I’m starting to get a bit bored with 40th anniversaries. Last month was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing which is certainly something worth recognising. The year began with the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ rooftop recording session at Apple, which I suppose is significant for being their final public appearance together. Then the week before last, they had the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ Abbey Road crossing. Now, I will champion the Beatles’ importance at every turn, and Abbey Road would probably be my favourite of all their albums, but geez, it was just an album cover. Apparently though, it was still important enough to block off traffic (always a popular move in London) and have a re-enactment, complete with some tribute band standing in for the real thing.
And this week, we’ve had anyone who remembers reminding us that last weekend was the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. And that made me think I might post a song I wrote in the 90s as an answer to baby boomers’ constant overstating of their achievements and importance.
The day after I finished writing this, I read that Allen Ginsberg had died. That made me feel a little bit guilty for a moment about some of the things I’d said until I realised that the song really isn’t about people like him. It’s about the ones who sold out their values, if indeed, they ever had any.
The thing that insulted me most about the whole baby-boomer attitude is the way they sneered and looked down upon the next generation as being inferior in just about every way –the exact same thing they moaned about in their parents’ generation. I don’t begrudge them growing up and getting jobs. I begrudge the hypocrisy of not wanting the next generation to have their own voice the way they did. They took the best of everything and whatever they couldn’t blame on the previous generation, they blame on the next.
My general disagreement is mainly to do with selfishness and lack of perspective. And I’ll admit to having a distaste for some attitudes in the younger generation as well. Every time I hear someone under 25 start moaning about the “crippling debt” their generation has been lumbered with in order to drag us out of the GFC™, I want to slap them and say,
Listen, you smarmy little shit, my parents’ generation paid off World War II! They got by. They survived. So what the hell are you worried about?While debt should be avoided where-ever possible, sometimes you do have to spend your way out of trouble. And if it means you’re going to have to wait a few more months before you get that new iPhone, or a few more years before you build that McMansion in Fountain Lakes, then that’s just tough titties! If that's the biggest sacrifice you're ever called upon to make for your country, then it's a charmed life. See? I can do “old fart” too.
But I disgress....
So yes, this song is less about people like Allen Ginsberg and more about the ones who went on to be insurance agents. Less about the ones who genuinely changed their minds, and more about the ones who kept taking all the world had to give and more, while still affecting the tone of moral and intellectual superiority to all who came before and after.
By the way, Woodstock was originally supposed to be a charity concert – the Farm Aid of its day – but so many broke in that eventually the organisers gave up and declared it a free show.
Read into that what you will.
YOUR GENERATIONThey say if you remember, then you weren’t really there
You danced and sang and made love, you lived without a care
Your generation....
Now your kids are grown up, and living without hope
Still you wonder why they only care about MTV and dope
Your generation
Talkin’ ’bout your generation
Your generation got old
Your generation’s gone cold
You tell us of psychedelia, and boast of your free love
Then you tell us we should just say no, and always wear a glove
You fear the carnage on the streets as the cartels ply their trade
But they’re just doing business in a market that you made
Your generation
Talkin’ ’bout your generation
Your generation got old
Your generation’s gone cold
By the time we got to Woodstock, Pepsi ruled the world
Our playground was Nintendo, and we went to war for oil
Some values die quicker than others, but the truth doesn’t change
If peace was a good idea back then, well why not so today?
Your generation
Talkin’ ’bout your generation
Your generation got old
Your generation sold its soul
What happened to the revolution? Where did you go wrong?
Did you think you’d make it happen just by singing protest songs?
Do you really think that Woodstock made the world a better place?
Just a hundred thousand muddy hippies getting off their face!
And you have the gall to tell us that our music has no worth
Should we let your surrealistic pillow smother all the earth?
Your generation
You still talk about your generation
Well, your generation got old
Your generation’s gone cold
So don’t you try to put us down and tell us what to do
As if you wouldn’t do it just the same if it were you
’Cause the selfish generation is still alive and strong
Your ignore it when your children show you how you got it wrong
If you think today’s youth culture is your vision of hell
Then I guess you understand now, just how your parents felt.
Your generation
Talkin’ ’bout your generation
Your generation got old
Your generation sold its soul
Your generation
Is gonna fade away
gonna fade away
HWS April 1997
If anyone is interested in hearing the song, I played it on Strawberry Fields Radio last year. You can play or download the show HERE.
If you would like a higher quality, stand-alone copy, then I accept cash, paypal and women’s underwear. 
