Today I wanted some new (to me- as in not already belonging to me) music real bad. There's one cd I've wanted for some time now, and I called a couple of the local stores to see if they had it. They didn't. Hi ho, as Kurt V. would say.
I knew I could order it online, but I like to give independently owned stores my business when I can.
So, I decided to hit a couple stores, thinking that I'd have to run across something that I'd get excited about.
Bythe time I came home with a cd in hand, I didn't even feel like listening to it. I'd picked something mostly out of a refusal to return home empty-handed. There was a time when the frustrating aspect of a trip to the record store was that I couldn't buy all the records I wanted- actually not just wanted but HAD TO HAVE.
I saw lots of things that I thought were probably pretty good, I listened to a few things on the nasty headphones (they always make my head itch for a week whenever I think about them) that I kind of liked, but I wanted that feeling- remember that feeling?
I remember booking home from the record store on my bike- "booking" is what we used to call "going fast"- with a Ramones or Pretenders record flapping wildly from where it hung off the handlebars, knowing I was in for something really exciting.
The worst thing is, it's not, I think, that music is less exciting now. It's me. It doesn't excite me because I don't get excited. When I was listening to some of these new bands on the itchy headphones, I kept thinking "Well, this song sounds like John Lennon. This sounds like the Faces", etc. I was being totally unfair since Rock n' Roll's all about appropriation (the Blues had a baby and they named it...).
The fact is, I knew what I wanted without necessarily being able to articulate it, and nothing I saw was IT. And my ability to adjust my desires has apparently lost its flexibility right along with my spine and my calf muscles.
I guess this all boils down to this: I'm getting old, goddamn it. Need further proof? This new and exciting artist whose cd I was initially looking for? I heard about it on NPR. This is where I find out about what's new and hip.
Hi ho.
Oh- in case you're wondering, I was looking for "Oh Me Oh My" by Devendra Banhart, and ended up buying "Never Say Goodbye" by Roky Erickson which turned out to be way too perfect for comfort. But hey, who needs comfort?