Apparently, and regrettably, David Lee Roth has started a residency at Las Vegas, and for some absurd amount of money, you too can witness the spectacle of an elderly man in ill fitting clothes and obvious frontal lobe damage stiffly strutting around stage. I suppose that yes, it is still David Lee Roth, but it’s not the David Lee Roth you remember or want to remember. It’s an obscene caricature of David Lee Roth- long in the tooth, without voice or authority, cheapened by wear and tear and misuse, and ready to collapse at any moment. It’s enough to make you wonder if it was always this bad as you unfortunately glimpse his sagging ass betrayed by skin tight attire that should, at the very least, provide the bare minimum of architectural support.
It does not.
***
That’s basically how I feel about the state of our democracy heading into the impeachment. I spent a little bit of time watching the news shows this weekend- only a little, as I, too, am aging, and life is too short for this shit. I watched people on my tv put on their serious voices as they explain what a big and momentous deal this is- “JUST THE THIRD TIME IN HISTORY,” you know! The gravity of the situation never takes hold, though, because I remember the same serious voices talking about Hillary’s emails, or how Obama really screwed up by saying it was wrong for Henry Louis Gates to get fucked with by cops on his own god damned couch, or how the tea party really cared about the deficit or Iraq really did have WMD. It’s all a fucking show that no one wants to go to, we all know the ending, and we’re not going to get our money’s worth.
Donald Trump has been impeached. He did everything and more for which he was impeached. Everyone knows he is guilty, even his most ardent supporters in the jury pool, there will be a show trial, and he will be acquitted. And then Republicans will get back to the very serious business of rigging elections, pitting Americans against each other, wiping up what remains of our institutions and packing the courts, and the always popular looting of the treasury.
This is not to say Democrats will not try. I am sure they will. They will fight, they will make a clear case, they will plead for sanity from clearly insane and evil people like Susan Collins, and then they will lose. We can applaud them for their attempt to do the right thing, but it is important to remember the one thing that no one seems to care about when shouting “Remember the Alamo!” The good guys lost and all got killed.
***
When it is all over with, the serious voices on your tv will tell you what to think, and we’ll head into another election where we can focus on important issues like “Does Elizabeth Warren have native American blood” and “what they are really saying over corned beef hash in a former Kentucky mining town.” We’ll soon get distracted by something shiny, and meanwhile our hobbled democracy will pick up the microphone and start half singing:
“Oh, baby baby
Won’t-cha turn your head my way?”
Baud
Our people are fighting the good fight. Everything else is noise.
NickM
I’ve been depressed as hell lately too.
kindness
Wrt David Lee Roth, I listened to Van Halen in the 80’s. I actually bought a record or two of Van Hagar. David was unimpressive post VH except last year when he stepped in to do vocals for the AC/DC tour when their lead singer decided he was too old for the tour. David from all accounts did a great job. I’ll give him kudos for that. I won’t go to Vegas for him but I won’t spit on him if I saw him either.
The news programs…. Meh. They’re crap. I like my world’s bubble and will continue to believe my/our bubble is bigger than the one Trump lives in. It’s all OK,
Butch
Well, since I can’t always face the political stuff….that night featured a bizarre speech by Roth about the eyebrows on dogs versus cats, and then he forgot all the lyrics to California Girl. When he did try to sing…..I believe he was fired from this gig right after that video was shot.
Major Major Major Major
This fait accompli, combined with the rapidly degrading primary, is why I’ve been kind of just avoiding politics lately (relatively speaking)
A2er
‘…when shouting “Remember the Alamo!” The good guys lost and all got killed.’
Ah, the myth of the gallant men at the Alamo defending their country against those invading Mexicans…
The Mexican Army was there when American settlers took over Mexican territory and declared it theirs. The Mexicans were defending THEIR country against lawless invaders, not the reverse. The Mexicans had told the Americans who came in they were welcome but they welcome but could not take over the land.
Eural Joiner
And let’s not forget – none of this matters (much) since the US will be yet another vassal state of China by 2050 (assuming our global civilization survives the on coming climate debacle).
A sad decline in what was, once, a great hope. (OK, some days are better than others, but John set the tone here!)
glory b
Just heard on Stephanie Miller Show, Charlie Pierce says he’s about done with Bernie, said he throws a rock and hides his hand, only apologizing when he’s backed into a corner.
