music from a different era

We get up early and are in my dad’s room by 9.  He is sitting in a chair — the first time he’s been out of bed since his surgery.    He has color in his cheeks and a smile on his face.  Later today he is being moved to the hospital’s rehab center, and the hard work will begin.  He barely seems ready.

By 11 we are back in the car, on our way to New York.  My sister’s radio is programmed to play songs from the 60’s and 70’s.  If there were a show where contestants were quizzed on rock-and-roll bands from the late 60’s to mid-70’s, my sister would likely be the winner. 

My ability to pair artists with songs is pathetic. I know The Beatles and Rolling Stones, and not much else.  I recognize the songs, can sing many of the lyrics, but cannot name the band.  My only surprise match is naming The Stone Poneys as singers of Different Drum.  Although to be honest, I call the group The Stone Cold Poneys, confusing them with the ice-cream company. But I do know that Linda Ronstadt was the group’s singer. 

Conversely, Valerie can identify almost every singer within a few chords of the song.  She knows popular groups and obscure ones.  She knows which singers left which groups and where they ended up.  For example, she knows:

• Syndicate of Sound (whom I can’t remember EVER knowing) sang Little Girl.
• The Seekers sang Georgy Girl (and the song won an Academy Award).
• The New Vaudeville Band (another band I’d never heard of) sang Winchester Cathedral.
• All the Bee Gee’s by name, and that Barry is the only one still living.
• Mark Lindsay was the lead singer for Paul Revere and The Raiders.
• John Denver died while piloting an experimental plane.
• Neil Diamond wrote I’m a Believer for The Monkees.
• Gary, of Gary Lewis and The Playboys, is Jerry Lewis’ son.

The ride home provides me with a wealth of information on 60’s rock.  It is incredible, really, that Alexander (like most kids his age) knows and appreciates some of the music from my youth.  The Beatles.  The Rolling Stones.  Eric Clapton.

We are back in our apartment by four.  Alexander immediately turns on his iPhone, and music from a much different era fills my ears.  I wonder which bands today will still be listened to in fifty years?  My guess?  No one.  Because no group is that good.