The phone call mentioned here really took place

Sitting here one summer night and staring at the blinds after having hung up the phone. Thinking of the call from an old friend who had a question as the conversation turned to music and concerts we saw, and hearing him confess after a moment of silence that the first and last one that he saw was back in 1977.

When we both went in his old Ford LTD, down I-10 to go and see the original Beach Boys play. Then he asked me what the last concert I saw was and I replied it was seeing the Rolling Stones, as I let my mind drift back to a time that now seems so far away and long ago. When we heard Don Maclean telling us how he took his Chevy to the levee being played on AM radio. Back when rock and roll was still young and we didn’t stand around texting or talking on cell phones. Instead we stood in lines to see and hear the music that played a part in the fabric of our lives, carrying those experiences with us till the day that we die.

Most Saturday nights had us swinging and swaying across the floor under the lights, and not sitting around reading or posting items on blogs and wondering how many liked it or how many hits it got.

We felt like we were cruising down the highway of life like rebels with the top down and the pedal to the metal, for we had the music as a part of our lives and we saw the bands who cooked as they played our songs. As we ran almost as hot and fast as they did as the moon seemed to dance with us.

No cell phones, iPods, or Mp3’s were carried and hearts were won and lost on those summer breezes. While the stars looked down as they wheeled overhead and we felt just as free as the music carried us along. Now all of this seems long ago and many can’t imagine a time when we had a choice of bands who sang our songs.

That stretch from Elvis to Bob Dylan telling us like it is and the Rolling Stones were saying It’s Only Rock and Roll, while Chuck Berry said it would never die and The Who echoed him by giving us a battle cry of: Long Live Rock! And back then everything felt right and everyone joined in and whatever happened seemed meant to be, with many of the melodies becoming memories or the triggers to memories and those we shared them with. Now with all we have in the form of technology I wonder if this is the end of our story where everything is a click away?

Or where do we go from here, or has the scene just been changing and can’t be traced like David Bowie said? Like when we said goodbye to disco when we chose to go where the music fit our soul instead. Now we can occasionally still find a band that still sings our songs and cook as they play, and still we sing along and we still are swinging and swaying across the floor just like we always have.

This tells me that Don Maclean was wrong about the music dying and the levee was just dry when he took his Chevy, there might not be any sense in life but we need to listen to those tunes and keep on singing along. As we might find there to be a reason for it all.

Copyright March 2012 – 3: Timberwolf International LTD.