The Baby Boomer Generation is a source for trends, research, comment and discussion of and by people born from 1946 - 1964.
Covering issues on the Boomer Generation including original content for Boomers, bulletin boards, user comments, Sixties and Seventies music, Baby Boomer culture, health and coverage of issues for "Aging Hipsters."
As the writer points out, in this interview with Don Brewster of Grand Funk Railroad, oldies aren't old anymore---now they're 'classic rock.' Like our generation--we're not old, we're classic. So GFR is back on the concert trail. Catch them at a venue near you.
My music videos these days seem to all be confined to the 30 second variety - where lyrics and imagery from well-known songs of the Baby Boomer Generation seem to be pop(ping) up everywhere.
My all-time favorite was Janice singing for a Mercedes commercial - it didn't last long. Apparently someone higher up the age scale must have pointed out that the song wasn't exactly flattering to Benz.
Anyway - if you're like me and the song seems familiar, but you just can't place the name, fear not. The Promo Guy Dot Net has all the scoop. Like...
Want to know what the #1 song was on the day you were born? A friend sent us this nifty link. Eddie Fisher, Perry Como, Patti Page...mmmmm boy--those were the days.
Rolling Stone Wants to be YourSpace: Will Boomers Care?
Does anyone under 25 still read Rolling Stone? I dunno, but I do know it was the bible of cool and current when I was a young whippersnapper. And it has some damn good writing. Now--jumping on a bandwagon that has already left the gazebo--they're planning a social network site. They plan to launch "a separate site that will be a social network for music fans, complete with profiles and the ability to have a say in their "Best of" lists." On a scale of 1-10, I give that idea a 3...not sure you can dance to it.
Anyone remember The Persuasions? I loved this group! We just received a note from Jerry Lawson, former lead singer of that a capella group, who's still making music and still forgoing instruments. He has a new group, Talk of the Town, but you'll recognize that silky, smoky gorgeous voice. Check him out on his myspace page.
And, if your old vinyl has become unplayable, you can find CDs of Persuasions' classics like We Came to Play here.
Awhile back, we received a press release about a nifty new site just made for aging hipsters, Classic Rock Central. Currently in beta, the site offers streaming radio, photos, interviews, and news. Granted, some of the news will be of interest only to die-hard classic rock fans, but who wouldn't want to read about David Lee Roth's hissy fit surrounding his Hall of Fame induction? The music not be suitable for cubicle-dwellers, but it certainly cranked up my work day.
Do Boomers Still Dig Rock & Roll Music? What's on Your iPod?
When, in preparation for his New York Times article about Boomers and music, Jeff Leeds interviewed me, I started thinking about the way I listen to music today as opposed to back in the day. For the most part I still listen to a lot of what I listened to then--Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Steely Dan, Springsteen, the Allman Brothers, a bit of blues, a lot of Billie Holliday and Ella, a lot of jazz. I haven't bought a current CD by anybody, even old favorites, in the last few years. My last new discoveries were Delbert McClinton who's been around for at least 30 years and Eva Cassidy, who's dead.
If you listen to JET (the band) you get this warm, familiar feeling from some sort of primordial deja-vu. It seems every song starts with a variation of a familiar hook from a past musical life. But unlike cover bands, JET looks more like someone you don't recognize out of context - like seeing your boss in Wal-Mart.
On a rare "guys night out" trip last night to the Starland Ballroom in Sayerville, NJ, three aging hipsters spent an enjoyable evening with JET and their reassuring, yet unique sound.
Just a few thoughts from the three 50-something attendees: JET is a great live band - energetic and relentless "Man that was loud!" Lots of parent/kid combos in the crowd - maybe this goes on more than we realize since this is the first live concert we've been to in a loooooong time.
On the way home we were comparing lists of the bands we'd just heard. Sure, every Aussie band by birthright has to do a tribute to AC/DC and we sure heard that, but there were others, like the Stones, complete with a hand on hip imitation of Jagger. I know I heard the Beatles and one of us thought there was a Supremes theme buried in there somewhere.
Just for giggles we asked our resident 17-year-old if he knew about JET. His response - "yeah, they're just an AC/DC rip-off." I guess it's easy to shoehorn them into just about any category (replace AC/DC with the band of your choice) and discount them as just another cover band. But Jet has tapped into something and I hope they keep evolving their sound.
We all agreed bands like JET have a real commercial appeal to classic rock radio. Instead of playing the same old tired list, they can get some new music in and still play to the audience. Overall, it was a great evening and we look forward to future JET releases like we look forward to seeing a long lost friend - we've got a lot of catching up to do.
