My taste in music has changed over the years that much is certain. When I was younger it was rock and roll, sixties rock to be more exact, and the early seventies. Then, just as the Bellamy brothers wrote, I started getting off on country because disco left me cold. That was in their song Old Hippie. I do have to say I never classified myself as a hippie though. I listened to the popular music but didn't live that lifestyle. I wasn't into psychedelic rock , the moody blues or any of that stuff. No, I was a Steppenwolf kind of guy. Always just a little behind the current trend, but relatively " with it. " Then country music gained in popularity but began to change as well. I'm not certain what they are calling it now, but the last I knew it was becoming more " bro " country than anything else. I don't have any new musicians that I admire right now. The last big group I remember was the Zac Brown band but they seemed to have faded just a bit. Some guy named Deirks Bentley is one I hear a lot about these days although I couldn't name a single song he has done. I just don't listen to the radio all that much anymore. Singers and songwriters come and go.
I was thinking about that and wondering why these folks come and go the way they do. What I am thinking about is the performing of songs in particular. Some folks have a one hit wonder and others sing hundreds. It is seldom that any one of them can maintain their popularity over years and years. Yes, some achieve that stardom that keeps them on the stage. I'm thinking of people like Dolly Parton, Cher, Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, folks like that. They are still headliners, big attractions but you don't hear about new songs from them. Not that I'm a big fan of Elton John but when was his last big hit? That is what I'm thinking about. All those folks that are so talented yet the talent seems to fade away. I can only believe it has to a product of time and place. The right song, the right person, at the right time. You just can't manufacture that! And I suppose it has always been so but the music industry is all about manufacturing music, probably why it is called an industry. Still, it doesn't explain some things to me. No industry manufactured Elvis Presley! He just appeared and was adopted by the masses, at least the younger folks accepted him readily enough, and he had staying power. Just what was the attraction there? He was an adequate singer, could play a little guitar, was good looking and had an instinct to entertain. But he had a little something extra, wonder what that was? He had new hits until the day he died. His last number one hit was Suspicious Minds in 1977. That is the year he died as well. No, he didn't write it, but took it to number one. He was still the right man, in the right place, at the right time.
We are talking about music here and I have to ask another question. I am not one that understands that " long haired music " that the cultured folks rave about. You know, Mozart, Bach, Brahms those fellas. But I wonder why hasn't anyone written a symphony since them? Well, at least they haven't written any symphonies that I have ever heard of. Does anyone write that stuff anymore? The closest thing I can think of is the Boston Pops! Not that I go to any of those concerts but don't they always play those old " hits. " Like I said I haven't heard anything about a new one. I don't know. I hear of new blues songs, country songs, rock songs even alternative rock, whatever that is supposed to be, but never have I heard of a new concerto. Don't they write songs in D minor anymore?
Whatever the case may be I find myself listening to the same old songs. Depending upon my mood it could be rock, blues, or country music. I really enjoy the old " honky tonk " songs that tell a story. I love a good cry in your beer song. I can't say I currently have a favorite artist. I don't listen to popular radio much, just when the grandkids have it on in the car. Truth is, I don't want to know what they are listening to, probably just get me upset. I'll let their parents deal with all that. It has been a while since I added a new song to my playlist. I can't think of what that song that would be, maybe an Alan Jackson song, I like him a lot. Maybe Toby Keith, saw him in concert once. Well, I have thought that one day I should compile that list, my playlist, and record it on a flash drive or something. It might be fun for the great grandkids to hear what great grandfather was listening to. I'm betting it would be great for laughs. It could serve as a sort of soundtrack to my life, maybe I should include a bit of that long haired stuff, wouldn't want to come off as ignorant! Maybe a concerto for piano and orchestra, in C major. But which one? My favorite song of all time? Now that's a tough choice. But holding a slight lead is a George Jones classic, he stopped loving her toady. When he says, You know she came to see him one last time, ah, we all wondered if she would,and it kept running through my mind, this time, he's over her for good, I just can't help but swallow hard. Beethoven couldn't stir emotion like that. Of course Stevie Ray Vaughn performing Texas Flood is a great one as well.
I was thinking about that and wondering why these folks come and go the way they do. What I am thinking about is the performing of songs in particular. Some folks have a one hit wonder and others sing hundreds. It is seldom that any one of them can maintain their popularity over years and years. Yes, some achieve that stardom that keeps them on the stage. I'm thinking of people like Dolly Parton, Cher, Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, folks like that. They are still headliners, big attractions but you don't hear about new songs from them. Not that I'm a big fan of Elton John but when was his last big hit? That is what I'm thinking about. All those folks that are so talented yet the talent seems to fade away. I can only believe it has to a product of time and place. The right song, the right person, at the right time. You just can't manufacture that! And I suppose it has always been so but the music industry is all about manufacturing music, probably why it is called an industry. Still, it doesn't explain some things to me. No industry manufactured Elvis Presley! He just appeared and was adopted by the masses, at least the younger folks accepted him readily enough, and he had staying power. Just what was the attraction there? He was an adequate singer, could play a little guitar, was good looking and had an instinct to entertain. But he had a little something extra, wonder what that was? He had new hits until the day he died. His last number one hit was Suspicious Minds in 1977. That is the year he died as well. No, he didn't write it, but took it to number one. He was still the right man, in the right place, at the right time.
We are talking about music here and I have to ask another question. I am not one that understands that " long haired music " that the cultured folks rave about. You know, Mozart, Bach, Brahms those fellas. But I wonder why hasn't anyone written a symphony since them? Well, at least they haven't written any symphonies that I have ever heard of. Does anyone write that stuff anymore? The closest thing I can think of is the Boston Pops! Not that I go to any of those concerts but don't they always play those old " hits. " Like I said I haven't heard anything about a new one. I don't know. I hear of new blues songs, country songs, rock songs even alternative rock, whatever that is supposed to be, but never have I heard of a new concerto. Don't they write songs in D minor anymore?
Whatever the case may be I find myself listening to the same old songs. Depending upon my mood it could be rock, blues, or country music. I really enjoy the old " honky tonk " songs that tell a story. I love a good cry in your beer song. I can't say I currently have a favorite artist. I don't listen to popular radio much, just when the grandkids have it on in the car. Truth is, I don't want to know what they are listening to, probably just get me upset. I'll let their parents deal with all that. It has been a while since I added a new song to my playlist. I can't think of what that song that would be, maybe an Alan Jackson song, I like him a lot. Maybe Toby Keith, saw him in concert once. Well, I have thought that one day I should compile that list, my playlist, and record it on a flash drive or something. It might be fun for the great grandkids to hear what great grandfather was listening to. I'm betting it would be great for laughs. It could serve as a sort of soundtrack to my life, maybe I should include a bit of that long haired stuff, wouldn't want to come off as ignorant! Maybe a concerto for piano and orchestra, in C major. But which one? My favorite song of all time? Now that's a tough choice. But holding a slight lead is a George Jones classic, he stopped loving her toady. When he says, You know she came to see him one last time, ah, we all wondered if she would,and it kept running through my mind, this time, he's over her for good, I just can't help but swallow hard. Beethoven couldn't stir emotion like that. Of course Stevie Ray Vaughn performing Texas Flood is a great one as well.
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