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Thread: Suddenly feeling old

  1. #1

    Default Suddenly feeling old

    Some days you get slapped in the face with irrefutable evidence you are no longer part of the younger generation or at the forefront of cool or anything remotely like that. Tonight I was faced with an example.

    On the World Cafe a young musician was being interviewed. It was mentioned his influences included Old School artists like Al Green and Hendryx.

    I never imagined I would live to see the day Jimi Hendryx was Old School.


  2. #2
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    They don’t have a mandolin. THAT’S why you’re feeling old.

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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    Well you know, Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 - 50 years ago.

    It might not be old school exactly, but certainly quite old.
    Anyway where do you stop? Look at Charlie Parker - a wild man who redefined jazz. He has been dead since 1955. Plenty other examples.

    I am well aware I'm quite old - I am 67 - but believe me it wasn't a sudden revelation.
    I spend much of my time now playing and working with much younger people and am happy to say that my age doesn't seem to be a problem. Indeed I have a performing duo with a girl who is 30, which is nice.
    David A. Gordon

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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    Yep, it eventually happens to all of us !

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    Registered User John Kelly's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    Dagger, I can totally agree with you, and I have seven more years on the clock too! I too find that music keeps me from feeling the creeping onset of old age, and I too had a great duo with a 24-year-old fiddler and Gaelic singer who then moved away to Edinburgh last summer to take up a new teaching job. Working with young folk makes us forget our own ages, and music does seem to eliminate the age gap.
    I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe

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    Registered User Rob MacKillop's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    Anything pre punk is old school, and became instantly old school the moment Never Mind The Bollocks was released...and it too is old school now. Who cares? Not I. Live life, explore music, enjoy.

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  11. #7
    Lord of All Badgers Lord of the Badgers's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    In my band, I’m the oldest by 5 years. Our ages go down to early 20s. I’m 50. Does it matter? Does it heck. I’m the frontman anyways, and I’m a beautiful man so it’s all good ha ha.

    *ego redacted badly*
    My name is Rob, and I am Lord of All Badgers

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    My band's website

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    Registered User Frankdolin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    At 64 seeing what I've seen and hearing what I hear, I'm convinced we are the last of the cools. The end . Fini. Done.

  13. #9
    Registered User Bren's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    Pretty much everyone I play with is younger than me.

    I was already in my late 40s when I emerged into the sunlight 20-odd years ago and started playing with other people again.

    It was a standing joke in the first band I joined that I always demanded the accommodation details if we were staying overnight somewhere.
    I felt like I'd done enough sleeping on somebody's mate's floor and my back didn't like it.

    The others were all in their twenties or thirties and none of them had kids yet - ironically they all do now and sound grumpier than I ever remember being.
    Bren

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    Registered User John Soper's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    At 68, I'm a practicing physician in an academic setting. Every July we get new medical students, residents and fellows on our clinical service. I have to keep up with the current information in my field so that they think I'm smarter than they are - keeps me feeling younger to be surrounded by all these young and bright people. However, I've found that I can't play as fast as I used to on guitar or mandolin, stay up as late as I used to, and that there are times my "mind makes promises that my body can't keep".

    Getting older and slower sure beats the alternative!

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  16. #11
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    I feel nothing. I was born an old man 64 years ago. So what's changed?
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    Quote Originally Posted by John Kelly View Post
    Dagger, I can totally agree with you, and I have seven more years on the clock too! I too find that music keeps me from feeling the creeping onset of old age, and I too had a great duo with a 24-year-old fiddler and Gaelic singer who then moved away to Edinburgh last summer to take up a new teaching job. Working with young folk makes us forget our own ages, and music does seem to eliminate the age gap.
    you've nailed it , john. I work with , write with , record with and perform with many young players , along with many my own age ( old guy ) and never think of the age . What I find interesting to me is that because of the internet we are all accessing ( or at least able to access ) the same musical influences effortlessly.....from the jazzers and crooners of the 40's and 50's to the grassers and rockers of present day . Its a level playing field of influence and inspiration and it seems easier than ever to relate to a younger player who is aware of MY influences along the way and I hers .I've never had so much fun learning , practicing and making friends young and old through music .

  18. #13

    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    I would introduce a cover song from the stage mic as being written by the great so and so.......

    Now, it seems, I'm introducing the same songs as by the late great so and so.....

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    two t's and one hyphen fatt-dad's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    1920 was 50 years before 1970.

    It's all so confusing, aging!

    (Just turned 65 and so ready to retire!)

    f-d
    ¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!

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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    Bertram is correct. I feel like i was born old. I spend my life learning how to be old, how to talk without arguing, how to tell stories, how to dramatically remove my glasses, how to smoke a pipe, etc. I wanted, early on, to be one of those old guy characters that has played music for over 30 years and knows all these great old tunes nobody ever heard of. And, being good at math, I figured out I had to start early so that when I was one of those old guys, I will have had played for over 30 years and did know all these great old tunes. In fact one reason I stuck with folkie music is that it is one of the few places in our culture that still respects age and experience.

