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In reply to the discussion: I hate to sound like an old fogey [View all]IrishAyes
(6,151 posts)Maybe in some ways I actually am. Yet for some inexplicable reason I usually get along far better with 'kids' and REALLY OLD people better than my age mates. Still love college towns because for some reason the students are so outgoing. Even at my age I can be walking down a crowded street and sooner or later somebody will high-five me. It's a little mystifying because I'm not wearing a Che shirt or anything. Maybe they're reacting to subliminal messages, because I just plain LIKE them.
Anyway, back to music: w/o doubt we've always had to search out the best. Remember that Pat Boone was an auditory atrocity straight out the gate! We have to be conscious of our own prejudices, too. For instance I once heard a couple songs I really loved when I didn't know they were by David Lee Roth and some heavy metal guy I personally detested. Kinda took me down a peg or two, and I benefited greatly from it.
That said, my personal tastes have always been wide ranging if picky in general. But here's what will strike many as real Old Fogeyism: the only NPR station I can pick up in this remote region where I retired has a music lineup that I thoroughly enjoy. Prairie Home Companion (lots of classics, folk, blues, etc.), Celtic Connection and later Thistle and Shamrock, and other programs devoted exclusively to old and new folk, rock, and blues. Happy Land for me. What I'm trying to say is that Old Fogeys don't have to be curmudgeons.
And when I recently heard St. Paul and the Broken Bones (classic r&b YOUNG band) for the first time, I felt as if I'd already died and gone to heaven. They're THAT great. All 20-somethings. So you cheat yourself if you shut your heart and ears to what the young have to offer. Maybe I AM an old fogey, but I've never been that stupid.