Elton John, I Remember When Rock Was Young

Sir Elton John remembers when rock was young. I remember when it was a young adult. The stadium at his recent concert in Charleston proved that his music spans decades. It was obvious the generations he entertains bridges more than the four decades he has been performing. We were enveloped by fans from the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen y and Gen Z!

I was painfully made aware of which generation I was in as I searched for a pre-concert Advil, for the ~touch of arthritis~ coming on. I was going to do the Crocodile Rock...be damned. We stood in the line at the head of the pack..pretty proud that we were some of the first there, only to relinquish our lead 15 minutes later in search of bathrooms at the Performing Arts Building. We found comfy cushion seats in the lobby outside the bathrooms and decided to wait out the count down here. A Silent Generation lady inched her way towards us, she eased herself down onto the cushion by me as she held the wall for support. I saw her two rows up later swaying and singing every word to Tiny Dancer, fist pumping the air at the end of song.

As concert time draws nearer we leave the comfort of the cushions to follow a pied piper who informs the crowd of another way into the coliseum. We wind around the coliseum, up the stairs and end the exodus at the beer garden. We gasp as we observe the price of wine ~shots~. At the same instant a coliseum staffer slips two drinking bands on our wrist. We opt instead for a Diet Coke and pretzel the width of our concert seat. A sober situation.

The lights are on and I watch the progression of ages fill the seats. I look at the crowd around us and wonder, who else is thinking about what their dog was doing or if ~Wheel of Fortune~ announced them as the spin ID winner that night. The lights dim as the 2 Cello's are announced as the opening act. That was no act! Those boys slung the chitlins off of those cello gut strings! And then he was there, Sir Elton John. The seats we thought were awesome became cumbersome after two and a half hours. When Elton went into his hit ~I'm still standing~ I sang it and meant it. Elton was phenomenal, extremely attentive and gracious to his fans. No, he didn't jump up on the piano like he did in piano solo's of his early years, but I didn't climb up on someone’s shoulder waving a bic screaming ~Free Bird~ either. I shook my hiney to the Crocodile Rock and everything else that he performed.

As we inched (literally) our way out of the coliseum parking for an hour, I imagined that Elton John was already soaking in a Jacuzzi at the Embassy we were passing. I thoroughly enjoyed the night. When my feet hit the floor the next morning, the memories of Crocodile Rocking were replaced with the reality of Lizard Limping. In a weird sort of way, a paradoxical reminder of a night well spent.