Ok lets be honest, I've just turned 64, which if your young must seem pretty ancient, well I suppose it is, but not if your 64. It's a sort of cruel trick that life plays out on you that in your head your forever young. Even though I've only got about six of my own teeth left and my bald patch is growing faster than my hair, my laughter lines have become permanent fixtures, and I walk the valleys now instead of heading for the mountain tops.
But the one place where I know I've aged is when I try to find some decent music to listen to on the radio or on the net. Ok, I thought that being a musician I would always be hip to what's happening but to tell you the truth I lost the will to keep up a long time ago. Hip-hop, Techno, Garage, Dubstep, House, grunge etc. etc. has passed me by and left me cold, stone cold, and I hear my father echo in my ear. Where's the tune, I can't hear the words, or if I can they're rubbish, or just too offensive/aggressive crap.
This I realise is just a syndrome of growing older, and with age comes a certain mellowness. Not that I don't like a tune with a bit of fire, a crashing of guitars now and then but I must admit to these days liking stuff thats easier on the ears. Mind you I was always a sucker for Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby Stills and Nash, Jackson Brown, The early Eagles stuff, so maybe I'm just returning to my roots. Problem is when I want to find that sort of new music, I turn on the radio and it's not there, or very rarely I bought the Elbow album last year, now that was great, and new, but it's so difficult to find. So what does a man of taste do to discover new stuff that turns me on, as they used to say back in the days of peace and love.
Lets put new music for old people into google and see what we get. OMG. The kirkgate centre in Cockermouth, which I've played at with the Lakes Blues band back in 2000 was putting on a series of over 60's nights, and what were they going to be presenting. A evening of swing band concerts, SWING!!!!, that really floored me. The swing era was dead and gone before I was born in 1948, Ok maybe it hung on by it's fingernails till the early fifties but for me it was dads music, hey we were the new generation and we had Rock n Roll, we didn't do swing, for gods sake. So who on earth was arranging these evenings, some 30 year old who thought that 60 year olds would want old peoples music. NO, we want proper music, Heartbreak Hotel, Goodness gracious Great balls of fire, not In the bloody mood. wrong wrong wrong!
Another link and I find that somebody is catering for older people, they've started a radio station for the over 30s'. The over thirties, they're not old they're hardly out of nappies, They say there's just no good music about these days, not like the hay days of the 80's, so there you go another blow to being old, now I realise I'm really ancient, almost fossilised.
But then I find out that there's about 77 million of us out there, were the baby boomers and the media thinks that we've gone away, drifted into a world of pipe and slippers and the antique road show. Well let me tell you we've still got a lot of living to do and that living needs a soundtrack to live by. I for one don't want to dig out all my old vynal records and replay them to relive the memories of my youth. Now and again it's nice to revisit them now and again but what I need is new music, new music that is a bit like my old music, I suppose. That's the rub, I want interesting stuff by accomplished musicians doing songs that have, what we used to call soul, something in there that touches my heart, makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise, or just moves me enough to rock gently back and forth in my rocking chair. No I don't have a rocking chair, and I don't move as well as I used to, in fact thinking about it I never did move too well, but you know what I mean, dancing was never my forte, even at 20 I danced like a granddad.
So here I am at 64, rehearsing with my band, The Beat Combo, and about to cut another album of original tunes and I'm thinking there must be loads of us out there. We're still writing songs, moving in our own time, and reflecting the world as we now see it. A world in all it's hideous complexity, it's irony, where what was once possible is now tinged with the acceptance of wisdom, that things might not work out like our innocence of the 60's thought they would. Love Love Love, turned into endless stupid wars, and all those protest songs in the end achieved nothing, the rich got richer and the poor carried on being poor, and the world turned.
All I wanted was to find that oasis of talent that is touching 60 or even seventy that was still out there treading the boards, making music that I want to listen to, to help me cope in the madness that we create. I know that we are here, there must be millions of us, baby boomers, who never graced the top twenty but who still have a tale to sing, a story to tell. It's just that we're swamped by the now generation. The young are easier to sell to and so thats where the money and the media go to target their pointless products. Us oldies have seen it done it, have got the "T" shirt and won't get fooled again. So maybe that's why there is so little music for us to discover on the radio, or on the net, there's just no money in it. Money makes the world go around, that clinking clanking sound.
