John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Rock, Roll & Something Different

Why it is important to pay attention to detail –and spelling. And album covers.
Because the song doesn’t remain the same. Or even similar.

I was 17 and on a date with my high school buddy Maronda Buchta (now McKinney) and we were going to a rock concert –Rush.

We met early and had lots of time to kill and had listened to the latest Rush album enough times we already knew more about Tom Sawyer than we’d ever imagined.

So I suggested we swing by a record store off Shelbyville road and pick up the album by “That Neil guy” and added “You know. Who sings Cinnamon Girl. From the movie Rust Never Sleeps.”

Maronda was easy going and agreed. So I walked into the record store and asked for the two best cassettes they could recommend by the big rock star “Neil ….Neil something…”
The sales clerk and manager scurried to the back and grabbed two cassette tapes which didn’t seem quiet right when I glanced at them. but I didn’t want to debate and just said I’ll take them both and spent my last few dollars and was out the door.

We pulled out of the parking lot and headed to Freedom Hall. I had already furiously opened the cassettes outside the store and threw away the box and receipt.
And as we began cruising downtown I asked Maronda to put in the “Neil guy …the, uh, ummm, Neil. What did the sales clerk say his last name was? Oh yeah. Neil Diamond!”
Maronda looked deeply wounded and concerned for me. And speaking in what seemed like painfully slow motion, she explained”Neil Diamond doesn’t sing Cinnamon Girl.” And then started laughing hysterically at me, which people were wont to do then (and now).

Neil D had looked hip enough on the album cover to sing a few Neil Young songs —but Neil never sought that role and was never comfortable in it.
And after scouring both cassettes unsuccessfully for the the song Cinnamon Girl, I gave up and slipped in the cassette .

Has anyone ever chosen to listen to Song Sung Blue to pump yourself up before a concert? I have and it didn’t work well. I like Neil Diamond just fine but not before Rush concert. After all, Neil Young and Neil Diamond are as different as Cinnamon Girl and Cinnamon Butter.

And to this day, 32 years later, I still check 2 or 3 times when selecting to buy or listen to music by Neil Young.

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Steely Dan versus Nicki Minaj —and my curmudgeonly moment.

My favorite band is Steely Dan. And that makes me lucky. Steely Dan emerged during my generation and creates gorgeous music with clever lyrics that have substance and meaning. But mostly they create extraordinary music that sweeps you away in the magical way that only great music can do.

So who is unlucky with music? At the risk of sounding old and crusty, I think today’s younger generation are being shortchanged. Too much of the music is mere shock and gimmickry. It reminds me of a stand-up comedian who has material that isn’t funny and elicits laughs by using over-the-top crude language. The weaker the material, the cruder the language becomes–until you eventually have merely a string of expletives that are barely held together by the semblance of a humorous story.

An unfortunate amount of the most popular music today seems to be similarly crafted. Instead of going for the cheap laugh, they go for the cheap lyric (that’s really not even a lyric at all). It’s musical but not really music. It’s edgy but too often empty—void of meaning. It’s catchy but not clever. It’s crude rather than creative. Today’s music doesn’t flow smoothly and transport us to a better place but rather stuns us with sounds that seem more like bullets that never hit their target yet were fired in anger.

I know I am vastly over-generalizing. But that’s something older people get to do. Young people have hip lingo. Older people get to rif generally without being a slave to the detail expected of younger writers and thinkers. No doubt about it, there is great music being created by the younger generation. But there’s too much what I’ll call Nicki Minaj “Did it on ’em” tirades that I dare call music.

Steely Dan and the music of my earlier generation is created by bands who love music and were drawn to music for what it could do to make life not only more bearable but more enjoyable. Today’s bands often seem like an unrepentant “Id”, as Freud called it, creating techno sounds reflecting uncoordinated instincts shouted in frustration—music that aims more at venting than creating. Its highest form of meaning may well be cathartic—leaving behind lyrics it’s hard to imagine will be appreciated 20 years from now.

Which brings me back to my point about sounding old and crusty. But remember, music teaches us that things aren’t always what they sound like. Maybe I’m not old and crusty then– but a little saddened that today’s musicians don’t ask more of themselves. And disappointed to see the magic that music can be to each generation diminished just a little and it’s raw and natural power ignored in favor of something different and, I contend, cheaper.

One of the many Steely Dan songs I never tire of is FM. A song about the shift from AM radio in the 1970s with the refrain “No static at all”, which symbolized the move to FM. And yet much of the music offered up today seems to celebrate static and, in terms of its persona, seems better suited for AM. Another is Caves of Altimira. I heard the song for the first time while in college and was drawn in by its irresistibly compelling sound. And after a while came to appreciate the lyrics and learned what they meant.

It was through a Steely Dan song that I learned about the famous cave in Spain with vivid and colorful cave paintings featuring drawings and paintings of wild mammals and Paleolithic humans. All set to a mellifluous saxophone solo that allowed me to escape into my curiosity and connected me with my past.

When’s the last time you can say something like that about a recent pop song?