I was talking with some old high school acquaintances today--using the chat feature on Facebook. It blows my mind (and not in a good way) to realize how many of them listen to exactly the same music they did when we were 16. I mean, I still listen to a lot of that stuff too, don't get me wrong. But they've never branched out into other things.

I stopped listening to most of the stuff I listened to at 16 for years and years and listened all sorts of other stuff. For example, when I was in the Navy, I went through this period where I only listened to music from the 50s. This was like a two-year period. I don't mean just doo-wop or just rockabilly but everything from the 50s including blues, jazz, R&B. I bought Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, Big Joe Turner, Bill Haley, Fats, Eckstine, Al Hibbler, Chuck Berry, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Burnette, Roy Brown and listened to them until I knew every song by heart. Then someone gave this really nice Elvis anthology that I played to death. By the time I started listening to contemporary stuff again, I was a 50s aficionado. There is little from the 50s I haven't heard including obscure stuff like Professor Longhair ("No Hair Down There").

I went through a bluegrass and western swing period. That was when I couldn't get enough Bob Wills, Spade Cooley, Ralph Stanley or Bill Munroe. From there, I decided to explore the roots and started listening to the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Eck Robertson, Frank Jenkins and all these cowboy artists like Harry McClintock and Dick Devall. Again, I became a connoisseur of old country and hillbilly including Johnny, Merle Travis, the Delmore Bros and the great Ernest Tubb.

Then it was blues--new and old. Charlie Patton, Skip James, Arthur Crudup, Son House, Howlin' Wolf (every single song), Muddy, Leroy Carr, BB, Blind Lemon, Memphis Minnie, Blind Blake and I just LOVED John Lee Hooker. Again, I listened to this stuff incessantly--everyday.

Then it was onto jazz--new and old: Jelly Roll, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Kid Ory, Louis, King Oliver, Duke, Count, Miles, Coltrane, Bennie, Glenn Miller, Herbie, Mingus, Harry "the Hipster" Gibson, Modern Jazz Quartet, Ornette Coleman, Frank, Jimmy Lunceford, old stuff from the 20s, you name it.

Then it was ragtime, classical, music from India, Iran, China, Africa, etc. I had a buddy that was Columbian and he lent a bunch of Columbian stuff that I copied and that got me heavily into Brazilian music.

I have recordings of all this stuff. And yet I run into these old acquaintances and they listen to the same stuff they've always listened to and have never listened to much of anything else. I can't even imagine never having moved onto other things and developing new tastes and exploring new musical territories. Sorry but I don't feel like listening to Bad Company and BTO. Nothing against them, but I've moved onto other things. And Pink Floyd is rumored to have recorded more than "Dark Side of the Moon." Listening to Rick Derringer singing "Teenage Love Affair" was fun when I was a teenager. And I'd would far rather listen to Captain Beefheart than anything by Kiss.

It just depresses me. There's a huge universe of music out there and we're ignoring it. We have this little comfort zone and nothing new is allowed to penetrate it. The mental stagnation is staggering to think about. How could anyone miss that much music and not care? Damned bloody depressing, it is.