“Okay, let’s see what we have here. I suspect there is a mandolin, five string banjo, guitar, fiddle, and acoustic bass that made the whole thing work as it was supposed to. If the parts are all intact I may be able to figure out the cause of death. Just for the record, born December 1945 and died September 1996.
I’m now making an incision into the body which has the most brilliant color blue, and I’m taking out the Monroe F5 mandolin that is protected by its case. This really is the heart and soul of the whole thing. Okay, the mandolin is intact, with no sign of disease, although it looks like it may have had some reconstructive surgery at one point. Now let’s see about the other vital parts. Hmmm, the Scruggs five-string banjo, the Flatt guitar, Wise fiddle, and Rainwater acoustic bass seem to be okay too. The cause of death must have been some kind of strange, never before identified virus that killed the body and soul without affecting these vital parts.
Yes, I can see now that it was definitely some kind of viral infection, that’s the culprit. Too bad Dr. Bert Daniel, M.D., of the California Bluegrass Association, wasn’t the family physician, as he may well have prevented the death. There are some bodily indications that there were attempts to revive it, but in the long run those attempts couldn’t keep it alive in its original form.
Examining the body as a whole, there is ample evidence that it was innovative, pure, clean, vibrant, and the first of its kind to experience a life of its own. It is almost alien, in that there wasn’t anything like it before it was born. My, my, it must have been something to witness its birth, and then behold it grow and grow into something amazing and never before heard or seen.
The paperwork here indicates that there now are living relatives, and the attending physician at their births is a Dr. Frankenstein. I wonder if its relatives have any resemblance to this magnificent blue body that I’ve been examining. No, no, I think not. This was a one-of-a-kind creature that only comes along once, and we’ll never hear or see anything exactly like it again. ”
