A Baby Boomer Looks (and Winces Somewhat Less) at Tattoos

Now that's a nice tattoo!

I'm  evolving.

When last this Baby Boomer looked at tattoos over two years ago,  I rendered forth a rather curmudgeonly view.  I looked, I winced,  and I looked away. 

But I also wrote that each generation establishes its own cool, and if we learned anything from the 60's, it's that we ought to respect each other's differences.  So, Gen X, Gen Y, and millennials everywhere, today I respect you and embrace you and your tattoos!  

Somewhat.  Kind of.

Most Boomers  take no shine to tattoos, and there is a special reason for this that most non-Boomers cannot appreciate. In the late 60's and early 70's, the world was generally divided into freaks (i.e hippies and pseudo-hippies) and greasers (motorcycle heads, uneducated bigots, and singer Wayne Newton).  There were also "preps," but they're irrelevant to this discussion; for more  on the subject see the movie "Caddy Shack" and/or the latest L.L. Bean catalog.  

Freaks protested the Vietnam War, read pretentious books like Steppenwolf, and smoked the very best dope their parents' monthly expense checks could afford. Greasers protested protesting the Vietnam War,  got no expense check and didn't know the meaning of "pretentious," and were frequently found engaging in a favored past time of yelling at freaks "why don't you get a haircut, you (expletive for a gay person)?!" 

The greasers were also the ones with all the tattoos, often in the form of a skull and crossbones, a crudely rendered Jesus, and/or  lots and lots of hearts and arrows with chicks' names etched through the center of them.

These were our youthful Baby Boomer times and our heroes reflected those times.  How many tattoos do you think the Beatles, Mick Jagger, the Who, Jimi Hendrix,  Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Jerry Garcia had collectively? Well, math isn't exactly my strong suit but .... let's see, carry the one, add the two, multiply by  15 ....  ah yes, the answer is zero!  And all of those seminal rock stars who survive to this day continue to be ink free.

That is why to many Boomers the concept that tattoos are now considered hip seems to make about as much sense as if big fat pimply guys who never shower and pick their noses in public were to suddenly be considered hip!

But  I have looked at tattoos once again and I have evolved.  And the fact is I now find some tattoos kind of pretty.  As a Boomer, I would never get one myself,  but one or two or even three strategically placed tattoos on a younger person are quite okay in my newly revised and updated book. 

For example,  I kind of like this one:

And this one is very nice indeed ....

And this one I love! (who wouldn't?)

But on the other hand,
if you think these are cool 
(and yes, that's Adam Levine) ...  

Don't forget that in far fewer years than you think, 

those will change into 

THESE!!!

And  if you think THESE are cool, 

Don't expect me to ever share the best dope my parent's expense check will afford with you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

I've (Still) Got A Rock 'N Roll Heart

All you need is them!

I've got a rock 'n roll heart, even still  at age 61.

It may not beat quite as loudly as it used to,  but for most Baby Boomers the music never dies and rock 'n roll never forgets.  The manner in which we enjoy the music, though, does seem to go through a change or two.

Once we thought Rock 'n Roll Would Save the World,  but I don't remember that ever happening.  There is still war, crime, poverty, injustice, Martha Stewart, reality TV, deification of the Second Amendment, and a television program called "The Chew." The only thing missing from the world since those golden olden days of yore is my hair.

Similarly Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n Roll is no longer the Mantra of Our Generation.  Most of us are lucky anymore to be pulling down one of the three.

And most Boomers no longer follow the comings and goings of rock stars as they once did. There was a time I could readily tell you that Stevie Winwood went from the Spencer Davis Group to Traffic to Blind Faith and on to a solo career that exploded with Arc of a Diver and that Neil Young traveled from Buffalo Springfield to Crazy Horse and then to the epic Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young and is still doing God-knows-what today.  

Today,  God-knows-what Neil Young is doing today. 

The following represents the wisest commentary on the rock 'n roll this Boomer still loves that I can impart at this stage of my rather advanced game.

Rock 'on, Geezers!

1)  Bob Dylan ought to pick one religion and stick to it.

2)  Old dudes love Steely Dan.  ( ... except for Peg and a few other played out ditties.)

3)  Joe Jackson's song Is She Really Going Out With Him?  is an instant classic with a catchy melody and spot on lyrics expressing the male angst that almost every guy has felt at one time or another:

   "Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street ....  look over there - where? - here comes Jeannie with her new boy friend,  they say that looks don't count for much, and so there goes your proof .... Is she really going out with him?  Is she really gonna take him home tonight?"

And yet everyone jumps up and down over Steppin' Out, a pleasant enough little tune  that sounds like the theme song to a 1970's cop show. There's something going wrong around here!

4)  Mick Jagger must never die.  I never believed Frank Sinatra would die,  and yet he did.  Don't ever die, Mick!  Do it for Frank.

5)  No disco song ever written is as good to dance to as Sugar Magnolia.  

6)  I still play air guitar.  I wouldn't mind if my name were Randy California.   In a way, I'm kind of glad we'll never have to come face to face with a 70 year old Jim Morrison.  WXPN in Philadelphia has got to stop playing You Get What You Give by The New Radicals,  one of the more overrated "rock" songs in recent memory,  cheap pop dressed up as rock with simplistic pseudo revolutionary lyrics.  I can never decide if it's cool to like Todd Rundgren or a guilty pleasure.  I could go on like this forever ..... 

7) The Beatles are the single most important musical group to appear in the second half of the twentieth century.  They changed the music we listen to, they way we think, the way we look, the way we act, and the culture of the world.   Even though today I hate Paul McCartney, I would still die for him.

8)  Some classic rock,  no matter how inherently great,  is as played out as Cher's career.  If you're still going "Oh, Man!," whenever Stairway to Heaven,  Layla (original version), or The Waiting is the Hardest Part comes on the radio,  you've got serious  "It's time to move on, dude!"  issues.

9)                                                               Only love can make it rain,                 

     The way the beach is kissed by the sea.

     Only love can make it rain, 

     Like the sweat of lovers laying in the fields.

    Love Reign o'er me.

    Love, Reign o'er me,

    Reign, o'er me,  Reign, o'er me  ....

OMG!  Kiss Me, You Fool!!!  

(Does it to me every time.)

10)  If it's similarly deep and salient thoughts you want about rock music post year 2000, you'll have to talk to my son Brandon.  Or, better yet, talk to your own kid.

Our rock 'n roll hearts beat on.  And best of all,  are rocking on in a new generation as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~