Rock and Roll may not be dead!

[Turdus]

My 14 year old nephew was in town visiting last night. He says "Uncle Turdus, I just learned how to play Smoke On The Water!"

I knew he had a drum set, and a cheapo guitar. I asked which he learned it on. He said neither, but a friend's bass.

So there you have it folks. The youth of today, are learning the same licks that probably a lot of us here started out on.

[kurtsstuff]

Dammit...I thought I was the only one that could play that song....!!

[Brewmaster]

My 15 year old neighbor ask me to teach him how to play. "I want to be able to play "Smoke on the Water" by the summer".

It seems to be one of the old songs the young teens relate to.

.

[Guest teefus2]

that's really weird. a co-worker of mine asked me to tab that lick for his 10 year old son. was it in a recent movie or something?

[hardheartedbill]

let this generation play it in the correct key, G please!

fantastic , ther will be a spoken intro ( I'm thinking Brooks ) on the next BBD album " Uncle Turdus , I just learned how to play SOTW! " wow, that shit is epic! thanks Turd

[alpep]

My nephew brought over the bass I gave his sister a while back and asked me to teach him a few tunes. We downloaded some tab, I wrote out a few finger exercises and we are off and running.

The next week he bugged me for an amp. This week he wants a mic and stand. Oh yeah and a rickenbacker 4001

[BCR Greg]

Five times this week I heard that song played by kids that don't shave yet. The kids coming in the store lately have been playing lots of Zepplin as well.

Not bad. Not too long ago, all we heard was Nirvana. I HATE Nirvana.

The "No STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN" sign was replaced with a "NO SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT" sign for several years.

[jujisque]

I'm only 19 and I listen to almost nothing but classic rock. Zeppelin, Floyd, Queen, Rush, Steely Dan, Blue Oyster Cult, you name it. I love it all.

[Michael_]

I'm 19 and I have a 10 year old kid who I give some lessons to. When he came in for his first lesson, he told me that he knew how to play one song, and proceeded to play smoke on the water on the 6th string with his thumb. I corrected his technique, but was impressed with his ability to pick up the tune by ear. I also kind of got deja vu, it was one of the first songs I played when I picked the guitar up.

[BCR Greg]

So you were 9 when you became a dad?

Just kidding. I kid.

[cmatthes]

Jack Black seems to have popularized a lot of the "Old Skool" stuff with new/younger players from "School of Rock". My 10-year-old son was already combing through my CDs for Zep, AC/DC, Beatles, Van Halen, Clash and Hendrix, then started asking me to lend him/teach him to play a lot of other classic stuff after seeing that movie for the 100th time.

That movie really inspired a number of his classmates to pick up guitar, bass or drums. A girl in his class told us that she is saving up to buy a bass because she wants to be like that girl in the movie, and another kid on his soccer team bugs his dad (a non-player) to take him to GC every weekend to hang out.

I dug the movie, but think ANYTHING that gets kids interested in playing music is great.

BTW - edited to add that I think it's cool that Turdus' nephew calls him "Uncle Turdus"!!

[Guest JackButler]

I see it everyday teaching...kids come in and give me a list of things they want to learn....SMOTW, Crazy Train and Iron Man usually top everyone's list..and I still get the occassional 10 year old wanting to learn "Eruption".

A lot of these kids are 10-12 year olds....I usually wind up asking "how do you know these tunes?" and I almost always get..."from Dad's cds!"

There's still hope!!!!!!!!!!

[Steve Haynie]

The kiddies in the music stores are playing SOTW down here in South Carolina, too. I have even heard some trying to shred.

[Jeff R]

..."from Dad's cds!"

Yup, I'm guilty too. My eight-year old's favorite CDs are his Usher CD and my TNT CDs.

Inspired by the Sykes thread, I put on "Screaming Blue Murder" last night and he sat in front of the speakers playing with his action figures for an hour!

[jujisque]

"from Dad's cds!"

Exactly my story. But what's better is that even all my friends like the classic rock too.

[hardheartedbill]

I'm off to raid dad's Burl Ive's collection now!

[JohnnyB]

I'm off to raid dad's Burl Ive's collection now!

Burl's pretty cool, but when he slips into his industrial goth metal mode, it gets too intense for me.

[seeker]

Heaven's forbid, don't forget about Pat Boone's version of Diver Down! (No kidding, do a search).

I noticed the classic rock picking up about 3 or so years ago. Was tooling thru a GC and started hearing Black Sabbath licks coming from a (max) 15 year old. I was floored.

On the one hand, I'm very happy that a new generation of guitarist/songwriters will be coming up with music influenced by some pretty damn good music. Influenced is the key word. Copycats are ok, but just never as exciting as originals.

On the other hand, I'm a bit sad because that music was created in a different time (when I was their age) and they're missing out on the cultural context of it's creation. Contrary to the woeful gnashing of teeth by some about the state of music in the last 15 years, I think there is some pretty good stuff that has been put out. IMHO, there is something uniquely exciting about music being released in the here and now.

A q to Michael_ and jujisque; How did you get onto the classic rock trail?

[ET_KenW]

I'm trying to drive my kids in that direction. My 10 year old daughter and 7 year old son just received their own personal CD players for Easter. My son promptly went through my CDs looking for all the "Rocking" CDs.

From previous nights of listening to CDs while going to sleep, he basicaly has my George Thoroughgood CD memorized. Which the wife wasn't too happy with when he walked out one morning telling her is she didn't start drinkin, he was gonna leave. LOL

My daughter I'm trying to get her to hear good female vocalists, like Pat Benatar and Ann Wilson. Not just the teeny boppers that Disney is force feeding everyone.

[jujisque]

A q to Michael_ and jujisque; How did you get onto the classic rock trail?

Well, my dad is into that music. He really introduced me to his favorites (Clapton, Aerosmith, Stones). I liked them, especially Clapton, so I did some investigation and I just found that it was infinitely better than what I like to call the "scratch and strum" music of the mid-90s, when I was getting old enough to care about good music. So from there I found more and more bands that I just loved and I've been hooked ever since.

As a sidenote: I really can't stand much of any thing that has been made in the last 12-13 years or any of the 80s pop stuff. I can sort of stand disco because of its funk roots, but that's a sidenote too. I am happy, though, to see that some new groups, like Los Lonely Boys, are finally starting to figure out that people like to hear guitar solos in music.