Of music and old farts

I love music.

I've heard that come out of many mouths, young and old. In fact, it may be a requirement of youth to embrace music. Love of music is universal.

Wanna know another universal?

Being all pissy about music.

My generation saw music democratized and then segregated. When I made it to Independence, Missouri (from Nevada, Missouri), it's my opinion that I arrived at popular music's nadir.

As the 1970s rolled into its Side 2, a local Kansas City station played popular music. KBEQ - Super Q! - played a song by ABBA, then something by Glen Campbell, then something by Kiss. Funk, pop, country, rock, singer-songwriter, folk things: if it was popular, it belonged to us, served up on one gleaming Frequency Modulated platter.

Eventually it was necessary to diversify, I guess. Nowadays you have stations based on genres, or even sub-genres. In Kansas City I can listen to a Saturday Night Fever track, then something by Slipknot, then Adele's latest, then something by Toby Keith, and an REO Speedwagon standard to wrap things up. Unfortunately, I have to spend a bunch of time punching buttons to achieve that kind of radio mix.

Then I read on Facebook some old fart's lament on the State of Modern Music and I wish they could get over themselves one day. But I know they can't, and that's a shame.

Pissy People

I was in Kansas City from 1965-1970 or so. I listened to Motown gold, hippy grooves, bubblegum pop, British Invasion hits, and psychedelic swirls.

From 1971-1974 or so I was on a farm. The Temptations were swapped for Tammy Wynette, Donovan for Dusty Springfield, the Beatles for Buck Owens, Chicago for Charlie Pride, hit charts for Hee Haw.

Got back to the city to see disco blossoming, arena rockers on the rise, country stars on pop charts, and I embraced this whole wild mix. With my well-travelled ears I would fall in love with pop, punk, disco, electronica, New Wave, hair metal, rowdy country and New Age artists. I love music.

And in the background, my constant companions are the pissy people who think their music is the best and the rest is crap.

The Beatles and the Stones were ridiculous because of their long hair. And the bloody hippies with their sitars and Woodstock and acid-drenched feedback. The country artists only sang about getting drunk and ruining your marriage because you were a rambler.

Rock artists could only make noise, metal artists were too chaotic or so gay only girls liked them, the pop of the 50s and 60s were just old people's tunes, and on and on until I covered my ears and walked away.

Music Snobbery For Dummies

To put a fine point on it, every generation loves their music and are dismissive if what came before and derisive of what came after. They point to whoever's popular at the moment, whoever is new on the scene, and they mock. They proclaim that real music is dead.

These people are ridiculous.

Some are snobby, turning their noses up at anything popular that their generation didn't make popular. Others are so detached they only listen to their stuff and point to what's on Hit Radio stations as proof of the apocalypse.

These people don't love music. They only love their stuff, and that's real square, baby.

So for all the people who say they love all kinds of music but prove they're really living in a cage, I have a few thoughts:

I have to steel myself when I ask someone what kind of music they like and they gush, "Oh I love all kinds of music! I have really diverse tastes!" Occasionally I'm actually surprised to find out they're telling the truth. Usually it boils down to a narrow band with some token offerings from other lanes of the musical highway. If you like rap, hip hop, a little bit of soul, some smooth R&B and three songs you heard accidentally while watching The Voice, and that's pretty much it - yeah, I'm not taking you seriously. You don't have to be a fan of every genre or even most genres, but "I love all kinds of different music" apparently doesn't mean what it should.

I have to steel myself when someone tells me they love an artist, because too often it boils down to a small fragment of that artist's catalog. Pink Floyd has, what, 15 studio albums? 15 albums, and I guarantee that almost anyone who tells me, "Oh, I love Pink Floyd!" really means they like a few select tracks off of Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. They don't know the band had a wonderful album caled More, or a beautiful piece of art called Meddle. They don't know that there's a song called "The Hero's Return" that contains some transcendent guitar work by David Gilmour. I'm not saying they have to love a majority of the Floyd's work, but come on. A few songs from only 3 albums, and you love this band?

Another group that suffers from this same affliction are the folks who only love a band during the time one member was in it. Journey fans, I'm looking at you. "I love Journey" usually has a footnote: "Well, as long as Steve Perry is singing." I'm not saying you have to love things off their first three albums before Perry joined, or that you still have to follow their career. But if you're going to say "I love Journey" and you didn't even know they existed for three albums before Stevie joined, I view your great love for Journey with suspicion. Most people just love Journey With Steve Perry, and while that's great and fine, it's just not the same thing.

And I'll bet a ton of artists you love from the 50s through the 70s - artists you might magnify today as real musical talents - would have loved AutoTune.

Expand them there horizons!

Genesis existed before Phil Collins was their singer, and even before he joined as their drummer. REO Speedwagon had a fantastic first album before Kevin Cronin joined. Yes have a career that, at some point, included every musician in the galaxy. Kenny Rogers was in the psych/rock/pop band The First Edition long before he became The Gambler, and he didn't even sing all of their hits.

So when I ask you what kind of music you like, think for a minute before tossing out  the throwaway "I like all kinds."

Try to expand your musical experience. If you like Metallica, check out some Ennio Morricone soundtracks. If you like being bludgeoned by death metal, why not try a little Acid Mothers Temple? If you like harmonies, mix a little Boyz II Men with your Beach Boys.

And try to go a little easier on new artists. Maybe you think all new music sounds the same. Why not try seeking out new music somewhere other than Mix 93.3? There are so many new bands that you haven't stumbled across yet but who you might love!

Oh, and remember that generations before you made the same complaint about those songs and artists you embrace as "good music." Go apologize to your parents right now for the scorn you gave them for dismissing your music, because now you sound just like them. Remember that when your kids want you to hear the new song they love but you can't be bothered with it because it's so commercial and fake.

Don't be such a music snob, bagging on everything that isn't your awesome stuff. Be open to artists who are still trying to follow their muses.

I'm often a music snob myself. But at least when someone asks me what kind of music I like, and I say "I love all kinds of music," I mean it.

But not jazz. Jazz is weird.

On waking up, disturbed in verse

It was crisis time in the Dreamlands
A nightmare soup du jour
No monsters here
Just bundled fear
'Twas awful, to be sure.

My kids had all gone missing
I couldn't find my way
A massive cost
To being lost
Who's really missing- me or they?

I walked in on my true love
Engaged to someone else
I was no longer fun
She sounds another one
I rated no farewells.

My mom was coming back today
A trip on someone's dime
Despite my best wishes
The sinkful of dishes
Reminded me I'm out of time.

I woke up feeling out of sorts today
Bad night, deep fright, what can I say?

My sweetheart's still here holding me tight
My children are too, the sun shining bright

But my mom won't be coming home today.
It's been seven years since she went away.
I want to call her on the phone
Tell her that I feel alone
But my service doesn't cover Heaven's Way.