I was out driving the other day, cycling through the stations on the radio. The local classic rock station was playing an old Boston song, the one with the lyric

You know it’s now or never
Take a chance on rock ’n’ roll

and I thought “will there ever be a time again [not that I’m saying I want there to be, don’t misunderstand] that one will be able to write lyrics like that un-self-consciously?”. I can’t really imagine that.

In the 70’s, one could (apparently — I wasn’t there but for a few months) talk about rock ’n’ roll, drugs, music, and love as objective things and still be taken seriously. Now you can’t.

Except maybe in Adult Contemporary, and even then just of love. But the kind of folks that take A.C. seriously aren’t really taken seriously by anyone else so that doesn’t really count.