Happy Birthday!

Today is the birthday of the leader of the really free world, Iggy Pop. He made it to 59. I saw the Stooges last year at Bumbershoot here in Seattle. They were amazing. Iggy really loves his audience. My son got close enough to shake his hand. And came back a sweaty, worn out mess. It was great seeing a punk legend with my son. It may be one of the last times I get to look cool to him.

I had all of the Stooges albums back in the late 70's. They were already hard to find, even in southern California. But I did. They were all imports and had nice, thick vinyl. Good thing too, I played the hell out of them. My friends didn't quite get it. My crowd listened to a lot of Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne. I usually listened to rougher stuff. Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, not a lot of hippie mellow. Punk came along and I liked it a lot. Iggy was the one that really got my attention. He sounded like an animal, the band sounded like the apocalypse. It was so primal. I didn't see how anyone could resist. A couple of years later my friends started turning on to punk. By then I'd moved to Seattle, gone nuts from the rain, and joined the Army a few months after that.

I never was part of the punk scene. I just liked the music. My kid is into the scene. He plays drums in a band and really enjoys making music. I guess it's true, you encourage your children to do the things you wanted to do but didn't.