You Should Be Dancing
“I don’t really dance.” “I see.” “How do you move like that, it’s beautiful.” “Dancing is the soundtrack to my life baby.” “Can you teach me?” “How to live or how to dance?”
We, The New Millennials have one saving grace that can never ever be taken from us, music and dance. Music is life and life is movement, and dancing is the apex of movement. I was born into a soundtrack, of pain, sorrow, and misery. But what I heard as child was hope; “Like a long lonely stream, I keep running towards my dream. Movin´on, movin´on. Like a branch on a tree, I keep searching to be free. Movin´on, movin´on. There´s a Place in the Sun. Where there´s hope for everyone. Where my poor restless hearts gotta' run. There´s a place in the Sun and before my life is done. Gottá find me a place in the Sun.”, Lyrics written Roland Miller /Bryan Wells and performed courtesy of Stevie Wonder. Or “I know you, don’t know what I´m going through, standing here looking at you. Well, let me tell you that it Hurts So Bad!…” Lyrics written by Teddy Randazzo, Bobby Weinstein and Bobby Hart and performed courtesy of Little Anthony and the Imperials. Since we are discussing the soundtrack of a life, how can I forget about “Tears of a clown when there's no one around”, Lyrics written by William Robinson and performed courtesy of Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. A discussion that involves any of these songs, and this music makes it very challenging to continue to write. They created such fond memories. Music like this makes you want to gently pull someone close to you, then close your eyes and let your movements become the voices. Words are now no longer necessary. If you remember any of these songs, then you understand why we are “60 is The New 40” The New Millennials. Soundtracks of our lives.
The answer is complex but simple; we are the “Age of Aquarius”, Courtesy of the Fifth Dimension, we are also “Party over oops out of time, so tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1999.” Courtesy of Prince Nelson Rogers. We have watched as Walter Cronkite announce the body count of American Soldiers who died in the Vietnam War while Creedence Clearwater Revival's “Fortunate Son” played in the background. We have watched a TV screen as it relayed a video signal of a man walking on the moon while at the very same time The Jackson Five was singing “Stop the Love you Save” in the background. I painfully remember crying because a man I never knew was assassinated and Sam Cooke was singing “A Change is gona Come”. Then years later, I danced in tight shoes on a multi-lighted dance floor while wearing a flower printed silk shirt and seamless pants while the Salsa Soul Orchestra's “The Salsa Soul Hustle” was blaring out of 18-inch subwoofers. The next thing I know I got up to the get down of the Jungle Boogie and later we all panicked because we didn’t know if our Casio watch was programed for the year 2000. Bye, Bye, Bye…. When I am asked as to why I refer to us as "The New Millennials" the answer is simple. We have survived a millennium and multiple shifts in time and culture; that have only succeeded in making us stronger. I did say this was going to be complex, but simple. We are the generation that never went to a party just to stand against the wall. The soundtrack of your life, our lives, is a Tapestry, (shoutout to Carol King) rich with voices and sounds, and instruments never heard. The Kalimba, Congas, Bongo Drums all added to this rich tapestry of sounds that has shaped us. Allowed us to endure pain and suffering while rejoicing in our faith. "We Fall Down, But We get Up." Written by Kyle Matthews and performed courtesy of Donnie McClurkin. Quite apropos when describing our lives.
We are the generation that provides answers to complex questions, but we never fully answer the question. We are the generation that created “The Spin Doctors”. We have perfected dancing and not only to music, but we also dance around our troubles, our problems, and our failures. "Don't worry be Happy"... This is not to be confused with procrastination, because many of us move so fluidly, it’s quite difficult to get a solid hit on a moving target vs. a stationary one. We have never been stationary, from birth we have all been chasing after something, working towards something, achieving something. We “The New Millennials” are not responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb! We don't blow-up stuff, well not all of us. We have never been a danger to the Bald Eagle or the Buffalo. We, however, are responsible for creating a hand-held device that is almost hypnotic. A device so captivating and alluring that most can hardly put it facedown for more than a few minutes. We are responsible for a voice that answers to one name, and she will reply anytime you say her name, or his name if you choose. We are the inventors, the thinkers, the transcendent athletes, the pioneers of groundbreaking events. Anybody remember Live Aid? How about Jon Carlos, and Tommy Smith? Michael Jordan maybe?