Stephanie tries too hard to give BS the benefit of the doubt IMO. She talked about the Bernie fans online, but Charlie isn’t giving on this, he said that too many of these statements come from people BS could tell to shut up, like Nina Turner, Brianna Joy Grey and David Sirota.
Also, Paul Krugman scorched BS and Warren for their statements about Biden and Social Security.
Ramiah Ariya
I think Democrats should wish for a MORE rigged trial, because it is going to piss off independents. What you seem to have now is a half-way there thing. I am rooting for them to dismiss the charges without witnesses.
Amir Khalid
Glory days, well they’ll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days
Glory days
Eural Joiner
@A2er: HEY! That’s not at all how I learned the story in my middle school Texas history class >:(
Ella in New Mexico
Totally with you on this post, John. Although, I have a feeling things will work out better for our side in the end.
Except for the title– Springsteen has never undignified himself like DLR, not in any way, shape or form.
@Butch: man, the first minute and a half of that video
I’m amazed someone didn’t pull him off stage right then and there. He was clearly under the influence of some heavy polypharmacy…
Major Major Major Major
@Eural Joiner:
Rests on, among many other things, a major assumption about the continuity of the chinese government in its current form.
Baud
@glory b:
I didn’t realize Warren had jumped on the Social Security train with Bernie. Gotta link to what she said?
Felanius Kootea
How old is Mitch McConnell? Any chance he’ll retire after 2026?
zhena gogolia
I called Blumenthal’s and Murphy’s offices to say Trump must be removed. They sounded tired.
MattF
And here’s the very serious Senator from very serious Colorado being very serious.
Nelle
@A2er: And they were fighting for their right to own slaves. Hardly the good guys…
D Gardner
I made the mistake of listening to DLR start “singing”, and boy was that painful. I suspect I will feel the same, with far greater consequences, if I listen to any Republican in the Senate this week.
Cacti
I puked in my mouth a little when I thought of 65 year old Dave singing “Just a Gigolo”.
JPL
@Amir Khalid: Truthfully, if I heard Bruce sing that song, I’d have tears in my eyes.
TaMara (HFG)
@Ramiah Ariya: I’m kind of on board with a dismissal. Polling is showing a huge shift in favor of impeachment and that the president abused his power. Dismiss it and use that to bludgeon Rethugs from today to the election. While more horrible things continue to leak. Bolton is just raring to spill his guts. Not to mention all the cowards in the new book “Stable Genius”. I think once one domino falls they’ll all be screaming they were against #impotus45 from the beginning.
But then, I’m an optimist.
RobertB
@kindness: I’m pretty sure it was Axl Rose that took Brian Johnson’s place in AC/DC for that tour. And he actually did a really good job. I saw them in concert a couple of years ago, and I was entertained.
zhena gogolia
@TaMara (HFG):
You really are.
West of the Rockies
David aged badly and should stop singing or find a new style (as long as it’s not Rod Stewart’s weary approach–I saw Rod in Oakland back I’m ’83 and don’t like his lounge lizard gig of the last 25 years). I’m not going to crap all over Roth though. Willie Mays hung around too long, also. It happens.
Why can’t it be Trump and Pence and Pompeo and Bell (and a hundred more) who meet failure and shame?
D Gardner
@Nelle: Since we’re using musical metaphors, the Beastie Boys never sang You’ve Gotta Fight…For Your Right…To Own Slaves…
Remind me again of how American Exceptionalism works. Is it one part Native American genocide combined with two parts African slave-holding, with just a pinch of geographical separation by two oceans from most of the world’s powers?
MattF
I’d assume Roth ran out of money. It happens, particularly if ‘budgeting’ has never been in your behavioral repertoire.
Crashman06
I’m feeling similarly… I think the damage done to our institutions over the last four years is deeper and more profound than a lot of people realize. I don’t know what will happen this fall, but whatever does, many of our guardrails are down and I don’t think they’ll be rebuilt. We won’t ever be able to go back to the old normal, the way things were before. Terra incognita ahead, there be dragons, and all that…
Heywood J.
Still better than Kanye doing Bohemian Rhapsody. But yeah, our mediots need to be forced to ply an honest trade. I’m getting too old to wait this shit out.
chopper
my god, that video is just…it’s just awful.
