On a lighter note . . . . I was listening to The Jets last night with my daughter and my wife. Sometimes I get that 80s music craving thing--you know, that totally goofy concept about how life seemed so simple wow wow wow? As I graduated from high school in 1987, like it or not, the 80s formed me, and entertainment was a big part of the explanation part since adults, more often than not, were not. Sixteen Candles comes to mind. So does Top Gun. You get the idea. More below the tuft of curly orange hair . . . .
So I load up iTunes and find this really cool mix of The Jets and Atlantic Starr in one download (holy moly!) for something like $5.99. What a bargain considering a gallon of milk costs about the same. Click. Purchase. Listen with family.
Then my wife and I look at each other. Odd, right? "Do they sound too perfect to you?" she asks. It was as if the album were recorded in 2013, which is the year, granted, I bought it. And I realized: This thing has got to be so remixed and remastered and whatever else they do, that it doesn't sound or feel anything like it did in the 80s despite everything else being identical.
Which brings me to my daughter. Like a zoo animal only knows life in captivity, my daughter now only knows The Jets as if they were recorded yesterday. There is something very profound about that IMHO because it is a complete rewrite of history. I mean, these songs were totally new.
And I realized, we are all subject to the same brainwashing components of modern technology. If I want my daughter to know The Jets the way I do, I would have to transport her back to the 80s, which is impossible. I should have known that, right? I mean, I did transport The Jets to our kitchen with a magical click, so what was I thinking?
And to at least introduce her to the sound I loved (and craved last night), I would have to dig out the LP from the basement, buy a new diamond-tipped needle for my record player (remember when those broke?), which I would then have to dig out of mom's house 20 states away.
So I listened to The Perfect Jets instead of The Jets, and I went to bed clinging to my memories of the 80s. It's just dad's old people music, anyway (for real?). Buddhism is right: It is all an illusion. And the more technological we become, the more that rings true.