monk37
06-30-2010, 08:13 PM
I dunno if anyone else watches the Penn & Teller b******t show
but they did an episode on people who are consumed to a degree by nostalgia - normally this takes the form of "the good old days" - and often, it's the 1950's and a decade the folks looking back to never lived during.
it's that wistful longing for the simpler days of Dad earns the money and Mom cleans the house wearing pearls, Leave it To beaver nonsense that only existed on TV
but, it got me to thinking - is our continued devotion to Elvis all these years later on par, or is it something different?
when I think about the 1950's, it's the way Elvis shook it up and changed everything, it's not longing for some Valium driven wholesomeness, it's the excitement and the sex, the turmoil
but I don't want to be in that era, or turn now into that era - I think we need to be building on Elvis' legacy - increase civil rights, eliminate more diseases.
I don't think that keeping Elvis music playing and Elvis in our hearts as backwards nostalgia
and perhaps part of that is that Elvis himself was never a nostalgia act - he changed ever decade, performed current music and played his oldies with new arrangements or as medleys.
Elvis was forward momentum, and I think that we haven't caught up to him yet.
but they did an episode on people who are consumed to a degree by nostalgia - normally this takes the form of "the good old days" - and often, it's the 1950's and a decade the folks looking back to never lived during.
it's that wistful longing for the simpler days of Dad earns the money and Mom cleans the house wearing pearls, Leave it To beaver nonsense that only existed on TV
but, it got me to thinking - is our continued devotion to Elvis all these years later on par, or is it something different?
when I think about the 1950's, it's the way Elvis shook it up and changed everything, it's not longing for some Valium driven wholesomeness, it's the excitement and the sex, the turmoil
but I don't want to be in that era, or turn now into that era - I think we need to be building on Elvis' legacy - increase civil rights, eliminate more diseases.
I don't think that keeping Elvis music playing and Elvis in our hearts as backwards nostalgia
and perhaps part of that is that Elvis himself was never a nostalgia act - he changed ever decade, performed current music and played his oldies with new arrangements or as medleys.
Elvis was forward momentum, and I think that we haven't caught up to him yet.