Zzyzx
I’m having “fun” watch a subset of my twitter feed react to Clinton saying that Sanders has some intolerant supporters by going after her with insane screeds.
“No! We don’t react horribly to criticism and, by the way, the person who accused us of that is stupid and ugly and should be thrown in jail.”
zhena gogolia
Remarkable video of Cory Gardner.
chopper
@MattF:
his show should be called Fair Warning – This Is Awful, But I Need The Money
A Ghost To Most
To Roth’s credit, he became an EMT after the lights faded.
TaMara (HFG)
@zhena gogolia: Better than walking around saying everything is fucked and nothing we do matters. Which seems to be a majority of the posts on the blog lately. YMMV
The Truffle
@TaMara (HFG):
I try to be an optimist too, even though I’m the sort of person who flinches when people say, “We’re all in this together.” Not in my lifetime, we haven’t been.
But I really wonder if the GOP is (again) overplaying their hand. They got clobbered in 2018 and lost the House. There are 22 GOP senate seats up for grabs in 2020, and with luck they will lose the Senate too. I really try to remind myself that Twitter/social media isn’t real life, and in fact a slight majority says Trump should be removed from office. The GOP spin is less convincing than they think. Note all the pro-impeachment rallies around the US. Hopefully more are planned.
Betty Cracker
@chopper: That’s why the past-his-sell-by-date rocker in “Love Actually” was so endearing: he was honest about his motivations.
Baud
@TaMara (HFG):
Yep.
The Truffle
@Crashman06: I think a lot of people are drawn to Biden because he is a sort of “comfort food” candidate. That is the only way I can put it.
The Dems really need to fix the judicial confirmation process. A big one: term limits for federal judges. No more lifetime appointments. Also? Add SCOTUS justices. Increase the number to 11.
Finally? Moderate Dems are the best bet at least in most state races. And might be the best bet for progressive change? Just find a way to blunt the court packing on the federal level.
Omnes Omnibus
@TaMara (HFG): Agreed.
Nicole
The backup band was pretty good.
Slate did an article a few years back after Mariah Carey caught all that flack for her performance at the Radio City Christmas Tree lighting, and I remember the writer said something along the lines of the great tragedy of vocalists is that a singer will never again be as young as they were the day they recorded their big hit. I think of that line every time I hear the key change in Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer.”
cleek
@chopper:
i almost made it to the second line of the first verse!
—
related: Sirius/XM has turned their “Deep Tracks” channel into the Rush Channel for the past week or so, and they occasionally play some live stuff… and Geddy Lee’s voice is shot, too. it’s nearly as bad as DLR’s there. unlistenable.
saw Steely Dan a couple of years ago and Fagan’s voice had left him, too. he coped by throwing all the words into one monotonic breath at the start of each verse. it was bad, but better than the atonal yowlping that DLR and Geddy are trying to do.
age sucks.
TaMara (HFG)
@The Truffle: [[pats bench]] come sit by me.
Amir Khalid
David Lee Roth was not a talented singer back in the day, and in this video he sounds like grandpa on karaoke night. Did you say some Vegas gambling joint is paying him for this every night? I think you only do Vegas once you’re finished in the big time.
Geo Wilcox
@A2er:
And the Americans were also fighting to keep their slaves as slavery was illegal in Mexico.
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/146405
Lavocat
Sad but true. But if David Lee Roth is analogous to the state of our current democracy, what will it mean when Moscow Mitch starts singing “Ice Cream Man”. I believe that will make me simultaneously laugh AND puke. Is there a name for that specific verb? Spurtle?
Inkberrow
Might as well hop. HOP!
Loping with the devil….
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Agreed and that is nothing to scoff at or minimize. I have no idea who David Lee Roth is either and intend to keep it that way.
Kent
Mexico had outlawed slavery in 1829. The white planters moving in from other southern states wanted to bring slavery to Texas. So, of course, the Texas succession from Mexico was just a preview of what was to come 30 years later in the rest of the south. But that part of history doesn’t get taught in Texas history class either.
Kent
This is what happens when you ignite your fortune on epic parties, hookers and blow, and have nothing left when you reach the retirement age of 65.
AliceBlue
@TaMara (HFG): Adam’s posts last night really got me down in the dumps. But now I’m wondering if McConnell’s about to hoist himself on his own petard.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
“Christmas is all around us
ETA: Bill Nighy is brilliant.
