I read in the news yesterday morning that rocker Jon Bon Jovi turned 60. For the past 24 hours now I've been hearing the soundtrack of my high school years differently. Bon Jovi's 1986 album Slippery When Wet had multiple hits that played regularly on rock and pop radio station for years. One line from the chorus of Livin' on a Prayer,
Woah we're halfway there I even made into a tag I've used dozens of times in my blog (
same tag on my LiveJournal blog). But now, being confronted with the fact that lead singer Jon Bon Jovi is 60, I'm hearing that chorus differently....
Okay, boomer, we're halfway there
Oh-oh! livin' on Medicare 🎵
The odd thing is, when I was a teen listening to their music I didn't think of them as Boomers. Yes, they were older than me; but so was everyone making hit music. Of course, that was back in the era when music stars had to be old enough to be able to write their own songs, sing them, and/or play instruments. There were no product-engineered bands of kids picked by Central Casting and filmed lip-syncing songs. The Monkees, formed 20 years earlier, were the exception that proved the rule.