Are aging rock superstars like Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones timeless or too old to perform on stage anymore? – Part 81
For as long as anyone is willing to see their concerts, purchase their songs and otherwise patronize their public activities, the age of these performers is an irrelevancy.
Music changes with time. But the tastes of most people do not, when it comes to the musical genre of their choice. A lot of this has to do with memories. People who have gotten older want to relive their youth. They do this with photographs, movies or videos, reunions, and watching old movies and television shows. This is one of the attractions of services like Netflix – viewing the old-time TV series and the uncut, uncensored movies of those times. But what many people remember best is the music they listened to in their teens and twenties. So if they can recapture these moments by attending a concert of rock-stars like the Rolling Stones or the surviving, performing Beatles, there will be no shortage of fans for these artists. Couple that with the fact that many of them have created new music that is a bit more contemporary, but still part of their original genre, and the fans that aged with them will beat a path to their live concerts.
Johnny Cash and June Carter were able to draw huge crowds to their concerts almost until they passed away. People paid good money to attend Elvis concerts even when he was a bloated caricature of himself and his performances were, to be kind, quite sub-par. Who from the sixties generation would not pay top dollar to see Roy Orbison live, were he that, or attend a Jimmy Hendrix or Janis Joplin concert? What if bands like the Beach Boys and the Bee-Gees were able to get together again? Would they not have huge draws to any live tour, even if they didn’t include a single new tune? Didn’t people flock to opera houses to see aging performers like Luciano Pavarotti and Beverly Sills at the very end of their careers? What about Jazz fans? Did they shy away from the last performances of the greats like John Coltrane, Jimmy Rushing and Dizzy Gillespie? Why should fans of the original rock bands be denied the treat of seeing their favorites performing in concert?
It irks me that people take it upon themselves to raise the issue of age as some kind of magical qualification for a performer, be he or she a musician or an actor. If we have outlawed age discrimination in most countries, how dare someone say that because a performer has reached his or her “golden” years, they are no longer eligible to appear on stage, irrespective of the demands of the public.
Nobody has the right to say whether or not a performer is washed up, except the fans. And that is only demonstrated by a lack of attendance at a concert venue. As long as people line up to see the rock-stars of the Sixties and Seventies perform, then they should be giving stage performances if they are physically able.
Tags: Beach Boys, Live Concerts, Musical Genre