    So now that I am old I see that everything before was designed to foster my competence at being the age that I am now. My face has become what is was meant to be, and I have grown into my mannerisms.

    Be who you are with confidence. Time and weather and the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" and "a Sea of troubles" with which we are have taken arms, have made us who we are. When youngsters laugh just remember they "jest at scars that never felt a wound".
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

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    Registered User jim simpson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    I like the button I spotted at a book store. It said: I may be old but I got to see all the cool groups.

    I often feel that way. I play in a couple of groups where I am the oldest.
    Old Hometown, Cabin Fever String Band

  23. #17

    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    They don’t have a mandolin. THAT’S why you’re feeling old.
    I don't know if Jimi ever played a mandolin. It would have been interesting. In Little Feat
    Fred Tackett is quite a good mandolin player. He just didn't use it in the video. He plays everything including horns.

    I would introduce a cover song from the stage mic as being written by the great so and so.......
    Now, it seems, I'm introducing the same songs as by the late great so and so.....
    When I pulled up Old Folks Boogie I was saddened to find out Paul Barrere had passed last year. Somehow I missed that one.

    What I find interesting to me is that because of the internet we are all accessing ( or at least able to access ) the same musical influences effortlessly.....from the jazzers and crooners of the 40's and 50's to the grassers and rockers of present day . Its a level playing field of influence and inspiration and it seems easier than ever to relate to a younger player who is aware of MY influences along the way and I hers
    Absolutely so. it is amazing.

    Pretty much everyone I play with is younger than me.
    It is a mixed bag for me. The band I play with during better times is all older than me. Most of the audience is a lot older. Though a couple of town festivals we play a lot of younger people get up and dance. One group of grassers I jam with off and on is all a lot younger. Another group I am somewhere in the upper middle of age.

    I look in the mirror and see this young guy. My kids and grandkids see this old guy. A while back my 300 lb grandson needed someone to try his school wrestling moves on and my kids were afraid I would get hurt. After he went down a couple times it changed and they were afraid he would get hurt. We had fun. He is a great kid.

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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    It is not a competition. We are always going to be better at being old than those that aren't old.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  25. #19
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    Today I'm younger than I'll ever be again. And I surpassed my "personal best" for consecutive days lived!

    Interviewer to Woody Allen: "Mr. Allen, would you like to achieve immortality through your art?"

    Allen: "No, I'd like to achieve immortality by not dying."

    I do find the loss of musical opportunities through COVID-19 to be particularly poignant, since at age 76.5 I have to wonder how many more I'll have. But as Mr. Seeger sang:

    How do I know my youth is all spent?
    My get-up-and-go has got up and went!
    But in spite of it all, I'm able to grin,
    When I think of the places my get-up has been.
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    I saw an interview a number of years ago - Ben Eldridge of the Seldom Scene was saying that his son (Chris Eldridge - Punch Brothers, Live from Here, etc) and his friends used to say that the Seldom Scene was too "trad" (traditional)...

    When did that happen?!?

    Yup. Things change.

    Kirk

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    Registered User Tom Hart's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    If, like me, you were born in the 50s. There was "oldies" radio in the 70s. It seemed ancient. Now things that are fifty years old are classified "classic rock".
    Why? Because our age refuses to admit we're old.
    Embrace it, admit it.

  28. #22
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Hart View Post
    Because our age refuses to admit we're old.
    I think it's just an attempt to filter the bad connotations of "old". I'll say we're "matured" and "authentic".
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

  29. #23
    My Florida is scooped pheffernan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    Quote Originally Posted by Bertram Henze View Post
    I think it's just an attempt to filter the bad connotations of "old". I'll say we're "matured" and "authentic".
    I thought you were played in, opened up, and had acquired some real vintage mojo!
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    I work with a lot of 20 and 30 somethings. My playing music gives me some street cred, especially because it's bluegrass. (Like Greensky Grass? --No! Like Monroe. Who is that?) There job is to keep me up to date on what's new, and my job is to tell stories about the old days. Some stuff is old enough that it's new again.

    Once I was talking to a guy about seeing Black Sabbath in the early 70's and how Ozzy was a wild man. Response: "Wow, you knew Ozzy before he was Ozzy."

    Headline from local entertainment newspaper> "Old Time is the new Punk"

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    Registered User Mandobart's Avatar
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    Default Re: Suddenly feeling old

    Quote Originally Posted by yankees1 View Post
    Yep, it eventually happens to all of us !
    If we're lucky.....many people never experience getting old. I'd like to get a little older yet.

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