When I go to outdoor venues to see local bands play, I am always surprised to see how many people are of "a certain age". Someone I knows calls them "Q-Tips".
Actually, I am a Q-Tip too. And this is the trick that time plays on us Q-Tips:
To me, rock n'roll is a music of young people. I'm always surprised when I see senior citizens enjoying music of the Beatles, the Who, Earth Wind and Fire, and a host of other groups of the 60's and 70's. When I was coming of age, after all, there was a huge musical divide between our parents and us.
They listened to Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and big band.
Our music was boring and repetitive. It had no substance. It was a bunch of screaming.
Our music became the music of rebellion. We would show our parents. And, to our surprise, we would raise children who loved the same music we did. Our grown children have their own music (i.e. rap), true, but they also know our music. I know 20-somethings who love Elvis and the Beatles.
And now we are older than our parents were when they said those hurtful things about our 60's music. Our hair is grey, we've put on a few pounds, but we can still boogie.
On a Sunday afternoon in Binghamton, New York, at a bicycle race of all places, a group called Rooster and the Road House Horns played the music of groups such as Chicago and Earth, Wind and Fire, mostly to a group of Q-Tips. The bicycle race (more on that in another post) was over and the young people had left.
Rooster invited everyone to come up and dance and several people of a "certain age" answered the call.
Swaying to the beat of "September", they were teenagers and young people in their 20's again. And so were those of us who stayed in our seats.
When I was a teenager, the sight would have made me sick. How sad. It took me 40 years to understand.
Time has had its way with us Q-Tips physically. But inside, we are still young. Our thoughts are young. The voices we think in are the same young voices.
Every generation understands this, eventually.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for visiting! Your comments mean a lot to me. Due to a temporary situation, your comments may not post for a day or more-I appreciate your patience.I reserve the right to delete comments if they express hate or profanity, are spam, or contain content not suitable to a family blog.