Ancient Truth | Modern Sound

I am an old guy, getting older by the day, and feeling it.  Never more so than when I am travelling like the last few days.  “Travelling Man” was the “B side” of a 7 inch vinyl extended version of Free’s “All Right Now” that I owned when I was a teenager.  It was important then to know these details and own the picture version of the sleeve which, of course, I did.  For some reason known only to my deepest psyche I hum that tune when I walk through every airport, railway station, or car rental place.

Today I travelled from Atyrau, Kazakhstan, to Moscow, Russia.  I have much to be thankful for.  I said a prayer this morning, knowing I would be travelling on Trans Aero Airlines, that I would not spend the 2.5 hours silently praying that the Russian airplane would hold it together for one last trip.  When the bus took me out of the check in area and drove me to the plane my prayers were answered better than I could have expected.  There was a Boeing 737 waiting to take me to Moscow.  Believe me, a Boeing 737 is a winged chariot fit for a god compared to some of the planes I get to fly in.  I rested easy. 

Arriving in Moscow I noticed once again how the Russians exist in a musical time warp.  Keith Emerson was smiling on billboards announcing his concert.  Emerson is the “E” in ELP, i.e., Emerson, Lake and Palmer, who were a 70s electronic rock band who seemed old and boring to me as a teenager.   But, they were a big favorite of a stoner friend of mine who played loudly “Tarkus” whenever we hung out at his house.  What that friend does now I don’t know but I am pretty sure ELP did not help prepare his mind for the challenges of the 21st century.  That said, Keith Emerson is playing to hoards in the Russian capital.  I cannot explain this.  Bizarrely, Queen (the 80s band not the regent of the United Kingdom) is also in town with Paul Rogers singing in the place of the now dead Freddy Mercury.  I say bizarre because, back in the day, Paul Rogers sang with Free so it is his words I have been humming in my head all these years.  If I wasn’t a Christian I might call that karma.  But, instead, I understand that it is all about supply and demand.  There are just not that many old fogeys around that can hit Freddy’s high notes.

I prayed a second time for deliverance today and I wait for an answer.  I don’t often get sick but perhaps the plane journey was not completely incident free.  I seem to have a “stomach flu” which is traveller talk for an illness whose symptoms cannot be uttered and are best left only to the imagination.  Needless to say, deliverance is what I need.

Tomorrow I have a few business meetings here in Moscow but today I am confined to my room in the Holiday Inn Lesnaya.  Yup, we pull out all the stops when it comes to hotel luxury in our company.  I will listen to my iPod where my 25 most played songs confirm my vintage and my unsuppressed desire to be cool and up to date.  In that list is my current candidate for the “The Best Pop Song Ever” award, “Love is the Drug” by Roxy Music.  I heard that song when I was a teenager and have never forgot when and where - but this is a secret I will keep with me forever or until Karen asks me.  At the other end of my life’s musical time tunnel are two songs that are also about love.  This time however love has clearly gone bad for Amy Winehouse who sings, “Love is a Losing Game”.  This song is lyrical and tragic and beautiful all at the same time.  I see a theme developing because the other song in my favorites list is “Warwick Avenue” by Duffy.  She sings of her breakup at a London tube station, Warwick Avenue.  Run, do not walk, to buy her CD.  It evokes memories of Motown and the 60’s, and she (like Amy Winehouse) can really sing.

My wife assures me that only guys know the words to songs.  Women, on the other hand, are too busy getting on with life to worry about Duffy’s romance gone bad or Amy’s budding death wish.  I don’t agree, it cant be just guys listening to great songs and actually hearing them?