completely agree, though conan also has an impressive backlog to plow through as well.
i’m just at the right age where david letterman defined a whole lot of what was funny, what wasn’t funny, and what wasn’t funny that could be made to be funny. in an era that wasn’t welcoming to non-standard folks on tv, his whole schtick and vibe seemed rather punk rock. one of my fave long running letterman gags “are those your drums? did you rent those? beautiful”. dave liked drummers.
starting with the obvious one, I was just a bit too young to get into Thriller when it came out, but (for all the ubiquity) can only imagine how fresh and exciting it must’ve have sounded to the fans in 82/83. I guess the genius was how the music appealed to absolutely everyone eg Billie Jean is as popular at any wedding as it is tucked into a Terrence Parker set.
One night I was at Victoria on the way home from work, all the trains were delayed and there were loads of people hanging about on the concourse. I noticed one guy standing quietly off to one side, sort of hiding a bit and chatting to the staff. It was HIM.
I got on the train eventually, it was the old slam door type, and he was sat across the aisle from me. All he had with him was an old carrier bag and a battered paperback copy of Jane Eyre.
Loads of young people got on who had been to a Harry Potter convention or something. They were trying to talk to him. One of them called him ‘John’ which he didn’t mind (he took it as a complement of sorts) but made me cringe really hard. He was very nice but refused to sign any autographs etc because ‘he was travelling’ - just wanted to be left alone really.
Anyway it’s always struck me that instead of waiting an hour for a packed train he could have just jumped in one of the black cabs at the front of the station and been on his way. But there you go. Didn’t even sit in first class.
Not as good as I made it out to be, but an interesting encounter nonetheless.
He went to my high school. Class of 1950. Never got to meet him IRL but I know quite a few other musicians who did. He was extremely generous with his time. One guy told me how after seeing him perform, Q gave him his card with personal mobile number etc. A few weeks later he worked up the courage to give him a call and sure enough, Q answered, remembered him, and talked his ear off for two hours. What a don.