My generation of Music

 My generation has done a lot of stuff. Some good. Some not so good but among the good, Our Music is the Best!

Right now as I start writing this I’m listening to the Soundtrack to Fantasia so that is not the most conducive to reminiscing about our music of the 60’s but I will begin anyway.  

Ours was the age of the 45 rpm. The Single. A song that had such gravitas that we just had to hear it. We’d listen to the top rock on our AM Radio and hope that they would play it soon. Then there was the countdown where we would listen to see where it ranked on that all important top 40. Cousin Brucie or  Big Dan Ingram would do the countdown with riveting commentary in between that would just keep you captivated and on the edge of your seat. You couldn’t possibly buy all these records and stack them on your 45 record player where the little mechanical arms would magically play them one after the next. No, you had to listen and somehow sort them out by your own priorities. Was it fun? Was is loud? Was it fast? Or did it speak to your heart? Your vision of love? And when that song came on at the Canteen Dance and you could feel it all through your body would you have the courage to ask her to dance? Or stand and watch others pretending you really didn’t care? Each and every song was a personal challenge; To dance to show that you could do the Twist or the Slop or the Watusi. And the Slow songs most of all… who would you ask? Would she say yes? Or would she say no?… leaving you to slink away dejected and pretending that you really didn’t care. How many couples wound up getting married after high school all because she said yes to Earth Angel or In the Still of the Night? Shoo doop an shoobedo oh oh oh… in the still of the night. Many many years later when I was happily married with children and their music invaded and replaced??? Our music. I often asked how is this new generation going to fall in love without the music that helps make it happen? Romance. Romance is the feeling of love. It’s the anticipation, the wanting, longing, needing and finding, almost the finding of love. Much of romance is the search. The journey towards the destination. Love is the endurance of the the notion. Very few songs are inspired, written, sung or played about the state of love most are written in its quest or loss. Keeping the house clean, paying the bills, raising kids that talk back… that takes True Love!

Now back to my generations’ music. Yes the soundtrack of our life. Starting with Earth Angel by the Penguins, https://youtu.be/VJcGi4-n_Yw  ,in the Sill of the Night by the Five Satins https://youtu.be/MRb1-SAAIzs . If you found someone to dance with you begin with the slow courtship with one hand up to hold hers and your other to wrap around her waist. If that was ok you might progress to the full embrace with both arms around her and hers around your neck. She would nestle into your shoulder and you to absorb her sent of perfume and the softness of her sweater. Chaperones we’re posted around the dance floor. Always watching, always ready to cut in. There were other boys ready to do the same. Midway through the song just when you might think you’re melting into a mutual abyss there could come that tap tap tap on your shoulder. Somebody wants to Cut In. So yet another challenge and choice to make. The fast songs of the day were also a moment of truth. Continued…