Not As Good As I Remember It

Subject: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 06:05 PM

Ever been disappointed when you revisit something you really loved in the past, only to find out that it's not as good as you remember it? I just bought a CD re-issue of two old albums I had in the days of vinyl. They are early albums of Bob Gibson. Some of the songs I remember loving so much: Tell Old Bill, Abilene, Lost Jimmie Whalen and I Cone For To Sing sound as great as I remember them. But, some of the other tracks sound very dated and aren't ones I'm likely to listen to again.

Of course, it's not just music.

I remember buying a bottle of Squirt (an old soda pop brand when I was a kid in the Midwest.) It wasn't produced for many years, but Coca Cola or Pepsi bought the brand name and started producing it again. When I took that first swig, expecting a tart, grapefruit bite, it just tasted like a generic version of Seven Up or one a them other Uncolas. In that case, I think that my memory is still accurate. They just aren't making Squirt, anymore. They're just making something with that brand name. Okey Dokey chesse covered popcorn... now there's another story. I used to love it as a kid, and hadn't seen it for many years. When I saw a bag and bought it, darned if it didn't taste as good as I remember it.

There are a lot of reasons why some things aren't as good as we remember them. Sometimes, they may be just as good, but our tastes have changed. I would hope that in the last 50 years of my life that my tastes would have changed. If not, that's pretty pathetic.

This thread is for all of us who have eagerly re-visited a treasured remembrance of the past, only to wonder.. "Why did I ever like Thaaaaat?"

Your turn..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 06:16 PM

Jerry, I suspect that they never were as good as I remember them, whether they are songs or Squirt.

That said, well, I got the Gibson & Camp's "Gate of Horn" on CD a few months back and it's just as good as I remembered it. I'd open a bottle of Squirt, but I rarely drank it back then and I drink mostly Diet Pepsi now.

I wonder how my old Theodore Bikel stuff would sound to me now?

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Leadfingers
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 06:33 PM

Rowntrees Walnut Whips USED to be really tasty - Now they're just insipid - And Wagon Wheels used to be at least edible !!

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Peace
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 06:35 PM

Food. Most of it.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Big Mick
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 06:36 PM

So much of the music is that way for me. I loved the times I lived in. It seemed like every genre from baroque (Left Banke) to folk influenced (too many to name, but Buffalo Springfield was my fav) to blazing rock to Indian to classical (Remember the instrumentation of groups like It's a Beautiful Day) to big band (BS&T, Chicago). When I revisit much of this music, it is just boring. But the stuff that I remember as being the best, still is. It has stood the test of time. I guess that is the way of it.

Now ..... let's get down to what happened to my body.

Mick

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 06:44 PM

I dunno, Mick. What happened to your body?

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 06:49 PM

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 06:52 PM

Actually, I still like Squirt. In fact I just bought a bottle this afternoon. Although I'll admit that it's not what it was.
as for things that aren't what they were. I just stumbled acroos a bunch of old cassette tapes that I haven't listened to in at least twenty years. Some of them have songs which I've been performing for that long (these are the tapes from which I learned them). When I first heard them i was blown away. Now, listening to them again after so long, I've realized that A) i sing at least as well now as those artists did then, B) ditto for my songwriting, and C) I now play guitar better than most of them. While I still enjoy the recordings and they will always have a soft spot in my heart (head?), I am no longer overwhelmed by them and not no longer aspire to be like them. It is a very strange place in which to find one's self.

Stephen Lee

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: GUEST,ranz S.
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 06:56 PM

Forty-odd years ago I lstened to "Wait A Minim" (South African/English satirical review) and was overwhelmed by it. Over the years I would sing to myself bits and pieces that I remembered. Last year I received a copy of the album, and found that my memories were quite accurate, but the songs sounded somehow thinner. My memory seemed to have endowed them with some kind of bigger orchestration than they actually had. Or maybe just that in memory they were more mythic than anything real could possibly be. I still loved the album; it was just somehow a little less than it had been. I had the samw experience with the Clancy Brothers' "The Boys Won't Leave The Girls Alone".

On the other hand...

