Friday, August 22, 2014

DON'T STOP BELIEVING

We have a real divide going within my Senior Class of 1975.
It seems that our class song is “Forever Young”, from Dylans 1974 release, "Planet Waves". We voted on it in 1975.
Yet somehow more than half of the class has adopted the Rod Stewart version. They are convinced, as only true Tea Party Republicans can be, that our class song "Forever Young" is written and sung by Rod Stewart.
Stewart DID did do a song called "Forever Young" but  it did not come out until 1988.
We graduated in 1975.
So, either we are experiencing some kind of time travel, or some form of revisionist history, or else my entire class sucked at math even worse than I did.
It doesnt add up, but they insist the Stewart version is OUR version.
I have offered $100 cash and a steak dinner to anyone that can produce a Pre-1976 Rod Stewart version of the song. That no one can has not deterred their belief at all.

I've heard a rumor that at the 30th Reunion, someone put on the Dylan version of Forever Young, and halfway through, someone else yanked it. How nuts is THAT?

The debate gets quite heated sometimes, and someone from the Stewart camp invariably will claim that Stewart and Dylan share the royalties for "Forever Young".
Yes, they share the royalties for Stewart's largely plagiarized 1988 version. The lyrics are almost identical, and Stewart claims he does not know how he subliminally managed to rewrite Dylans original with only a few minor changes, but to his credit his lawyers contacted Dylan and offered half credit and royalties for the Stewart version. 
Stewart DOES NOT get partial credit or royalties for Dylans 1974 original "Forever Young".
To mention this only cements the notion in that camp that I am a know-it-all asshole.
So, I have taken a new approach.
I say “I never voted for Forever Young anyway. I cast my vote in 1975 for “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey.”


They look at  me all glassy-eyed and I’m sure it does not occur to them that “Don’t Stop Believin” didn’t come out until 1981, but at this point, what’s the fucking difference? 

5 comments:

SL said...

This whole debate is just too funny!! I don't know what the class song was, I was probably out at the lake with you when the vote was taken. Great post Bullets!

BuckDunn said...

Some just have a scary aversion to old Bob, and facts be damned, they're sticking to their story. But this the era where media is tailored to pacify people's beliefs, facts be damned.

bulletholes said...

"But this the era where media is tailored to pacify people's beliefs, facts be damned."
Man, you hit the nail on the head there!

West Texas Insomniac said...

"Don't Stop Believing" was my class song. The liberal media bias can't take that away from me.

Somewhere, somebody believes that Springsteen wrote "This Land Is Your Land", or that Rage Against The Machine penned "Ghost of Tom Joad"...I'm not going to correct them. It is funny if THAT many people think a mid-70s HS class song was Stewart's version, especially since this particular group are the ones who allegedly didn't partake of the drugs that might cloud 40 year-old memories.

bulletholes said...

I thought for a long time that Dylan had written "I got you Babe".
I think somebody from our class said that we actually voted in "Free Bird", but an administration official decided for us that "Forever Young" would be the better song.
We were so oppressed.