While smearing Olay Total Effects on your face

I realise that I am slowly receding into the past with my music of choice. And yes, I also realise that any reader who was actually alive in the 60’s and 70’s (my mother included) would harrumph at me: “You weren’t there Jo; you have no idea what the time was like”. Well sue me for appreciating the somewhat distilled moments of other generations. Thanks to MY generation, I can Google, YouTube and iTunes the shit out of the Baby Boomers and choose whatever tickles my fancy. Furthermore, with Leonard Cohen’s recent tour hitting Brisbane, The Who having just left Australia and Simon and Garfunkel on their way; who could blame me for wanting to retreat into the past with Bob Dylan.

And while we’re in the 40-50 year old bracket, I decided to spin my iTunes to Dylan while applying anti-ageing cream to my face. Olay Total Effects, to fight the seven signs of ageing. I’m only 20, and have since realised that intense anti-ageing cream actually burns your face if you don’t need it. However, my logic seemed mentally sound at the time; the earlier I start with the creams, the longer I stay looking young. So yes, in hindsight, I was very wrong.

But I don’t think I am wrong in feeling I have the right to appreciate the artists of my parent’s generation. And I am not the only one. 10 albums under the Bob Dylan trademark have been released since 2000. The most recent, Together through Life, was released this year. 52 Bob Dylan albums have been released since his first self titled album debut in 1962. My particular playlist are the tracks from 1995’s MTV Unplugged, which includes All Along the Watchtower and The Times They Are A-Changin’.

I think there might be a market out there for Bob Dylan's music.

And really, this is not a dig at current popular music. I am just as happy to listen to anything on the radio, as long as it’s not shit. I do however find there is a definite magic about the music of the last 60’s and 70’s. This magic is helped by the images of Woodstock and the glorified stories of my parents singing songs of protest in marches, with the subtle insinuations that they were completely stoned at the time. They make it all seem a lot more important than any grasp we have on our own lives today.

In fact, I blame my parents for my love of nostalgia. Even though I never experienced flesh and blood moments pre1989, the music makes me all fuzzy inside and I have this intense urge to be apart of that time in history. Oh yeah, and I really like them as well.

See Mum, it’s your fault! But you can have your Olay back it was crap.

For Wine and Old Formal Dresses

I was born in the 80’s, 1989 to be specific. Which until recently was a ‘Thank god, I don’t have pictures of me wearing white overalls and a scrunchy at my 17th birthday- DAMN THE 80s!- moment. But wait, what’s this? 80s is retro now? Shit.

Lucky for me Cyndi Lauper and The Go Go's are closet favourites. My love for them comes in right alongside my love for Romy and Michell's Highschool Reunion. However these nostalgic I-wasn’t-born-yet-but-I-should-of-been classics are usually only cracked out after a few wines with friends, alluring us to my wardrobe and trying on all my old formal dresses. Oh please, like we’re the only ones. Only then, when the dress(s) are on and we are dancing in my room to Whip It, can I really achieve a Pretty in Pink moment and party like its 1986. Whip it good.

However, on my recent travels through, oh I don’t know, Chelmer, I came across a song. It was on album number four of Triple J’s Like a Version compilations. It was by Saosin. It was a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time. It rocked.

I’ve always been hesitant about covers. I usually find covers are just an artist's excuse to strip back a hit song of another artist. Somehow, they think their version will sound more deep and meaningful. And yes, sometimes that works. I’ve never appreciated Beyonce’s Crazy In Love more than I did when I heard The Magic Numbers’ rendition. Their haunting harmonies actually made Crazy in Love sound musical; instead of another bootylicious princess pop song.

Most covers, however, are not as effective. Artists, instead of moulding their musicianship to the song, mould the song to their own taste and the original gets lost altogether. A prime example of this is Angus and Julia Stone’s cover of Chumbawumba's Tubthumping. I did not think that such a distinctive (and ghastly, I might add) song could ever lose its identity. But it happened, with the Stone duo stripping it back so much that it sounded just like all their other songs, and nothing like the original. Who wants that??

Well, I do actually because I hate Tubthumping. But I love Time after Time. You just can’t deny that it is a good song. I’ll agree it’s been killed a bit. I blame singing teachers and their staple favourite songs for that. But Saosin manage to make the song sound current while retaining the melody. Saosin front man Cove Reber actually makes it sound sort of sexy, and less prom night with chiffon. An impressive feat for someone so boy-band I would usually cringe at the sight of them. Finally! The next generation of artists are matching the next generation of scrunchy wearers!

P.s. I promise I’ll never, ever say bootylicious again.