Turn That Racket Down

On the night that CBGB closed down, Bill and I sat up late listening to records - Blondie, The Ramones, The Talking Heads, Patti Smith, etc. At one point Bill's teen-aged daughter came down from her room, leaned over the banister and said, "Could you please turn that down? It's really loud." Bill and I looked at each other in surprise and giggled.

Kids these days don't like loud music. My kids complain all the time that I listen to music too loudly. Beach House was on the radio when I dropped Mary off today and I had the volume cranked up. As usual, she begged me to turn the music down before she got out of the van at school so that I wouldn't embarrass her with my loud music.

"Why do you listen to it so loud?" she asked.

"I want to be inside the song," I explained. "I want to feel it all around me like the song is holding me."

"You're weird, mom," she said.

I need a walker to shake as I yell, "You kids and your damn ear bud headphones!" Of course, they won't even hear me because they'll have those little headphones shoved in their ears. The headphones create a personal experience of music that doesn't have a physical component to it.

I like to think that someday my grandkids and I will horrify their parents with our loud rock and roll. "Tell me again about the wall of speakers and how Ministry got fined for being too loud at the Lollapalooza concert, Grandma."

Turn it up.