Posted on 12/21/2012 8:34:37 AM PST by chessplayer
THERE was Roger Daltrey, 68, with his open shirt revealing a Palm Beach perma-tan, and abs so snare-tight that they immediately raised suspicion. (“Implants!” charged a few skeptical members of the Twittersphere.)
Last week’s star-studded “12-12-12” concert — a showcase of retirement-age rock icons like the Rolling Stones, the Who and Eric Clapton — not only raised millions to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy, but as the “the largest collection of old English musicians ever assembled in Madison Square Garden,” as Mick Jagger joked onstage, it also inspired viewer debate about whether is it possible to look cool and rebellious after 50 without looking foolish?
“I will donate $1,000 to #121212Concert if Roger Daltry buttons his shirt,” tweeted Alan Zweibel, 62, a comedy writer.
The quickest route to ridicule, it seems, is for aging rockers to proceed as if nothing has changed.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
When I listen to Pete Townsend, Eric Clapton, Joe Walsh and the rest I am again a young man rediscovering the cosmic awareness inducing shock of true rock...
Mick Jagger is a pathetic relic who sullies the legacy of the Rolling Stones with his halfhearted rheumatoid faggot dancing...
...he should give it a rest and maybe the other legends of rock will be inspired to go out as the heroes they deserve to be.
The only song that they produced that wasn't mediocre was the cool “Get Over It!” and that was near the end of their careers.
The Eagles had the very best PR and sold way beyond their talent but their sucker fans will never admit it.
To me, Joe Walsh was the only Eagle worth a damn and he had the sense to stay away from the overrated dumasses as much as he could.
I hate these articles on Rock and Rollers...How they look and move onstage, their hair and skin, their pants and shoes, etc. What a load of crap. Just tell me how the music sounded and maybe I’ll remember to look for an album next time I go to the mall.
To an Athlete Dying Young
by A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields were glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.
When I hear “Old English musicians” I think of Henry Purcell and William Byrd.
If your opinion is a consensus then Rock is indeed dead...is there no young person today willing to collect the collections of analog rock, take from the recordings the inspirations and present their own interpretations sans the digital cheating and sterile computerized reproductions of mechanical musical talent...? Joe Walsh is an old fart trying to save analog rock and I would endorse buying his new recordings... ...but it is too little too late and a thousand years from now when cool dudes want to get mellow with a doobie and a song their play-lists will resemble any pothead’s from 1968 to 1972.
I believe Keef actually did die about the same time but nobody’s had the heart to tell him.
Same goes for the listeners.
For these miserable wretches, i.e. the rock press, rock and roll could never be innocent fun (which it was for most teens), it had to be "angry" and full of rebellion. The fact is most teens were not angry and rebellious. They just wanted music they could dance to or sing and play. I doubt most rockers were down for the struggle either. Most of the early rockers might have been libs, but I think they were probably more into drugs and sex than they were politics.
Although I liked the Stones, I was highly amused the first time I saw Jagger on Ed Sullivan gyrating like a spastic yo-yo. The Stones had the conceit that they were some sort of blues band with a rock tempo. They always sounded like white rock and rollers to me.
Nope,wrong! I have a music collection that consists of about 3,000 songs...most of them having been obtained through the miracle of public libraries and the CD-R.I have Rock,Pop,Folk,some Jazz,some C&W and even a little Classical.At least ninety percent of those songs are from the 50's and 60's.Even today I can listen to The Who (early stuff),the Stones (ditto),Dylan (ditto) and many many other groups/individual performers from that era and my heart sings! Music,more than any of the other "arts",hits me right where I live.That is...music of the 50's and 60's.Other stuff (with a few exceptions) no thanks!
Then should people forty and older not be allowed to listen to or like rock and roll music? I'm 63...should I throw out the Beatles and other rock and roll sheet music that I play on my guitar?
Of course rock is dead. The thing about zombies, of course, is that they don’t know they’re dead. They just keep jaggering around the stage.
See Post #35
If that sounds simplistic, it might be because many people put too much emphasis on rock and roll being a music of anger and rebellion. But most of the teens who liked rock and roll weren't angry or rebellious. They didn't want to destroy western civilization, they wanted to have a good time.
I get upset when I read articles by rock "critics" like one I read in a Minneapolis newspaper many years ago (1990?) who said he got mad when he saw young people at a concert given by rockers from the sixties. This idiot said young people should only be listening to rock music from their contemporaries. That would be like forbidding you or me from listening to music from the forties or further back. (I love to listen to Bach and play classical guitar music from the 1600s and 1700s. I don't think Bach or Gaspar Sanz were in my age group). It's nobodys business the music from whatever era somebody likes to listen to or play.
And as a side note in nthe last two years the wife and I have gone to concerts by a number of big name musicians whose concerts we had no money or means to attend when we were young. That includes Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Stevie Nicks. And they all sounded great. So I'm glad you still love the music you loved as a teen. And don't put down rockers in their declining years who still want to give concerts. If people like to listen to the old geezers, that's the only thing that counts.
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