Sic Transit

Stopped at Kwik Trip for a bathroom break on my way up North for the weekend. Store music was Me and Bobby McGee, by Janis Joplin. I looked around at the employees and the customers, and realized the song was older than anybody in the store.

Except me.

Joe Doakes

Worse than that – a few years back, when my kids were at home, one of them was watching a music video. It was some Australian boy band doing a cover of “What I Like About You”, the 1979 hit by The Romantics.

And it occurred to me – a band at that time (2016) covering “What I Like About You” would have been the same as a band in 1979 covering a song from 1942.

Or, today, 1937.

17 thoughts on “Sic Transit

  1. I like to listen to the music in TV commercials.

    Songs from past generations that the targeted group has no idea the history behind the song.

  2. And it occurred to me – a band at that time (2016) covering “What I Like About You” would have been the same as a band in 1979 covering a song from 1942.

    Or, today, 1937.

    It’s possible — Tom Petty was a real Rudy Vallee fan.

  3. It’s called the boomer time-freeze.
    The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction” came out in ’67, fifty-four years ago. 1967 is as distant from us as 1967 is from 1924. 1924 was the year the Gershwins published “Fascinatin’ Rhythm.”

  4. Ha! Reminds me of the day that my kids had an “AHA” moment about the music that I listen to from, as they put it, “my century”. Their observation? “Gee, dad. All of the bands from your generation, actually had their own sounds and styles.” Exactly!

    That was also the day that my son heard a whole side of a Doors LP. He’s now convinced that they were “one of the greatest bands of all time!” 😁

  5. There’s a growing genre of videos on YouTube in which young people, mostly black, listen to a song from the Boomer’s salad days. Invariably, and I mean that literally, they are amazed at how much they like the songs – or they are just good actors One of the earliest to bank on this genre, a guy named Jamel, has now gotten so far afield that he has found himself to be a Deadhead and he didn’t even know it.

    The videos are usually pretty fun if you want to relive that experience of introducing a friend to some music you like. Just look for some song or band and reaction, there’s 10s of ’em now.

  6. After suffering the misfortune of seeing Megan Thee Stallion perform on New Years Eve I have concluded that music is officially dead.

  7. Bluegrass sounds today, pretty much the way it sounded in 1920.

    No lyrics about stank, or bodily functions, or Communism, or ho’s, or well, 21st Century America.

    Something comforting in that.

  8. When I was a child, my dad’s favorite radio station would play Big Band music that I would listen to as I fell asleep. The 1940s seemed so long ago to me and despite knowing that my father was a child then, it just didn’t really connect with me how recent that time actually was.

    Now, my own child can hear music from the 80s in commercials or elsewhere and that is basically the same time from now as the big band era was then.

    1981 seems like a long time ago to me, but not as long ago as the 40s seemed then. But the concept of the 80s isn’t even on my child’s radar, much less the even more ancient (to her) 40s.

    Agree with jdm on the YouTube videos- worth a watch. Also agree with golfdoc50 on Megan Thee Stallion. I am sorry that I can’t unwatch that. As I was watching it, though, I couldn’t help but wonder how low music will go before the pendulum swings the other way to something more worthwhile.

  9. BH
    the bar was significantly higher for bands like the Doors than it is for the current crop.

    Dr Pete
    agreed, Bill Monroe, Lester Flat, the Scruggs family, Kenny Baker, etc perform beautiful timeless tunes – one of my favorites is Monroe doing Molly and Tenbrooks. I’m also a fan of Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers

  10. Dr. Pete – All bluegrass music sounds the same because there are only two songs: Foggy Mountain Breakdown and the other one – [author unknown]

    MJB – my Mom put on KNXR and we fell asleep to John Doremus. Long-hair stuff still puts me right out.

  11. My mistake — 1967 is as far from the current year as 1967 is from 1914, not 1924.
    The only song from 1914’s top 40 with a recognizable title is “It’s a Long, Long, Way to Tipperary.”

  12. Bluegrass sounds today, pretty much the way it sounded in 1920

    True. Poor whites (hicks and rednecks) like it so the vultures have stayed away.

    Coincidentally, because I mentioned Deadhead, the Grateful Dead album, Workingman’s Dead, is all-original songs in authentic bluegrass style. Deadhead relatives and friends tell me that Jerry Garcia was really into bluegrass.

  13. In the late 80’s I was in a J.Riggins store (another one gone and forgotten) and David Essex’s “Rock On” came over the sound system. I said to the Sweet Young Thing(tm) taking my money, “Ah, David Essex, Rock On, 1974.” She responded, “I wasn’t even born then.”

    Earlier that decade I was in line at a moving theater (hey – remember going to the movie theater?) – and two SYTs in front of me were talking. One said to the other, “Did you know Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings?”

    Speaking of which, I watched “Yesterday” over the weekend. It’s a really fun movie that imagines that all public memory or record of the Beatles and their music has disappeared and only one musician remembers. He plays the songs and everyone thinks, “Man, that’s the most beautiful song ever” as he rockets to stardom. It’s really well done and well acted.

  14. Good songs and music have staying power and can be played and reinterpreted over the years. “Me and Bobby McGee” a song written by Kris Kristofferson around ’71 and made the charts by Joplin has been done by many artists since it first came out. There’s the remake of Simon and Garfunkel “Sound of Silence”(original circa 1965) by a group named Disturbed, sung David Draiman that is eerily haunting but extremely well done. Plenty of other examples as well.

    One may wonder where the time has gone when you’ve been witness to renditions old and new….sigh.

  15. Scott
    the song was recorded and released by 13 people, two made it to the Top 40 (Roger Miller in 1969, Gordon Lightfoot in 1970) prior to the posthumous release of Janis Joplin’s cover in 1971. It is a great song.

  16. I’ve had this discussion with my Dad. The 80s were my “growin’ up” years, and therefore 80s pop has sentimental value, 30+ years later. Music after the 80s? Meh. Other than the occasional song here and there, its off my radar screen.

    My dad was the same way, and his “growin’ up” music is from the era of the soundtrack to American Graffiti. Anything after that (including the Beatles) is off his radar. He has a slight affection for The Beach Boys, but only because a lot of their songs were about cars and car culture in SoCal.

    My daughter’s absolute most famous band is Disturbed. I showed him the video for their cover of Sound of Silence, which I think is as powerful as S&Gs Central Park concert, maybe more. His reaction? “That’s 3 minutes of my life I can’t get back”

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