Atlantans seeking fond memories of youth will have plenty of opportunities this summer as the familiar warm-weather cavalcade of aging pop stars visits the city’s outdoor arenas.
Every generation will have the opportunity to go time-tripping, whether it’s grandpa tapping his cane to his favorite tunes from the 1960s or mom reliving college days as Earth, Wind & Fire pounds out “Sing a Song.”
But whose nostalgia is it, anyway? Has the concept of “oldies” music lost its focus in an era when “classic rock” appeals to teenagers as much as it does to the parents who were around to hear it the first time?
There seems to be no old music that can’t be recycled. Once there was a Generation Gap that required youngsters to dislike their parents’ music. Today that crevasse has been bridged by the forces of commerce, witnessed by the hit TV show “Glee” giving new life to the cheeseball 1980s power ballad, “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
“American Idol” regularly brings in elder-statesman songwriters to accept the adulation of young contestants. And the thunderous success of the video game “Beatles Rock Band” (and the $350 tickets to Paul McCartney’s July 26 Nashville concert) shows that some old music will never be too old to make money.
(The slightly more modest ticket price for the Ringo Starr show at Chastain Park on July 10 demonstrates that all Beatles nostalgia is not created equal.)
Sonic artifacts
But it’s all part of the nostalgia industry. Fondly remembered toys, furniture and keepsakes from previous times keep eBay auctions busy and provide for animated discussion on “Antiques Road Show.”
There are even entire cities fueled by nostalgia. Branson, Mo., springs to mind.
But songs are among the most valuable nostalgic artifacts, and fortunes can rise or fall on the rights to claim them.
The various members of 1960s rockers Jefferson Airplane reached an agreement about the use of the name after the band fell apart, but there are currently competing versions of its successor, Jefferson Starship, touring the nostalgia circuit, one led by founding member Paul Kantner and another, called simply Starship, led by ’80s-era Starship vocalist Mickey Thomas.
Thomas was also part of bluesman Elvin Bishop’s band, and is known for providing the vocal on Bishop’s only hit, “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.” He will bring Starship to the Mable House Amphitheatre on Aug. 13.
Rob Grill of the ’60s group The Grass Roots (“Midnight Confession,” “Temptation Eyes”) outlasted every other original member of the group, finally buying out his last co-founder in 1973.
Grill told the Toledo Free Press that the settlement was expensive, but “a great investment.”
“[I’ve] made a really good living off of being The Grass Roots and owning the name,” he said.
The Grass Roots will appear July 28 at the Cobb Energy Centre as part of the “Happy Together” tour, which also reprises Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders and Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees.
Still ‘Happy Together’
The tour is headlined by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, founding members of The Turtles, whose massive No. 1 hit “Happy Together” pushed “Penny Lane” off the top spot on the music charts in the spring of 1967. After the group disbanded, Volman and Kaylan spent $100,000 in court and other costs to secure the rights to the name, Volman said recently from his home in Brentwood, Tenn.
“A hundred thousand in 1975 is like $2 million today,” said the 63-year-old singer. “In the end, it was a gamble, but the gamble paid off many times over.”
Since then “Happy Together” has had sonic cameos in a brace of movies (including “Making Mr. Right,” “Ernest Goes to Camp,” “Naked Gun,” “Muriel’s Wedding,” “Shrek”), on TV shows such as “That 70s Show” and on “The Simpsons” (four times), and has been used to sell everything from shaving cream to steak and shrimp.
His music has never really gone away, said Volman, which is why his concerts appeal to more than just the AARP card-holding veterans who made it a hit 45 years ago.
Recently, he ran into a young mother at a show who asked for his autograph. Her 6-year-old child eyed the frizzy-haired Volman and asked, “What was it like working with Shrek?”
About the Author
