Rheumatoid Rock n' Rollers - Better Off In Retirement?

Touted to be the year of the solo female, 2009 has instead taken an unexpected musical turn in quite the opposite direction. It’s the old boys who have been snatching the limelight from the electro-pop princesses, and the trend is all set to ascend sharply with the onset of the festival season. Last month Sir Paul McCartney kicked off California’s Coachella festival in what has been called an ‘energised’, if imperfect, performance. Leonard Cohen and Morrissey also appeared at the weekend event in the Indio desert. Then there’s Glastonbury, which will feature the double whammy of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen headlining the bill this June.

Save for Morrissey, who clocks in at a sprightly 49 years, all of these artists have hit the big six-oh (Springsteen celebrates his this year). And yet they’re still going, rheumatically rocking and rolling around stages, prune-faced and stiff-fingered, and selling out shows in seconds. Times are hard, but can this really be the recession forcing hexagenarians to tour well into retirement, decades after their respective heydays? Or are we seeing the pop cultural equivalent of Brooks in The Shawshank Redemption – rock stars institutionalised by their craft, unable to kick the gigging habit?

Those who witnessed Dylan doddering around the stage at the O2 recently can’t have failed to notice his declining health – the arthritic dancing, the staccato bark of forced vocals, the ban on photography to save face (quite literally). There was a delicious nostalgia in glimpsing the ultimate counter-cultural icon, even from the distant reaches of that utterly soulless arena, but it was precious recompense for renditions of songs warped beyond recognition, and the almost belligerent reluctance of Dylan to engage with his adoring audience.

Nonetheless, the two nights sold out in seconds, and by rule of simple economics Dylan’s so-called ‘Never Ending Tour’ shows no signs of slacking just as long as demand for tickets continues. Though Dylan has all but relinquished guitar-playing live, instead settling for the comfortable confines of the organ and harmonica, many of his old-timer colleagues are still attempting the guitar-work with which they first found fame. Neil Young, whose coming Glastonbury headline set might not match Jay-Z’s in terms of controversy but still seems somewhat questionable, now relies heavily on the superior musicianship of his band. Astonishingly, his much reviled new album Fork In The Road upset fans by pushing back the release of best-of Archives. If ever there was proof that aged musicians are surviving on reputation over output, this is surely it.

Rock ’n’ roll, once the most basic expression of youth and youth culture, has been overrun by has-beens.

Yet with the swill of mediocrity that characterises post-rock, maybe we should be grateful for these grey-haired reminders of what once was. As long as landfill indie proliferates, indicating the long-awaited suicide of an overproduced, overstyled genre, the veterans will benefit from the culture they created coming full circle. Music, much like everything else, is in a state of flux – and while the dust settles, it’s those who have already proven their longevity who will profit, regardless of whether they’d be better off in retirement.