I don't mean to over-sentimentalize "the greatest generation" but it does seem that at least the songs of their youth had some style and panache. Think of the Big Bands, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby. Think of the lyrics to God Bless America, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, or even All Shook Up. These are songs you could hear as an 80 year old and think back fondly to the glory days of happy times, a unified America, and a world that seemed a little more simple and predictable than the one you're living in now.
This sentimentality about childhood is harder drum up for those of us who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, and this fact came home to me this evening while driving home from the grocery store. A song came on the radio that immediately took me back to the year 1983. I was instantly transported into the darkened recesses of my small-town roller rink, cruising along (crossing-over around the corners, of course) to My Angel is a Centerfold. Now that's a classy song (thank you, The J. Geils Band!).
At the age of 9 I had no idea what the lyrics meant and, in fact, remember singing along and kind of muttering through the "centerfold" part in the chorus because I didn't understand what they were saying. Ironically, the song is kind of about lost innocence and about people not being who they appear to be. These were the themes of our age, and it's hard to get sentimental about that.
Well, at least we'll always have the innocence of Puff the Magic Dragon to cling to. Nothing can tarnish that! Right?
1 comment:
I used to passionately sing along with AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" as a six year old with the lyrics I heard; "TNT and the Thunder Chief!" I thought it was a song about a naughty Native who was fixin' to blow something up.
Shoot the duck!
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