Claire Colburn: [voice over] Some music *needs* air. Roll down your window
-From the movie Elizabethtown
I've been experiencing a mid-life crisis of late.
I've started listening to music and bands for which I had no use, 30 years ago.
Loudly, in my car.
Specifically, ACDC and Rush.
Those of you that are fans are all "Yeah, so? cool!"
But I'm.... not a fan.
Except I sort of am, now.
Not "go see 'em live next tour" fan. or even "Snap up their back catalog on iTunes" fan.
But, if I happen upon Limelight or New World Man or Highway to Hell or Thunderstruck when surfing the pre-sets, I no longer keep going.
I stop.
And turn it way up.
And, weather permitting, roll down the window.
On truly special days, I'll open the sun roof.
Sometimes music DOES need airing out. Kirsten Dunst was right.
I do not know how this has come to be.
I expect, in large part, it's due to what I CAN'T expect to hear, when pre-set surfing. If Husker Du, Chris Whitley, The Jayhawks or The Replacements were on the radio regularly, I'd likely not be writing this.
But the aren't.
For whatever reason, one day I said "nope" and kept hitting the buttons when I came across Freewill, but the next day I didn't.
So, there I am, middle aged guy, blasting Rush out of the open windows of his car, kids booster seat, granola bar wrappers, stuffed dog and a single glove from last winter, loose in the back seat.
Of COURSE I'm singing along.
(Turns out I already knew most of the lyrics, having picked them up via osmosis somehow, 30 years ago.)
I can live with that, I think. To hell with the other cars around me at the stop lights.
They can sing their own songs...
But I WILL continue to blow past Zep, Floyd and the Nuge, without hesitation.
Gotta have standards.
Those of you that are fans are all "Yeah, so? cool!"
But I'm.... not a fan.
Except I sort of am, now.
Not "go see 'em live next tour" fan. or even "Snap up their back catalog on iTunes" fan.
But, if I happen upon Limelight or New World Man or Highway to Hell or Thunderstruck when surfing the pre-sets, I no longer keep going.
I stop.
And turn it way up.
And, weather permitting, roll down the window.
On truly special days, I'll open the sun roof.
Sometimes music DOES need airing out. Kirsten Dunst was right.
I do not know how this has come to be.
I expect, in large part, it's due to what I CAN'T expect to hear, when pre-set surfing. If Husker Du, Chris Whitley, The Jayhawks or The Replacements were on the radio regularly, I'd likely not be writing this.
But the aren't.
For whatever reason, one day I said "nope" and kept hitting the buttons when I came across Freewill, but the next day I didn't.
So, there I am, middle aged guy, blasting Rush out of the open windows of his car, kids booster seat, granola bar wrappers, stuffed dog and a single glove from last winter, loose in the back seat.
Of COURSE I'm singing along.
(Turns out I already knew most of the lyrics, having picked them up via osmosis somehow, 30 years ago.)
I can live with that, I think. To hell with the other cars around me at the stop lights.
They can sing their own songs...
But I WILL continue to blow past Zep, Floyd and the Nuge, without hesitation.
Gotta have standards.
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