STARTING OUT vs FINISHING THE SHOW

Starting out is so slow, so hard, that sometimes the only thing you feel like doing is quitting.

Whether it’s work, family, or friends, we get tired. Sooo tired.

But it wasn’t always like that.

Was it?

Before first class airfare, a luxury condo, and a shuttle to get back and forth to avoid to Coachella crowds there was Woodstock.

You’ve never heard of Woodstock? Ask your Grandma.

Ask anyone with gray hair about Woodstock.

You could ask me.

Q: What was Woodstock like?

Me: I wasn’t there since I was in eighth grade, but I’ve met and talked to people who’d been there. So it’s almost like I know.

Q: Really?

Me: Actually I have no idea, but I saw the movie.

You can go to a nasty rock and roll show in your finest, or get down and wallow with the other half-million fans like they did at Woodstock.

Music Fans Go Hard Starting Out

Take in a show.

It might be inside or out, the day or night.

Find a band and jump on their wagon.

What you won’t find today is a day of music headliners for six bucks.

Today you can buy a pint of Portland craft beer for the same price.

One might be an experience of a lifetime, the other’s a damn good beer.

However, Blitz and Olympia were local beers in 1969 and no one complained.

While you don’t see much of those brands, you still hear classic rock 92.3 KGON.

The music of Woodstock will never go away. Those bands punched a golden ticket of immortality.

They clarified the music industry for the next forty years.

By performing, recording, and filming under less than ideal conditions, rockers, artists, and fans staked their claim. Future generations trying to live up to those standards? It is futile.

But Prince playing the Super Bowl halftime snow in the rain was a good throwback.

The Sixties sound simple if you don’t dig too deep. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Peace and love.

Highlights and low lights fill books from the time and the time after, but there’s always more.

Classic rock and a warm coat drive for foster kids?

Screaming guitars and Salmon Spawning Volunteer Orientation?

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The enduring message asks you to be a better person. Be a better inhabitant of earth. Share the good parts and work on the rest.

One man from Woodstock spent the week camping there. He was 17, a recent high school graduate still too young for the Vietnam draft.

Q: “How was the food at Woodstock?”

A: “We didn’t see any food there. We brought our own. Water was the problem. Standing in line for water. Hours standing in line. You’ve seen the movie? I was sliding in the mud and thought I’d be in it. We walked around. So many people, some without clothes. It was incredible.”

“On the last night we didn’t make it back to our tent. We slept on the ground. When we woke up, Jimi Hendrix was on stage playing the national anthem. You’ve heard that? One of my favorite musicians is Richie Havens. I’ve seen him more than anyone. But there was Jimi and The Star Spangled Banner. I was seventeen.”

Starting Out AND Finishing The Show

My Woodstock veteran finished the show just as he was starting out his adult life.

He’s a baby boomer, a Portland baby boomer on the downside of a long, good life.

If that sounds familiar, welcome to the club.

And like the rest of us in good mental health who work to ignore time creeping up with reminders of mortality, he shared his memories.

What kind of memories will millennials take into their upcoming middle age and later?

Foo Fighters?

This link points to the top ten musicians for millennials, but I’m adding a different #1.

I recently interviewed a woman who went to Seattle for Taylor Swift’s recent shows.

Swift may not be her all-time favorite, but since I’ve changed my mind on favorites a few times, she might be further on down the road.

I was intrigued by the process of getting to the show.

First there was a lottery, then a queue, then a few hundred for a ticket, five hundred for a room, besides food and transportation.

It wasn’t Woodstock, but it felt like a generational moment for music fans.

Market research firm QuestionPro estimated last month that her tour could help add $5 billion to the worldwide economy. 

Follow The Money

Sub dollars for seconds and it’s mind boggling.

Taylor Swift is set to eclipse Elton John’s farewell tour as most lucrative in history.

But there’s more.

Swift is 33 years old.

95% of the fan in Seattle were women.

I predict that she will increase her effort in helping those in need as she ages.

Instead of drowning in the adulation and fan worship, this is a woman other women seem to understand.

And she understands them.

Who else is there with this kind of positive currency?

Where some acts take time to catch on when they’re starting out and work the road until they’re too old to travel well, Taylor Swift looks to be full of vitality and will for the long run.

And she’s just starting out on her next era?