Last Thursday night Sarah Palin and Joe Biden went at it. Earl and I had tickets to see Kenny Loggins in concert long before this debate was set, so we went our merry way for an evening of reminiscent music. We were disappointed.
I recall Kenny Loggins as this skinny guy with an amazing voice and an equally amazing way with lyrics. Whether he performed alone or with Jim Messina, the music was understandable and memorable. Who doesn’t recall “The House at Pooh Corner”? Or even “Footloose,” which was about as loud as the old Loggins got.
Thursday’s version bore no resemblance to the singer-songwriter I remember. When the curtain parted, he stood in the center of the stage surrounded by a flashy four piece band, throbbing neon lights, and a round disk over his head that looked like a petrie dish as amoeba-like designs wiggled in it. He sang with enthusiasm, no doubt about it, but his band was so loud you wouldn’t have caught a single word if you didn’t already know the lyrics by heart. Simple acoustic melodies became grist for metal mills.
I looked around the audience and noted that many young people were standing and bouncing in tune with the noise. Older people, like myself, were sitting and hardly moving. Yet, we were the first ones to connect with Loggins way back then, and it felt sad that the connection seemed lost.
By now, practically everyone from Joe Six-Pack to politicos and pundits has offered an opinion on the Biden-Palin debate. So I’ll move on to the other debate, the one I rarely see discussed. It is this: If aging rockers feel the desire for a comeback tour, should their shows remind the audience of how they once performed or should they ramp up their music for the times?
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