Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Here's What Bothers Me

My mind does not believe that I am aging. Despite the gray hair, the beer belly, the aching back and knees, the wrinkles, the colonoscopies, the omnipresent fatigue and a general slowing down, my mind still believes that I am a kid.
But the people who have inspired me are aging and I can't get away from it.  It jolts me back to reality and I don't like reality.
Reading about the current Beach Boys tour in the latest issue of Rolling Stone and the article contained the following sentence: "The logistics of transporting five senior-citizen rock stars, plus a 10 member band, 25 crew members, and assorted wives and families, on a tour with as many as five shows a week, is a feat in itself." FIVE SENIOR-CITIZEN ROCK STARS? You are talking about the goddamn Beach Boys here.
There is another age related reference here as well. Instead of printing each day's itinerary for the band, everything on the tour is communicated via an app accessible with their iPhones. "The only problem is, most of the guys don't really know how to use their iPhones." I can identify.
I remember cruising around as a kid singing their songs gleefully with the windows down and self consciousness erased, worshipping rock 'n roll like a religion. So many of their songs are so damn singable.
Brian Wilson is 69, Mike Love is 71. Dennis Wilson is dead, Carl Wilson is dead.
WTF? How can this be?
In five days Paul McCartney will be 70. Ringo will be 72 in July. John is dead. George is dead.
Keith Richards is 68. Mick is 68. Charlie Watts is 71.
I read about them, I see them in concert footage and in interviews, as a music junkie I am always plugged in. So I cannot escape the fact that fifty years have gone by since they first electro-jolted my soul.
Which means that fifty years have gone by in my life too. NFW.
I take comfort in knowing they can still bring it. Music is the eternal rejuvenator. I hear the Beach Boys are harmonizing beautifully on this tour. I saw Crosby, Stills and Nash on a summer night a few years ago and their voices were angelic.
And The Stones still rock. People who mock what they do at their age are uninformed, at best. At worst, they are sniveling wimp asses who couldn't keep up with The Stones even thought they are ten years younger.
McCartney still inspires crowds to sing along word for word and he still can rock and belt out some bluesy magic. Ringo continues to tour every other year with respected musicians, spreading his good time rock and positive attitude around the world.
At the age of 58 I stagger and stumble, one step forward, two steps back, STILL trying to make sense of my life. Still trying to weave the magic through my life story that was originally inspired by BeatlesStonesDoorsAllmanBrothersCSN&Y and many, many others.
They are in their seventies, I am in my late fifties, and they can still get me to dance around my kitchen in joyful abandon at the drop of a riff.
I still get goosebumps, I still sing along.
No matter what the future holds for me or for them, they have given me the most precious gift of my life, other than my amazing wife and magnificent sons.
They have given me the gift of happiness, freedom and abandon that I can dial up whenever I want to.
If you refer to them as senior-citizen rock stars, you best do it with reverence. Or I am coming after you.

1 comment:

  1. Talk about old, the Rock and Roll HOF's "This Date in R&R History" segment starts...This date in the year 640 the "Rock" band America released their first album of Gregorian Chants! Who could forget those great standards like "Appain Way Highway" and a Monastery favorite " A Monk with No Name".

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