New music for old people, That's a radio station I want to hear, there's enough stuff out there for the kids, it's about time we boomers stood up and shouted, where's our stuff, cause we need that soundtrack all the way to the grave, and it's not swing or even nostalgic 50s' and 60s' we want now music for now oldies. Thank you for listening.
But the one place where I know I've aged is when I try to find some decent music to listen to on the radio or on the net. Ok, I thought that being a musician I would always be hip to what's happening but to tell you the truth I lost the will to keep up a long time ago. Hip-hop, Techno, Garage, Dubstep, House, grunge etc. etc. has passed me by and left me cold, stone cold, and I hear my father echo in my ear. Where's the tune, I can't hear the words, or if I can they're rubbish, or just too offensive/aggressive crap.
This I realise is just a syndrome of growing older, and with age comes a certain mellowness. Not that I don't like a tune with a bit of fire, a crashing of guitars now and then but I must admit to these days liking stuff thats easier on the ears. Mind you I was always a sucker for Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby Stills and Nash, Jackson Brown, The early Eagles stuff, so maybe I'm just returning to my roots. Problem is when I want to find that sort of new music, I turn on the radio and it's not there, or very rarely I bought the Elbow album last year, now that was great, and new, but it's so difficult to find. So what does a man of taste do to discover new stuff that turns me on, as they used to say back in the days of peace and love.
Lets put new music for old people into google and see what we get. OMG. The kirkgate centre in Cockermouth, which I've played at with the Lakes Blues band back in 2000 was putting on a series of over 60's nights, and what were they going to be presenting. A evening of swing band concerts, SWING!!!!, that really floored me. The swing era was dead and gone before I was born in 1948, Ok maybe it hung on by it's fingernails till the early fifties but for me it was dads music, hey we were the new generation and we had Rock n Roll, we didn't do swing, for gods sake. So who on earth was arranging these evenings, some 30 year old who thought that 60 year olds would want old peoples music. NO, we want proper music, Heartbreak Hotel, Goodness gracious Great balls of fire, not In the bloody mood. wrong wrong wrong!
Another link and I find that somebody is catering for older people, they've started a radio station for the over 30s'. The over thirties, they're not old they're hardly out of nappies, They say there's just no good music about these days, not like the hay days of the 80's, so there you go another blow to being old, now I realise I'm really ancient, almost fossilised.
But then I find out that there's about 77 million of us out there, were the baby boomers and the media thinks that we've gone away, drifted into a world of pipe and slippers and the antique road show. Well let me tell you we've still got a lot of living to do and that living needs a soundtrack to live by. I for one don't want to dig out all my old vynal records and replay them to relive the memories of my youth. Now and again it's nice to revisit them now and again but what I need is new music, new music that is a bit like my old music, I suppose. That's the rub, I want interesting stuff by accomplished musicians doing songs that have, what we used to call soul, something in there that touches my heart, makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise, or just moves me enough to rock gently back and forth in my rocking chair. No I don't have a rocking chair, and I don't move as well as I used to, in fact thinking about it I never did move too well, but you know what I mean, dancing was never my forte, even at 20 I danced like a granddad.
So here I am at 64, rehearsing with my band, The Beat Combo, and about to cut another album of original tunes and I'm thinking there must be loads of us out there. We're still writing songs, moving in our own time, and reflecting the world as we now see it. A world in all it's hideous complexity, it's irony, where what was once possible is now tinged with the acceptance of wisdom, that things might not work out like our innocence of the 60's thought they would. Love Love Love, turned into endless stupid wars, and all those protest songs in the end achieved nothing, the rich got richer and the poor carried on being poor, and the world turned.
All I wanted was to find that oasis of talent that is touching 60 or even seventy that was still out there treading the boards, making music that I want to listen to, to help me cope in the madness that we create. I know that we are here, there must be millions of us, baby boomers, who never graced the top twenty but who still have a tale to sing, a story to tell. It's just that we're swamped by the now generation. The young are easier to sell to and so thats where the money and the media go to target their pointless products. Us oldies have seen it done it, have got the "T" shirt and won't get fooled again. So maybe that's why there is so little music for us to discover on the radio, or on the net, there's just no money in it. Money makes the world go around, that clinking clanking sound.
New music for old people, That's a radio station I want to hear, there's enough stuff out there for the kids, it's about time we boomers stood up and shouted, where's our stuff, cause we need that soundtrack all the way to the grave, and it's not swing or even nostalgic 50s' and 60s' we want now music for now oldies. Thank you for listening.
No comments:
Post a Comment