Last week, my boys saw Drake and 21 Savage in concert at the Wells Fargo Center. A week earlier, my 80-year-old mother was at a Johnny Mathis concert, while my husband and I were watching a cover band play yacht rock in a (outdoor) bar at the Jersey Shore.
If this doesn’t exemplify our life stages through music, I don’t know what does.
Music was a big part of my childhood (not that we were musical, by any stretch). Motown and DooWop (mostly) were always playing in the background, and I can vividly picture my dad tapping the steering wheel with the underside of his college ring to the rhythm of the car radio, which was always turned up high.
The first concert I remember going to was in the mid ’70s. I was about 4 or 5 years old. I don’t remember much, other than sitting on my dad’s shoulders outside in a park somewhere (Brooklyn?) and singing “Get down, boogie, oogie, oogie …” I think the group was Peaches and Herb.
Because my memory sucks but I like my stories to be factually accurate, I called my dad to confirm.
I was close.
He said I was about 4 or 5 and I did sit on his shoulders throughout the show, but it was at Belmont Park — a racetrack, not a park in Brooklyn — and the opening act was A Taste of Honey (who did, in fact sing the song, “Boogie, Oogie, Oogie”). He also told me that we (and by ‘we’ I mean my parents) were there for the headliner — Frankie Valli, of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons fame.
In case you’re unfamiliar with either of these performers, here are a few YouTube clips for your listening pleasure:
According to my dad, they (my parents) didn’t see a lot of “big shows” when they were in their teens, twenties, and thirties. Mostly smaller groups in bars and such. But once my sister and I were grown, they regularly attended smaller revival-type shows of the same oldies groups they enjoyed in their younger days. Even now, my mom goes to at least one big show a year with a girlfriend. Case in point: Johnny Mathis (who, by the way, is so old that they couldn’t use the rotating stage, for fear of him falling off).
I wouldn’t characterize myself as a big concert-goer. Listening to cover bands at a local bar was more my thing in my 20s and 30s. But I have seen a fair share of big shows over the years (some in big stadiums, some in smaller, more intimate venues).
Like my taste in music, the shows run the gamut of genres — from pop to rock to reggae, and everything in between. I’ve seen Janet Jackson, Madonna, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Sting, Pat Benatar, Ziggy Marley, Pearl Jam, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. (Those last two part of Lalapalooza 1992, the only music festival I’ve ever attended — my first and last, for a reason). I even saw Jimmy Buffett live (it was a work freebie) and Smokey Robinson (I gifted my mom tickets one year with my sister).
Like I said, my taste in music is varied. I guess now I have to add yacht rock to that list — but late ’80s and ’90s hip hop will always be my number one.
— LJDT
