The Day The Music Died

Last week when I was in Target, I found this cute little hat with Sgt Pepper patches on it. I bought it, of course, but it took me back to my teen years and listening to the album until I knew every word by heart. The album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, was released May 26, 1967. I didn’t get interested in it until about seven years later.

Some say that when John Lennon was killed on December 8, 1980, the music died. However, we know that Don MacLean’s 1971 hit “American Pie” was intended to be about the plane crash that took Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper on February 3, 1959.

We all have our interpretation of when the music we love met its end. For me, it was the ending of the 80s. I am a die-hard rock-n-roller and am very grateful that Denver has a classic rock station, playing songs from the 60s thru the 80s. But what has happened to rock music?

Sorry, millennial friends, but your music sucks. We don’t need any more Pop Tarts with a wall of sound backing them up. And the hillbilly chorus line. . .that’s just awful. Apologies again, but where are the rockers?

I’ve written about this many times, but I think people are rotting their brains with electronic devices. I don’t see an ounce of creativity in anyone anymore. Graffiti artists, maybe. Most of creative effort I see these days is doing the same thing over again. There is no desire to be innovative. Hell, there is no desire to work. And playing in a band takes work. Serious work and serious on the road travel to make it. I suppose the record companies (do they even call them that anymore?) have something to do with it. It is all about making money after all.

Most people seem to be moving through life in a daze, just getting by, rushing thru everything with too much technology and sucking down coffee. (I love coffee, too.) But no one FEELS. You have to feel to create. You have to bleed out of your soul to bring to life beautiful artistry, music, design, and words.

Most people are afraid to feel.

If you look back at music, many of the musicians struggled. They lived in vans and ate cheese sandwiches. Yes, I know they drank or did drugs too. Some things never change. But they weren’t afraid to pour out their life into guitar, drum and keyboard.

So I am tossing out this challenge to the musically – talented: I double-dog dare you to open your heart and pour it into some earth-shaking rock. Just so I can feel it again.