Reminisce-inary Times.

I've been very nostalgic, lately.

Tis the season.

It started stupidly enough by watching the "Greatest One Hit Wonders" a week or so ago. Not only is this a huge waste of time, but it has zero content. Like sitting down and eating a huge bag of candy. The only bigger waste of time would've been to not Tivo it, and have to sit through the commercials.

But that apparently started something, which kicked into high gear yesterday.

I went on a bit of a channel-changing frenzy. I avoided most of the "Best of....." lists, whether it was 10, 40, or 100 best rock or video's or country songs or....

Hah!

But then, I ran into the Kidnapping of Patty Heart; caught a section where it talks about how unique it was that the SLA used---gasp -- audio tapes to make their demands. Spool tapes, which I'll bet some of you younger folk have never seen.

I warned you, this is all nostalgia.

Ran across Clockwork Orange, which I would've watched all the way through if it hadn't already been one third over, and as usual I was caught by how futuristic the whole movie seemed. Sure, he had cassette tapes in his bedroom, but they are Futuristic looking cassette tapes!

I did watch the Bio of the Mary Tyler Moore show all the way through. This was like eating a bag of donuts. Again, almost completely content free. But...it really brought back the memories. I realized halfway through that -- while I say my Dad didn't watch any sitcoms -- that he did watch MTM.

Finally, I ran into the 4 hours (?) of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Ann. Concert at Madison Square Garden.

How cow!

I'd heard about this in the background noise of my pop-culture browsings, but hadn't really realized what it was. I think I read some twitters about the odd pairings of artists, but Wow.

This was a Woodstock like line-up. Even the oldies acts were great. I have a theory that the old rock stars treat the old blues stars with such reverence because they see these old guys still playing great music and these rock stars don't want to join PBS's series of "oldies" concerts just yet.

I missed the first half hour or so, but started with Crosby, Stills and Nash, who still sound great, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor.

Moved on to Paul Simon, and then Garfunkel, and got all emotional listening to Sounds of Silence and thinking of my sister. (I drank a bit of wine last night, too...) They played Here Comes the Sun "For you, George!" Little Anthony and the Imperials.

I got a kick out of the Metallica section, who didn't hold back any punches, and had Lou Reed, Ozzie Osbourne, and Ray Davies (Kinks) join them. It seemed out of place at first, but hell, it's supposed to be Rock and Roll, man, and they won me over and I think they won over the crowd.

Stevie Wonder and Sting and and Smokey Robinson and B.B. King. A little ragged. I think Stevie forget some of the lyrics.

I started to realize that this had to be a melding of two different nights. Each night with a soft rock section, a rhythm and blues section, each night with a hard rock section, and each night finishing with the super-group section.

Aretha Franklin, with an assist from Annie Lennox.

We're getting toward Midnight, and on comes U2. Ah, hah. I think. They've built to the biggest act of all. We get 'Because the Night', with Springsteen, Bono, and Patti Smith.

I'd just watched the POV special on Patti Smith earlier in the week, and Linda, who didn't know a thing about her had heard an interview on NPR and was interested. (Linda doesn't know who half the acts are -- just not her thing....) had watched most of it with me.

It was cool to see Patti Smith holding her own against Bono and Springsteen.

These guys all have huge ego's -- er, stage presence....and none of them were cutting any of the others any slack.

So, I think, Springsteen and Bono, that has to be the Ultimate. On comes Mick Jagger, and Fergie, and they have a rollicking finish.

Still an hour to go?

Must have had another big finish on the second night.

A change of pace.

On comes Jeff Beck, who plays with Buddy Guy, and a tribute to Jimmy Hendricks, and then a very cool guitar solo of the Beatles. Almost the best part of the night. Jeff Beck just really has it, and it reminded me that none of these acts had lost their edge, no matter the age.

Finally, for the big finish it was Springsteen again, with Darlene Love, and John Fogerty singing Pretty Woman, and Sam Moore, with the last songs being New York State of Mind, with Billy Joel, and...my favorite song of all time, Born to Run.

Couldn't argue with any of it. These are my guys -- the guys I buy, the guys I listen to. I felt incredibly nostalgic, and I'm ready to break out all my old records and tapes and/or buy CD's.

Yeah, yeah, I should be Ipoding.

I have CD players. But they're Futuristic looking CD players!