The George Best Problem

The George Best Problem

It appears in all walks of life, all professions and hobbies: the essence of it is that if you excel at something, you will be expected to live up to your reputation, to continue to shine, for the rest of your life. People who have become fans don’t really want to allow you to sink back into obscurity for the rest of your life.

And it’s bad enough anyway, as George Best illustrated, so sadly. Just because you had a great talent for one thing, which you could not continue to do for the whole of your life, there’s no reason that you should be good at anything else. I’m not in any way a football fan, but seeing footage of George Best at work, at play, shows me that he had something very special indeed.

It’s the same in music – I’m sure that every ageing pop star tires of singing their greatest hits at every single concert: it gets boring… The clever singer may address both vocal changes and boredom with new additions to the entourage: any Leonard Cohen fan who saw one of his performances in his seventies (with a range of musicians, and the fabulous Webb Sisters cartwheeling across the stage) cannot fail to have been impressed by the young, nervous poet with a guitar grown old, confident and appreciative of his audience. His advice from a 1976 concert stays with me – ‘I advise you all to become rich and famous.’

This takes us to the ‘photographer’s photograph’ – many of us have tired of Program mode and AWB, and want to make images that help us to explore and satisfy our creative instincts. We shoot subjects that are not obvious lens-fodder, and we shoot in unusual ways. I know when I’ve posted one of these, because the votes drag and falter, while a stack of user awards accumulate under it. I deem this to be a great success…

As well as changing style and direction, it’s possible to change rôle. The boxer becomes a coach, bringing ring savvy to a new generation of hopefuls: the artist may become a teacher, and inspire a new generation of creative talents, alongside pursuing increasingly esoteric personal projects, as John Blakemore did. Ringo Starr became the unlikely voice of the railway engines of Sodor…

The Alpha male who is not content to allow the young lions to run ahead of him is doomed to disappointment and sometimes-bloody defeat. Better to find a new, graceful rôle in life.

The important thing, perhaps, is to avoid bitterness and rancour. While George Best could be said to have wasted his later life, he remained amiable and open, a natural gentleman on chat shows even when he was long past football. He seemed to be at ease with himself – and that should probably be our goal as well – wherever we are creatively.