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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

I see old people!

I went to a concert of 60s and 70s music the other night. It was advertised as being a concert made up of the original bands and artists, but there were only a handful of originals there, the rest of the band members were ringins from a different, more modern era. I have a fairly good recollection of music from that time but even my memory didn’t stretch far enough to remember some of the artists on stage and I can’t recollect many of the songs they sung. However the crowd that was there obviously did recollect the songs and proved it by belting out each chorus while gyrating as best they could considering the creak of arthritis that filled the air and the beer guts the men were toting with them.

I spent a fair bit of the night gazing at my fellow audience members, as I often do when I go out, and it was frightening to see how many old people were gathered in one spot, under the same roof without being anywhere near a retirement village. It was then the first awful thought hit me – I was one of them. Sure I wasn’t the oldest member of the audience, but I wouldn’t have been the youngest either. I was surrounded by my generation, with all its wrinkles and flabbiness and fake tans and pot guts. Trust me; I did not like that thought at all. That thought made me shiver “like bad news on the door step”... ah but someone has already used that line.

The only thing scarier than an older audience dressing up like they did in their teens and getting all groovy with each other, is watching musicians in their 60s and 70s attempting to swivel sexily while croaking out the songs that made them famous. It is either awesome or embarrassing that they are still on stage at this time of their lives and I’m leaning toward embarrassing. There is something about the effects of emphysema and the use of a cane that detract from their overall performance.

Now I have nothing against any of these performers in their heyday – although there weren’t many that performed the other night that I actually followed in the 70s. But some music just doesn’t cut it when performed live by aged musicians. We aren’t talking Bach or Strauss here – classical music can be produced at any age, one only has to read the tabloids to follow the careers of virtuoso musicians from 8 to 80. We are talking full on rock and roll, which, when performed live, requires all the relevant hip jerking, sexually explicit grinding motions that normally accompany it. Not to mention the jumping up and down and around the stage. It is painful to watch someone 60+ attempting to make those same moves.

I went to the concert with a friend of mine. She had bought tickets for herself and her husband but he refused to go once he had seen the list of performers. Whatever I thought of the entertainment, I enjoyed the night out catching up with my friend and the other people on our table (total strangers) added a bit of comedy to the evening. She never stopped talking and he never stopped trying to shut her up, in between the chatter and the shooshing they drank copious amounts of alcohol and regaled us with stories from their youth.


6 comments:

  1. Oh Gosh....I cut a cartoon out of the paper and saved it for class reunion.... two people are looking through the window before going into the reunion and say, "that can't be our group, they are all old" where did the years go???? and why did they fly by so fast????

    A few years ago we went to a concert on the riverfront and david alan coe sang....without a shirt....(he needed a shirt badly)

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  2. my dental assistant once told me that i would never get prettier or thinner now that i was older.....i thought to myself, ......shut your mouth....cause in my eyes, i am still the same......just like all those old folks.....we still rock and roll, look good, and it feels great......who cares what people think....i'm past all that......rock and roll never dies....

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  3. I know what you mean. It seems a good number of the singers from back in the day are still attempting to strut their once-sexy stuff. I look at them and I feel so old!
    Glad you had a good time anyway.
    Cheers,
    xoRobyn

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  4. I like MG's comment! Some older rockers still pull it off ok, but others.... I watch through my fingers!

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  5. This goes the same way for me when I walk by a mirror and think, who is that old coot?

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  6. nanny - that made me laugh! I can't believe the years fly by so fast - makes me want to make the most of every second.

    mermaid - I certainly feel the same as I was in my twenties and even sometimes in my teens - just a tad more responsible unfortunately!

    Robyn - it begs the question of whether they should keep going or retire? I'm not sure I know what the answer is...

    Kazzy - me too! Some old rockers are best listened to with ones eyes shut - better to remember them as they once were.

    Mrs Tuna - I can so relate!

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