A Hunger Still Unsatisfied

Are you older than, say, 30?  Got regrets?  Feel like a part of you is lost?  Still trying to find yourself – in the future, the present, the past?  Or … want your spirit crushed?

Go listen to High Hopes by Pink Floyd.  They’ve done a lot of songs about loss, but this one is the champ.

A life consumed by slow decay.  Steps taken forward but sleepwalking back again.  Encumbered forever by desire and ambition.  Our weary eyes … the grass was greener … the water flowing … the endless river … sheesh!

Poignant poetry, a moody tune with a haunting, tolling bell, impeccable Floyd production, and perhaps David Gilmour’s most heartbreaking guitar solo.  I cannot listen to this song without weeping.

Sad, cathartic, and absolutely beautiful.  By the way, the accompanying music video is one of the most amazing videos of all time.

The light was brighter.

Over The Hill And Far Away

I while back, I went to another one of those "classic albums live" shows. This one was Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin.

They did a good job and it was more fun - which is to say less morbid - than the last time I went. I don't know if this is a case of conditioning through repetition or what.

Anyway, my main memory isn't the music. It was the audience, which was a bunch of people my age, more guys than women, all looking very safe and normal.

I could have been at a meeting to discuss the teacher's pension fund, or volunteering opportunities for the newly retired. I kept looking around me, thinking that, when I first became a Led Zeppelin fan, I never would have believed that anyone who looked like us could in any way ever listen to this music. Ever.

And then this thought came to me: despite all of our best intentions, sooner or later we all become respectable.

Sigh.

Forever Young

Paul once said, "We used to say we could never be thirty year old Beatles.  But we will be, and not too many years from now."

Well, he was right the first time, because they broke up.  But, he was also wrong, because he has gone on, in his fifties and sixties, to be the perpetual Beatle.

He's alone, though.  Ringo, who is now over seventy, has gone on to be Ringo, something he and he alone can achieve.

John and George worked hard at being ex Beatles, not Beatles, something-other-than-Beatles.

And while Paul's ability to be a Beatle at age 69 is just short of miraculous, John has something Paul can never achieve.  Thanks to a murderer by the name of David Mark Chapman, John will be forever young.  Paul can amaze us by defying his age and acting young, but John can't get older - ever.

And while Paul can impress and make us think, "good on ya, man,"  John's memory is distilled into one or two images from his thirties and a dozen or so from his fresh faced, cheeky twenties.  That takes us back, and keeps us young.

John's been dead for thirty-one years now, and a healthy portion of the planet was not yet born then, but he'll be forever young, and he'll share that with all of us.

Too Old To Rock and Roll, Too Young To Die?

A while ago, a buddy brought over a Steve Miller concert DVD.

My reaction was, "oh, is he still around?"  Secretly, I was glad it was from a recent concert and not something from the 70's.  Back then the technology was not as good, production standards were low, and everyone was stoned and so the musicianship in most concert videos (that I've seen anyway) wasn't too good.

But that first reaction:  is he still around?  Is he still playing the same old songs now that he's an old man?

Well, the DVD was fun.  Good production, song after hit song well played.  Good old fashioned rock and roll, not too serious, a little trippy  ...  what's not to like?

Except the uneasy feeling that here's one more aging rocker that will soon reach - or maybe already has reached - the point where it's more than a little ridiculous to be playing a young person's music.  Not as silly as The Stones, maybe, who long ago became fossilized caricatures of themselves, but unnerving.  Especially when I reflected that the bulk of my concert video collection is by such people.

Even more unsettling, of course, is the knowledge that I am one such person.

What to do?  Hard to play angry young man or reckless rebel when your face is full of wrinkles, isn't it?  I mean, at bottom, rock music is a bit of a joke and it's best not to take things too seriously - but it's the music that's supposed to be the joke, not the musician.

What's a poor boy to do?  Retreat into the Blues, where you're kind of expected to be old?  Fall asleep over your crossword puzzle while listening to Mozart?

Or do you re-invent the rebellion and claim your right to stay young and immature forever?

Wait a minute, I think I've seen a few TV commercials playing on that sentiment.  Didn't like that one bit.

So what's the answer?  I don't know, but it might be something like:

Don't think about it - just do it.  And ya, I know, that sounds like a TV commercial too.

Tough.