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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Pull up a chair and keep rocking
March 18, 2006
Theage.com.au
Once they hoped to die before they got old, but no longer - 60-somethings are back at the top of the charts. Tim de Lisle explains why the wrinklies are going strong.
RECENTLY PAUL McCartney met a man who plays the piano in an old people's home. "I hope you don't mind," the pianist said, "but I play some of your songs, and the most popular one is When I'm 64." Ah yes, the sugary music-hall ditty from Sergeant Pepper's that people either love or hate. "But I have to change the title," the man went on, "because 64 seems young to those people. They don't get it." So he sings "When I'm 84" instead. McCartney sees his point: "If I were to write it now," he told the Los Angeles Times, "I'd probably call it When I'm 94."
McCartney will be 64 in June. He has a young band, a young producer, a young wife, a small child, and youngish hair; his age shows only in his jowls, the odd creak in his voice and an air of gathering urgency, which led him to open the proceedings at Live8 as well as close them. He still needs us, and he is not alone. Three new entries in recent weeks in the British album charts came from McCartney's contemporaries: Neil Diamond, 65, Dolly Parton, 60, and Ray Davies of the Kinks, 61. Welcome to sexagenarian rock'n'roll.
The music business still has its meteors - the Arctic Monkeys are all under 21, and the new star of British soul, Corinne Bailey Rae, is 26. But there is a flurry of activity from the elders of the tribe. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, 60, has released a rare solo album. Van Morrison, also 60, has released his umpteenth CD. Joan Baez, 65, is touring. The Rolling Stones, with 246 years between them, are in the middle of another world tour. Bob Dylan, is 64 and still touring. Leonard Cohen, 71, is working on a new album. (This is the man who, when he took his songs to agents in New York, was asked, "Aren't you a little old for this game?" He was 32.) B.B. King, 80, will be in Britain in April for his farewell tour. Elton John, 58, will tour Britain this northern summer.
Then there's the Who. Having somehow survived the death of half their line-up, decades of dormancy and Pete Townshend's encroaching deafness, they are still big enough to headline festivals this summer. The band that hoped they would die before they got old must increasingly find their own lyrics quoted back at them: "Why don't you all just f-f-fade away?"
This question has many answers. Bands play on because they love it, or they're addicted to the roar of the crowd, or because it's what they do. Rock is a hybrid form, drawing on blues, country, folk and gospel: cultures that attach no stigma to seniority. It's only the final ingredient in the recipe - youth culture - that makes us surprised to find a person of 60 singing rock songs.
The truth, however, is that music hasn't been ruled by the young for years now. More than half of all CDs are bought by people over 30; Mojo, the magazine for the greying fan, outsells NME; even big-selling young bands settle on a sound that is reactionary (Oasis), retro (the Kaiser Chiefs) or colossally reassuring (Coldplay).
What is the formula for rock longevity? Asked how he had managed to keep going into his 50s, Iggy Pop replied: "I'm not bald, I'm not fat, and I'm not safe." Many stars manage to adhere to at least two of these criteria. Few rock singers are bald, and those who are, wear a hat, such as Van Morrison, or divert attention with comedy braiding arrangements, a la Keith Richards.
Safety is another matter. John Cale, 63, has found a new lease of life playing "dirty-ass rock'n'roll", as he calls it, in sweaty clubs, almost 40 years after changing the course of rock as the viola player with the Velvet Underground.
Craftsmanship hardly ages at all, and smarter songwriters have used it to defuse the issue of age itself. Paul Simon, 64, wrote a song baldly titled Old, arguing that people of 50 or 60 were not old in the context of human history.
Ry Cooder, 58, seeks out musicians far older than himself. "I always thought you need to find the oldest person," he said last year, "because they know the secret things that can't be described or written down or put in DVD form. They have the capacity to play and sing the beautiful thing that comes from the inside." With Buena Vista Social Club, Cooder assembled musicians aged 65 to 90 for an album that was expected to sell 400,000 copies and achieved 10 times that.
