Am I Clueless About Music?

The other night I was sitting on my deck with a bottle of Conundrum, my new favorite sipping wine, singing songs to oldies tunes. We old folks do that sometimes. We get a little tipsy and break out the oldies like the Beatles, James Taylor, Lynard Skynard and Fleetwood Mac to name a few. So all at once I had a revelation. I am totally out of touch with the music world. I know all the words to these old songs, at least the ones where you can actually understand them. With Stevie Nicks I just go; Mena na na, jes a da me, be te tu la, se la win oh. This is Stevie language. Same for whenever I hear Pearl Jam.

The next day, I decided that a trip to the web was in order to check out what I have been missing. So I head to the Billboard.com to see what’s on the top of the list. Now I was always a rock and roll girl. None of that rap and hip hop sh-t for me. I could do some Country Rock, key word being rock. Off I go to the top ten rock chart . Who do I find at the number one spot? Pearl Jam.

I am thinking, well then, maybe I haven’t missed much in the last couple of decades after all and I pop on over to You Tube to check it out. There I find the video for “The Fixer” which incidentally was made for Target. Yes, you got that right, Target, the store with the big circles for their logo. I listen to the song and although I found the lyrics to be a bit immature and the melody to be quite repetitive, it wasn’t bad and was actually a catchy little tune with an upbeat message. What else would you expect when they are making this for Target. So you get the drift.

I then got caught up in watching some of the old Pearl Jam recordings and I remembered why I liked them. Now I was never a hard core Pearl Jam follower but I did always turn up the radio when the songs came on and I did buy a few of their old CD's which I am sure ended up in one of my kids cars. I made my way through a pot of coffee or so as I listened to their old hits. I still love Yellow Ledbetter, whatever that means, and I found a You Tube video that has the lyrics to follow along with that helped me to appreciate the song even more. I especially love when lead singer Eddie Vedder turns to the guitar soloist Mike McCready and says “Make me Cry.” Now that kinda hits you, doesn’t it. Great song whether you can understand him or not.

I work myself down the list of the top ten rock hits and I do recognize at least one tune, “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon and I have actually heard of Nickleback so I give this one a try. Their latest hit “Burn it to the Ground” is actually the theme song for a Transformers movie, a film that lots of kids are sure to see. So again I check out YouTube and find a version complete with lyrics. What I found was more suitable for a Hells Angels rally or a bunch of wanna be party boys as they load up the frat bus. I guess there is a time and place for everything right. Parents beware.

All of this research made me aware of two things. We need to get out and buy music from artists that we appreciate. You can’t blame a band for so called “selling out” when we are all listening to their stuff for free on YouTube and everywhere else.

Most of all the experience brought back some lyrics to a favorite old song of mine.

So you’re a little bit older and a lot less bolder than you used to be.
So you used to shake ‘em down, now you stop and think about your dignity.

I was not above throwing back a shot myself in the old days and shouting out something like “Let’s hear some Bob Seger.”

Years of being a career mom took precedence over my rock and roll experience and my kids are all adults now and old enough to read this for a good laugh or two. But the line is true.

“Come back baby, rock and roll never forgets.” (I can hear them groaning now.)