When I was young I had occasion to hike the Eagle Creek Trail near Bonneville Dam in Oregon. I remembered it as incredibly lush and beautiful, with waterfalls too many to name and thick, soft vegetation everywhere under the big trees. After a 40-year hiatus I went back to it about three years ago, and it was even more beautiful than I remembered.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Steve-o
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 07:07 PM

My guess is that Big Mick is referring to something along the lines of the wonderful Shel Silverstein song "I Just Don't Look Good Naked Anymore". That certainly is what happened to my body. I really agree with Big Mick regarding music- the stuff that's old that was really great is still really great. When I want the best in Bluegrass I go back to my Kentucky Colonels records. When I want the best in singer-songwriter music I go back to my Paul Siebel records. When I need a fix of old-timey songs I get out the New Lost City Ramblers, etc., etc. But some of the stuff that was really "tied to an era" IS pretty boring today- you had to be there living through the times to "get" what it had to offer. There's always exceptions, of course. On the non-music front, there used to be a candy bar called U-No that was the dreamiest chocolate taste in the world- it just ain't the same today.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Deckman
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 07:12 PM

Interesting subject Jerry,

I loved the line: "Nostaglia isn't what it used to be!" Several times over the years I've re-visited my childhood home, that my Father built. It gets smaller every visit ... I wonder how that happens.

And the recently, I ran into one of my teenager heart throbs. OH BOY! WHAT ON EARTH WAS I THINKING BACK THEN?

CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Big Mick
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 07:15 PM

Exfrigginactly, Steve-O. A couple of days ago I could wrassle alligators one handed, lift weights with the other, and smooth talk a pretty colleen, without breaking a sweat. Looked good in tight jeans, too. Nowadays the jeans are always tight, but not by choice, and I break a sweat watching soccer on TV. Shit.

Mick

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 08:18 PM

Nostalgia is a thing of the past.

DT

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 08:30 PM

I've noticed a related phenomenon.

As my musical tastes have matured I have revisited artists that I once dismissed and found them to be incredible.

I first noticed this when I was amazed to discover how much better the Carter Family had gotten in the years following their deaths.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Deckman
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 08:36 PM

To quote a line the late Dave Spence used: "I'm not as good as I once was ... but I'm good once as I ever was!" CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Deckman
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 08:38 PM

And .... "I'm soooo old that it takes me all night to do what I used to do all night!". Bob(looking for his coat and sneaking out the back door ... again)!

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 08:55 PM

Yea...sex.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 09:19 PM

On t'other hand, I commend to y'all a CD : Rounder 1500, "A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings". Recorded some 60-70 years ago, the stuff on there will blow your socks off, if you have any feel whatsoever for American folk music.

And if you don't believe me, ask Sandy Paton.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 09:23 PM

The first folk song I ever heard (as opposed to hearing my great-great aunt or grandmother sing -- those, you know, were just old songs) was the Clancy's "Brennan On The Moor." Blew me away! Better than the first kiss from a non-relative girl, because I remember where it happened.

It's still a damned good piece of musicianship. But I think that the edge has been worn off for a lot of reasons. First, I've heard it many times; I can even sing it. Secondly, while the instrumental work was fresh and new to my ears then, I've heard lots since then and some was better. And thirdly, I'm not the kid I was then -- I kinda lost my wide-eyed innocence and boyish grin carrying a machine gun around the hills of Korea (if you find them, I'd like them back).

I used to drink Squirt, but I never really cared for it. I also used to drink Double Cola, Bubble-Up, Yoohoo, Nesbit Orange, and other, less well known, soft drinks.

And flavored Cokes are NOT the same! Vanilla, cherry, and chocolate cokes taste flat today. (Try a squeeze of fresh lemon in a Coke poured over ice though.)

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: number 6
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 09:24 PM

Anything by the Beatles .... they sound so mediocre to me these days.

sIx

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Peace
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 09:25 PM

Pepsi all the way.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: number 6
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 09:54 PM

Pepsi ??

I hope this doesn't revive the Dr. Pepper thread !!

sIx

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: GUEST,boab
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 10:08 PM

Leadfingers==="Wagonwheels"---Aye, and twice the size!!

