"Celia, yer breakin' my heart..."

What acts would I pay real money to see?  Never been much of a concert-goer...never seemed to be able to spare the money for tickets, which were always a little more than I wanted to spend.  In the last ten years, I have seen:  Stars on Ice, Taps, Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, John Denver (about a year before he died), Dan Fogelberg (a disappointing acoustic concert)...a few others.  And, last Sunday night, the Simon & Garfunkel "Old Friends" Tour. 

The concert was ALL about the old songs... they sang nothing less than twenty years old.  Considering the body of work they've both produced in forty years, I thought that kind of odd...  But I enjoyed the hell out it.  Knew all the words, and sang along on most (quietly...unlilke the boozy guy sitting next to my sister who belted out every song MOST untunefully.) 

And of course the crowd was funny.  Standing in line to get in, there were a couple of kids in their twenties...looking around saying, "Dude, there's no one else here our age.."  No, there wasn't.  We were a very happy, orderly, slightly high crowd of forty-,fifty-, and sixty-somethings.  Gathered to hear our "Old Friends" sing Sounds of Silence one more time. 

Sometimes I sit and wonder when I lost track of the current music scene.  Must have been in the eighties, really, when I stopped being aware of what was happening on the charts.  I hear Blondie or the Eurythmics on the radio, and think it was only a few years ago that they were "happening..." But it's been twenty years.  And I was already an adult then.  I heard somewhere that fifty is the new thirty.  I think it's true...fifty seems to be the age when we boomers finally have to admit we're grown-ups (read old).  But I'm hopelessly distant from popular music these days.  During the nineties and early 0's (is that what you call them?), "music" has become increasingly violent, and that doesn't appeal to me at all.  I tend to surround myself with the old stuff.  Much more comforting (and tuneful.)  Am I starting to sound like an old fart?  Don't answer that...