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WHEN I WAS YOUNGER, SO MUCH YOUNGER THAN TODAY
The Final Word Column written by Craig Wilson
I judge how out of it I am by the bands that play on
the Today show every Friday morning, part of it's summer concert series.
David Bowie was on last Friday.
I felt good about that. Not only did I know who he was, I can even remember some of his songs, the various reincarnations,
he's been through and the cast of characters he's been involved with over the years. There's a certain comfort level there.
I felt as if I was seeing an old friend again. That's why Elizabeth Taylor is so reassuring. I feel as if I've been to all
of her weddings.
The Friday before, however, a group called the Goo Goo Dolls performed. There was nothing at all
comforting about them. I'd never heard of them or any song that they ever sang, and nothing about them looked even vagually
familair - other than the unwashed hair and tattoos, which are trademarks of most bands these days.
I was the fool,
of course. A crowd of screaming young girls was surging outside the studio windows, some holding up signs that read, "We skipped
school to see the Goo Goo Dolls!!"
Skipping school to see the Rolling Stones, I understand. Skipping school to see
the Goo Goo Dolls seems like a waste of a good day off. But what do I know? I'm showing my age again.
Music, more
than anything else, seperates the generations. It can also make us feel old. Paul McCartney, for example, turned 60 on Tuesday.
I know. The news kind of startled me too. If Paul mcCartney is 60, what does that make the rest of us? Older than we'd like
to think.
It didn't bother me that Bob Hope turned 99 a couple of weeks ago. Or that Queen Elizabeth celebrated 50
years on the throne earlier this month. If anything, it seems as if she's been sitting there a lot longer than that.
But
Paul McCartney turning 60? How could that be? When I heard the news, I felt the way I do when I see a picture of the Beach
Boys these days. A tad depressed. There are certain people who should never grow old. If not for their sake, they should at
least think about how it makes the rest of us feel. They owe us at least thier youth.
When I get older, losing
my hair, many years from now. Will you still be sending me a valantine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
Do
you think that when Paul wrote When I'm Sixty four back in 1966 that he ever dreamed hed actually be near that age?
I'm sure my childhood friend Pam Hartsen never dreamed of such thing. Then again, she probably never dreamed shed
be a grandmother, either. But she is. Several times over.
When I was in high school, her bedroom was plastered with
Beatles posters. She even looked a bit like Paul, although at that point I think he might have been a little prettier. She
wore her hair in Beatles mop, loved all the Brit and went off to Ithaca with her collection of Bealtes LP's, which she played
endlessly. She knew every song by heart.
Back then, Will you Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed me, when I'm
sixty four? was but a lyric. Today, it's a legitmate question. I liked it better as a song.
If you
hate this article as much as I do :), then e-mail the guy who wrote it and tell him!! cwilson@usatoday.com
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