rock'n'roll

Sunday, after the graduation ceremony we all went to my daughter Rachel's house for cake. While we were there the teenagers played some music. Times have changed. There was no phonograph in sight, nor tape player, nor cd player. The music came through the computer speakers from a MP3 player. At least that's what I assume.

I made the comment that the singer should have recovered from whatever was ailing him before he made that recording. That brought on a big reaction from the girls. They thought he was a good singer and it was cool music.

I was ten years old when Elvis sang "You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog", and I grew up listening to the likes of Little Richard and Chuck Berry. To me, that was the true Rock'n'Roll era; the 1950's. The musical genre evolved over the years as the '50's groups gave way to the Beatles, the Stones, the Motown sound, the Eagles, but some where along the years I fell into a rabbit hole, musically speaking.

I can't pin point the time when Rock'n'Roll lost its appeal for me. The logical time would have been when my own kids became teenagers, but the songs of the early 80's were pretty good. I still find myself humming the tune to "Karma Chameleon" from time to time, and I think I wore out the cassette tape of "Footloose", that belonged to my daughters.

While I still enjoy listening to the old time rock and roll, the stuff coming over the airwaves today just doesn't qualify. It should be called something else. Maybe caterwaul, or how about cacophony?

While we're on the subject, how about Keith Richards? Decades of promiscuous sex, drugs, and alcohol didn't kill him but a fall from a coconut tree just about finished him off.