The New Frontier

Donald Fagen - "The Nighfly"


I had a flashback today. While getting ready for work and checking my e-mail, I noticed one of my neighbors had posted a link on Facebook to a video (click the picture above to see it). It is by one of my all time favorite artists, Donald Fagen (one half of the group Steele Dan) and is from his album "The Nightfly". I have known the song since college, but don't recall ever seeing the music video for it. Suffice to say it captures the essence of the song perfectly.

Many folks I know personally, are going through some hard times right now. Financially, physically, emotionally, it has been a tough year, and we aren't even 1/4 of the way through it. Hearing this song again brought back a flood of memories, not only of the college days when it was cranked up on my stereo, but also of the days of my childhood, where all the references in the song come from.

They are memories of making out in a nuclear fallout shelter, Dave Brubeck, chiffon dresses and Buicks that couldn't fit into a modern garage. As I watch the Gen-Xers on the bus listening to Lady GaGA and see our grandchildren playing with their iPods, it sort of dawns on me that they don't really have any reference to these sorts images. But we lived through them, and they shaped our psyche and thereby, our future.

Today's youth never grew up with the fear of a cloud of nuclear missiles raining down on them, or that the concept of 'scoring' was just getting to first base or a kiss goodnight. It was an age without AIDS and where divorcing an abusive spouse wasn't something that you considered...you just dealt with it for the sake of the kids. Now that I think about it...it all seems like such a distance memory.

It was a different time, in some ways better than today and in some ways much worse. There were some hard times back then for me too. Those college years were rough and there were times that I questioned a lot of things, including my own future. But like the song intimates, life is about finding the good times in the face of impending doom. Making the best of the situation that we are in is the real art of life. If it didn't rain once in a while, the flowers would never grow. I suppose, like the video says, every day is a New Frontier. Time to go party in the fall out shelter. ...........(wooo whoooo, my mother-in-law will be gone for a whole week starting today!!!)

(I have posted other references to Mr. Fagen in the past, click here to check them out.)