Being here in Greenwich Village has awakened the nostalgia I have always felt for the 60s. Being born in 1965, I was influenced by the vibe of the 60s, but I never got to see the greats as it was happening. I never got to see Led Zeppelin or the Beatles. One of my first concerts was The Who’s first farewell tour, in 1982 (they recorded Who’s Last on that tour). Guess what? (Guess Who? I am overcome with my own cleverness.) The Who are currently having their 2015 farewell tour—33 years later! OK, so farewell tours are a joke, because the bands often have numerous farewell tours. But the point is, I wish I had been here in Greenwich Village to see the first Bob Dylan show, as one of my friends did. I wish I had seen the Beatles play in Vancouver at the Empire Stadium in 1964. I wish I had been part of the aliveness, joy, and hope of the summer of love. A time of social change and new freedom. A time of excitement.
And all along, I didn’t realize that I was actually a part of a new exciting movement—the metal years! Yes, the 1980s were also a time of social change, with the Punk movement and Heavy Metal movement expressing the angst of a new generation of teenagers who wanted to fight the man.
This didn’t come home to me until another 
farewell tour—Mötley Crüe‘s farewell after delivering 33 years of kick-ass glam metal. (Gotta love the umlauts!) I saw the concert poster on a hoarding on Battery on Monday, and was lucky enough to get a ticket that night for Tuesday’s show. So there I was, Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Madison Square Garden, watching Alice Cooper and Motley Crue! I have seen both of these bands several times in Vancouver, and most notably, early tour dates in the 80s. For example, I saw them at the 1982: Crüesing Through Canada Tour! Surprisingly, the Crue is one of the bestselling bands of all time, with over 100 million records sold worldwide. I think they started the whole tattoo thing.
I sat in the stadium on Oct. 28, relishing the fact of being in New York, in this 
semi-historic building. The Garden moved from its second site in Madison Square to 8th Ave in 1925, to its current location on 31st St in 1965. Construction began at the current location 50 years ago, Oct. 29, 1964! I looked around as the seats began to fill. In my row, two teenaged young men were in the row already. They were the first to stand when Alice Cooper took the stage, and were on their feet for the whole show. I was glad to be in their row, because I too wanted to stand and dance.
One of the things that occurred to me as I relished the wall of noise for over 3 hours was that I really had been part of something special. To those teenagers, the 80s was the time they wish they had been at the rock concerts, at the beginning of the metal wave. And I really was there! I just didn’t realize it was a part of history. Thanks to my boyfriend Rick and friends Ray, Mark and Joe, Johnny and Dianne and Silvia, sister Kim, cousin Sherry, we were all part of our own time of rebellion and self-definition. Listening to metal was our revolution. Our way of staking our claim in time and space, and differentiating ourselves from our parents.
I want to write more about this revelation, but I’ve got to go take a nap. The big four-nine!
Later…
I guess the point is this moment is where it’s happening. This is the exciting time to change the world. After the nap…