40 somethings

Remember the first time you heard "Telegraph Road" by Dire Straits? Remember that feeling of a cresting, coming wave? And Marc, Marc is whispering it to you, mush mouthing it to you and you wait for every word, every beat and you want to kiss the session piano player (Benmont Tench?) on the mouth for playing so well, so hidden in the background?
And Marc, picking like a pro. If you've never heard it on paper woofers and plastic record, you're only getting 60% of it.

How about the first time you heard "The End" without Martin Sheen losing his mind on film, without his narrative of "Charlie squatting in the bush." The first time you heard it with just you, two speakers, and your girlfriend under you in college and you made it until the end of the song, both of you, together.

What you remember most about "The Wall", so shamefully taken out of context on FM radio, was the kids, just like you, standing up (you imagined) on their desks and shouting, "Hey! Teacher!" like you wanted to yet never did*. You felt, knew that you could be in THAT chorus of sixth graders.

Remember when you thought it was called "Teenage Wasteland?" instead of its proper name, and you wanted to own that too, but you couldn't hit the high notes unless you were drunk on Little Kings beer without knowing the truth was that you sounded horrible...
And you sang in the basement with your now dead friend, whom you always thought you'd see again.

I hated "Smells Like Teen Spirit" the first time I heard it. I thought it was stupid. "A mosquito, my Libido" My, what else rhymes? And I thought that for a long time. Maybe until I found the record in the used bin at The Record Exchange (Home of the $12.95 CD) and really heard it. It wasn't really until the second album I got that they had their hooks in me. And seeing the little good-looking drummer kid in the background banging his head as a good drummer should, flipping out and getting the rest of the band to "follow me." Of course that kid rose from the ashes, as he should've. He never looked back I think, and it has paid off.

Lastly, you bought the record for "Been Caught Stealin'" but at the end, in the grand tradition, you heard "Three Days" and were resurrected, like the song said, and blown away. A long mantra indeed that should have had your eyes closed and your foot tapping in the old traditions. Long hair was made for swinging to this song! It was a long good-bye and so worth it. Green Day smiled and thanked FM radio ten years later for playing their opus on the free airwaves, but it was the boy and his dog that had put it all down before, way back at the end/beginning.

I don't know why I got hooked on these songs when at the same time, there were so many more that tweeked the loins so to speak. I can only say (yeah, right) that they'll always be held high.I've left out so many. I could go on for hours about U2 alone...so commercial? yet so deserving, I think, in the early years....and even some later years. I reckon we could stop at the album with "The Fly" on it: Achtung Baby! After that...