Rhino Entertainment released Robert Plant's comprehensive 9 Lives boxed set earlier this week and I'm sure a lot of you will be trampling each other to be the first. The boxed set features all nine of Plant's solo albums remastered and expanded with bonus tracks that include previously unreleased material. The collection also contains a DVD compilation of Plant's solo music videos along with a career-spanning interview and bonus footage.
I may one of the few whose teeth clench when I hear the opening riff of "Stairway to Heaven"--I became the anti-fan when Led Zeppelin appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1969. 37 years later the only Zeppelin song I can stand is "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" and even that was recorded years earlier by Joan Baez.
But, living as I do in a houseful of Zeppelin fans and in the interest of the fair and open dissemination of news, thought you all might want to know. Plus, Rhino Records is well worth supporting.
I'm a huge Steely Dan fan. I even know where they got the name. So, I appreciated this story on a Billboard.com blog about the snarky duo's letter to Luke Wilson about brother Owen ripping off their Cousin Dupree character in his new movie.
By the way, if your appreciation for the band exceeds all reasonable limits (or you just like aging hipster bands), check out Stealin' Dan.
For those Pink Floyd fans out there (I am not one), here's an interesting article/review of David Gilmour's movie, The Guitar and Voice of Pink Floyd. The writer also references something I hadn't heard of, Big Screen Concerts,
which presents movies of big-ticket concerts at selected theaters. The site has a bit of the bouncer at the velvet rope feel, with almost no info on upcoming films, but the cool factor is hard to resist.
You've got this favorite song, it replays in your head - over and over. Yeah, you love it, but make it go away! Perhaps it's the melody, a particular beat or instrumental quality that implants itself in the music lobe of your brain - where it gets top billing.
Now, thanks to Pandora, you can not only hear your favorite song, but listen to an endless stream of other songs with similar qualities. For you Aging Hipsters out there who want to discover music (new and old) that puts you in a single groove, this is the place. It's your "personal DJ"
From the Pandora FAQ:
"Pandora is a music discovery service designed to help you find and enjoy music that you'll love. It's powered by the Music Genome Project, the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Just tell us one of your favorite songs or artists and we'll launch a streaming station to explore that part of the music universe."
"We take your input (artists, songs) and feedback ("I like this", "I don't like this") and use the Music Genome Project to create stations that play songs that are musically similar to what you've told us. That's it; only the music counts. We don't care how popular the artist is, who's backing them, and we don't care which genre bin they usually belong in. Only the music matters."
They go too far. Just when I got used to hearing our music used as pseudo-symbolic themes, marketing everything from cars to box stores, along comes Fidelity Funds--who are shameless enough to use In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, for Christ's sake, to convince us to hand over our money. At least the other brazen carpetbaggers pretend to try to tie the song into the product. The only thing the Iron Butterfly 'classic'evokes in me is an unpleasant acid flashback and an urge to wipe the drool from the corner of my mouth. Investments...stupid stoner song...what the hell dots are they trying to connect here? Unless it's those between companies who'll do anything to make a buck from Boomers and the advertising firms who'd sell their mothers to get the account. Oh wait..they sort of are selling their mothers.
We weren't the only ones shaking our collective Boomer heads - Karen Heller at Philly.com was wondering the same thing... "Utilizing "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" to sell retirement services is absurd, ironic and self-referential, which makes sense because these are the hallmarks of the group Fidelity is trying to land as clients." Read Keller's entire article here >
And for those of you wondering what ever happened to Philip Kramer, the one-time bassist for Iron Butterfly... no he didn't discover faster-than-light space travel, his minivan was found at the bottom of a 200 foot ravine in 1999. Get the facts here >
It's not so much second childhoods many of us are after, it's more second hippie-hoods. Not that it's necessarily time to re-learn macrame, but maybe it's never too late to be a rock star. A friend sent us an article from the New York Times that's probably hitting a chord with aging hipsters and their loving groupies everywhere.
By the way, check out this ultimate Boomer band with a monomaniacal (albeit justified) attachment to Steely Dan.
A friend turned us on to this great internet radio, Wolfgang's Vault. ęThis is material from over 7,000 concerts that Bill Graham produced and recorded in his lifetime. Some incredible gems in rotation, not to mention pictures and memorabilia. Not only is it free, but you don't even have to give up registration info, like most 'free' music sites. Just click and listen. I swear I'm getting a contact high through my computer speakers.
