When I'm 64

I look back on my life and see both good and bad, but no more, or less than anyone else. As with everyone, there are dreams left unrealized, and hopes that did not pan out, but I’ve had a good life compared to many, and I can’t complain about much. My health is good, I have a job I enjoy with my family, gray in my hair has not appeared in any noticeable fashion, and I bought a house last year. Everything is sailing along nicely. But… what I've noticed recently is time. And that’s a new experience for me. Time used to be nothing more than a marker and a place to hang dates and memories. As the years go by, the markers spread out farther, and what used to seem like yesterday has slipped to decades. Time has always seemed to be a barrier to me, even more so as a child: Q: How old are you? A: 5 and a half… almost 6. (It’s always that little extra bump in age that makes kids feel older) or Q: How much longer until Christmas? A: About a week. Response: That’s forever!!! With kids, time moves at the speed of an old man. When you pass 30-35 you begin to see time pick up the pace like a little kid on a sugar high. The question I ask myself, especially today, is what happened to the last 20-25 years? It’s all gone so fast. What is truly disturbing to the psyche is that it shows no sign of slowing. If anything, it feels as though it’s speeding up. I’m still a ways from 40, but I’m close enough to start knocking on that door. That’s frightening and comforting at the same time. What got me started on this thought process to my mortality, and seemingly impending doom, is a site I found with music videos from my youth. (i.e.: when I was 12-21) I can honestly say that I am happy with myself, and would not want to change places with a 21 year old, (God knows I wouldn’t want to be in school again) but the videos reminded me of my age. So, if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to offer some videos from my youth, in an attempt to feel young again, but I know I only look like an old man wearing shorts, black socks, and sandals. And yes, I owned (and still have) most of these. But I have upgraded to CD from cassette. Flash vids. Links go directly to the site. 1. Yo! Flock of Seagulls!! Space Age Love Song: A Flock of Seagulls 2. East and West Berlin After the Fire: Der Kommissar 3. Yes and ELP members trying to stay relevant. Asia: Heat of the Moment 4. Big hair hell Autograph: Turn Up The Radio 5. Journey and Baby members trying to stay relevant. Bad English: When I See You Smile 6. The real Goths. Bauhaus: Ziggy Stardust (Kinda sounds like Bowie too) 7. I remember when Ecstasy (X) was a cool drug. I also remember having jaw-lock the next day. Hey! It was a designer drug. We didn't know it was bad. Book of Love: Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls (Tubular bells from hell) 8. Lounge cool. Bryan Ferry: Slave to Love 9. Saxy. And I love redheads. Dave Stewart is a nice touch too. Candy Dulfer: Lily Was Here 10. Nights down in Deep Ellum and Greenville Avenue. CCCP: American Soviets 11. Austin boy done good. It also helps to have Stevie Ray Vaughan as a friend. Charlie Sexton: Beats So Lonely 12. Just before he lost it for good. Hair plugs work wonders. David Lee Roth: Yankee Rose 13. Happy Depesche Mode? Depesche Mode: Just Can’t Get Enough (Always thought this sounded like Yaz) 14. One hit wonders from hell. Dexy’s Midnight Runners: Come On Eileen 15. Quite possibly the best music video ever made. Don Henley: The Boys Of Summer 16. The one song that still stops me in my tracks. Double: The Captain Of Her Heart 17. Dallas greatness. Although, she always looked like she needed a bath. Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians: What I Am 18. The first band to take metal and rap, and make it into a viable form. Linkin Park owes a lot to these guys opening the door. Faith No More: We Care A Lot 19. Heavy Goth. Fields of the Nephilim: Moonchild 20. Nothing beats Ska music for making really drunken dancing an acceptable art form. Fishbone: Party at Ground Zero 21. We didn’t know they were gay. Honestly! At least in this version you get a shot of a still attractive Melanie Griffith's ass. Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Relax 22. Hair band ballad. Giuffria: Call To Your Heart 23. 80’s backseat car sex. Glenn Frey: The One You Love 24. Killed Grunge. Guns N Roses: Welcome to the Jungle 25. Cruising music. Loved the album cover. Honeymoon Suite: New Girl Now 26. Makes me drive fast. Icicle Works: Whisper to a Scream 27. 80’s defined. INXS: Need You Tonight 28. I had this dream as a child, but usually I was the one in front of the class in my underwear. J. Geils Band: Centerfold 29. The worst video ever made. Journey: Separate Ways-Worlds Apart 30. Zeppelin-Lite. What happened to them? Kingdom Come: Get It On 31. Too much synth, but a great song. Love and Rockets: So Alive 32. Journey-Lite. Loverboy: Turn Me Loose 33. Back then, I would have… Now… No thanks. Madonna: Like A Virgin 34. Suicide anyone? Megadeath: In My Darkest Hour 35. What? Lars is going to sue me for posting this? Metallica: Master of Puppets 36. Dale Bossio. Dumb blonde in the flesh. Missing Persons: Words 37. Definition of 80’s new wave. Modern English: I Melt With You 38. Ambiguously gay. Is it just me, or did every song he sing sound the same? Morrisey: Suedehead 39. Eric Martin. More than just the song To Be With You. Mr. Big: Addicted To That Rush 40. Sweaty, hairy, European pits. Ok, I didn’t have this cassette, but I liked the song. Nena: 99 Luft Balloons 41. Techno-Ecstasy-Goth. New Order: Blue Monday 42. Get out your lighters. Now I only see the scene from Boogie Nights when I hear this. Night Ranger: Sister Christian 43. Killed hair metal. Also killed himself, but that’s a different story. Nirvana: About A Girl 44. The best voice in music. A 5 octave range isn’t too bad. Pat Benatar: We Belong 45. Better with Genesis. Phil Collins: In The Air Tonight 46. Best band ever. Unless you count the Beatles. Pink Floyd: Another Brick In The Wall 47. Best band without much recognition. Think of The Byrds with a harder beat. The Plimsouls: A Million Miles Away 48. 