. . .my good friend Doug Alan Wilcox about the youth quotient in the singer-songwriter genre last night and hearing a radio program on NPR about late 50s early 60s rock music sparked some thinking. Fortunately, the sparks were small and the resulting smoke was minimal, as I was driving home from Doug's CD release party at the Frederick Coffee Company where a wonderful, appreciative crowd gathered to celebrate, and where I believe I may have been the one in the room having the most fun, although it appeared that Doug was not far behind me in that respect. But back to the radio show, Bobby Rydell was being interviewed, he still performs BTW, and he and the host of the program were discussing how rock'n roll from that era, and the lifestyle of the preponderance of the consumer market for rock, were so very innocent and carefree. Bobby mentioned going to WIldwood, NJ as a teenager and bodysurfing, dancing, gathering on the beach and doing all those things that teenagers do. He also mentioned the fact that there was no Vietnam (War), drugs (not a huge concern in his crowd) and so many of the other issues that soon affected the innocence of teenagers. Youth for him, and hopefully for most of us, was an innocent time with very few worries or responsibilities.
And today, even though youth is relatively innocent, how can young people not be confronted at certain times by talk of the bad economy, unemployment, vicious politicians, terrorism, wars in far away Middle-Eastern locations, nuclear issues, freedom fighters and rebels. . . the list goes on. In other words, no matter how innocent youth is today, it cannot possibly be as innocent as it was for Bobby Rydell, the youth of his day, and even me (I lagged behind Bobby by some years). So the singer-songwriter of the (relatively) new millennium is a different animal than the singer-songwriter of times gone by. (Actually, singers and songwriters were separate entities in Bobby's day, but that's a whole different topic.) I'm not longing for the good ole days, mind you, I think we are are evolving and that's a GOOD thing. But this is merely a reflection. As a matter of fact, who can complain about the calibur of music that is available to us thanks to the youth of today. . .
Download your
very own copy of
ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak
Please Visit
http://www.rayjozwiak.com
