With exactly one hundred and fifty-five posts on this blog I suspect you’ve learned by now that the term “mainstream” is not exactly where I hang my hat. Mainstream is where the majority exists, one in which I recognized at an early age to stay away from. The Grammy Awards last night is a clear indication of what mainstream considers the best and brightest of musical talents the globe has to offer and I found it amusing last night as Adele celebrated a half dozen wins. It was only then did I finally learn she was the creator of the song “Someone Like You”. Not too long ago, when I had only one radio station here in the office I was forced to listen to the top forty hits again and again … no Skynyrd, no Zeppelin, no ZZ Top, no Roger Daltry and clearly no Aerosmith. I looked over at Logan last night and said “Oh, at least now I know who sings that song” … the very reason the girls purchased the IPOD at Christmas so I can now listen to what I consider “my-stream”. Bruce opened the show last night with his new patriotic anthem “We Take Care of our Own” with a very large horn section replacing the “Master of Disaster”, “The Big Man”; Clarence Clemons on saxophone last night and after that four minute piece was completed, immediately followed by a commercial break, I knew that was as close to understanding what the public enjoys for music as I’ll get this year. Should I have recorded the remainder of the program to see if Tom Waits and his wonderful release of poetry on his first album in seven years; “Bad As Me” would be recognized? With fifty years avoiding Main Street I knew for sure songs like “Raised Right Men” and “Last Leaf” were still parked along Heart Attack and Vine. I am actually pleased with the results of last night’s awards after learning what a cool hand this young lady truly is. The brief interviews with this twenty-something Adele displayed to me she’s as grounded as a sailor on a three day pass.
Where is my Main Street?
I’ll be sitting at the Marin Civic Center in a few months, in fact, during the weekend of our twenty-fourth wedding anniversary, and I’ll be sitting with the President of the Board of Directors for “To Celebrate Life” a Breast Cancer Foundation who has invited my bride to walk the stage as a model and from that vantage point it will be then I realize this is where Main Street really exists. Where the awards, the smiles, the recognition and the joy of surviving Breast Cancer are the winners in this network I have come to recognize as “mainstream”. Don’t worry, I won’t have my IPOD with me that night … the music of my wife’s heartbeat as she walks the stage will be all the bass I need to lift me out of my seat for one very long standing ovation because my bride is truly “Someone Like You”.
Peace,
Papa
