Who's Listening Anyway

I still find myself doing it. My right hand will shoot out to the volume knob or my thumb will start tapping the button on the steering wheel. It's an old habit and a silly one at that, but sometimes the silly ones are the hardest to break. I'm ashamed to admit I ever did it, but I bet I'm not the only one that turned down the music when you showed up at your friends or a car load black folks pulled next to you at the stop light.

What could be so terrible? Absolutely nothing, but whenever I listed to some of my favorite white groups from the Beatles and the Stones to Led Zeppelin and the Eagles, I automatically turned down the volume out of embarrassment. When you're raised listening to Rhythm and Blues, Stax-Atlantic and Motown it was difficult to admit that any other music was worth the listening.

It was especially difficult when your goal is to be seen as cool. Of course, I know better now because I was never cool no matter what I listened to or where I listed to it. I listened Eric Burdon, The Rolling Stones as well as the Lovin' Spoonful and Pink Floyd. During the 90's Don Henley wrote and played some songs that appealed directly to me like "The Hotel California," "Life in the Fast Lane," "Dirty Laundry," and more. Sometimes, I'd blast the songs so loud that you had to notice it when I pulled up with the last notes still painting the air.

I can truly say that it was silly, but group think sometimes makes you forget that you are an independent person with your own likes and dislikes. Of course, now I jam to anything that makes my foot pat. I laugh to myself when a carload of young folks pull up next to me jammin' their boxes with hip-hop blaring only to find that I have Don Henley blasting with "Life in the Fast Lane" drowning out their beats.

It's not a competition of styles. It is people playing the music they like and at an obscene volume. One of my favorite joys in life is to be shooting down the highway, top down and my favorite music attached to the accelerator. Moral: Like you're music for the music, not for what others will think. By the way, I like classical and country music.