A Millennium is officially defined in Webster Dictionary as a; period of a thousand years. But what if time was also measured by more than just accumulated time? What if time could be measured by events, innovations and inventions? Although no one can accurately determine when man first harnessed the use of fire, it might coincide with a point in time when the hunted became the hunters. My point is this, we didn't mark or indicate time with the invention of fire, albeit, arguably the greatest invention ever. Rethinking it, maybe time should be marked by significant inventions or discoveries? I believe that there is a split in time, between B.C and A.C. which would lend itself to the theory that we as people are too split in time. The time before B.C. and the time after A.C. The Birth of Christ which is regarded as A.C. and all of the events that follow accelerated the measurement of time. Until now. This is 2025, and what we have managed in 2000 years is mind boggling; we have harnessed the power of the Sun into a weapon, turned salt water into fresh drinking water, traveled beneath the deepest oceans, and off this planet in a spaceship. These events have sought to do more with the use of time, as we know of it. Miraculously, what we have managed accomplish through invention, is to decelerate time. If you need proof, we live longer and accomplish more than any previous generation. Longevity is now how time is marked. Even more amazing is how much time we can squeeze into a bottle (life) before we realize that we need a larger bottle. The conundrum is, we do more with less time, so we can do more with the time remaining. What? You heard me. We get more things done, without extending 24 hours like no generation before us. We are The New Millennials because we have cracked the code. We have taken a short period of time and squeezed more inventions and innovations into it in the shortest period of time in recorded human history.
Our lifetimes have become nearly infinite, 60 is The New 40 now represents infinite possibilities, because time has not distorted our Mental or Physical capabilities. We did more with less time, so now we have time remaining. Retirement? What? A can with a string tied to it, attached by that string to another can, will transmit a sound that takes seconds to travel across that sting or cord. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to accurately decode. In a little more than 60 years, we now can decode audio and video in fewer seconds than it takes to blink an eye. Time has been saved, and when time is saved, the use of time decelerates. Invention therefore decelerates time. We did not change 24-hours day, but we have managed to change how we live and what we do within those hours. We have now become the impetus of events and inventions that continue and will continue to occur; therefore we have unintentionally created more time. Question: Do you ever feel like you have nothing to do? Or that you need to be doing something? Like you are wasting time.
Mentally at 60 plus years old, we still feel as though we should be doing something, when, in actuality, we have done it all already. We have been dancing for 40 plus years, and now with good health, there seems to be more time than we can find things to fill it with. For that very reason this is not the time to stop Dancing. We need to Dance more. We need to create, to invent, not to be confused with reinvention, better, to see what else we can do. Whether you want to believe it or not, accident or intention, we have created more time. What might have taken past generations hundreds of years to accomplish, we have done it in a little over six decades. Amazing.
For example, our individual cell phones have a greater computer capacity than the entire United States of America from 1958 to 1980. If you were born in or about 1956 through 1966; what you have witnessed is a technological rebuilding of the world, twice over. All done to the soundtrack of James Bond "Goldfinger", "It’s Been a Hard Day’s Night", "Shaft", and let’s not forget "Foot Loose". Dancing to The Music is what we have done quietly for the past six decades. When I was younger, many years ago, music was played on a Juke Box, or a Wurlitzer. Twenty-five cents for three songs, on what was known then as a 45 record. Just enough space for 3:20 seconds of music. That is, unless it was James Brown; who should be coined, the inventor of Side A and Side B. If you didn’t finish dancing, you just flipped the record over. You now had 6 minutes and 40 seconds of, "I got that Feelin". It may come as a surprise, but I remember the first LP or long play album that I ever purchased. It was Sly and The Family Stone, “Dance To The Music”. That album was released in 1967, and I purchased from a record store on Hillside Ave in Jamaica, Queens, NY. Yes, I still have the album jacket; but somehow, I lost the original album. Also in my collection is Elton John's first album released on my birthday in 1970 containing his first hit, "Your Song",
Sly and The Family Stone "Everyday People" https://youtu.be/bsxM-zuKdmQ?list=RDbsxM-zuKdmQ
Aretha Franklin"Think" https://youtu.be/P9yIoSpWWNE?list=RDP9yIoSpWWNE ,
Carole King "It's Too Late" https://youtu.be/VkKxmnrRVHo?list=RDVkKxmnrRVHo ,
Miles Davis "Blue in Green" https://youtu.be/TLDflhhdPCg,
Funk-a-delic "Standing on the verge of Getting it On" https://youtu.be/zmJqDfdGmV4?list=RDzmJqDfdGmV4
Andrea Bocelli "Con Te Partiro'" https://youtu.be/TdWEhMOrRpQ
Steely Dan "Asia" https://youtu.be/CYZwVf07tHA?list=RDCYZwVf07tHA
Seal "Touch" https://youtu.be/mczE-L_zoZg?list=RDmczE-L_zoZg
Donna Summers "Spring Affair" https://youtu.be/IsAPnsBP1-U
George Benson"Breezin" https://youtu.be/G1QjyskJ9jw ,
The Ohio Players "Skin Tight" https://youtu.be/qSfxt4_wJLY?list=RDqSfxt4_wJLY
La Reina: Celia Cruz "La Vida Es Un Carnaval" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MbGFsGQgxjY?feature=share https://youtu.be/BVYLOe4Xkg0?list=RDBVYLOe4Xkg0
LL Cool J "Mama Said Knock You Out" https://youtu.be/vimZj8HW0Kg,
Grand Funk Railroad "We're an American Band"https://youtu.be/-Gm-TGVT1AE,
Johnny Cash "The Man in Black" https://youtu.be/oDd32K-mOVw.
