From: amck@mcc.com (Alan McKendree)
Subject: Re: lost in the eighties
Organization: MCC
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 21:19:22 GMT

In article <1cpl58INNggq@uwm.edu> bearcub@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (The Husky Cub) writes:
>In article <1992Oct29.192324.16526@cis.ohio-state.edu> jgeniec@pons.cis.ohio-state.edu (Joseph Geniec) writes:
>>>Hey dude,
>>>
>>>.Cheers!  Today's stuff blows...like we need Warrant, Slaughter, Nirvana,  
>>>and all that other crap.  Stuff I dig is:  Night Ranger (remember  
>>>them..."Sister Christian," "When You Close Your Eyes," etc.), The Cars,  
>>>Journey (Steve Perry...come in, Steve...Steve...where are you...), Van  
>>>Halen (I do like Sammy), Pat Benatar, Bryan Adams (still awesome), Dokken,
>>>Survivor, Billy Idol (some), Huey Lewis & The News, Def Leppard, Loverboy, 
>>>David Lee Roth, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Crue...etc, etc,etc.  I think things  

>>>everyone started copying them.  And today's dance/hiphop/rap...how can  
>>>anyone call rap music.  I don't know...


Kids these days...no melody...can't understand the lyrics...all sounds
the same... (hmmm...am I listening to my father in 1971??).  I saw
Dokken open for Aerosmith about 4 years ago and I literally went to
sleep (with no drugs, yet) waiting for D to finish.


>>>--SIMMONS--
>>
>>You're absolutely correct! The 80's seemed to be the last decade
>>to produce real rock musicians...
>>
>True....
>I am a "late 70's-early 80's rock and roll child", as my friends put it.

Well, howdy-do from a late 60s-early 70s rock and roll child.  Guess
what, bunch?  WE SAID THE SAME THINGS ABOUT THE BANDS OF THE 80S!!!
"The 70s was the last decade of rock".  "Things really went to hell
when Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers broke up." Etc., etc.

>I got the full taste of KISS, the uprising of Queen in the states, and 
>the abundance of one hit wonders that exploded in the early eighties.  
> 
>It scary how things have changed...  
> 
>Examples: I grew up listening to "Thriller" and Rick Springfield and Night 
>Ranger. The early eighties is a period of time that when I get to be an 
>old man, I would call it "Classic Rock". 

Guess what again?  You're dangerously close to being an old man
already.  "Classic Rock" is what we've been calling music from
**1965-1975** for the last 10 years.  And who are "we"?  35-45-year
olds, and the "classic" radio stations that feed our musical
preferences.  Much of the stuff after 1975 I wrote off at the time as
fluff or "pop", including most of the bands you mention above and
below.  Rick Springfield?  Can't name a single song he did.  Men at
Work?  Never could keep them distinguished from Flock of Seagulls.
"Thriller"?  rock??  'fraid not.  And guess what else?  Everyone 10
years older than me was saying the same things about _my_ favorite
bands when they were big.

I can't even begin to name the >bands
that I wish were still around today. Night Ranger, Loverboy, Rick
>Springfield..., Men At Work, etc...  > 

Couldn't give a monkey's about any of them.  But the Beatles (let it
be said), Led Zep, Little Feat (still around, actually), Moody Blues,
early Rod Stewart, Jefferson Starship, Sly and the Family Stone,
Janis, Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Mountain, Sugar Loaf, Marc Bolen, Deep
Purple, Tull, Tommy James and the Shondells, the Turtles, the Monkees,
Norman Greenbaum, Zager & Evans, Aerosmith, the Smiths, the Hollies,
Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Traffic, Jackson Browne, Joe Cocker,
Santana, Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, Yes, Paul Revere and the
Raiders, Guess Who, Three Dog Night, Steve Miller, and the Who, the
Who, the Who...now _there_ was _classic_ rock.

What's the point of this?  I'll tell you.  You're repeating exactly
the same things I said about music, only I said them 10 years ago,
lamenting the demise of the great bands of the 1965-75 time period.
The sooner you realize that it's not that music's deteriorating into a
cesspool but that you're growing up (one might even say, "getting
older"), and things are going to change from the golden age you
remember, the happier you'll be.  Sure there's a lot of crap out
there.  But _every_ generation a) thinks it's onto something great and
new when it blows away the conventions of the previous generation, and
b) becomes convinced, if they're not careful, that the generation
following them has no clue as to how things really should be done.
"If they'd only listen to their elders (i.e., us, i.e., me), blah blah
blah..."

Life is change ("how it differs from the rocks."  Name that song and
the band that recorded it for extra credit -- or e-mail me for the
answer.)  Learn to draw inspiration from the old _and_ appreciate the
good in the new where you find it, or risk becoming a crotchety old
man of 25 just hanging around, boring people about how great things
used to be, and waiting to be a crotchety old man of 70.

>Comments? Questions? Post or
E-mail > >Bearcub >--
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Think about it.  And thanks for your time in reading this.

Best wishes,

Alan

amck@mcc.com        Alan McKendree
I know that the hypnotized never lie.