Same Old Song

There are some songs that just go on way too long. There is a reason radio has a convention of the three to four minute pop song. It's so they don't drive the audience crazy. If a station is still playing the same song AFTER I've been to another station, heard a whole song, and returned, then I want to hammer the radio into little bits with my tire iron. But I just grit my teeth and change the station. It's possible some songs are too long because I hate them. (Example: Pink Floyd's "Money," or "Roundabout" by Yes. Or that endless version of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" by Creedence.) Others are too long because I don't like them well enough for them to be going on and on and on and on. (Example: "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits with Sting) Even though I like the Beatles, I even get sick of "Hey, Jude." Nah Nah Nah Nah, Nah Nah. I know back in radio's golden years deejays counted on having some long songs so they could time their bathroom breaks accordingly. I'm sure hearing "Freebird" still causes bowel stirrings among certain radio veterans. Or Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights." I have this theory. Your favorite songs are the ones you heard when you were 14-15 years old, along with a couple that allowed you to survive college with your sanity intact. Go ahead, ask Steffi Graf. (the tennis player) She loves Prince. Ask anyone. I have another theory. Your brain holds a specific number of pop tunes, and then it shuts off. Won't accept any more. Not a single one. Well maybe some weird ditty like Achey Breaky Heart because you can't avoid it, but you still won't like it. That's why people can only enjoy the music of their youth, and anything after that just sounds like instruments doing calisthenics. So grandparents go for Glenn Miller and Stan Kenton. Parents go for Elvis or Dean Martin. I go for...what, you think I'm going to date myself here? The musical portion of my brain shut down sometime in the 1980s, but I will not tell you from what year my favorite songs come. I'm always amazed when my parents tell me they paid no attention to the Beatles. Completely ignored them. See, their brains had shut down in the early 60s, so they couldn't process the Beatles. In fact they ignored the sixties altogether. Barely noticed the cultural earthquake. That's what having kids will do to you. This is something I don't understand about May/December relationships. What do they listen to? If there is more than ten years' age difference, I can't see two people enjoying the same music unless they are, say, Jazz aficionados. Hubby likes country music (which all sounds the same to me unless it's Patsy Cline). I'll listen to rock, mostly. But when we're in the car together we can both agree on Broadway. Broadway is an acquired taste, but one worth acquiring, in my opinion. Plus it gives you so many more cultural reference points. So don't ask me about rap or hip hop. It isn't music. It's just people trying to annoy me.