Musical Interlude

     ....Mr. Artie Shaw and the band:

     I knew the tune but not the title or artist.  Shaw, who was a complicated guy (and that's a drastic simplification!)  crafted his own epitaph: "He did the best he could with the material at hand."  While speaking to a college music class, one of the students mentioned having read this and the elderly Shaw replied, "...I've been thinking it over and I've decided it ought to be shorter, to make it more elegant." And after a brief pause, "I've cut it down to two words: 'Go away.'"