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 03:25 AM

My mind takes a walkabout at night and keep me from sleeping. So...that old Beatles song keeps running through my head: I'm fixing a hole where the rain comes in/to stop my mind from wandering/where it will go...etc I still enjoy the Beatles. There's nothing like Hank Williams when I am in a certain mood!

The clothing styles of the 70's are not at all what I remember. The new retro-70's look looks like shit to me!!

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: kendall
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 06:42 AM

I thought Sheb Wooley wrote I Just Dont Look Good Naked Anymore???

I used to think the Kingston Trio were the cat's pajamas. Now I realize they were just different.
When I was a boy I hated pineapple and potato chips; now I like them

Not long ago I rented one of my favorite movies from 1950, the original Moulin Rouge and I was very disappointed in it.

On the other hand, High Noon is still one of the best westerns ever made. It was replaced by THE best, Lonesome Dove.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Janie
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 08:16 AM

Old boyfriends.

Janie

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: kendall
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 08:41 AM

When I was a boy, one of my favorite characters was The Phantom. The ghost who walks. Well, they just made it into a movie, and man, what a come down!

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Janie
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 09:15 AM

Ah, but Mick, you can sure still sweet talk the colleens;^)

Janie

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Mooh
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 09:18 AM

Reminds me of Art's "the older I get the better I was" concept.

Went through a grand period of jazz fusion fanhood about 25 years ago. When I hear that stuff now it kinda leaves me cold, though Jean-Luc Ponty is okay yet. I used to be thrilled by the guitar work but now I understand that it, and I, were infants. Give me Oscar Peterson any day.

However, Led Zeppelin in always better the next time (except Stepstool To Heaven).

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 09:23 AM

Of course, there is also something special about something "new." After all, there's only one "first time." That's probably why some of the earliest folk music I heard (Jimmie Rodgers of Honeycomb fame) was exciting because I hadn't heard a lot of the songs. Same for Rusty Draper earlier in the 50's. When I go back to listen to them, I don't enjoy them because I've heard so much more folk music by better, more creative people that now the music sounds bland.

Not all "new" things get old, though. I can listen to just about anything by Chuck Berry and get the same rush I got when I first heard his music. It's all personal, though. There are others who have probably tired of Chuck Barry but still get a thrill every time they hear Barry Manilow, or Barry White.

The music that has stayed fresh for me as a generality, seems to be the simpler things, like folk, small combo jazz, old gospel music, soul music and rhythm and blues groups. That's just my personal taste, but at least it seems to be consistent.

I just put together a 5 CD set of rhythm and blues groups, starting with the roots of rhythm and Blues in the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers, and ending up with a song from Paul Simon's Capeman, which was steeped in rhythm and blues group sounds. Most of that music was very simple and unsophisticated but it is still fresh to my ears.

And as an aside, last week my Gospel Quartet did a program of old black gospel at a Jewish Home For The Aged and our tenor wasn't able to come. I invited a new friend I've met to sing tenor with us and we had a terrific time. He stepped right in and found his harmonies immediately. He's been singing in quartets since high school, and when Bill Kenny, the lead singer of the Ink Spots went out on his own, my friend Jimmy Foster replaced him and was the lead singer with that group for twenty years.

What a time we had!

Jerry

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 10:10 AM

Dad's Cookies. They used to be huge, spicy and crisp; now they're small, bland and hard.

Music -- much of that singer-songwriter stuff I loved so much in my 20s now sounds like self-indulgent whining. Songs about how hard the road is (so stop travelling and get a job) and how tough it is when the true love finds another -- I guess the problem is that I've grown out of it. Those songs are about problems that seem insurmountable to the young, and routine to people over 50.

I read somewhere that the human tongue and olfactory system changes over the years, losing its orientation to sweet things and turning to savoury, salty and smoky things. At 10, I loved Swiss Cream Soda and Dad's cookies; today I can't stand either, but single-malt scotch is quite wonderful. Likewise, boyish love songs bore me but gospel songs and fiddle tunes are fascinating.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: SINSULL
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 10:26 AM

I searched for years for a VHS copy of Johanna, one of Donald Sutherland's first movies. It was bitingly funny and eye opening in 1969. Now it's just sophomoric claptrap. I hate growing up.