The sharpest weapon, however, is excellence. Neil Diamond's new record, 12 Songs, sold 40,000 copies in Britain in a week, twice as many as his previous album managed in four years, even though he didn't promote it. It was because, as nearly all the critics agreed, he had made an outstanding album ("I'm too old to pretend").
The template here is Johnny Cash, who released four albums of searing honesty in the decade before his death in 2003. Cash's producer was hip-hop entrepreneur Rick Rubin, who also produced Diamond's new album. "There's no reason why great artists shouldn't make their best records when they're 50, 60, 70. In other disciplines, it would be expected," Rubin said recently.
Disciplines! Rock really must have changed.
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| the good |
I can't stand it when people mention the Stones collective age. It is such a STUPID point to make. AND If you COMBINE thier ages, they are 246. HAHAHA! 
[Edited by the good] |
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| rollmops |
Those"old timers"mention in the article are inventif, creative, daring musicians. They were that way in their 20's and that's the way they still are in their 60's or 70's. I am not familiar with the 20 year old musicians of 2006. Maybe they aren't as impressive as the old timers. The new generation of musicians should come up with something "new" something of their own. If they keep playing rock and roll they will never make an impression as long as the old timers are still kicking and rocking. The kids have to come up with something new,appealing to the youth like the stones did when they embraced R&B in the early 60's. But that is the difficulty for a musician; to eventually find out about oneself. The old timers did.
Mops |
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| monkeyman62 |
well in the stones case its pull up a rocking chair |
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| keefjunkie |
quote:
monkeyman62 wrote:
well in the stones case its pull up a rocking chair
I hate you. |
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| Break The Spell |
I agree with what mops said about the younger kids having to come up with something new, but at this point, what new style of music can you do that hasn't yet been done?? Thats why there are so many cross-over styles that have popped up lately, its diffucult to come up with something 100% new at this point. |
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| jb |
Very humiliating.........................503k..... |
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| glencar |
Was that Macca played at the end of last night's Sopranos episode? |
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| time is on my side |
quote:
glencar wrote:
Was that Macca played at the end of last night's Sopranos episode?
Just saw the number one movie in all the land over the weekend
V for Vendetta
Strictly popcorn entertainment in my book (had a good TIME) though I suppose there will be those that will take it too seriously since it has a political theme.
Anyways, at the end of the movie, lo and behold, as the credits were Rolling along, what song do you think was playing???
Street Fighting Man.
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| jb |
[quote]time is on my side wrote:
Just saw the number one movie in all the land over the weekend
V for Vendetta
Strictly popcorn entertainment in my book (had a good TIME) though I suppose there will be those that will take it too seriously since it has a political theme.
Anyways, at the end of the movie, lo and behold, as the credits were Rolling along, what song do you think was playing???
Street Fighting Man.
[/quote
Portman is one hot Jew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(and very smart) |
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| erikjjf |
quote:
jb wrote:
Portman is one hot Jew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(and very smart)
Agree! Did you see "Closer"? |
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| jb |
quote:
erikjjf wrote:
Agree! Did you see "Closer"?
Yes.........a superb performance!!!! See Vanity Fair for more details!!! |
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| Joey |
quote:
jb wrote:
Yes.........a superb performance!!!! See Vanity Fair for more details!!!
Christ, that's posting on loan from God right there.
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| Dick Bush |
quote:
Joey wrote:
Christ, that's posting on loan from God right there.
Joy,
That's very nicely put - one more time!
P.s. I love you!!
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| Joey |
" Joy,
That's very nicely put - one more time! "
What Can I say ........ I was given a gift !!!!!!!
" It is not easy being a great writer Ronnie ! "
J. " Snuggles " Fly !!!!!
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| Mel Belli |
quote:
the good wrote:
I can't stand it when people mention the Stones collective age. It is such a STUPID point to make. AND If you COMBINE thier ages, they are 246. HAHAHA!
[Edited by the good]
Sadly, most journalistic writing about the Stones nowadays, even the favorable stuff, is little more than an accumulation of cliches... |
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