First, they won the White House on a five-to-four vote
Ignoring the citizens, precluding the tote
But within two years they'd surely learned their big lesson:
Own vote counting companies, eliminate guessin'
They're Banana Republicans, leading the way
To the National Security US of A
They're bought and they're paid for, the companies say
That they'll keep them in office, and make us all pay.
If you want to see some great photographs of rock and roll icons as well as some faux icons, check out Bob Gruen's website. He has been described in the press as the rock photographer--don't miss his photos of Bob Dylan and of John Lennon. Unfortunately he doesn't sell photos online but if you live in New York, L.A., or New Orleans, you can find 'em there.
Did you know that the band name THREE DOG NIGHT was inspired by an Australian Aborigine custom of sleeping with three dogs on extremely cold nights?
How about BLACK SABBATH? They took their name from a 1963 horror movie starring Boris Karloff. They released an album as Earth before changing their name to Black Sabbath.
For more origins of the names of the bands we love, check out this rock site.
We're Never Too Old for Rock and Roll--as proven by all the aging hipsters out there making music and playing in bands. One sent us a song for your Boomer delectation. If you like it, you can check out more of Dugan and the Kendrick Road Kings.
We know there are a bunch of you old rockers out there. Let us hear about you too.
Looks like Japan appreciates its Boomers, especially when it comes to rock and roll. In fact, contests for Oyaji (old man) bands are bringing out hundreds of musicians and enthusiastic audiences. So, if your old man band isn't getting any respect here in the states, consider renewing your passport.
Forget the lottery or Publsher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, we at Baby Boomers have a great giveaway ---the newly released DVD of Roy Orbison's "Live From Australia." We have 5 copies of the DVD to give away courtesy of Big Honcho Media. Just tell us why you deserve the DVD and you could be one of the lucky ones. At a loss for words? Then send us a picture of you in your Roy Orbison sunglasses.
In this rarely seen concert held at the Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia, in 1972, Roy Orbison takes the stage backed by an entire orchestra in addition to his own band. This dynamic performance is filled with his classic hits, great ballads and powerful rockers. See one of the top rock 'n' roll singers of all time at the top of his form in this historical must-see performance.
Get your entries in now--photo or prose. The giveaway lasts only until June 17th. We'll select what we think are the 5 best entries and send the winners "Live From Australia."
Songs include: Only the Lonely, Crying, Dream Baby, In Dreams, Mean Woman Blues, Too Soon to Know, Penny Arcade, Blue Bayou, Land of 1000 Dances,Bridge Over Troubled Water, Leah, Running Scared, Sweet Caroline, It's Over, Oh, Pretty Woman.
When I was 13, my parents gave me a Gibson guitar; it was red, orange and yellow and had a double pick-guard. What did I know? I was 13 and had never played a guitar in my life. Now, happily, according to an article in the New York Times, guitars have become the hottest and priciest of collectibles. Okay, my beat up old warped neck Gibson may not be the Gibson ES-335 that went for $847,500 at auction recently, but who knows--maybe it'll pay for a weekend in a Motel 6 somewhere.
The singer formerly known as Cat Stevens (as the Times article describes him) is on the Homeland Security watch list. Is it because of his name, his politics, or his music?
You might also want to check out the Cat Stevens website. I'm not sure if it's a music site or a testimonial to Islam. As for its terroristic leanings---I don't happen to have my secret decoder ring, so your guess is as good as mine.
Accusations on Detention of Ex-Singer
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: September 23, 2004
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - United Airlines and the Department of Homeland Security blamed each other Wednesday because a passenger, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, was allowed on a London-to-Washington flight on Tuesday even though his name is on a terrorism watch list.
The government ordered the plane to be diverted to Bangor, Me., where the passenger, now known as Yusuf Islam, was detained.
As the writer points out, in 
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Anyone remember The Persuasions? I loved this group! We just received a note from Jerry Lawson, former lead singer of that a capella group, who's still making music and still forgoing instruments. He has a new group, Talk of the Town, but you'll recognize that silky, smoky gorgeous voice. Check him out on his 
If you listen to JET (the band) you get this warm, familiar feeling from some sort of primordial deja-vu. It seems every song starts with a variation of a familiar hook from a past musical life. But unlike cover bands, JET looks more like someone you don't recognize out of context - like seeing your boss in Wal-Mart. 
Rhino Entertainment released Robert Plant's comprehensive 
, available at Amazon.