Fluffernutter sandwiches are just plain disgusting but I think that's because the marshmallow whip is full of bland tasting corn syrup.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: SINSULL
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 10:26 AM

But John Hartford's banjo just gets better as I get older.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: John Hardly
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 10:47 AM

Maybe it's that any fresh experience has an excitement of its own. Hey, an old pair of shoes has a comfort of their own that new can't match. So there's things about new that "redux" can't match, and there's something about patina that can't be faked.

BUT

What I'd rather suggest:

Try the old LPs and the Squirt again. Try 'em on a different day or at a different time of day. Try the Squirt again when you're really thirsty (having worked up a sweat out in the yard -- or, for Big Mick, after flirting with a colleen). Try the old LP late in the evening when the lights are low and the room is so quite you can hear the shadows move.

...then come back and tell me if those old things aren't as great as ever.

If I had tried Squirt, or heard those LPs for the first time under different circumstances, they might not have impressed me in the first place (to have remembered them this long and this fondly). Assume the same of the times and moods of the present.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 11:21 AM

Hey John:

You know, the Bob Gibson songs I remember well on the two albums I just bought as a re-issue still sound fine. I don't have any memory of the songs that I didn't enjoy now. Maybe I didn't enjoy them all that much back then, or I would have remembered them. I also wouldn't want to relegate Bob Gibson to the same company as Jimmie Rodgers or Rusty Draper. I had the great pleasure of booking Bob Gibson late in his career, and still thoroughly enjoyed him.

As for Squirt, when I first tasted it back in the late 40's, it actually had a little bit of grapefruit pulp in it. It was supposed to actually be good for you, so I'm amazed that as a kid I would even drink it. I suppose it's when you first tasted something, as formulas and production changes over the years. Take Dr. Pepper for example. There was a Dr. Pepper bottling plant in my home town, just a few blocks from where I lived. I never liked it as a kid... thought it tasted like it had prune juice in it. That may just have been my kid's taste buds, but when I tried it again when I was in my 30's, I really liked it. It tasted very "clean" and brisk. I don't know whether the formula changed over the years (which is very possible) or my taste changed. Probably a little of each.

One thing hasn't changed. Even as a little kid, in the summer if I was really hot, I'd come in and drink cold water... not Kool-aid or pop. That still works for me. I rarely drink pop anymore (soda for you non-Midwesterners) because of the sugar. The diet sodas avoid that problem but there's usually a chemical aftertaste.

Besides, nothing has changed about water.

Still the same production company.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 11:28 AM

I don't think that it's just a question of youth versus age. I think our nervous systems change over the years.

I'm thinking about how when I was a kid, I wanted my music very pure and in tune. I was unusual - I liked classical music, as played by fine symphony orchestras. The sound of a fiddle or a pipe organ irritated me. Those instruments moved too much around any given note.

In my thirties, that began to change, and now I enjoy these instruments. I even enjoy the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann," though that is as far as I'm willing to go with those guys.

Still can't stand the saxophone, though.

Not enjoying old music can also be a question of greater sophistication. I heard an old Pat Boone cut recently, and it was so obvious that they had tried to make a weak voice seem stronger than it was. Sounded like he was singing into a huge, empty barrel. For some reason I never noticed this at age 13!
----------
Too bad about Squirt. Squirt was the only soft drink I liked.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 12:22 PM

When I was in 8th grade, I used to go to a dance at the YWCA. I was too unsure of myself to ask a girl to dance, but I still had a good time. I remember a time when my buddy and I were drinking bottles of Squirt (It always tasted better in bottles) and I happened to notice that their slogan on the side of the bottle was "In the Public Eye."
When I pointed it out to my friend mid-swig, he laughed at the juxtaposition of Squirt in the public eye so hard that Squirt came out his nose.

I never forgot that slogan..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 12:38 PM

When I left for the Army for the second time I was 23 and the house I grew up in was plenty big. When I came home at the age of 24 it had shrunk and was very small -- I was the same size, so the house must have shrunk. Even the town had gotten smaller.

Anyone know why that might have happened?

