Episode 15 of Season 6 of The Sopranos features a scene where Tony and Paulie are out for dinner with some friends. After Paulie’s endless stories about the old days, Tony becomes irritated and declares that “’remember when’ is the lowest form of conversation.” He then gets up and leaves in a low-level huff.
It’s understandable that some people find certain types of reminiscing annoying. They believe in living in the moment and looking forward to the future, not rehashing the past. Nostalgia was, in fact, a medical condition that described a particular kind of melancholy fused with sentimentality.
Things got quite melancholic and nostalgic for me on Friday night when I attended a reunion of dozens of people who worked in Winnipeg radio over the decades. These were mentors, peers and followers from a time when AM radio still played music and FM had time to play 20-minute album tracks. There was even a special session entitled “War Stories” where it was all “remember when.” Much time was devoted to those who are no longer with us.
It’s so easy to get lost in thoughts about “the good old days” when life was simpler and so many possibilities lay ahead. The older we become, the more we have conversations that include the phrase “remember when.”
Music fans are not immune to this, of course, especially those getting on in years, increasing every time a rock star passes away. In the last 10 days, we lost funk/rock master Sly Stone, Beach Boy Brian Wilson and industrial dance pioneer Douglas McCarthy of Nitzer Ebb.
“Remember when Hot Fun in the Summertime blared out of AM radios during the hottest days of the year?”
“Remember when you heard Good Vibrations for the first time and your concept of music changed?”
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“Remember when we all danced to Join in the Chant in dark clubs where everyone was wearing the blackest clothes they could afford?”
I confess to saying all those things over the past week. Those conversations dovetailed into other related topics. It’s been a “remember when” kind of time.
Rock stars are supposed to be immortal. After all, the things they do seem superhuman, so why should they be subject to the frailties of human existence? How many millions (billions?) of people have lived their entire lives knowing that Brian Wilson walked the earth? It’s constantly said that the world has gone downhill since David Bowie and Prince died in 2016.
But death, they say, is undefeated. It will come for all of us one day. In the not-too-distant future, there will be no more living Beatles. We’ll never get to see a proper version of Fleetwood Mac onstage ever again. Bob Dylan will transition to become an ex-Dylan. Jimmy Page will no longer pick up a guitar. And the Rolling Stones will stop touring, Keith and Mick will shuffle off. It’s sobering stuff, this slow-moving mass extinction event.
Music fans will have no choice but to deal with the loss of so many of their heroes. All we’ll be left with is our records and CDs, band T-shirts and “remember when” memories.
There will be new “remember when” opportunities. ABBA’s Voyage avatar continues to gross hundreds of millions at its purpose-built theatre in London. Kiss is set to join the singularity with a Las Vegas simulation. Virtual reality tech will continue to improve, too, allowing the estates of artists who have died (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Buddy Holly, Ronnie James Dio, Roy Orbison et al.) to continue with productions featuring holograms fronting a live band.
There are other reasons this music will live on far longer than that of previous generations. Normally, an artist’s popularity will peak, wane, and be forgotten as they’re supplanted by the next generation of artists. Today, streaming is keeping older music alive far beyond its expected best-before date. Unlike their forebearers, today’s music fans are extremely ecumenical in their tastes when it comes to era and genre. Is it a good song? Does it make them feel something? Then they’ll listen.
And then there’s this: Over the past decade, companies with names like Primary Wave, Sony Music Entertainment and Concord Music have been buying up the publishing rights to the greatest music ever made. Billions of dollars have been spent acquiring these catalogues, resulting in some incredible payouts (I’ve been keeping track of them here).
With the way copyright works, these companies have up to a hundred years (or longer!) to recoup their investments. How? By making sure these songs never slip from the public’s consciousness and continue to generate revenue. Old songs that would have once been pushed aside by something new are now going to be heard for many decades to come. That means the original recordings, covers, samples, interpolations, and more. They will outlive their creators and the fans who remember when they were first released.
Here’s the brutal truth. If you have an opportunity to see a favourite older artist one more time, do it. You’ll participate in a mass “remember when” experience, plus you’ll be able to say you saw them that last time.
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