There are certain things you never expect to see when you walk into a school. It's doubtful you'll see somebody smoking a cigarette or drinking a beer (unless some rebellious student is trying to make a "statement") or partaking in something illegal.

For the most part you wouldn't expect to see something that would be much more at home in an adult world, even it's something totally innocuous.

Case in point: a Pink Floyd poster. There's nothing wrong with a poster dedicated to the now very long in the tooth rock band. They have stayed around so long, and sold so many records, that they became kind of iconic, a group that seemed like they had always been there.

Still, I was kind of surprised recently when I walked into the music class at Vonore Middle School and saw a poster for Pink Floyd's 30+ year old album "The Wall" hanging right up in plain sight.

As I said above, nothing wrong with such a thing. I've had Pink Floyd posters myself over the years. I was a very devoted fan of "The Wall." I had the original album many years ago and now have it on CD. In fact, I have most of the CD's Pink Floyd released over the years. I consider myself a rather knowledgeable fan. In other words, my surprise didn't come from a "how dare they!" stance.

No, my surprise came from walking into a Vonore school and seeing a Pink Floyd poster on the wall. Of all places!

Understand, it's been many years since I was in school. And when I was there, my music education was pretty much a class I took in grammar school that I remember consisted of us singing what I always thought of as "campfire songs" while the teacher played the piano. I recall many renditions of "Working on the railroad."

I was at the school to take a picture, but the poster (it was the one of the screaming head, probably more associated with the movie made from the album than anything else) knocked me for a temporary loop and I forgot why I was there.

There were other rock band posters on the wall, but they didn't affect me as much as the Pink Floyd one. There was Led Zeppelin, which seems almost a requirement for faux hipness nowadays, and one for Lynyrd Skynyrd. The Skynyrd one was a no brainer. I mean, really, remember where we are.

But the Pink Floyd poster really baffled me. "The Wall" is a very complicated set of music, never mind the sometimes confusing lyrics. If these kids can play the piano or guitar parts from this record, then they might need to be seeking out some recording contracts themselves.

Honestly, they're probably not playing any selections from the record. The poster is probably just there for some kind of musical inspiration. Maybe the teacher is some kind of latter day hippy (she looked too young to have experienced any of these groups first hand) and had the posters lying around, or found them half priced at some music store.

No, the bigger question is, "What happened in Monroe County in the past 30 years that Pink Floyd (and Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd) posters are now hanging on school walls?"

In 1979, when I was in junior high school (the Sweetwater equivalent of middle school) I was sent to the principal's office because I dared to wear a KISS T-shirt to school. There was nothing offensive about the shirt. It just had the letters K-I-S-S on it. That was all. I was told to never wear it again.

What changed? Is it because my generation, the one that grew up with such rock bands and knew they were just trying to get rich and nothing else, is now teaching the classes? Have those bands and their songs become so entrenched in the culture that we can't understand how somebody could ever have found them offensive?

Is it because when we hear "Comfortably Numb," a song about drug use to get you through the day, we hear the soaring guitar playing and never bother to think what the song's about?

Personally, I hope so. What people find offensive about entertainment is usually so ridiculous it's not worth commenting on. I was told my KISS shirt meant I would be viewed as a devil worshiper. At the age of 12, that frightened me. But what frightens me even more now is that the adult who told me that truly believed it.

I don't know what will be hanging on the walls of music classrooms 25 years from now. It might still be Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin posters as modern day rock is pathetic. I'm just glad we've reached a point where such posters can be hung on the school wall and nobody loses their mind.

michael.thomason@advocateanddemocrat.com | 442-4575