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: number 6
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 01:00 PM

Sinsull ... Im in total aggreement with you regarding John Hartford's banjo .... it certainly does sound better with age.
sIx

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Steve-o
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 02:33 PM

Well I bet Kendall is right- "I Just Don't Look Good Naked Anymore" probably was written by Sheb Wooley and not Shel Silverstein. Now we've really hit on what is "not as good as I remember it"- my memory.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 02:55 PM

Happens. With my Scorpion stuff especially.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 03:23 PM

Rapaire, that happened to me, too, and I didn't even take Her Majesty's all-expenses-paid tour of [your theatre of war here]; a winter in recruit school was quite enough. Another odd effect was how brilliantly coloured everything was in the civvy world, where many buildings were not white clapboard, and people wore clothing that was not rifle green or olive drab. Some of them even went about without hats!

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Mr Fox
Date: 15 Sep 05 - 07:26 AM

Fairport's 'Liege and Lief' sounds terribly twee these days. It certainly hasn't aged as well as Steeleye's 'Please to See the King' or either Mr Fox album (Biased? Moi?)

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: frogprince
Date: 15 Sep 05 - 01:28 PM

A few years ago something brought an old thought to the fore; so far as I can remember, the first "favorite song" I ever had was "The Strawberry Roan", which Gene Autry was singing with some regularity on his radio program at the time. For a good two years after the reminder, I gleaned through all sources of his recordings, but it was nowhere to be found. I finally found a three-disk set of clips from his old shows, with the song listed. Turned out it's just the first couple of verses, and his version is sorta processed-by-Gerber compared to the best; not a heartbreaker, but a little let-down. A lot of the album, not suprisingly, is made up of songs written to be forgotten; but there are gems scattered throughout. I was taken completely off guard by his beautiful, flowing rendition of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot".

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: GUEST,CHC
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 05:02 PM

The Squirt formula certainly did change since the 60s, when I first drank it. It used to contain grapefruit pulp, and it was definitely a grapefruit/orange flavored drink. Now there is no pulp, the carbonation is sharper (like 7up) and the flavor is less grapefruity, more "generic" citrus (again leaning toward 7up). I don't *like* it as well now, for two reasons -- I prefer grapefruit flavors, and if I wanted to drink 7up I would buy that instead -- I regret the passing of niche products (whether sodas or recording artists) to mass-consumer tastes.

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 05:43 PM

There's a special technique I'v found for really appreciating the music of one's messpent youth. So far it only owrks with music - and I can't really see it happening with soft drinks (pop or soda for those across the water!)

Have a middling bad day - too bad and you'll just go to bed early.

Have your partner be away.

Start drinking just a little bit too early.

Watch a late night documentary about anything related to the era in question - it's best if the documentary can have just a couple of snippets of the music in question.

Stumble around and find the album in question and play it. Slightly too loudly.

I can guarantee that you will love it at least as much as you remember.

My most recent was Uriah Heep. Great band.

Share and enjoy.

QTWF

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: kendall
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 06:07 PM

Uriah Heep was a band?

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 06:10 PM

Judging from the above postings, I would put it all down to the stuff you are putting into your bodies; Squirt!, diet Pepsi, Dr Pepper. No wonder your jeans are always tight and it takes you all night to do what you used to do all night. Treat your body with some respect and stick to alcohol.

Hoot

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 06:29 PM

An early on poster in this thread asked about Theo Bikel.   In truth I still appreciate his works---sound as fresh as ever. To me. Also, saw him in a performance of a drama a few years back---brilliant piece of work.

The thing that is---as the thread started---not as good as I remember it---the music in the 1950s. I cannot believe I liked the sacharine pap that passed as sentiment.   All except one person---Hank Williams. Talk about the sound of a generation---I would nominate him for that era. Who knows what more he could have done.

