Time

They're rockin' while they've still got it

Sunday, December 03, 2006By John Sinkevics---from The Grand Rapids Press

Fans cheering celebrated rocker Pete Townshend as he windmills his way into another blistering guitar riff at Van Andel Arena's Who concert Tuesday will want to reflect on this: He's older than President George W. Bush, tycoon Donald Trump and talk-show host David Letterman. Like most rock stars, Townshend doesn't pretend to act his age, which happens to be 61. Same goes for fellow 61-year-olds Eric Clapton, the legendary guitarist who delivered Van Andel's concert of the year in September, and Bob Seger, the beloved Michigan rocker who recently launched his first tour in a decade here to throngs of rabid fans. Famous rock artists Neil Young, John Fogerty and Van Morrison also turned 61 in 2006, so 1945 clearly was a very good year for rock 'n' roll, even if this genre wasn't yet a genre. Hold onto your Botox, baby boomers: The roster of beloved rock icons older than 60 is growing faster than ear hair and cholesterol counts. I won't suggest concert venues stock up on defibrillators and oxygen tanks backstage, but this rock-at-retirement-age thing is an alarming phenomenon for fans of classic rock bands who heartily embraced the youthful energy, the rebellion, the volume and the dynamic spectacle of rock in the '60s and '70s. Now they worry if this hearty embrace might result in a broken hip. Let's face it, anybody who grew up idolizing sex symbols Robert Plant, Mick Jagger or Carly Simon never envisioned rock heroes with gray or balding hair, reading glasses, bad teeth and a Medicare card. Even Townshend's "My Generation," the 1965 anthem of youth that The Who still performs, brazenly declared, "I hope I die before I get old." Yes, Who drummer Keith Moon tragically followed through on that (along with other hard-partying rock 'n' rollers), but plenty continue to sprint, or shuffle, across stages. This is truly astonishing when bearing in mind that the grumpy-looking President Lyndon Johnson didn't turn 61 until after he left office in 1969, and the jowly Richard Nixon was 61 when he resigned. Not only are Townshend, Clapton and Seger older than Bush and Bill Clinton, they're even older than the bikini, which was invented way back in 1946. (Granted, this isn't really relevant. I just found it interesting that the bikini is 60 years old.) More amazing, Townshend cohort Roger Daltrey already has turned 62, Jagger is 63, The Beatles' Paul McCartney is 64 and Bob Dylan is 65. Luckily, most of these survivors seem to take pretty good care of themselves these days. They don't hurl themselves off of amplifier stacks or stage-slide quite as far in their seventh decade, but I'm convinced they usually put on better-sounding shows than they did when they were in their 20s or 30s. And I'd bet plenty of whipper-snappers would have trouble keeping up with the aerobically fit Jagger over a boisterous two-hour show. But how much longer can they keep this up? How long before their knees give out, before they're all using TelePrompTers to jog their memories, before fans realize their favorite stars look like their grandparents? Heck, a lot of 'em are grandparents. Can the Rolling Stones tour at age 70? That's the scariest question no one ever dreamed would get asked, but then, I'm more curious than most and old enough to forget what point I was trying to make in the first place. Consider, too, that hearing loss affects about half of people 60 and older, and most of them didn't stand in front of amplifiers cranked to '11' a la Spinal Tap. (In a Press interview, Townshend blamed headphones for his hearing problems: "Those occasions when I was in the studio having fun, wearing earphones to make sure I didn't wake up my family, drinking for pleasure, I lowered my pain threshold and did the most damage.") Stars in other musical genres haven't had to worry so much about this age thing. After all, roaring through lively rock solos in a cloud of stage fog is a different animal than Frank Sinatra crooning "My Way" in his 60s. Sure, bluesman B.B. King still performs at age 81, but he sits down for his shows.
The moral? Enjoy them now, before the term "rocker" just describes the chair they have to haul out on stage.