BoomersBeingFools is for images, videos, and stories of baby boomers and elders behaving in an obnoxious, entitled, or otherwise foolish manner. Paired with r/BoomersBeingBros
Yesterday, I got into an Uber and my driver was an old boomer dude. He asked what my plans were, and I told him I was going to see a band I love play. Immediately he says, "I feel so bad for your generation. Y'all will never know what good music is."
Of course, he goes on to say how the Eagles were the greatest band to ever exist. "Do you even know who Don Henley is?" Yeah dude.
Decided to kinda get snarky and I said, "Honestly, I bet you I know more music from your generation than you do." He laughed and said sure, try.
Y'all I named so many groups he had never even heard of, he didn't even believe me about some of them, and by the time I was home I could tell he was humbled a bit.
It really peeves me when one, old folk act like we could never know who these bands are because we were born after their prime. Do you know who Beethoven is? Exactly. Second, "never know what good music is" JFC the ignorance is astounding, and insulting.
Anyways, that's my lil snippet. Btw, the band I was seeing has been playing for 34 years. Not even new lol.
ETA: holy moly was not expecting this much traction! I loved reading a lot of y'all's stories, some made me laugh like hell.
I'm sure it got lost in the comments, but for those who asked, I saw Primus that night. And it was fucking sick.
Remember to report submissions that violate the rules! Harassment and encouraging violence are not allowed.
Enjoying the subreddit? Consider joining our discord server: https://discord.gg/v8z8jNwJs6
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
These old fucks don't get that their entire best and worst is easily listenable. We don't have to go find some hard to get album. All of it is accessible in seconds.
they've been playing the same shit on radio stations for DECADES. The internet also exists. The dissonance is wild.
I'm in my early 60s, I started listening to stuff like Elvis Costello, The Ramones and The Clash before I was even out of HS. I swear to God I would rather be punched in the head for an hour straight than be subjected to the 250 songs that get played day in and day out on Classic Rock Radio.
It just makes me depressed and irritated, I did everything I could do avoid that boring, sludgy crap 40-plus years ago.
I swear, most “classic rock” stations seem to have only one Rolling Stones album. And God forbid they play any T.Rex or Mott the Hoople.
I'm in Texas, I'm a guitar player and play in a country band plus some sideman gigs.
Years ago I started listening to KKYX, an AM station from San Antonio. It's a blowtorch of a signal that you can get as far north as Fort Worth and as far south as Corpus or the Valley, a real old fashioned AM station with the farm reports and outdoor show at noon and then they cut the power at sunset.
I also work from home and I'd put on KKYX and listen to it at barely-audible volume until I realized one day that not only is it the same songs every day, they're played in the same automated sequence every day. Look, it's 1:37, time for Ronnie Milsap!
I had to quit listening to it after that.
Never playing T.Rex blows my mind. "Bang a Gong" is straight up boomer drug love, and that's one of the less listenable ones.
They have some real bangers out there.
Former radio guy here. The Classic Rock format usually has about 150 to 170 songs in rotation. Satellite radio or Pandora does better at building a deeper playlist for any genre or era.
Classic Rock station in Los Angeles has been playing dave Matthews band. I almost choked when I heard it.
It should be illegal to play gimme shelter while driving though. That song amps me up so much I always end up aggressively speeding.
People don't understand why I don't wanna listen to classic rock or cover the songs. I try to tell them "classic rock is great. There are so many amazing songs, but listen; I have heard the hits you want me to play a billion times for the last 50 years. I'm over it." Music is so accessible these days. There are so many interesting bands to go discover right now, or hear me out - if you really wanna keep jamming to stuff from the 60, 70s, etc; dig a little deeper then the radio hits. Go explore some 70s funk deep cuts or something. That Lynyrd Skynyrd song will still be here when you get back.
I knew a guy who DJ'd for WBIZ 95.5 in Sumter SC. He'd put on the album version of Freebird when he needed to grab a smoke and use the bathroom. 9 minutes of free time.
At 61 years old, I grew up on all that stuff, but I’ve heard enough of it. That was all great back in the day, but 40+ years of ‘classic rock’ radio has ruined it.
That's what an MP3 player loaded with what YOU like and an AUX cord are for. I have an old iPod Touch left over from working for Apple, it got the job done.
Husband and I drove from Ohio to Oklahoma for my niece's wedding a few years back. I spent a week carefully curating our Great Roadtrip Playlist, and it was SO worth it.
Especially good idea for when you're outside of cell network coverage and Spotify or Pandora aren't gonna work
Class of 82 here (this sub needs Generation Jones flair).
I had no access to new music other than local radio back then. The way I escaped was into older jazz and classical. I loved Glenn Miller (except for Moonlight Serenade, which put me to sleep), and so I was a horn player, not guitar.
MTV was such a revelation in 1981
In the Midwest, it was really difficult to find anything but corporate rock and disco because of gate-keeping by the local radio stations. I remember seeing magazines with The Sex Pistols on the cover, but no station would touch their music.
