Our Generation


Josh, our 11-year-old son, came home from school the other day singing the classic Who song, My Generation. He turned to me and shouted:

Why Don’t You All FFFFade Away
And Don’t Try To Dig What We All SSSay

The WhoI laughed. That song wasn’t even the rallying cry of my generation. But I sang it that way too. So we decided to listen to The Who compilation, The Ultimate Collection, and ended an excellent hour of listening pleasure singing at the top of our lungs: “Teenage Wasteland, They’re All Wasted!”

I am never sure if I am corrupting my kids or giving them a gift. Maybe it’s a little of both. But as far as I can tell, the kids are alright.

The fact is rock and roll, the rebellious protest music of the generation that was born at the start of the post world war II baby boom, has morphed into exactly the opposite. It’s a shared cultural experience for parents and kids.

We go to concerts together, we send each other links to new music, we debate the merits of the new Shins record, and we host our own School Of Rock (we call it band practice) in our home every Friday afternoon for Josh and his Four Fellas.

Bush Isn't Talking About My GenerationAnd it’s been working. The gulf between parents and teenage kids surely exists in our home. But that gulf is a lot smaller than it could be. When the kids don’t want to talk about what happened at school, or their love lives (or lack thereof), or what they plan to do on the weekend, we can always talk about the music that’s constantly playing in our kitchen. We can debate what comes on next. We can ask them to play us something new. And they never fail to put on something good. We’ve taught them well.

It may well be that rock music isn’t as interesting or good as it used to be. That’s the view of my brother Jackson, his buddy Tony Alva (both are pen names) and the irascible Bob Lefsetz. They say that it’s all derivative. Nothing good has been done since that early 90s. It’s not rebel music anymore. That it’s not a life changing experience. So be it.

I like it this way when I can dig what the kids all say.

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January 21st, 2007
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Viewing 6 Comments

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    interesting. oddly enough i have always felt a little detached from 'my generation' - i am a huge fan of the who but prefer many of their other classics (especially '5:15') - my generation seems to have become such a talisman i can't easily relate to it as a great song (which it is).

    because many of the punk generation are now middle aged parents there is a definite synergy between parents and kids now regards music and many aspects of culture, hitherto unseen.

    there is still nothing like that thrill of discovering and sharing a new band - last time for me was seeing 'the hair' support new york's 'radio 4' - i took a friend to see radio 4 at a gig in manchester a couple of months ago (i saw them a few times when living in new york) - the hair were just one of the support acts and they blew me away. i felt like i was 18 again, seeing my first punk band. after their set i spent quite a while chatting with them and whilst i am easily old enough to be their father the muscial connections we shared transcended age.

    time to listen to some who and hair methinks, on a wet, cold and windy sunday in yorkshire, england ... just time for a few tracks before watching man utd vs. arsenal.

    enjoy!
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    • v
    "The kids are alright." I don't have kids myself, but I admire your relationship with your own.

    I actually liked a lot of my parents' music growing up, mostly oldies, in addition to my own angsty alt-rock, but we never really talked about it. I don't know if it's because it wasn't cool for me to admit it, or because it wasn't new for them, but apparently there just wasn't anything to say.

    They were happy to let me blast whatever I wanted,but they never asked about it, except perhaps to question the value of some of the more egregiously offensive stuff (like bodycount or 2 live crew.. lol, i question it myself).

    They did encourage our passion for music though, letting me go to lots of shows from an early age, and taking music lessons / having band practices in the garage, there just wasn't the same connect. I hope I have it with the (someday) kids..
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    • v
    while "the who" is not a tie that binds me and my 10-year-old son, the early smiths (even some morrissey) has sparked more than a few oddly authentic conversations between us.

    as it turns out, paramount to my adult friends's observations of the mental impact a turn of phrase in the right key overtop a jangling guitar are the simple and child-honest recognitions of what a smiths song can do to you, let alone what it means.

    whereas my son has seen only a decade of life, he's helping me notice elements of music (ok, the smiths in particular) i've missed in the over two decades of listening.
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    • v
    I'm of the Sgt. Pepper/Jimi Hendrix Experience generation. I'm sure I was the oldest attendee at the Clash concert I saw in Providence RI in 1984, but maybe not as old as the members of Burning Spear, who opened.
    So my daughter, at 19, has a good punk grounding, but also likes a lot of older stuff as well, and we have traded current bands back and forth---although I think I'm ahead so far by contributing Sleater-Kinney to the mix some years ago.
    My 13-year-old son is a monomaniac listener. Last year, on our daily commute together, he drove my iPod continuously through a Beatles/Steely Dan rotation. This year it has been Clash, plus assorted other punk bands like The Violent Femmes. I've noticed that he's drawn to more metallic stuff (not my thing) which I suppose is par for pubescent boy teens. So we got him Who's Next and Let It Bleed for Xmas to give him some gutsy sounds without all the cacophanous attitude. But we now have a deal where he spins the iPod on the way to school/work, but gets to drive the radio home. That's proving enlightening AND depressing.
    What I most wonder about is this: where is the New Music? I can't convey how amazing Are You Experienced sounded in 1967. There are some incredibly competent rock musicians working today---but where are the disruptive new sounds?
    This is something, no matter how good I think the 40+ years of rock and roll available to my kids (and with my blessing!) is, they will never know...
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    Re: Bigbalagan


    There's no way anything can sound as "revolutionary" in 2007 as Are You Experienced did in 67. Impossible. It's like asking a young director to shock (or disrupt) in the same manner as say, Bunuel did with L'Age D'or or Un Chien Andalou. Fifty plus years into this rock thing and it seems every swath of headspace has been covered. From Hendrix and the Velvets, to the early Who, MC5, Johnny Thunders, Pete Cosey, Robert Quine, Sonny Sharrock, P-Funk, Clevelander's Pere Ubu and Electric Eels, Can, Punk, Joy Division, PIL, Thurston Moore, a slew of avant-gardists (i.e. Elliot Sharp), decades of metal, and a zillion others, there's nothing new under the sun. All bands can do beyond genre cut and paste is try to enliven, enlarge or improve upon certain aspects of what came before.
    If its disruption your after there's hip-hop, Japanese psych (Acid Mother's Temple, Boredoms, Boris,)even lunacy like Scott Walker.
    Just don't look for it in the "alt-rock" bins.
    • ^
    • v
    All I'm saying is take a look at the Four Fellas set list, and tell me what's there. No Wilco, No Racontuers, it's Bowie, Skynyrd, Ramones......
 

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