Lazy Sunday # 165: Aging Rock Stars

I finally had a chance to see one of my teen idols live this week. And I kinda wish I hadn't.

But the Casino sent me free tickets plus a dinner voucher for their noodle bar, so -- what the hell…

I won't embarrass this guy by naming him. Somehow that would be beating the dead horse of my cherished youth more than he did with his performance on the night in question.

Some of us age gracefully. Others, not so much. And a few apparently need to be dragged kicking and screaming out of their leather pants and pirate shirts.

Suffice it to say there's something awful creepy about a guy pushing 70 lusting after the prom queen or hoping somebody's mom lets him go out with her.

I've had the good fortune to catch a lot of great rock and roll acts before anybody else had heard of them. I saw "The Tubes" at their record debut party at LA's Roxy. I caught "T.Rex" and "Donovan" in a London pubs where they passed the hat after each set. "The Cars" at the El Mocambo before anybody knew who they were. "Joni Mitchell" in a Regina coffee house when her singing husband of the time was the actual marquee draw.

I've also finally caught several of my faves when they decided it was time to pull the plug and hit the road for a final farewell, including various incarnations of "The Who", who've retired more often than Brett Favre and still don't seem to have disappeared.

Popular music is often used in movies and TV to evoke an era and some part of me believes once that era is gone, it has a nostalgic value but it's better if you and your musical tastes move on.

And every time I go to a hockey game and hear the ancient anthems that permeate the time-outs, I wonder how I would have reacted in my teens to somebody trying to pump me up with Bo-Dee-Oh-Do music from the 1920's.

So while I know that a lot of these guys are still on the road because people like to wax nostalgic or their record company screwed them on their royalties, part of me always wishes they either had some new stuff (signifying they really are artists still plugging away at their craft) or they found a new approach to their old hits so you didn't spend half the concert wondering if they'll still be able to hit the high notes.

Apparently I'm not alone in these ruminations.

Tim Hawkins is primarily known as a "Christian Comic", which I guess means he works clean and doesn't worry about Bill Maher cadging any of his material. And what follows is his take on aging rock stars. I couldn't agree more.

We're all getting older. But some of us need to cop to that a little more than most. Enjoy your Sunday.