KRLA – Steve Brown and Russ O’Hara – March 6, 1973 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
The horror of it all – you just found out Mick Jagger is turning 30 in July. You’ve been a fan of The Rolling Stones since you were in grade school – they’ve been your go-to band forever. Rock stars don’t get old. Especially not Mick.
And then you start thinking about you. You think about turning 30. Thirty is a whole other lifetime, you can’t wrap your head around 30. Getting older – getting to be your parents age – being like the guy who bags groceries at Ralph’s. Getting lines on your face, reading Cosmopolitan -seeing dark spots on your hands. Forgetting your car keys.
And you think you saw a grey hair – on the left side, right where everybody can see it; a great, big White Hair, bigger than any other hair on your head. Everybody will look at you and feel sorry for you and ask if you need help crossing the street. You’re getting older – you can’t help it. Mick Jagger’s turning 30 and he’ll probably retire – go live on some estate and raise horses. You’ll turn 30 and you’ll probably go deaf – kids will ask you what The Grateful Dead were like – and you won’t be able to fit into your clothes anymore.
You’ll spend the rest of your life on a diet, your ass will look like cottage cheese and when you go to the beach you’ll cover yourself in Zinc Oxide because they’re talking about Skin Cancer and studies and all that sun you used to lay around in. You hate getting old.
You’re probably going to wind up getting married to somebody you don’t like because you don’t want to live alone, like your Aunt Dorothy. Or you’ll wind up with a house full of cats like she has – and the phone will stop ringing. And you had your last date on your 16th birthday. And even the College guys will stop hitting on you. Your future is being a matron.
And you can’t look at yourself in the mirror without screaming.
Well . . .you are turning 17 next month – there’s that. But Mick is still turning 30.
And if you were contemplating the future you were probably listening to the radio. And maybe, just maybe, you were listening to KRLA – even though most everybody you know listens to KMET or KLOS. And you might be listening to Russ O’Hara. Maybe this one from March 6, 1973.
Sound familiar?
As you know, we’ve suspended our ads in order to make Past Daily a better experience for you without all the distractions and pop-ups. Because of that, we’re relying more on your support through Patreon to keep us up and running every day. For as little as $2.00 a month you can make a huge difference as well as be able to download all of our posts for free (news, history, music). You’ll see a banner just below. Click on that and become a subscriber – it’s easy, painless and does a world of good.
