oldies

[markwa1ion@aol.com]

Maybe I'm strange but hearing the tunes I liked as a teenager makes me 
feel younger than older.  The gym treadmill speed is usually stepped 
upwards if I'm cranking "Liar Liar" by the Castaways, "Hey Joe" by the 
Leaves, "Live" by the Merry-go-Round, and any number of other 
high-school-era hits, especially of the garage-rock type.  Luckily many 
of these are on Rhino's Nuggets CD series (even if they aren't on the 
radio).

I'm of the opinion that great music can come from anywhere at any time. 
  There are certainly enough things that I like that pre-date me by 
quite a few years.

Gene Krupa was wailing on the drums in the Carnegie Hall live version 
of "Sing, Sing, Sing" from Benny Goodman's band way before I got here, 
but I still think it's an outstanding cut.

And if Charlie Parker's "Night in Tunisia" isn't on Jam'n, that's their 
loss.

Magic 106.7 is largely snoozeville to me.  Where's the excitement there 
?

Ditto for WODS.  When's the last time they played "Turn On Your Love 
Light" by Bobby Bland or "Temptation" by the Everly Brothers or 
anything else from '61, a year I feel is severely underrated (being 
after Presley's peak and pre-Beatles).

I'm fairly close to Garrett's folks' age range.  Would I trade Marvin 
Gaye's "Can I Get a Witness" of late '63 for the whooey they play on 
Magic ?  When pigs fly !

Mark Connelly - Billerica, MA

<<
Garrett Wollman wrote:
> My mother is 57 and she doesn't listen to oldies radio at all -- says
> it's "too old" (whatever that means).  When I hear her listening to
> the radio, it's always Magic or Lite.  My father, 62, is much more
> into the music of his teenage years, perhaps because he was a musician
> himself back then.  (His inability to remember lyrics
> notwithstanding.)
>
My folks are in their 80s and often said that about "old" music
throughout the years. Even "Swing" would get tired. My dad once said,
"You know, we don't need any more reminders that we're rounding third." 

The late great George Carlin once said, "Super GOLD! To make you feel
OLD!"  Real people and radio consulting... what a concept.

Bill O'Neill
>>