Never Thought I’d Be An Old Fart

This post is about music. The kind I like, the kind I don’t like, etc.

This came to me after reading Rashod D. Ollison’s column today in the Baltimore Sun. He mentioned a few of the songs that were currently on his playlist and he named a couple that I haven’t heard in a long time. Good songs from the ’70s-Stevie Wonder (but I have heard “As” recently); Donna Summer’s “Spring Affair” and Mass Production’s “Welcome To Our World Of Merry Music.” The real surprise though, was an obscure nugget from Bernard Wright, “Haboglabotribin’.” I wish I had asked him where he found that song, since I know that LP can’t be on CD, can it? (Judging from the link, maybe it is, but it can’t be cheap). From 1981? Might have sold 35 copies back in the day… (actually I don’t know how many copies that album has sold). The point is, that those songs brought back pleasant memories about music. I often wonder if I’ll have any pleasant memories about what’s out now.

There’s good music out there, but you have to look past the stuff that you’re spoon fed on the radio. There’s only so many “shake a booty” or “sex you up” or made-up dance songs with even sillier catchphrases that can be entertaining before your brain turns to mush. I grew up with hip-hop, but this ain’t the hip-hop I grew up with. It’s simple-minded, narrowly focused. Mr. Ollison wrote a column about the misogyny and foul-language in rap a couple of weeks ago, noting that smart hip-hop does exist, but you have to look for it. Me, just give me my XM radio with The Groove, Suite 62, The Rhyme and Soul Street, with a little Watercolors and Beyond Jazz thrown in. Oh, I’ll listen to The City and The Heat every once in a while; I like to know what’s hot and it helps me find songs for my friends who like that kind of music. But a steady diet of it is just too much for me.

So I guess that makes me an old fart, huh? Never thought that I would be the one saying today’s music doesn’t hold a candle to yesterday’s greatness. I sound just like my Mom just 20 years ago. Of course, “yesterday’s greatness” wasn’t always great either…