Feeling Nostalgic

For some reason, i've been singing New Edition songs all day long. They are, by far, my favorite male singing group of all time. I love them with Bobby Brown or Johnny Gil. I love BBD and Ralph Tresvant's "Sensitivity." You could not tell me I was not THE Candy Girl. (I still have my album) I know all the choreography for the, "If it isn't Love," video. "Can You Stand the Rain," is one of my favorite slow songs of all time. I have gone to at least five New Edition concerts. I love NE from "Candy Girl," to "Hot Tonight." Their showmanship takes me back to the days when showmanship actually meant something. I heard they're going on tour in 2009, and guess who will be there.

It's been 25 years and New Edition recently received ASCAPS's (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Golden Note Award. This award is given to artists who have achieved extraordinary career milestones. New Edition are the Temptations of my time and I never thought they got the recognition they deserved. Without NE, there would be no New Kids on the Block, no Boyz II Men, no N'Sync, no Backstreet Boys, no boy band craze at all.



I met my husband in 1983 and we had so much fun. The eighties were the bomb. I had a red and black lumber jack, with the hat to match. My husband wore kazals and Sergio Valente's with no lenses. We would go down to Time's Square and see three movies for $3. It was fun to sit in McDonald's all night and talk and laugh.

Rap music was getting it's start and we would go to jams in the park. The deejays didn't always have enough electricity so they would run a bunch of extension cords from someone's apartment. An occasional fight would break out and, once in a blue moon, someone might get shot. It didn't happen that often. We had fun.

The music was fun, not violent. We danced, and flirted, and had fun. It was a different time. Things are so violent and sexual now. Sometimes it doesn't seem like young people know what fun is anymore. They're so busy seeing and doing adult things that they don't have time to be kids.

Guys would walk down the block with their ghetto blasters playing their music as loud as they could. They would even sit them down and have battles to see whose was louder. Just like LL, they couldn't live without their radio.



Remember dookie ropes and Adidas with the thick laces?

When I was young, I played outside all day long. I got upset when I had to go inside. We now live in the day of the video game. Kids don't give a damn about the sun. It's all about Playstation, Wii, and Xbox.

I remember when my father use to tell me the music I listened to sucked or I didn't know anything about music. I would laugh. Now, I find myself saying the same thing to my son when I hear him listening to certain rap songs. I guess I feel that way because I was there at the beginning. I know what it was and sometimes i'm disappointed in what it has become. At the same time, when a rapper tries to say something in his music he probably won't make much money. I guess I just miss the day of the MC, and the deejay at the turntable.



I was just feeling a little nostalgic. You may now return to the twenty first century...