Well, I guess sooner or later I would experience the following - times sure are changing.

So, I am playing New Years gigs yesterday for my usual "senior" population and out of the blue I am getting loud voices asking me for Rock and Roll songs - not just any, but the hard stuff. Then on my second gig of the day - again for my "Senior" population I had three folks wanting to know if I played any Kiss or Eagles songs! Wow, who would have thought?

At least the people did not have nose rings or tats.

Deane

It's over .. We're doomed! Saw it coming years ago... Sorry Deane you went thru that
...... it's going to happen more and more again and again...

I used to get "Rolling Stones" quite often.

Eagles were big starting in 1971. That's getting really close to 50 years ago.
People in their prime at that time are now 70 to 80 something. It's only natural.
I do lots of Eagles songs. No Kiss though.
Credence Clearwater Revival is even a little older. Love everything they did.
If I were in a nursing home today, I would not care to hear music from the 30s or 40s. The good stuff for me starting in mid 50's.

This does bring up an interesting topic. What would you play for these people? For starters, I have never been a fan of that era of music and don't know what songs would fit. Rock and Roll, well I know bit more about it if in the 1950's time frame. Might be interesting to add a few of the "not so heavy" songs to my collection. What I have found though is few of these songs are instrumental type songs and I do not sing.

Deane

Instrumentals include Raunchy, Last Date, Watermelon Man, Tequila, Red River Rock, Walk Don't Run, Lonely Bull and other Herb Alpert songs, Happy Organ, Rebel Rouser, Wipeout, San Antonio Rose, Under the Double Eagle, Yakedy Sax... there are tons of great instrumental from the past 50 years.

I have played some Eagles songs at Senior gigs ...
Yesterday, along with other RnR requests, I had a request for Billy Idol's "Mony Mony" ...

Donny ... I'll bet the musicians of the 30's and 40's said the same thing in the 50's ...
Not to mention our parents !!!
The Circle of Life ... I know it's happening, it just gets tougher when it's staring us in the face ...

... a Summer Place, Pipeline, Walk in the Black Forest, Poor People of Paris, Stranger On The Shore, Swingin Safari, Pink Panther theme, Dragnet Theme... Green Onions, Classical Gas, Tiny Dancer, Music Box Dancer...
I have a folder of instrumental midi files from all the popular tv shoes during that era. I sometimes play "guess the tv show" and play the song until someone guesses it.

Or until someone drops a 'ten spot' in your jar to STOP playing it ...

Actually the songs are pretty short. It only takes a few second to recognize Andy Griffith Show, or Dragnet, or I Love Lucy, Mission Impossible is another one. At any rate, none of the songs much longer than a minute or so.