[ Andy Struble wrote in 051202 MMDigest:

> As the years pass by, even the standard "oldies" from the 70's
> and 80's seem to be boring and passe to the teenage crowd.

As a "younger" owner (just now 40) of several mechanical music
instruments, I found your statement very true.  But something surprised
me the other day.

We keep a Wurlitzer 125 in our country store in Harpers Ferry, West
Virginia, and play it on weekends.  I usually play the traditional
march rolls, though this weekend I am doing overtures.  Low and behold,
the teenagers that work in the shop for the first time stopped and
listened with big eyes and jaws literally on the floor.

I think that if there is a music to tie all the ages together it is
this, especially since all generations were exposed to it at some point.
My first exposure to the "William Tell Overture" was as a 5-year-old
watching Bugs Bunny when in many scenes the opening score was used
during sunrise!

I asked our employees if they would like the band organ if it played
one of their modern bands and they laughed.  They like their music to
be distinct to the band playing it, not a "cover" heard on the band
organ.  There are a few modern bands, such as Dave Mathews Band for
example, which I think would sound great but a lot of modern music
comes from instruments and sounds that are hard to reproduce with
antique mechanical music.

Rich Schaffer
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia