DEAD PEOPLE'S MUSIC

As I was listening to NPR's list of most important works of the twentieth century, I came to an interesting realization. Well, interesting for me anyway. Dead people's music is better than living people's music. Not always, of course, but mostly.

I'm no fuddy duddy either (are those words still being used?). I like good music no matter who plays it and how old it is. Even if it's from the Jonas Brothers. Well, if they played good music I might like it. This is a horrible realization. And what does this mean anyway? The last album I bought was, well, a gift for my wife. The soundtrack to Summer of Sam, which for some reason she seems to like. Actually, some of the songs are pretty good. It has a good mix of living and dead people's music.

Maybe the fact that they are dead kicks their songs up a notch. Especially if they die a sudden horrible death. I'm sure artists like Tupac, Biggy Smalls and Selena were helped somewhat as a result of their tragic deaths. I had never even heard of Selena before she was shot to death.

I wonder if, when I was young, I listened to dead people's music. Let me think...all The Beatles were still alive, CCR, J Geils...Holy smokes, I mostly listened to music from people who were still alive. I must be getting old.

I listen to Kevin and Bean on KROQ here in LA and they play modern Alternative music, so I keep up to date on some of the new artists like The Killers and Linkin Park. But even KROQ plays music by dead people, such as Nirvana and Sublime.

I think I started listening to dead people's music, in earnest, when I started going to college. I would go to the library and check out old records and tapes. Sometimes I would even check out albums on Classical music. And those guys are REALLY dead. I'm sure they're dust by now. Even Jimi Hendrix must be dust by now.

The one thing that makes me still feel young is that I have a five year old son. He keeps me young. Unfortunately, he also listens mostly to dead people's music too. No thanks to me. Oh, and let's not forget the Disney channel and Noggin. He also listens to that. So I know about Laurie Berkner.

I don't really mind this realization so much because there is just so much good music out there. Even if all new music stopped coming out, for some crazy reason, there is just so much old music out there that I still need to discover that I don't really mind knowing that I mostly like dead people's music.

If I had a cover band, I would call it Dead People's Music. Nobody take it.