Episode 15 of The Sopranos Season 6 features Tony and Paulie going out for dinner with friends. After an endless story about Paulie's old days, Tony becomes annoyed and declares, “Remember it is the lowest form of conversation.” He then stands up and leaves to a low-level huff.
Some people can understand that certain types of memories can be annoying. They believe that they live in the moment and look forward to the future, rather than rehashing the past. Nostalgia was, in fact, a medical condition that described a certain kind of melancholy that was fused with emotions.
For me, it was very melancholic and nostalgic for me when I attended a reunion of dozens of people who had worked at Winnipe Gradio for decades. These were mentors, peers and followers from a time when AM Radio still played music and FM had time to play 20 minutes of album tracks. There was even a special session entitled “War Story,” all about “When do you remember?” A lot of time was spent on people who weren't with us anymore.
When life is simpler and so many possibilities ahead, it's very easy to get lost in thinking about the “good old days.” The older we get, the more we have conversations that include the phrase “When should I remember.”
Of course, music fans are not immune to this. This increases especially in years, whenever a rockstar dies. Over the past 10 days we have lost Funk/Rockmaster Slystone, Beach Boy Brian Wilson and Nitzer Edge Douglas McCarthy.
“Do you remember when the hottest summer fun came from the AM radio on the hottest day of the year?”
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“Do you remember the first time I heard a good vibration and my concept of music changed?”
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“Do you remember when we all danced and everyone danced to participate in the dark club hymns, in which they were wearing the blackest clothes they could buy?”
I'll confess to you last week that I say all of them. These conversations were woven into other related topics. It was a time like, “When should I remember.”
Rockstars should be immortal. After all, what they are doing looks superhuman, so why should they be exposed to the frail nature of human beings? Have millions (billions) of people lived their lives knowing that Brian Wilson is walking on the earth? I've always said that the world has been downhill since David Bowie and Prince passed away in 2016.
But death is undefeated. One day it will come for all of us. In a not too distant future, there are no more living Beatles. We will never see the right version of Fleetwood Mac on stage again. Bob Dylan transitions and becomes former Dylan. Jimmy Page doesn't pick up the guitar. Then the gentle stones stop the tour, and Keith and Mick shuffle. It's calm and this slow moving mass extinction event.
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Music fans have no choice but to deal with the loss of so many heroes. All that remains is a record, CD, band t-shirt, and “when do you remember?”
There will be a new “when do you remember?” opportunity. Avatars' Voyage Avatars continue to collectively earn hundreds of millions of people in London's dedicated theatres. Kiss will be taking part in the Singularity in the Las Vegas simulation. Virtual Reality Tech continues to improve, allowing the estate of the late artists (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Buddy Holly, Ronnie James Dio, Roy Orbison et al.).
There are other reasons why this music lives much longer than the previous generation of music. Usually, artists' popularity is being replaced by the next generation of artists, which peaks, fades, and forgets. Today, streaming continues to bring old music to life well beyond the best dates expected before. Unlike their ancestors, today's music fans are very ecumenical in their preferences when it comes to eras and genres. Is it a good song? Does it make them feel something? After that, they listen.
And there is this. For the past decade, companies with names like Primary Wave, Sony Music Entertainment, and Concord Music have acquired the publishing rights for the best music ever made. Billions of dollars have been spent getting these catalogs, resulting in some incredible payments (tracking here).
Due to the copyright mechanism, these companies have up to 100 years (or long!) to recover their investment. how? By ensuring that these songs do not slip away from public consciousness and continue to generate revenue. Old songs once shoved aside by something new will be heard for decades to come. That means original recordings, covers, samples, interpolation, etc. They live longer than the creators and fans that they remember when they first released.
This is the brutal truth. If you have the opportunity to see your favorite older artist again, do it. In addition to taking part in the “When Remember” experience, you can also say you saw them last time.
&Copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.