Blast from the Past and Pegged Pants?

Each generation has their own music. The music they write is unquestionably a reflection of the time in which they lived. As each generation comes of age, the old songs they heard as children are the base for the lyrics they will write as adults.
Going back to the Roaring Twenties you will find decadent music such as the Charleston. The age of Bootleggers and Speak Easy life in a economy running on borrowed time. Also written was George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue. Contrasting life in the Twenties.
The Thirties were all about the Great Depression. The bills came due for excessive lifestyle of the Twenties. I have vivid memories of family gatherings with the Grandparents born in 1900.The conversation of the Dirty Thirties would always surface and the sacrifices shared. When the Twenties came up the conversation quickly changed with a new sparkle in the eye. Followed by a gasp of "Ah Yes, Those Were The Days". In the Dirty Thirties America listened to "Happy Days are here Again" Sunny Side of the Street and "Get Happy". The Twenties are important because of the generation born in Great Prosperity. These are the children who would write the music of the War Torn Forties. Glenn Miller and Moonlight Serenade, Brown Jug or In The Mood topped the charts. Somehow the music endures in the absents of the suffering that took place around the Globe. The era of the Big Bands had to die because of the huge expense, not the quality of the music.
The first Atomic Blast entered the US into the Atomic Age and born in the explosion was Rock and Roll. The crooners of the the forties Sinatra and Perry Como handed the torch to Elvis Presley and Pat Boone. To those people born in the twenties it was all down hill going forward. This is the time I remember most growing up in the 50's. The songs of the Fifties were Hound Dog, Johnny B Goode, Blue Suede Shoes and Jail House Rock. Bill Haley and the Comets enraged the older generation. Great Balls of Fire was a National disgrace. This is the recipe for the music of the Sixties. Born in 1950 I claim all music written from 1963 to 1983 as mine. For My Generation are the Boomer's. The Sixties were the most violent times in American history since the Civil War. We got through the Cuban Missile Crisis with Bob Dylan's "Blowin in The Wind" and Beach Boy's "Surfin USA". The Civil Rights revolution occurred at the same time Motown records was leading the top forty. The War in Vietnam launched Hippie protest songs, folk singers and Woodstock in New York.
To my Grandparents who are the Sons of Pioneers who fought the Civil War. It was yesterday in the time line between generations. Their parents and grandparents were those who settled the Great American West, fought the Indian Wars and Gettysburg. Ah, the stories they must have heard first hand from the generation who lived it real time. So I played cowboys and Indians in the backyard from accurate sources. John Wayne born in 1907 played out the history of the Old West as it was the news of the day. Wyatt Earp didn't die until 1929 after he wrote his legacy of the Shoot Out at The OK Corral. The end of Wyatt Earps life and the beginning of mine is a mere 21 years of separation. Seems like forever to me. The same way I suppose some people think of Lunar Landings or the Berlin Wall as long, long ago. The Steam Engine Locomotive that tied the East and West together are our history but, so is Pan American Airways, TWA and the Space Shuttle.
My Grandchildren sit and listen to me in blessed ignorance of the life lying ahead for them. The hardship, sacrifices and mistakes lived out will be tempered in the music they write. The love you take is equal to the love you make is still true today.
Peace Brother!!