The Truffle
Are there any marches/protests/demos planned any time soon?
Anywhere?
satby
@A2er: word! But just like yesterday in VA, the bullies with guns think they get to dictate to the rest of us. Yeah, ultimately we ended up with the territory, but it took a war ginned up under false pretenses. And we’ve slandered Mexico ever since.
Keith P.
@RobertB: until he blew his vocal cords out. And Brian Johnson stopped touring because of hearing damage, not old age. He’ll still perform on albums
West of the Rockies
@Omnes Omnibus:
Seconded.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
For any whippersnappers who don’t know what this refers to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciAsltEpCkw
The Moar You Know
Wow. Saw him (and what was left of VH) in 2012. DLR was extremely good then. He appears to be suffering from some Parkinson’s at this point. And some tone deafness. And a crap backing band.
Better than the oral cancer that’s now rapidly killing his bandmate, Eddie.
Gravenstone
@Zzyzx: Are they perhaps ‘deplorable ‘ defenders? Because that would bring shit so full circle.
MJS
@kindness: I think you’re confusing DLR with Axl Rose from Guns-n-Roses. Rose stepped in for Brian Johnson due to hearing issues Johnson was having. As far as I know, and from what Google tells me, DLR never worked with AC/DC. Nor should he have. I can’t believe anyone allowed DLR to perform. Not his friends, family, or the casino paying him.
H.E.Wolf
To anyone who feels hopeless: Remember the ladies. :)
3 years ago today, some town parades occurred here and there. They (we) have not been idling around in the months since.
I can tell you from first-hand observation that volunteer participation for the midterms was off the charts; and it shored up some guard rails to our democracy. I expect 2020’s activity and results will dwarf 2018’s. Especially if all of us get involved.
It’s not the same as before; and that’s appropriate. Our legislatures and city councils, our mayoral and gubernatorial offices, now have more women; more people of color; more previously under- or un-represented groups. Their (our) patriotism and service is as strong, as effective, and as valuable, as that of straight white christian men.
One GOTV postcard, one phone-banking call, one persevering individual at a time: it adds up. I gratefully draw strength from the many BJ community members who are working for beneficial change. We shall overcome.
hitchhiker
That little post is a fine example of your astonishing, crackling writing, Cole.
Luckily, writing seems to be one of those crafts that can withstand the saggiest of skin without missing a beat. Like you, I’m already weary at the thought of all the huffing and puffing that’s headed our way. If anybody surprises us, it will be videoed for posterity so I can safely continue to walk my dog and do my work without feeling the need to witness it live.
That said, I’m going to have the important senators on speed dial so I can call them often to express my patriotism and question theirs.
satby
@cleek: age doesn’t have to suck, but refusing to acknowledge the changes it brings pretty much always results in suckage, and not only for the oldster.
natem
@The Moar You Know: That band is awful. I mean, they play better than I could but that is really a low bar.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Cacti:
Doesn’t hold a candle to the Beach Boys singing wouldn’t it be nice if we were older.
Kent
Don’t be fooled. This is all a game. Susan Collins will now play her part and come out on TV talking about how she is “troubled” by the rush to judgement. The GOP will negotiate with themselves, add one extra day or some such meaningless thing, call it a bipartisan compromise extracted by Collins, and then they will be right where they intended to be in the first place. Except they will get the good press for being willing to compromise. And Collins, once again, will be trying to fluff her centrist cred.
Don’t be fooled.
JaySinWA
A show trial with Jury nullification being sold as normal, just like old times. There should be a good “To kill a mocking bird” analogy in there, to bring it home. Corrupt system, corrupt jury, foreseeable likely outcome, with just a smidgen of hope that truth will out.
laura
@kindness: Uh, FYI, that was Axl Rose stepping in for Brian Johnson of AC/DC. And it appears that others beat me to it.
BretH
Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull can’t really sing any more either but he’s pretty upfront about never really being singer in the first place.
Mart
SNL’s Kenan Thompson played one of the talking heads on a news panel skit a couple months back. As the panel flashes back and discusses various outrageous acts by Trump that will surely be the end his presidency; Kenan’s character repeats, “ain nothen gonna happen”. Words to live by until November.
zhena gogolia
@H.E.Wolf:
We sang “We Shall Overcome” in church on Sunday. I could barely get through it.