16 candles from hell. The Psychedelic Furs: Heaven 49. Johnny Rotten. The one guy in music I think would kill you if you looked at him the wrong way. P.I.L: This Is Not A Love Song 50. Still relevant today. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Higher Ground 51. Thankfully died a quiet death. REM: The One I Love 52. Dreams of red lipstick. Robert Palmer: Simply irresistible 53. Mud shark alert. Robert Plant: Burning Down One Side 54. He fell down without David Gilmour to back him up.. Same can be said about David too. He’s great live, but my first statement rings true if he feels the need to have 10 other musicians on stage with him when in concert. Roger Waters: Sunset Strip 55. Their last good record was Tattoo You. When was that? 1983? Rolling Stones: Start Me Up 56. One of the best harsh voices coming out of the most disturbing front-woman in music. Romeo Void: Never Say Never 57. Who needs Brian Eno? Roxy Music: More Than This 58. Before Van Halen... Sammy Hagar: Voice of America 59. Shot at Reunion Arena in Dallas… A 2 in the morning “I’m drunk and I’m going to call my girlfriend” song. The Scorpions: Still Loving You 60. Priests and cannibals, prehistoric animals, everybody happy as the dead come home. Shriekback: Nemisis 61. Bueller.. Bueller... Sique Sique Sputnik: Love Missile F1-11 62. From a 20+ year old movie that’s still viewable today. Simple Minds: Don’t You Forget About Me 63. Before their time. The Smithereens: A Girl Like You 64. Tempted is a better song. Squeeze: Hourglass 65. The best band to see live. Steely Dan: Babylon Sister 66. Asshole. See here for why. Steve Perry: Oh Sherry 67. He owned the 80’s. Sting: Englishman in New York 68. Brought rap to the white kids. The Sugar Hill Gang: Rappers Delight 69. Could have been a girl singing for all I knew. Supertramp: It’s Raining Again 70. And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack. Taking Heads: And She Was 71. Thinking the world would blow up at any second... Tears For Fears: Everybody Wants To Rule The World 72. Motor City Mad Man. Ted Nugent: Wango Tango 73. Great song… And I loved the girl in this video. She has the best smile. Terence Trent D’Arby: Wishing Well 74. I would have preferred Rain In The Summertime, but this will do. The Alarm: The Stand 75. Ric married a model? There’s hope for me yet. The Cars: Drive 76. Late night driving music. The Church: Under The Milky Way 77. Mass appeal punk. The Clash: London Calling 78. Sonic Temple, Electric, and Love… Three of the best CDs I ever bought. The Cult: Rain 79. They were Emo before Emo was a word. The Cure: Boys Don’t Cry 80. She touches herself. The Divinyls: Science Fiction 81. Life in a Northern Town was better, but this has the same snowy day appeal. The Dream Academy: Please, Please, Please 82. Ska for white people. The English Beat: Mirror In The Bathroom 83. Very underrated band. Bad video. The Fixx: Red Skies 84. I’m happy to say I never bought the tape.. The Flying Lizards: Money 85. Yes, I had this. But they had something. The Go-Go’s: Head Over Heels 86. A shove it up your ass song. The Godfathers: Birth School Work Death 87. Darker than Tears for Fears. Same line: The world is going to hell. The Killing Joke: Love Like Blood 88. Always liked this song. The Korgis: Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime 89. Martha Davis had a voice perfect for smoke filled rooms. The Motels: Total Control 90. Goth the way it was meant to be, dark, dirty, and evil. The Sisters Of Mercy: This Corrosion 91. Psychedelic new wave. The Stone Roses: Fools Gold 92. Crap pop, but a catchy hook. The Vapors: Turning Japanese 93. Aimee Mann with the rat-tail. She’s still putting out some good stuff as a solo artist. Til Tuesday: Voices Carry 94. The worst song ever written. Trio: Da Da Da 95. Coming up on 20 years for this one and it still sounds great. He wasn’t “The Fly” then. U2: With Or Without You 96. I’d give money to Africa just to get Cyndi Lauper out of this song. USA for Africa: We Are The World 97. I bet the Secret Service was all over them when this video came out. Violent Femmes: Blister in the Sun 98. Tawny Kitaen before she was a drug fiend. Whitesnake: Is This Love 99. Alison Moyet’s big voice and even bigger pant size. Yaz, or Yazoo: Don’t Go 100. One more hair band. Somebody is squeezing this guy’s ‘nads pretty hard. Zebra: Tell Me What You Want The site these vids are from is here. They have several hundred more, but these are the ones I remember watching. Call it a lame top 100 of my youth, if you will. The site may be down on some of the vid links, but they come back up. Now I'm off to find my black socks and sandals, and yell at kids to stay off my lawn.