The Clash? Too left-wing.
The Specials? Can't have Blacks and Whites in the same group.
DEVO? Elvis Costello? Adam and the Ants? Too weird.
I can listen to Classic Rock Radio for about one day a month, More than that drives me batty.
If I can’t have my own music while driving for whatever reason, I’d rather have silence than anything the radio has to offer
Podcasts
I’m 61 and totally agree with your statement!
Journey and Boston are both enough to just piss me off
I've recently been taking advantage of my library to expand my musical horizons. I've been cross referencing Rolling Stone's Top 500 albums of all time. I have a lot of them, actually, but then I'll come across something I've never heard of that they just rave about, so I'll borrow it and be blown away.
For example:
28
D’Angelo, ‘Voodoo’
EMI, 2000
In the five years following the release of his 1995 debut, Brown Sugar, D’Angelo grew disillusioned with the genre that had just anointed him a rising star. “I don’t consider myself an R&B artist,” the then-26-year-old told Jet. “R&B is pop, that’s the new word for R&B.” In his quest to create something new, he looked to both the masters of soul (Marvin, Curtis, Stevie) and contemporary innovators (Lauryn, Erykah). The end result was Voodoo, a moving, inventive masterpiece that stands as the ultimate achievement of the neo-soul era. Crafted with producer and drummer Questlove, who called the LP a “vicarious fantasy,” Voodoo places Pink Floyd-style cosmic jams (“Playa Playa”) next to Prince-inspired erotica (“Untitled [How Does It Feel]”). “I’m just looking at Voodoo as just the beginning,” D’Angelo said at the time. “It took a while, but I’m on my way now.”
I’m working through the 500 albums list, too, and Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” knocked my socks off.
"It's in the trees, it's coming" and the barking she does are just amazing. Love me some KB.
DAngelo is so good. His 2015 album was brilliant too.
He really is fantastic! I ended up finding him through a video game of all things. But I'm so glad I did!
Antique stores that have little boxes of vinyl records kicking around always have the same set of albums… 😅
Went to an antique mall a few months back. Every vendor with vinyl had a different shirtless Ted Nugent cover on display. It was weird.
My FIL is OBSESSED with CDs. He hunts and hunts for rare releases and goes nuts when he finds them and they arrive in the mail and I’m sitting there listening to him go on about how rare this disc is while holding a phone that can play all the songs on that disc right this second.
Then he has to get it on the computer and transferred over to his sound system and will spend hours doing this with stacks of cds. Whereas I come over and instantly connect to his system and play anything that pops in my head.
But he flat refuses to own a phone that can access the internet.
Finding it is the fun part.
Signed, A millennial with far too many vinyl records who listens to soundboards from my favorite band seamlessly streamed from my phone to Bluetooth headphones 99% of the time.
Going retro is nice. I whole ass write letters to my friends. Use a fountain pen to write them in a hand older than this nation eg. I even have fancy stamps and use wax seals.
I also use vacuum tube headphone amps for my sound system.
I do the same. I wanted to add some old Isley Brothers records to my collection, and I absolutely could have just bought them on eBay, but that's just boring. Antique stores, thrift stores, estate sales- those feel like you're treasure hunting.
When I finally found The Heat Is On, Go for Your Guns, Showdown, and Between the Sheets all in the same box at an estate sale that I just happened to see a sign for while driving, I was giddy. So much more satisfying than buying them online or something.
Good for him I love collecting CDs
Ya I’m glad it makes him happy but then he complains how he just wishes it didn’t take so long to add them to his playlists thru the computer and how long he has to wait to find these discs before he can finally hear these songs. While his wife side eyes him because she has a smart phone and has repeatedly tried to get him to get one and she has all her fave songs downloaded at the ready just like he could. But he believes the government will track him. She tells us idk why he thinks the government would find him that interesting lol
Sounds like he has a hobby that brings him joy?
Having music at your fingertips took a lot of the fun of music away. When everyone has everything, it’s way less special. Also, not all music is on the internet and some of it that is there, is not in high quality. Let your dad have his fun
The Eagles? LMAO.
Sounds like a bad script for what this Boomer would say.
Yet he said it.
I read on this sub a while backs that a lot of Boomers derive all of their personality from the characters they watched on TV and in movies and it really made sense.
Their humor is generic laugh-track, wives are bad, kids don't know anything... basic sitcom shit, but it describes them so well.
holy shit, that is too wildly accurate.
It reminds me of the scene in Big Lebowski where the dude gets thrown out of the taxi
I hate the fuckin eagles man
I have an almost boomer friend that prides him self on knowing music. He really cares about it and the arts. He started making a big deal about system of a down going woke cause someone told him the lyrics. Like this dumbass was telling me to listen to songs and pay attention to what there saying and all that jazz, and now he hears on the internet somewhere that system of a down went woke and just parrots it. me and the other persona in the car laughed him down. was so dumb. Of all bands to try that argument on.....