JR
Were we all Iggy Pop
JPL
@zhena gogolia: OMG.. Thank you… It might be time to play my dvd of Love Actually again.
Nicole
@The Moar You Know:
I did not know that, so I googled, and I found out that EVH blames metal guitar picks for his throat cancer (because he held them in between his teeth), and not his many years of heavy smoking because his lungs are clear, therefore it can’t possibly have been the smoking.
Denial. It’s not just a river in Egypt
Follow up – he was diagnosed with tongue cancer in 2000 and throat cancer since 2014. He may be unwilling to accept a lifetime of heavy drinking and smoking is likely his leading cancer culprit, but holy cow, he’s been living with cancer for almost 20 years now. That’s impressive. And lucky.
AliceBlue
@Kent: I’m under no illusions about what the outcome is going to be. My thought was that since McConnell isn’t even trying to be subtle about rigging the whole thing, Democrats would be even more energized this fall, with the added plus of pissing off Independents.
Republicans control everything right now, but they’re only human too. They’re perfectly capable of making mistakes.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
With the exception of Springsteen, there needs to be a mandatory retirement age for rockers. For the past five years we’ve been subjected to a string of “50 Year Anniversary Tour!!” horror shows by bands that should’ve packed it in when this century started. The Beach Boys are on the “Endless Alimony Payment” tour, KISS is still chasing the money 50 years after they proved themselves useless, and don’t the Stones have enough money by now? Come on, guys.
Aleta
My plan is, decide in advance I won’t absorb more despair over the Senate vote. The important thing was to bring it, a no was predicted before the start, and now every news story and the votes fall more easily into the context created by the process. Hope that effect continues for the future prospects/prosperity of the dreggy children. If Collins votes no it’s more damage to her campaign; more help in defeating her. (No question I would love Rs to turn on him; but my guess is that the improbable yes from Collins won’t happen unless it doesn’t matter.)
Let’s stay positive.
RobertB
@Keith P.: I thought Axl sounded really good singing AC/DC songs. That sounds like the definition of damning with faint praise, but I thought he did a great job as a substitute lead singer. Angus Young was (and was sold as) the star of the show anyway. How he does what he does at his age is beyond me.
Nicole
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): Eh, I don’t know. I saw Simon & Garfunkel in 2003 (with special surprise guests the Everly Brothers!) and they were pretty great. Hearing all 4 of them singing “Bye Bye Love” was a highlight of my live music attending experience, and my parents were still in elementary school when that song was popular.
Daryl Hall & John Oates are still really great live, too. Hall doesn’t have the high notes anymore, but A) he’s a great musician so he adjusts and B) half of the audience is women and we’re happy to fill in the high notes for him.
The Truffle
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): Can we make an exception for Neil Young too?
Amir Khalid
@RobertB:
Angus Young is the only guy in Australia who could get away with wearing a school uniform at his age.
Kay
I do think it’s bad- I think we’re in real trouble- but the nice part for me of admitting that was then you can start thinking about a renewal or a recovery. So in an odd way it can be more optimistic than a kind of death grip on past glories.
I recognize good people disagree- they think it’s a bump in the road. I no longer do, but that doesn’t have to mean staying broken, right?
I just keep going back to the fact that if it was as strong as we perhaps thought it was it wouldn’t have collapsed so easily. It just wasn’t good enough. The test came and a whole bunch of institutions and people failed.
Amir Khalid
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin):
A Springsteen showed up in my Google news feed this week: Bruce and Patti’s youngest, Sam, was sworn in as a Jersey City fireman.
Joey Maloney
Why would I pay any amount of money to “witness the spectacle of an elderly man in ill fitting clothes and obvious frontal lobe damage stiffly strutting” when I can see it free, all day every day from now until at least January 2021?
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@The Truffle: Never cared for him – my idea of hell is him and Bob Dylan singing together. But to each his own.
My main complaint is songs that are long past their sell-by dates performed by guys who are long past their sell-by dates, as Dorothy A. Winsor noted about the Beach Boys.
Aleta
Guessing that DLR didn’t bother to rehearse his set with the band.
This says he got rid of his back up singers at the last minute too.
Kent
Dylan is the worst. As are his hard core fans.
Here in Vancouver WA we were treated to the following acts this past summer at our local public amphitheater:
And this coming summer I see that both Journey and Foreigner are on the schedule.
