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Maybe I'll get Mom a ticket

It's not like my mom and I listen to all the same music, because, let's face it, that would be sad.

By RICK GERSHMAN
Published July 21, 2006

It's not like my mom and I listen to all the same music, because, let's face it, that would be sad.

I'd sooner take a header into traffic than listen to the Gaither Vocal Band white-bread gospel that Mom adores, and she'd ban me from visiting on future Thanksgivings if I even considered playing a little Slipknot at the dinner table.

But the fact is, Mom's cool. She grew up with a love for rock 'n' roll and folk and pop, and whenever there's an artist I think she'd dig, she'll check 'em out and end up singing along.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because a lot of my musical tastes were formed when I was a kid, listening to my parents' music.

Dad was an old-school '50s rocker type who parted ways with rock 'n' roll when it got wild and hard in the late '60s. Mom, meanwhile, dug the singer-songwriter types when the '70s rolled around. Creedence Clearwater Revival was one of her favorites, and, of course, so was Willie Nelson.

So maybe I need to persuade Mom to come on down from her home in Tallahassee for Sunday's John Fogerty-Willie Nelson show at the Ford Amphitheatre.

Now that's a show I can love. That's a show my mom can love. That's a show just about anyone who loves music can love.

Well, anyone over the age of, say, 21. I'm not expecting the hard-core or emo kids to get into Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain or Who'll Stop the Rain or Have You Ever Seen the Rain? - okay, pretty much anything about rain.

But if you're old enough to legally drink and old enough to have your heart broken, you're old enough to love Nelson's standard Whiskey River, with its all-too-universal lyrics: Don't let a memory talk to me/ Whiskey river, don't run dry. I love Willie, the way everyone loves Willie, except for maybe the IRS and an ex-wife or three. But I'm even more excited to see Fogerty, who powered Mom's beloved Creedence.

For one thing, Fortunate Son remains one of rock music's greatest and most arresting tracks even today - and even after its highly unfortunate use in a 2002 Wrangler jeans commercial.

I can't think of too many other artists of that era whose works hold up so well in the 21st century. Just take classics such as Proud Mary, Lodi, Bad Moon Rising, Down on the Corner and Looking Out My Back Door.

Because maybe he's an old man - well, an older man - but Fogerty's no fogey.

And Mom? She's a rock 'n' roll girl all the way.

rgershman@sptimes.com or 226-3431. His Times blog, The Ill Literate, is at sptimes.com/blogs/tampaarts.

[Last modified July 20, 2006, 13:18:10]