Jerry Rasmussen: see there is a slogan that can be remembered because of that great play on the words.
   Does anyone remember the 7 UP slogan?    I never did understand it.
                            Ford?            hint: Not mine
                            Pepsi?          in the 40s and 50s
                            Dr. Pepper?    a real annoying miniconcert
                           


Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: catspaw49
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 06:54 PM

Ya' know Jerry, this subject has been bothering me for several years now. Like most of us I have gone through several lifetimes in the one I have lived. As my life moved along some of the lifetimes overlapped but at one point I had to make a choice. I don't believe we make bad choices. In retrospect the choice may have been a complete and total disaster if we are honest about it. But at the time we make it we don't say. "Well I'm gonna' do this because it's fuckin' idiotic." No we do things because they are the best we can decide at the time. So we look back with that knowledge that hindsight may be 20-20 but we did our best at the time.

Now I was never troubled by this and I never felt the need to justify decisions. Nor did I ever talk much about what might have been or if I really had a chance to do B instead of A. It just never occurred to me. THis may not sound like the same as your bottle of Squirt, but trust me, there is something similar in the feeling. I guess it is trying to decide if you were realistic then or are you being realistic now.....or did they change the formula of the pop?

A few years ago an old friend showed up at my home. I was gone but he sat and talked to Karen whom he had never met for hours. As teens and young men we had been best friends and on a similar mission......to be jazz musicains, he on trombone and myself as a reeds player. At one point I made a choice different than his. So he spends a few hours telling Karen how I wasted my life!

I guess on the one hand it is kind of nice to know that my memories aren't overblown bullshit and on the other I wanted to kick the shit out of him (after a few big hugs). The worst part of all this is that I have had to revisit those times and actually wonder if I DID make a good decision when I know damn well I did. But it forces you to look at every choice including the last one that I'm now living when before I was just fat, dumb, and happy, knowing I always made good decisions!(:<))

Spaw

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 07:46 PM

about stuff like Squirt and other great memories:
   Names like that can be sold, and new owners can put almost anything they wish in the bottle. It used to be a common thought that you needed to make something GOOD in order to get a decent share of the market....now the usual wisdom is that all you need to do is market it cleverly. Make it...and the ad...the right color, get a pretty girl..(or a cute dog) to appear near it, and you don't NEED to put real grapefruit or real sugar in it any longer. (yes, yes, I know there are exceptions...*grin*..I can get GOOD beer in the USA now!)

I think there are similar processes happening with music also....there is a common idea that you just need a gimmick, a formula, and an ad campaign and you can sell almost anything...oh, yeah, and it needs to be loud....

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 08:22 PM

Marketing is all about 'image' now and the 'content' is irrelevant to economicists...

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 08:36 PM

Off my rocker,
Down on the farm,
Wheelchairs they was,
Locked arm in arm.

Old Folks' boogie,
and boogie we will,
when the mind makes a promise
that the body can't fill.
             - "Old Folks' Boogie," Little Feat

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: Amos
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 09:11 PM

I have also thought about this fairly often; I can find the thread of gold I followed in every choice I made, but sometimes it was just Micca, I mean mica, glittering through a fog. But the thing is, that's the way the schoolhouse works -- ya choose your lessons and then you get to learn them! :D Funny way to run a penal colony, but it seems to keep the residents occupied.

A

Subject: RE: Not As Good As I Remember It
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 10:14 PM

Good thread Jerry!!

Frogprince,
When I was a kid, my mother took me to the Oriental Theater in Chicago's downtown "Loop" to see the film The Strawberry Roan starring the man himself, Gene Autry. It was, I believe, Gene's first color film! Before that they were all filmed in black and white. --- The song "Strawberry Roan" was sung in that film.

But the best part of it was that Gene Autry was there IN PERSON !! So was his horse "Champion". It was a live stage show to go with the film. Of course, Champ was THE Strawberry Roan in the film.

I've told this story here at Mudcat before, and I tell it on a new CD Dennis Cook is putting together for me in Maryland. (It is to be called Chicago Town And Points West.) Me not being able to pick   now, we took older tapes of my shows, mostly from the 1970s I think --- back when I still could. But I digress...

There is more to this story, but that'll have to wait. I told it on that CD to introduce my version of a song Gene sang that day --"Riding Down The Canyon." Smiley Burnett and Gene wrote that in the back seat of a car on the way to a gig near Chicago when both of those guys were singing with the National Barn Dance in that city.

Art Thieme