Sheesh. OK Boomer
Neil Young and John Prine are the only old rockers I still listen to. But then they have both evolved.
Eunicecycle
@RobertB: Saw the Eagles in 2018 and Vince Gill sang with them, doing a lot of the Glen Frey vocals. He was pretty good! Also Glen’s son sang some of them. We really enjoyed the concert.
Ksmiami
@Kay: There is a backstop -which is this government ceases to hold authority without consent of the governed and we can destroy the existing structures holding us back
cain
@Nicole:
I remember Geddy on an interview saying that he can still hit the high notes and that it’s been pretty decent. The tours of Rush I’ve seen he’s been fairly good, but the older songs don’t really live up to what they were doing in their hey day.. they were quite demanding. The latest stuff is much better for where he was as a vocalist despite him saying he was in decent form.
Amir Khalid
@Aleta:
DLR probably sacked them for sounding better than him.
The Truffle
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): Personally I like Neil Young’s voice. Always have.
Dylan, though? His voice has been shot for decades.
AliceBlue
@Aleta: Yes. This.
Amir Khalid
@Nicole:
Simon and Garfunkel’s problem has never been their singing; they don’t get along, and have been quarreling since they were children.
cain
@Nicole:
The Van Halen brothers are giant dicks as far as I can tell. They have a petty vindictive streak in them from what I can discern from the band members they pushed out. The former bandmates handled it pretty well with not an ounce of bitterness on display.
Also, I think how Eddie treated Valerie his wife at the time after she supported him.. yeah.. fuck him.
Amir Khalid
@The Truffle:
When was Bob’s voice ever not shot?
Bobby Thomson
Diamond Dave doesn’t deserve this dis.
He’s a paramedic.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@The Truffle: I was never convinced Dylan had a voice to begin with.
Odd how the “voices of their generations”, Dylan and Kurt Cobain, both sounded lousy and were stunningly incoherent to boot.
Nicole
@cain: I notice singers doing what they can to place songs different as they age- I watched Def Leppard get inducted into the HOF and Joe Elliott sings “Photograph” (which is a great pop song, come at me, bro) in a head voice now. It works okay, although it doesn’t have the power like when he was in his 20s. They were fine.
Much as I adored watching The Zombies (because they were clearly having a great time and their keyboardist is so, so good), the lead vocalist very much sounded like an old man singing, even though he was hitting the notes.
Bobby Thomson
@cain: He didn’t deserve her. She’s good people.
cain
@Kent: I haven’t seen Heart since the late 90s. They were pretty great back then.. I think it was their first concert after a long hiatus thanks to the shitty music industry. In any case, they were rocking.
I bunked from work, and went to the concert – it was at a winery called Sokol Blosser that some may know – and I walked in and the man at the gate told me that I could go right in free of charge. I was like aww yeah. Good times and nobody noticed me missing.. it was pretty risky considering I was on-call… but whateverah! :)
Bobby Thomson
@Joey Maloney: finally someone spiked that. Well done.
cain
@Nicole: Yep, I’ve seen that too. Hell I do it too. I can’t hit a high note when listening to a song or whatever, and I just go down a scale instead of going up.. :shrug:
Nicole
@cain: Oh, I’m not a particular fan of Van Halen; you’re free to trash them as much as you want (like many guy’s guy bands of the 1980s, I think they’re fine, but not what I gravitate to listening to when I turn on Pandora); I’m just impressed by how freaking lucky Eddie Van Halen is to be living with cancer 20 years on. And amused that he won’t accept that his addictions were likely the contributing factor. Most cancer is just a matter of genes and bad luck, but there are definitely some that have an increased risk due to lifestyle choices, and it kind of makes me laugh that he’s blaming holding metal guitar picks in his mouth over the decades of heavy smoking and drinking.
cain
@Bobby Thomson:
That was the most righteous divorce.. and she looked great afterwards. I wish the best for her. At the time, they looked like the most cutest couple.
cain
@Nicole:
He’s got all the hallmarks of a Trumper.
Nicole
@cain: Full disclosure- I went to see Blondie this summer and I really liked her gravelly old lady voice. Dare I say it, it sounded very punk. She was fun.
Citizen_X
@Ksmiami: What, so revolution? Seriously?
