Music and the Generation Gap

"That's not music. That's just noise."

Said every parent to their kids.

Your Blog has noticed, because he has a kid who represents today's youth, that that musical generation gap is much narrower than it was a generation ago.

When The Blog Jr. was around 6 or 7, Your Blog overheard his son, standing in the driveway, loudly singing...

"Ice ice baby Ice Ice baby All right stop collaborate and listen..."

Your Blog, alarmed, dragged the Blog Jr. into the house by his ear and introduced him to Queen and David Bowie.

A moment of parental responsibility that, I like to think, changed The Blog Jr.'s life, forever.

The Blog Jr. became a fan of Freddie Mercury and Company, to the point that I dreaded the day that I would have to tell him that Freddie had died of complications from AIDS.

As it turned out, it was never an issue. Because my kid grew up to be awesome.

For more than a year, The Blog Jr. used "Queen's Greatest Hits" to lullaby him to sleep.

It seems weird, in retrospect, that the bombast of Queen would lull a kid to sleep, but not as weird as the fact that he, later, preferred The Ramones punk rock, "Beat on the Brat" and "Sedated" for his bedtime music.

So, what am I talking about?

Oh, yeah.

The musical generation gap between my generation and my parent's.

My parents wrote off most of my generation's music as crap devoted solely to sex and drugs.

And, for the most part, they were probably right.

KISS' "Love Gun" was, without a doubt, a concept album dedicated to Gene Simmons' and/or Paul Stanley's penis.

The Village People's "YMCA" was certainly a nod to the "homosexual agenda."

Never mind that "YMCA" is a staple of every straight wedding reception.

Was James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" a song about drugs?

Who knows?

Was John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" about drugs?

Oh, please.

Which brings us to this...

Funny thing...

When I was a teen, the adults around me insisted that this song was about drugs. One drug, specifically.

As a teen, I argued the official line. "No! It's not about LSD. It was inspired by a picture that young Julian Lennon drew of his elementary school crush, Lucy."

As an adult, I looked back and thought, "Phfft! Of course it was about LSD. Could it be more obvious?"

Turns out...

Lucy is real and really was Julian's school boy crush, and the crayon drawing really exists. (You can Google it, but there are so many related images on line that finding it is a bit of a needle in a haystack.)

So, the official story is, in fact, a fact.

"Plasticine porters, looking glass ties, marshmallow pies and kaleidoscope eyes?"

Yeahhh. Kind of hallucinogenic.

Parents vs. Rock. On this one... a draw.