Sade "Nothing Can Come Between Us" https://youtu.be/_oVI0GW-Xd4?list=RDmczE-L_zoZg
This is all but a tiny sample of my music collection which is a broad spectrum of artists and sounds for Infinite acoustic pleasure. All videos courtesy of YouTube.Com.
It seems like only yesterday, but in truth it was decades ago; my cousin, who is closer to my little brother, and I, would drive the streets of NYC from the Upper West Side to Alphabet City, in a Black Corvette, with the top removed. Blasting anything from Depeche Mode "Enjoy the Silence", to LL Cool J "Boomin' System" and of course Seal "Crazy" . We were kings of Modulation, and the beat of the city pulsated through us. You heard us coming before we arrived. There is something special about playing your music, LOUD. Sometimes we should play our music Loud, even if only briefly, It's good for the soul. During this same period, my daughter suffered unjustly from childhood Eczema. Sometimes my little girl would uncontrollably scratch herself until she bruised. It's painful as a parent to feel helpless , to watch in frustration as there is nothing you can do is love and try to understand. Her mother and I applied every legal medication available at the time to her skin in an attempt at providing some relief. From Oatmeal baths to exotic and expensive ointments and dermatological studies. All in vain. Until one day she heard a song written and performed by Seal "If I Could"; to this day this song has a value that words could never express. If I Could", from the album Seal 1994 was her relief, a cure from a source we never considered. Music and faith did what no doctor or medication could. Thank you Seal. BTW I wrote to you, as father, thanking you. A reply wasn't necessary. If you have a Favorite Track, Album, CD, Artist or Group. Led Zeppelin perhaps? Please share and add it to the comments below, and I will add it to the Music section for Blog Subscribers. Email me at Sixtyisthenew4orty@Gmail.com.
I, you/we were there in New York for the birth of Rap/Hip-Hop with Kool Herc, Lovebug Strasky, and Spooney Gee, and The Sugar Hill Gang. Music is and should be the saving grace for us all. It should calm us when we are troubled, it should inspire us when we are down, it should fill our spirits with joy and praise, it should help find the common thread between us all. A long time ago, dancing was how you got a girl’s attention, muscles and athletic prowess were great, but if you could dance, I mean really move your hips. There wasn’t any girl, back then, that didn’t find you attractive, even if you were just a skinny tall kid with an overbite and big teeth. Dancing kept the peace in some neighborhoods, why fight when you could have a dance-off? A long time ago we actually went to clubs, to dance. There was Leviticus, The Loft, and Justine's. No Sneakers Allowed! If you were in the Bronx you were at Jimmy's. Dancing made the best backdrop to any Broadway musical. What would “Westside Story”, be without dancing? Here's a scientific fact, when we dance a chemical reaction occurs in our brains releasing dopamine, and with the release of this hormone we can go from a someone just holding up the wall, to the complete life of the party. That guy, that girl who now has an audience.
When I was a kid, and even to this day, I loved staying up late, and in the still of my room I would quietly turn on my little black & white portable tv to watch, of all things, Elvis movies. Yes Elvis, Viva Las Vegas was one of my favorites. Elvis is the actor who could sing and dance in the middle of a war scene, and it was ok. A volcano, was the perfect place for an Elvis song. Who brings a guitar to an oil rig disaster? Elvis does, and only Elvis could make it look good. Second to Elvis movies was just a strange, Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello movies Why, to this day I don't even know, but they seemingly did everything on the beach. Living on Long Island I and many of my friends would get on our bikes and ride the bicycle path adjacent to Wantagh Parkway all the way to Jones Beach, and we never saw anything happening that was remotely close to their movies. No girls, no bikinis, and no dancing. California beaches were very different from Long Island Beaches. We had sand, heat, the boardwalk, and the Atlantic Ocean that was it, I guess that was enough. We still dance. We, The New Millennials, are really good dancers, and I believe it’s partly due to the soundtracks that are in constant play in our minds. Happy Music, good music, fun times, incredible emotions, and every song has reference and a joyful meaning. Every emotion we can remember, and feel is attached to a song. Whether it was romance, heartbreak, life or death we remember it all because of music.
We danced then because of our faith, courage, and determination. We have been given the gift of more time why waste it on sorrow? If you can, where you can, and with whom can, Dance. We should be Dancing more now. I know there are troubles, they affect me too, I know so many of us are "Down Bad", and we and our families are barely hanging on. But one day, try turning the volume up, get a partner, grab the children or grandchildren and just Dance. Kids love to dance, they laugh and smile, dance with them. Movement is life and dance is the apex of movement. If you are not dancing, then you have stopped hearing the music. Never stop hearing the music of your life. Music got you/us here and it will get us all through this. Dance!
Deee-Lite..."Groove is in The Heart"....LOUD!
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