As bad as the outcome of the American form of democracy has been, the historical record of revolution has been far, far worse.
Kent
@cain: That would be fine if there was wine and food. I didn’t know Sokol Blosser had a concert venue. I’ve been out to the Maryhill Winery venue in the Gorge, and of course the Edgefield. But not Sokol Blosser. Will have to check it out.
Ksmiami
@Citizen_X: Oh not advocating revolution exactly but say in the next years the Supreme Court really runs ragged over the American people… do we have to support it or can we start advocating for massive overhaul etc.
cleek
@cain:
Ann Wilson sounded great last time i saw her (3 years ago).
eclare
@TaMara (HFG): Two elections lately: Kentucky and Louisiana. Drumpf went all in on both.
Kelly
@Kent: Prine style suits his aging voice. Tom Waits will also be just fine as his voice ages.
Kent
Judicial Review isn’t actually in the constitution at all. It’s just a tradition or norm that has been passed down. Nothing in the constitution actually says that the next Dem president has to listen to the Supreme Court if that bunch of Confederate neofascists try to overturn every progressive thing she does.
RobertB
@cain: Maybe Geddy Lee can still hit them, but not reliably enough to trust them on stage. I don’t recall hearing a lot of them at their R40 tour. Was still a good time, though.
Ksmiami
@Kent: exactly- if we are going to literally be terrorized by a minority of traitors do we have to submit or can we blow them the fuck off- I will never yield to dumb fucking southern bro’s who want to go back to the 1850s also can we stop funding the red state takers too
jk
John, this is a perfect description of Joe Biden
I don’t know about a retirement age requirement for musicians, but there sure as Hell ought to be a consensus among voters than any person over 75 years of age is too goddamn old to run for President. Biden and Sanders reached their sell by dates years ago and voters should be turning their attention to Warren and Klobuchar.
chopper
@cleek:
well, age yes. also many of these guys were really pushing their vocal cords pretty hard; just because you can sing a certain way doesn’t mean you’re doing it the right way or that it’s good for you.
add in hearing loss from decades of loud shows and it’s a surprise these guys can still sing a note.
cain
@Kent: They apparently have a concert series in the summer. It looked like a ampitheater. It was pretty nice. I haven’t been there since, but I believe it is still going on.
cain
That’s pretty impressive considering her age. She has some serious lungs. She’s like a rock star version of a lot of the R&B artists out there.
cain
Me too. It’s amazing that they can go so long singing and playing at their age and still have a good time. The crowd is always awesome, and you get such a good positive vibe listening to them and with each other.
They bowed out though at the peak of their skills and so it was a good moment.
RIP Neil, I’m going to miss him and his view of the world.
chopper
@The Moar You Know:
i remember when EVH was first diagnosed with oral cancer a while back. he at one point theorized it was caused by the “electromagnetic fields and shit in the studio” somehow interacting with the metal guitar pick he’d have in his mouth while playing (apparently he switched picks a lot).
couldn’t have been THE PACK A DAY SMOKING HABIT, no sir.
The Truffle
@Amir Khalid: Dylan wasn’t so bad in the 1960s. More specifically, you never noticed on his 1960s material that he wasn’t a singer.
catclub
@Ramiah Ariya: There is some sense to wishing it is particularly horrible. McConnell has decided it will be and he is therefore going to hide as much of it as possible.
New motto: “Democracy dies in darkness. McConnell is there killing it.”
CaseyL
OMFG! I thought y’all were exaggerating how bad DLR sounded: his intro sounded pretty good, and his moves were… OK for a geriatric.
Then the song actually began.
OMGOMGOMG. “Yowling cat” captures it perfectly, except yowling cats have a lot of lung behind their screeches. This was thin, tremulous, not carrying the tune at all… I made it maybe half a line in.
J R in WV
@Geo Wilcox:
Texas was the only state to fight two civil wars attempting to defend their right to own other humans as slaves.
==============================================
Regarding going to see an old performer still working as a musician. I never cared much for Van Halen, David Lee Roth, that whole genre of pop rock… so not surprised that the perps of that era aren’t good in their old age.
I went to see “Pine Top” Perkins perform in Austin on his 92nd birthday. The crew carried his piano up onto the stage, and then they escorted him up onto the stage. Then “Pine Top” tore up two sets of the greatest hits of piano Blues. I got to shake his hand during the break. It was great; I had seen him here in WV some 20 years earlier, he still had it.
