Still Waiting for the Golden Years: Consolation in Music

I recently heard Stevie Nicks singing "Rhiannon" and it started me thinking about my life of music. When you get old, I suppose you are supposed to think all the contemporary music is trash but in my case after a lifetime of singing, musical instruments, and choirs, I know the current popular music is trash. Today singers mistake noise for music. 

My musical tastes range from Handel's Messiah to American and African folk music. One of the few real benefits of age is that you could some perspective of what is and what is not "good" when it comes to music. Good is Paul Desmond's "Take Five" as played by Dave Brubeck. Good is also Slim Dusty singing "Waltzing Matilda." Very good is Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and how about The Seekers singing "I am Australian?" 

I associate songs with specific places and experiences in my life. When I hear the song, I see the place and remember what I was doing and what I was thinking and saying. I have thousands of memories associated with songs. Part of my life was a contest between the Beach Boys and the Beatles. I bought the White Album as soon as I found a copy in the University of Utah Bookstore. I associate the Beach Boys with the many days I spent water skiing on Saguaro Lake and elsewhere in Arizona. I can remember driving down Hayden Road and listening to John Denver sing "Country Roads." I believe I said that Country Roads would probably still be played in a hundred years. Well, I have lived most of that hundred years and it still gets some significant playing time. 

I love to listen to Doc Watson and was very sad when he died. My high school fight song was "That will be the day" by Buddy Holly and I really did find out about the plane crash from a newspaper on my doorstep. My career as a professional musician was very short, but I did have a lot of fun singing. I often listen to Crosby, Stills, and Nash sing "Your Children" and you should remember that Jerry Garcia played the pedal steel guitar on the most famous version of the song. Speaking of Jerry Garcia, I wear Jerry Garcia ties. I talk about the Grateful Dead when I teach classes on genealogy. 

My one overriding favorite is Johann Sebastian Bach. If you have read this book

Hofstadter, Douglas R. 1979. Godel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid. Vintage Books: New York.

then you can begin to understand my long-standing interest in Bach and all his music. Which, of course, brings me to the Goldberg Variations as played by Glenn Gould from 1955. Here is another fantastic performance by Glenn Gould of the J.S. Bach-Partita No.4 D major-part 2 of 2.

While I was in high school the school cafeteria had a loud music system that played every day during lunch. The only problem was that they only played two songs both by Johnny Cash, "Ring of Fire" and "I Walk the Line." The amazing thing is that I still like both songs. 

I can't stop writing without mentioning Pete Seeger. His best and almost last performance is "Forever Young" One benefit of having lived so long is that I can relive all the good times with music from the Internet. I do have to mention Ralph McTell  singing "Streets Of London"

I think I will close with another Stevie Nicks favorite that applies to my elderly position in life: Landslide. 

Oh wait, how can I forget Paul Simon's Graceland. Did I forget to mention Bob Dylan? I could go on all day but then I would be talking to myself, which is another benefit of old age. You can call me Al if you like. This is becoming my theme song: Earl Scruggs and Lester Flat singing, "Who Will Sing for Me?"