HOW ROD STEWART DEPRESSED ME.

Last night, Conan O'Brien had Rod Stewart as an interview guest.

"Rod the Mod" himself as a guest wasn't all that exciting as I've never been a huge fan with the possible exception of the song I had a brief infatuation with in the 5th grade, "Maggie May".

It was something he said.

In the midst of telling a story, Stewart said to Conan, and I'm paraphrasing, something about not knowing if O'Brien's audience was old enough to remember a group he was in, The Faces.....

Conan was visibly shocked as was I. At least I think I was. Seems I did not have a camera available to photograph myself at the moment.

Now the Faces were a touch ahead of my time, but if you listened to any sort of radio at the time of late grade school years and my early teens, their songs were in no way in short supply.

As a matter of fact while serving my 2 year sentence in Waco, Texas, KRZI played "I'm Missing You" at least once a day.

Rod Stewart's statement reminded me of the stories that my Mom would tell, not so much the tales, but the phrase they were predicated with; "Years ago....." This made her seem older than she really was.
Rod Stewart made himself seem old in this way, in turn suddenly bringing me face to face with awareness of my advancing age.

It made me kinda sad.

I can easily remember Stewart in the days of "Young Turks" and "Infatuation", flopping around on stage in Spandex treating his mic stand like the sword of Excalibur, spouting lyrics of both romance and misogyny.

Now, he's doing standards with a big jazz band. Not that that's a bad thing, but methinks he's getting a little ahead of himself perhaps?

Other rockers of his era are still jamming it up. The question is "Do they look good doing it?". I don't know. The Stones, not so much. The Who still sound, if not look, sharp as hell.

Maybe Rod is more observant than some of us may think...
Maybe he's just keenly aware of his limitations than the rest of us. Only he would know, but it still makes me sad nonetheless. There's nothing more melancholy than the changing of an era.

I'm not ready to move on.....yet.