons in a department store, but it is perfect. Fxxxxxx perfect.
Billy Joel did not write a perfect song, but several songs that are close – Uptown Girl – yes it is super-ultra-gigantically 80s but it is flawless – but not exactly a timeless. A dollar short, but I am not sure if it was a bless or curse for him.
On one hand he will never achieve the same status as Elton John, Rolling Stones, or Beatles. He could have. Who knew? How does it feel like not being able to transform into something noble, something divine, even though all the materials are there?
But because of his lukewarm ups and downs, fans and even himself could anticipate something exciting in the next project, for a very long time (not anymore, I guess). Isn’t that a blessing? You have enough power to create a magic, and not everybody, even you, is expecting you to repeat the same tired routine because there is still some hope, a real one, that one day a miracle, instead of magic, will occur.