Time Waits for No Man
I knew it would happen someday. I just knew it. But it seemed to occur overnight as I reckon time, so it still came as a shock.
Last month I was working on the local beach during a free outdoor concert. We (The Army) had set up a booth. There were several bands playing that day, one of them was Naughty by Nature. The others I never heard of, though by the reaction of the crowds they were popular. On the way back to the Station the commander asked me if I found out anything new that day. I sure did. I found out that I can no longer consider myself "hip".
Hell, I only Naughty by Nature existed by hearsay. When did I become so out of tune with what's big on the charts? I don't know. But I realized that I have absolutely NO IDEA what music is hot nowadays. Good God, I've become my Grandfather! When I got home and rummaged through my CD's I saw the evidence. My musical collection seems to end somewhere in the mid-90's. I can't even remember the last time I bought a CD!
It would have happened anyway, but I think I've unknowingly sped up my journey to "old-guyness". I don't really listen to radio very much...and most of the time I listen to a talk radio station. If I do listen to music on the radio I find myself tuning into a "Classic Rock" station. And man, I hate MTV! A few days ago I was in my car and I chanced to turn on a local music station. I don't know who the singer was, but the song was "This Woman's Work"....originally a Kate Bush* song, on her Sensual World Album. All I could think was "What the hell is going on? Every time I try to hear what's new I hear a remake of an older song!". That's scary enough....the Sensual World was released TEN years ago!
All I could do was give in to the march of time. To paraphrase Homer Simpson "I used to rock and roll all night and party every day...now I'm lucky if I can find an hour a week in which to get funky.". And I sure miss those times....cold rainy winter days when me and my buds would play Pink Floyd music all day and wax philosophical. Wild parties where we'd blast rap music out of the windows (before rap music became all sordid and violent...I am gettin' old!) and those lazy afternoons where I could listen to Peter Gabriel and the Smiths and think about how ridiculous life really was. Not anymore, though. To paraphrase Homer's dad "It happened to me and it'll happen to you!".
Well, there's no other way around it. Time can't change me and I can't change time, so I'll just have to live with it. I used to tease my older cousin Clucky about his constant playing of old Smokey Robinson tunes. Ironically I can see the day now when some whippersnapper laughs at me for listening to the Fixx or Eric Clapton. If I ever find myself playing Bingo I'll know that I've crossed the line....but then again, I might not be current, but at least I'm still cool.
*Kate Bush has long been my favorite singer. She's also one of the prettiest women I've seen and the Official Songstress of the Inferno.
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