Dead and Aging Rock Stars

Here I sit, listening to music that was popular five decades ago and from what I can tell; it is still as popular as it ever was. Weird!

It isn’t odd at all that I am listening to this music, what is strange is that the young people of today find it appealing. When I was younger and forced to listen to my mom and dad’s music, I couldn’t wait to get out of the house. Anything was preferable to the big band music that came out of the mono system we had at home. I eventually came to like a lot of that music, and grudgingly admit that most of it was timeless. Good music is simply that, good music.

When I am by myself though, and want to get mellow, give me music from the 60’s and 70’s. Part of the attraction for me is that the music takes me back in time to when I had a life in front of me and the dreams were still possibilities. Some dreams remained dreams, some became reality and through it all, the music tied the dreams and reality together into a good life.

I wonder if every generation is the same. Five decades from now will there be an old guy sitting at a keyboard listening to hip hop and rap artists promising a better life if you “kill whitey”? Will Kanye be praised as a musical genius or will he have faded into oblivion where he belongs. I suspect that like my generation, the music that will make that future old man smile will be the pop hits of his day because it will tie him to the memories of his youth and the dreams he had that may or may not have come to pass.

I just love sitting here listening to the youthful songs of the dead and aging rock stars that defined my generation.

Have a good day…and listen to something that makes you smile.