Old Guy Music

There I was, hurling my yellow sports car down the runway, trying to evade the police cruisers and helicopter, which were both trying to shoot out my tires, and driving underneath a taxiing jet for protection, when a song came on the radio, and it strangely seemed to nicely soundtrack my adventure. It was quite intriguing.

Later that day (maybe a year ago), when I stopped playing Grand Theft Auto IV, I skimmed the game's booklet and found the song in the Fusion FM station playlist: The Edge by David McCallum. (The excellent Rockstar Games soundtracks have introduced me to lots of great music.) My first thought was that the tune must have been the theme to a late 60s kung fu movie, but further research told me that McCallum is better known as Robert Vaughn's partner in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. but had a minor career in music, and was produced by David Axelrod. The song's chord changes and driving melody interested me, and I ended up buying the song, my first iTunes purchase ever.

While in Portland last week I snagged a collection of David Axelrod tunes. Listening to their syrupy strings, closely mic'd drums, and strongly plucked bass lines, I realized: this is old guy music. Twenty years ago I'd have been turned dead off to this.

But it gets worse. Looking back in recent years, I've picked up quite a bit of stuff that would have made me gag as a lad. A greatest hits collection from Chicago. (To be fair, I only ripped the earlier ones.) The Girl from Ipanema. Barry White. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Neil Diamond. Sure, I still bathe weekly in the ultramodern sounds of Radiohead and Massive Attack, and worship at the altars of Trevor Horn and every album Peter Saville designed a cover for. But I'm slowly coming around to classic tunes from those formerly frightening places.