Saturday, April 26, 2008

Reminiscing...

I recall, back in the 50s there was a sharp line of demarcation between country and western music and rock and roll.

It stood out in my mind, because I was a teen-ager, who was interested in much of the rock music of the day, and my dad was a hard core subscriber to the country genre.

I well remember being told that kind of music would not be played in our house. So many times while doing dishes, I would change the radio station, and would almost immediately have my dad chewing me out and changing the station back.

Let me say, there was a great difference between Hank Williams and Tex Ritter, and Elvis Presley...Jerry Lee Lewis was completely out of phase with Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow and Hank Thompson.

It didn't take a discerning ear to be able to tell the difference; you didn't need Ed Sullivan to show you either.

Then in the 60s we found the sound of psychedellic rock, which eventually turned into hard rock. There was now a dividing line in rock music that was as sharp as the one between country and rock was in the 50s.

Now, today, I turn on the radio to the local country station, and I am treated to Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley! The same songs that my dad railed against as being not country, are today, touted as being country.

In all truthfulness, I can only listen to the local country station on Saturdays, because they dedicate the day to playing only classic country. Through the rest of the week, they play "progressive" country music.

And yet, I hear the psychedellic lead guitar interspersed within the country music.

I truly hate to admit it, but the raucous sounds of rock and roll in my youth, have become the bedrock easy listening sounds of my older age.

What a difference half a century can make!

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