But I Like It, Like It, Yes, I Do...

(Source)

It was 1963, I was 9 years old, going on 10. I was still in what we called elementary school (grammar school to some), the 4th grade to be exact. A major controversary surrounded our interactions on the playground...

Beatles or Rolling Stones?

JFK was still alive. Vietnam was on the horizon but unknown to we young Vermonters back in the '60s. World War II vets were everywhere, heck, they were mostly still in their late 30s, early '40s. For a white kid in New England, it was a great time to be alive. (Not that I knew anything about it at the time, but for some folks the late '50s, early '60s sucked. In my whitebread, non-diverse world, things were pretty damned good. No one told us about the other things going on in the world. Hell, going on in our own country. But that's off topic, moving right along...)

A year later, The Ed Sullivan Show happened. My Dad was convinced that it was the end of the world. Well, in some ways it was, the end of one world, the beginning of another. Better? In many ways yes, in some ways maybe no. But from that day forth, rock and roll was my music.

Yes, I like other forms of music. One day though, I made the mistake of telling this older lady at church, after being asked what type of music I liked, that "Oh, I like almost any kind of music." After which she began to hand me a contemporary gospel CD, which I began to decline when The Missus Herself, (being far more diplomatic than I) took and thanked her for. She knows my taste in music, she knows that contemporary gospel music is very far from what I like.

I mean, give me some Rock of Ages, A Mighty Fortress, and other such old-school hymns, especially with a pipe organ providing accompaniment, and I can listen to that without a whimper. (Favorite hymn? Glad you asked, I have two - Be Thou My Vision and Eternal Father Strong to Save. The latter is also known as The Navy Hymn depending on the lyrics.) But gospel? No, no, thank you, but no. Just no.

Bagpipe music, Cajun music, anything Irish, German and French military marches and the like all float my boat and can make the hair stand up on the back of my neck. (For the bagpipes I mean that quite literally.)

What I choose to listen to, most of the time, is rock and roll.

What can I say?

FWIW, in the fourth grade?

Beatles man, all the way.

After that? The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Kinks, and bands of that ilk were my favorites. And still are. (Yes, The Rolling Stones as well, I learned at a young age that I didn't have to pick just one, I could have it all.)

And yes, that concert post is coming, soon mes braves, soon.

Juvat mentioned these guys...

Listened to that song a lot post-high school, still do, still gives me chills...

Loves me some rock and roll.