Saturday, July 19, 2008

It's Official: I'm Old (clue #456)

It's not that I was listening to the local Oldies station that was my clue. It was that the local Oldies station was playing songs by Blondie and Eddie Money.

I suppose the Eddie Money song gets a pass, since it directly references The Ronnettes' 1963 hit "Be My Baby" and in fact features Ronnie Spector her very own self. But there is no such mitigating factor for Blondie's 1978 track "Heart of Glass."

The point is, both songs came out in my lifetime. Isn't there a rule somewhere that says that pop/rock releases during your preschool or grade school years aren't officially Oldies until you're at least 50?

I'm too young to feel this old, I really am.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, now you are making me feel old. The Beatles _Let It Be_ came out in my lifetime and was fodder for oldies stations even when I was in high school/college.

I guess I was just born old. Or during a period of such classic music that it could not wait to be a part of the broad cross-generational cultural language. (You like that term? I just made it up. I am still sleepy.)

"Heart of Glass?" Definitely in the "instant classic" category as well. Not so sure about Eddie Money, simply because I apparently never connected his name with the songs he sang. Wikipedia tells me that I do remember several of his songs, though.

pecunium said...

I allowed as was "officially" old last year, because I am now protected against "age discrimination".

Yep, at 40 they worry folks might refuse to hire you.

Another year has done been and gone, and I don't feel old, but according to the law of the land, I am.

Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little said...

Not so sure about Eddie Money, simply because I apparently never connected his name with the songs he sang. Wikipedia tells me that I do remember several of his songs, though.

There was a particular age-line before which I had no concept of books and music having actual creators' names attached to them--they were just there, like works of Nature. After that age, I began learning about musicians and authors obsessively so I could hunt up more stuff like what I liked.

The weirdness of it is, that line happened some time in the early 80s. Listening to FlashBackRadio.com, I'll sometimes hear a song I haven't heard since before I came of that age, and my subconscious will make available to my conscious all the processing it performed on memories of th song in the meantime: "Oh, hey, this is by [Artist], who also did these other songs that I also like, and I suddenly know all the lyrics by heart! Wait, how did I know that?"

In any case, Eddie Money is among those names I only discovered after reaching that age, before which I had heard and become familiar with the songs. I think Bonnie Tyler is another.

I allowed as was "officially" old last year, because I am now protected against "age discrimination".

Yep, at 40 they worry folks might refuse to hire you.


Sympathies to you. I'm only 8 years behind you.

I've been rereading Jennifer Roberson's Shapeshifter series; the male narrative voice keeps saying such things of the female characters as "Though she was well past her thirtieth year, she continued to show no signs of age, remaining as beautiful as when he had first met her..."

I tell myself that Roberson meant this as commentary on the short lifespans of the warrior class and the sexist politics of the nations in the story. I mean, this is the author of the Tiger and Del novels - she knows from sexism. But. But! (But.)

Anonymous said...

My dear, 32 (or is it 33?) isn't old. But then, they say 40 is the new 20--yet somehow, I recall they used to say "Life begins at 40...and lasts for an hour and 27 minutes." Frankly, it annoys me whenever someone says "X is the new Y," especially referring to age. "60 is the new 40," "50 is the new 30," "40 is the new 20"...so what the hell is 30? The new 10?! Does this mean you're not really born until you're 20? What were the first 20 years of my life, anyway? What a crock!

(ahem! ahem! - Sorry, rant mode off)

I remember both the artists and the songs you speak of AND when they were new--"Heart of Glass" was a big hit in the summer of '79, "Take Me Home Tonight" sometime around '85. Now where the blazes is my Geritol?... :-D It's got to the point I can't be bothered with much new music anymore--I troll my recommendations on Amazon.com for all sorts of cool stuff I might have missed in the past--save a new Rush album (Snakes & Arrows, very good).