Haven’t SOAD always been woke?
EDIT: Since people are confused. Woke, as in the original meaning-- awake to the plight of others and societal issues.
The first song on toxicity is basically explaining the private prison system and the corruption that comes from it.
They're tryna build a prison for you and me to live in.
I guess. like they have always sung about what they have always sung about and its a good message. he seemed surprised when he was told the lyrics by his tralking head of choice. But he always was the one telling me to listen before. So he seemed to think they decided to sing for an agenda or something all of a sudden, like they have done 2 new songs recently. And this guy is going on a woke triade about them thinking I guess thoes new songs where a break from their norm. He was accusing them of all of a sudden caring about all this woke shit. And me and the other person was telling him dude you ever listen to them, they always cared. clearly always cared. with out a doubt always cared.
Like was a bit of a turning point in my thinking of him. He used to be all about listening to the words and caring, making me listen to his songs and telling me about the meaning n shit. And yet he throws all that out the window to get mad that a band that has always cared about oppression and persecution and genocide is not all of a sudden caring about thoes things because of the political climate. Guy used to be very open about art n stuff. now hes getting wierd like this attack on SOAD. I guess he just dosnt like them LOL.
That was my point. A lot (most) of their music is political/issues related (they’re awake/woke to shit happening in the world).
Actually, when they wrote about the Armenian genocide 23 years ago it was because they were conservative and anti-woke /s
He's surprised that the band that has ALWAYS used their music to advocate for the acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide on a global scale is political and "woke"? Your friend is a lot of things, but smart isn't one of them.
Like the people claiming RATM "went political" with their music. Mfer, from the word go they've been political!
You ever hear people bitching about how Rage Against the Machine has gone "woke". Bish please, they were woke before they started writing songs. Have you even listened to them?!?! Their first album cover is the most woke thing ever (monk self-immolating).
They literally have a song on said album called Wake Up,...
Wait, SOAD went woke?!? Next you'll be telling me Rage against the machine went woke too 🙄 /s
I mean a few bands like soad and ratm have always been radical left, thats like the dude who said were not gonna take it by twisted sisters is about keeping traditional far right values safe from the liberals pretty much
I've seen a few posts about RATM (Morello specifically) "going woke" and it kills me every time. Pretty sure this has been their/his thing for decades brother
I’m pretty sure he was “woke” before he was even born. His parents met when they were both teachers at one of those schools set up by Western non-profits in African villages. His mom was a white American woman, his dad was a black man who was related to royalty or a powerful political family in Africa. They all moved to the US around the time he was born; his dad moved back home when he was pretty young, and his mom, who would become a college professor, raised him by herself. My recollection is light on details, but that’s the basic story.
Morello is also well-educated. One of my favorite Twitter threads is when one of those right-wing, “shut up and dribble,” assholes was telling him to stick to music and stay out of politics when Morello was criticizing trump. Morello came back with ‘one does not have to have graduated cum laude from Harvard with a degree in political science to understand that trump is bad for this country. However, I did graduate cum laude from Harvard with a degree in political science.’ Again, I’ve forgotten the exact quote, but that’s the gist.
-“another successful musician instantly [becoming] a political expert,”
-“One does not have to be an honors grad in political science from Harvard University to recognize the unethical and inhumane nature of this administration but well, I happen to be an honors grad in political science from Harvard University, so I can confirm that for you,”
Prison Song would blow his mind.
"Why do they always send the poor?"
"Oh yeah, that guy who sang with Sheryl Crow? So cool to see her giving new artists a leg up."
Also, it is always acceptable to refer to the Eagles as "Linda Ronstadt's band."
we fuckn love Linda Ronstadt
I am so excited about Selena Gomez playing her in the upcoming biopic
“Don Henley? Yeah. He did some great songs in the 80s, after he left that really lame band he played with in the seventies.”
The guy who was caught in his house with a child sex worker after she OD'd and he just got a slap on the wrist for it?
"The guy who had a naked 16-year-old girl overdose on cocaine at his mansion, and then wrote a song whining about the media for daring to report it? Yes, I'm familiar with Don Henley."
My narcissistic stepfather was a snob about music. He would only listen to classical music. Told me one time that the band I was listening to would never make it big and that their album would be forgotten tomorrow. The band was U2. The album was The Unforgettable Fire. Sure stepdad, just that little no nothing band that has sold tens of millions of albums.
Classical orchestras are mostly 1700s cover bands anyways, so ...
I never thought of it that way before but you are right.
Pachelbel wrote the formula in 1650 and we ve all been just listening to different covers ever since.
That's canon!
In Deed
Taco Bell's cannon.
🤣🤣🤣
Ah, Pachelbel!!
https://youtu.be/JdxkVQy7QLM
As an opera singer, I give you my angry, very loud, but kinda nice upvote.
I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think the