25-02-2013, 04:24 PM
Dear Mr. Drago,
On November 22, 1963, I was an 11-year old Irish Catholic kid growing up in Belmont, Massachusetts.
I'll never forget that Friday afternoon when we were informed at school what had taken place. In the ensuing years, I've come to realize the loss of President Kennedy in such a senseless and brutal manner affected me more than I ever knew at the time. The words to this song were very difficult for me to write, bringing me to tears many times during it's composition. All the feelings that 11-year old boy experienced fifty years before...feelings he'd somehow tucked away into the deepest recesses of his psyche...were suddenly coming to the surface. It was a cathartic experience, to say the least.
I can understand your being critical of the choice of words in my post, but the lyric to the song "Childhood's End" is an altogether different matter. They were words that came directly from my heart...from somewhere deep inside myself...more from that little 11 year old kid in me who hadn't yet yet formed any political beliefs than from the 61 year old man who is sitting here writing this response to you. I certainly do believe there was a conspiracy behind the assassination of J.F.K. However, I truly believe that if my mind had been focused on a political agenda or conspiratorial theory instead of what I felt deep inside my being about that horrific moment in our history, I doubt that any song would have been written at all. As a writer and artist yourself, I hope you can understand.
Kind regards,
Rick Ryan
On November 22, 1963, I was an 11-year old Irish Catholic kid growing up in Belmont, Massachusetts.
I'll never forget that Friday afternoon when we were informed at school what had taken place. In the ensuing years, I've come to realize the loss of President Kennedy in such a senseless and brutal manner affected me more than I ever knew at the time. The words to this song were very difficult for me to write, bringing me to tears many times during it's composition. All the feelings that 11-year old boy experienced fifty years before...feelings he'd somehow tucked away into the deepest recesses of his psyche...were suddenly coming to the surface. It was a cathartic experience, to say the least.
I can understand your being critical of the choice of words in my post, but the lyric to the song "Childhood's End" is an altogether different matter. They were words that came directly from my heart...from somewhere deep inside myself...more from that little 11 year old kid in me who hadn't yet yet formed any political beliefs than from the 61 year old man who is sitting here writing this response to you. I certainly do believe there was a conspiracy behind the assassination of J.F.K. However, I truly believe that if my mind had been focused on a political agenda or conspiratorial theory instead of what I felt deep inside my being about that horrific moment in our history, I doubt that any song would have been written at all. As a writer and artist yourself, I hope you can understand.
Kind regards,
Rick Ryan