Where Has All the Music Gone?

It started with an advertisement for one of those televised singing competitions: Cockatoo didn't know one song by anyone on the show's panel of judges. Yikes! How did that happen? Is it an inevitable part of growing older that one loses all track of what music "the young 'uns" are listening to nowadays? Mind you, we've have heard of all of the judges, just haven't heard them.

Then came the Grammys last Sunday night. The word was out that folk music was making a big comeback. Cockatoo went into the show only knowing - and liking - guitar-hero Jack White's Blunderbuss. Sadly, we left with only a "Well, that was kind of nice" feeling about The Lumineers, even as we're kind of wondering if that $3.99 download was a good investment. And shame on The Onion for saying Mumford and Sons won in the category of "Best Vest." (By "shame" we mean, of course, it made us laugh.)

We wanted to fall desperately in love with a new band, a new voice, to feel that delicious thrill again. But we can only see U2 for the first time once, and ours came on the Live-Aid broadcast where they performed Bad, and, really, what can replicate that feeling? As Bruce Springsteen said of U2 when he inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they're the last group for which he knows each person's name. So true, so true.

We grew up listening to KGFJ, the soul music station in Los Angeles. The first record we ever bought was the single - vinyl, with a red Atlantic label - of Respect by Aretha Franklin. The second one, though, didn't create an obvious pattern: Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones.

But actually there is a link. Cockatoo loved the soul of Aretha Franklin and the guitar-rich energy of the Stones. With every record we bought during our teens and young adulthood we held out the hope that it would somehow, somehow entwine these two strands of heart and electricity. Bono's one line in Do They Know it's Christmas stood out for Cockatoo, and we bought our first VCR (yep) the day before the aforementioned Live-Aid concert.

Did it affect me? Let's put it to the Bruce test: Bono, Larry, Edge, and Adam. For extra credit: Paul David Hewson, Larry Mullen, Jr., Dave Evans, and Adam Clayton. For super crazy credit: May 10th, Oct. 31st....

Fellow U2-disciples will note that the title of this blog comes from a "Breathe" lyric on the "No Line on the Horizon" album. Rattle and Hum-era fans will remember another good U2 lyric, which addresses my current dilemma: You glorify the past when the future dries up.

We solemnly vow to not become fossilized, to keep an ear out for new, contemporary singer-songwriters, and not let my iPod become a museum.

Even as Cockatoo anxiously awaits a new U2 record.