I read the news today oh boy, and just as if to remind us how long ago the Woodstock era was, someone very famous and influential from that era, my idol Bob Dylan, was treated like a complete unknown by police when he was accosted by authorities last month. A 24-year-old police officer was unaware of who Dylan is. The rock legend, who was on tour, was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show.
A second officer, also in his 20s, who assisted the first officer was also unfamiliar with Dylan, now 68. The singer of such anthems of my generation like the "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind" said that he didn't have any ID with him. The officers took him back to the resort where he was staying. Once there, tour staff vouched for Dylan.
Actually, rock's poet laureate did not perform at Woodstock although he was already an icon and legend at that time. Today, the 20-something generation do not know the man. Maybe now he can write a song answering his rhetorical rantings in his famous song.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Interesting blog. Arguably, the biggest legacy of Woodstock is its huge impact on the real children of the sixties: Generation Jones (born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X). This USA TODAY op-ed speaks to the relevance today of the sixties counterculture impact on GenJones: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm
ReplyDeleteGoogle Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten a ton of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) now specifically use this term. In fact, the Associated Press' annual Trend Report forcast the Rise of Generation Jones as the #1 trend of 2009.
Here's a page with a good overview of recent media interest in GenJones:
http://generationjones.com/2009latest.html