That was all a bit after my day. I had joined the ranks of capitalists by then.

But speaking of feeling old, I got a new mp3 player and gave my old Nano to my youngest son, apologizing for the dinosaur rock stored on it and explaining he should reformat it. Several days later, attempting to be polite, he mentioned he listened to my music and actually enjoyed one (one!) of the musicians -- a certain Joe Cocker whom he'd never heard of before. Sheez...

Oy...but at least your son has good taste to recognize quality when he hears it! I was heartened to hear DD's response to Madame Butterfly--she said quietly "wow. That's amazing" and sent the link to herself. Does a mother's heart proud :)

The late 20s guy (very good at what he does, not a newbie) who's setting our tile today had never heard of the Sex Pistols (!!!!). So I gave him homework for tonight--he has to look up Malcolm McLaren and punk rock. Kids these days...

I Want Candy.

Did you practice that drum riff as often as I did? :)

Yeah, punk rock is old folks' music now. I can't believe it either. And punk-rockers, and punk-rock lynchpins like McLaren are starting to drop dead, not from the usual drug overdoses or other such misadventure, but simply from getting old.

The neat thing is, lots of teens and 20-somethings are really into '60s and '70s rock. Walk past any college dormitory and you'll hear Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, and Jimi Hendrix blaring from open windows everywhere. And everybody (and I mean everybody) loves the Beatles.

It's scary to think how many of legendary rock musicians are in their late 60s and 70s now. It's hard to imagine Paul McCartney or Bob Dylan or Brian Wilson or Eric Clapton no longer being with us, but I'm afraid that will soon be the case.

Agreed, lee--McLaren was practically a relic anyway--amazing that he lasted so long...but wow, who gets mesothelioma? What was cut with what to get something that caused mesothelioma into his lungs? The mind reels.

And re the 'hard to imagine' aspect: Did our parents feel the same way about, say, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters? Or was there something different about rock/sequelae that has created a culture more strongly than Bing did?

When I worked in the high school, I used to sorta, kinda lecture the kids about how they needed to find a voice for their own generation, not rely on the music & symbols of their parents' generation. (Kids, get your OWN take on the issues and give voice to it.)

I felt so...radical & subversive.

That said, my son the singer adores Sinatra & Bobby Darin. And loves, loves, loves hip hop. It's the rhyme and meter that fascinate him. You know, like old style poetry (oh the irony...)