Trying to Prove I Still Can

On Saturday night, I attended the Kentucky Derby Fest-a-Ville Concert Series. I had been waiting 2 months for his arrival and performance ever since it was announced that Eddie Money would be at Waterfront Park. It was everything and more that I believed it and wanted it to be. He, of course, is quite a bit older now so I wasn't sure what to expect...but he "turned up the music just as loud as it could go" alongside the Ohio River, singing all of my favorites; Walk on Water, I Wanna Go Back, Take Me Home Tonight, Two Tickets to Paradise, I Think I'm in Love, and my personal fav...Shakin'.


I was feeling good...in my element. But, there is irony all over this night and the hours that have since followed. It's laughable really, if you are a middle aged man or woman. I wore heels last night, no problem...this morning, big mistake. I can barely walk. I stayed up way later than my norm, another mistake. I feel hungover, but I insist that I am not. Why? Because draft was 8 bucks a cup. I had a limit, and I did not allot that much for bottomless cups of brew. I did indulge a little and it was the best draft I ever had...I normally don't even care for draft, gives me a headache. I danced, stood up, sang loudly and gave him more shout outs and yelps than I can count, the ENTIRE duration of the show. Today, I can barely move and my throat is as sore as my middle aged self has felt in quite awhile...my body is saying or should I say screaming out...Kelly, what in the hell? That hit by a mac truck kinda thing, yep that's me. I'm sure each of you have had these feelings at least one time...most of you, more times than you care to mention and/or recall. I am not complaining. It was a great night. I had the chance to meet him and speak to him. I told him probably more than he wanted to hear from a complete stranger in Louisville, KY. but I didn't care. I had waited my turn (just like everyone else) and I wanted to talk to him.

I guess the entire chain of events made me think about the aging Eddie Money, myself and the rest of the natural world's population as we know it. I'm sure that Ed would like to be performing in sold-out arenas across the country, but instead he performs where and when he can. He has a son to put through college just like many of us are planning to do, currently doing or will be doing at some point in the future if you have a child or children. In a society that thrives on good looks, abilities and accolades...sometimes, it's a bit painful...wanting to recapture a piece of our youth. That fact alone, a glance back into my younger days and all that they implied, was one of the reasons I wanted to attend the venue in the first place. Our glory days can be quite a double edged sword. Eddie Money hasn't had a billboard hit in years. I wasn't going to hear his latest releases...I wanted the stuff I knew, the lyrics I loved.

Ironically, maybe that's a plus of getting older too, we know what we like, we are comfortable with what we know and we stay with that. Does that make us Classics like many of the artists of the 1980s and early 1990s? I'd rather be a classic any day of the week than a fly by night.