We're In The 50s

 

We've entered the age of 50th anniversaries. 2024 will be the 50th anniversary of the release of Rush's Fly By Night album. Few bands from the early 70s are still playing--at least with all the original band members.

Do rock musicians senesce in their older years, and can (or will) they still be interested in playing? Blues and jazz musicians still play in their 80s and 90s--classical composers into their 100s. The difference between the latter and former is that jazz and blues are closer to classical and don't require youthfulness to perform them--and classical and jazz are known to be joined at the hip in some ways with other domains. But certainly, rock musicians can adopt a more philosophical or intellectual approach even when they're in their youth. I was an egghead in my 20s while writing pop songs. Many pop songs had lyrics about headier things, such as Sting's interest in Jungian psychology. He said back then that he could see himself as a Jungian analyst.

In an interview with Geddy Lee about his new memoir he referenced his interview with Bill Wyman for his previous book about basses and Wyman was indifferent to basses--and perhaps to the Rolling Stones:

"There was one interview I did with Bill Wyman and the last thing he wanted to talk about was bass guitars. He would talk to you about anything. He had written nine books at that time, He was a butterfly photographer, he had invented his own metal detectors...he's just simply a fascinating person. I walked away from that thinking there's more to bass players than you think."

When you find yourself in your 60s or 70s and you grew up in a mostly childlike time [the 60s were very childlike but also very spiritual (the Second Turning thing)], how do we now view a band like Rush--who did an album titled Hemispheres in the 1970s and now we're talking about the philosophical implications of brain hemispheres. If 2024 was 1974 there might be a drummer that had read The Master And His Emissary and was inspired to write some lyrics for an album (Emispheres). Little did Neil Peart know in 1974 that almost 50 years into the future it would be such a popular topic. The interest in the hemispheres wasn't that popular even in 2020 when he died.

In 1976 we would have never thought that was philosophical. We thought it was cool that there were philosophical lyrics and now it's actually philosophical. I think these days elder prog rockers can be philosophers. Talk to Robert Fripp...