I was reading over some of the posts from some of the new blood on this NG and had several things come to mind.     First I was glad to see the fresh faces of former lurkers and newbies popping up with some new and old topics being thrown out for discussion.  I am the first to groan when I see a question get asked for the billionth time, regarding some worn out subject, .....but I had a thought tonight as I was reading through the posts... Nothing really changes....     We all grow older and most of us continue to love the music we came of age with, and tend to look at new music with varying shades of acceptance. Some we like a lot, some we say isn't even music.  It reminds me a lot of my Father's impression of   The Beatles and Bob Dylan in the 60's.  He didn't understand what all the hoop-la was about, but compared all the screaming girls to Sinatra's audience in his younger years...He saw Dylan as another Woody Guthrie and still singing about the worker's rights and injustices that he had watched, himself, during the Great Depression ...He never, ever said, That's not music! Just listen here, to Benny Goodman, now that's real music!  He just smiled and listened to Benny Goodman on his record p_layer_, while I blasted Hard Day's Night and The Stone's Satisfaction through my headphones in my room.     I am not as tolerant as my old man...I am much more decided about what is good and what is not....I used to look at Rap as pure nonsense and New Wave and Punk were just wanna-be Rock and Roll copies....When R&B and Soul started to include fringe -Hip Hop , I was the first to say that this was bastardizing an Icon of my youth...Ice T's Cop-Killer and Wilson Pickett's Midnight Hour were never meant to be sold in the same section at Tower Records .....But, I was wrong...     I held on to my youth as long as I could and expected the world to keep things even for me.  I maintained guard on my beloved music for most of my life, in fear that someone would take it away from me and replace it with some Rap-Crap ...Now I realize that I still have my music and it is safe and sound with my generation and those young people, open minded enough to get past the imaginary hurdles I set-up for myself.  Nothing has been lost, but only added to.  There is more to choose from now then there has ever been, and nothing is gone, but that which we ignore.     I welcome Kid Rock's enlightenment and stab at diversity...I wish him well.  I will still go to the Butterfield Blues Band section of the record stores, as I walk right past the Death Row Records selections.  I will still get Goosebumps when I hear the big B-3 Organ sound that starts Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone .  I don't get, at all, excited about Green Day's latest release, but still hope that I can get the time to listen to the whole Howlin' Wolf boxed set, in one sitting.  The bottom line is that,   I don't need to hate anybody else's music to enjoy my own ...It's just that simple...Maybe I finally have gotten old enough that I see that more clearly.  I'm going to try to keep an open mind from here on out.     With all that said, don't expect any slack on my part, when it comes to Popper and his renditions of animal cries of pain played backwards or any love for those musicians I will always think of as true Assholes ( you know who.....). You will find me listening a bit more to those types of music I excluded from my CD library, until now, though.  And I'm gonna try to keep an open mind about whatever, new , comes my way.  Yeah, and I'm still gonna roll up my car window when some Bass exploding percussion machine pulls up along side me at an intersection, but you just may catch me tapping my foot a bit next to the accelerator pedal.  Keep an open mind ..... as open as you can, without letting the good sense run out as the new experiences flood in...Play well....                                                                 Silk