Early Friday afternoon I sat at the bar of the Elbo Room with my friend Don from Boca Raton. It’s Don’s tradition to drink a beer in the famous watering hole every Spring Break, and this year I had decided to join him. The beer has improved since his first drink there back in the ’60s – we both had Cigar City Jai Alai – but the music hasn’t changed (at least in the early afternoon when most of the customers are aging male Boomers). We sat there looking out at the passing scene, feeling ourselves at the center of something, however insignificant, as the singer belted out renditions of “Bad Moon Rising” and “Sweet Home Alabama.”
When our plastic cups of beer were empty we took a stroll up the strip, passing bars packed with students and blasting techno. And we wondered what “songs” from this music these students will listen to in their 70s that will take them back to a particular place and time.
