Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

A Classic...or Just Old?

A college student I know slightly made the comment the other day that Rick Springfield's Jesse's Girl was part of what she called "oldies." Believe me, I'm old enough to know oldies, and that isn't one of them. Bill Haley played oldies: Elvis is part of the oldies set, but Rick Springfield is not. I probably wouldn't even classify his stuff as "classic rock." Betty's reasoning was probably sound, though, when she said, "Well, it's old to me." Smart @## kids these days.
Rolling Stone magazine listed the 500 top songs of all time last year, and I don't remember seeing Rick Springfield listed though I could be, and often am, wrong. What I do know is that Bob Dylan held the number one slot with "Like A Rolling Stone" (shameless plug!)with the Stones, John Lennon, Marvin Gaye, Aretha, Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Nirvana and Ray Charles rounding out the top ten. Heck, Bruce Springsteen barely made the top 25. The '60's had the most entries with 202 and the decade of the 70's had 144 tunes listed. Now THOSE were oldies...Rick Springfield, indeed! This leads me rather circuitously to what I think is worthy of the term "classic" and what might just be old.

'57 Thunderbird was classic...'56 Bel Air (which I owned) is just old.

The Catcher in the Rye is a classic...Little Women is dusty (even though Oprah might endorse it)

The Treasure of Sierra Madre (badges? We don't need no...) is classic
The Love Bug (either version) pales in comparison.

The Wright Brothers flight was a classic but the Spruce Goose was just BIG.

Buddy Holly was a classic and Dick Van Dyke's pal Buddy was forgettable. Buddy Lee falls in that category,too.

Gilligan's Island made a three-hour tour last for years but the Minnesota Vikings version didn't even last for the whole three hours even though there were a lot more Gingers and a lot fewer MaryAnns. Obviously, no one there could have played the Professor!

"Jane, you ignorant slut" remains an all-time classic line while "Me Tarzan, you Jane" should be left in the burrows.

The Bay of Pigs was a political blunder of classic proportions while FEMA is just sad.

Anyway, there's classic and there's old, mundane and insipid. Take your pick. As for me, Rick Springfield will NEVER be classic...just old.

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