Much more recently we went to see Buddy Guy on his 82nd birthday tour. I sat on the aisle, and when he came through the audience he stopped right beside me to perform — thanks to wireless mikes. He stopped playing and singing to talk, telling great stories of his tour in Japan just before coming to WV. IIRC he was actually 83 at the time, and needed some help from the crew to get up and down the steps safely, but the music, the chat, the singing, it was as great as the other times we’ve seen him perform.
Tony Bennett. How old is that guy, anyway? Still recording great duet tunes with a wide variety of great singers, mostly very successful women. I’ll stop now… I’m not great at names of authors and performers, I just enjoy their work.
If you were good as a young artist, and health issues haven’t stopped you (as is so sadly the case with superstar Linda Ronstadt) you can usually perform long into your old age. David Lee Roth wasn’t ever really a great singer. Bruce Springsteen was and is, see the difference?
bk
The alamo comparison is no good. They were not heroes fighting for a doomed cause. They were abandoned by the rest of the texans because the alamo was deemed a fools cause. Don’t forget that the denizens of the alamo were committing Treason in Defense of Slavery. Slavery was illegal in Mexico and texas is the only state that committed Treason in Defense of Slavery…Twice.
Joey Maloney
@Bobby Thomson: I mean it was just hanging there in the air.
J R in WV
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin):
I’ve never seen Mick and Keef and the boys live, but from their published recorded recent work, they can still do what they have always done, and do it really well. Their newer blues work is great, and shows what they have always been, a great blues rock band.
West of the Rockies
@J R in WV:
Stevie Nicks and Tom Jones can still bring it.
Jager
@J R in WV:
I’ve seen the Stones live 12 times, they are still good and having fun playing. I saw Jerry Lee Lewis almost 30 years after his rocker days, he was singing “What Made Milwaukee Famous” and some kid yelled out, “Rawk and Roooollllll” Jerry Lee stopped playing and said, “Son you wouldn’t know rock and roll if somebody shoved it up your ass.”
J R in WV
@Kelly:
Love both these guys, But if you’re going to like Waits, you got no room to criticize Bob Dylan, none!
cain
You are assuming that their only motivation is money.. it might just be that they love music and it is still their passion and it gives them an excuse to hang out with each other.
geg6
@cain:
Not sure what you’re talking about here. They got divorced because he wouldn’t quit smoking after the tongue cancer. When she re-married, he was invited to and attended her wedding. I remember reading about it at the time (around 2010, maybe?) and thinking that I wished my divorced friends could be so civilized.
geg6
@Nicole:
You know who kicks ass and still sounds great? Joan Jett. She is fucking awesome. Saw her with Heart (also still pretty damn good) a couple years ago. What a fun concert that was. It also featured Cheap Trick. Good stuff.
Shana
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I read an interview with Peter Holsapple several years ago and the interviewer asked why he doesn’t perform “Bad Reputation” anymore and he basically said it would be too creepy to have a 50-something man singing about high school girls. Would that more older musicians had that level of self-awareness.
The Truffle
@geg6: I saw them too! At Jones Beach! All of them sounded great!
StringOnAStick
@Nicole: I’m sure the heavy smoking and drinking had a lot more to do with his oral cancer than metal guitar picks, but there is another culprit out there now, and given the rock a d roll lifestyle, I ‘d be surprised if he doesn’t also have that on his list: human papilloma virus.
even with better screening of more people and tobacco use in decline, oral cancer rates have not improved, and now the link to HPV is rock solid a d damned scary. Oral cancer is increasingly showing up in people who have never used tobacco or been big drinkers (tobacco combined with alcohol really increases the risk though). Previously most oral cancers showed up on the edge of the tongue, floor of the mouth and gums; HPV linked oral cancer shows up farther back in the throat so less likely to be noticed casually. There’s at least 30 different versions of HPV viruses and about 5-6 of those are known to cause oral cancer. HPV infection rates are high too, and it’s not just cervical cancer that are linked to this family of viruses.
Martin
This is how I feel about basically everything. Everything has its moment, and then that moment passes. If you’re still turning out new material, still being creative, still adding to the world’s art – then great. If you’re just rehashing your work from last year or last decade, then hang it up. Find a new way to add to the world – tell us your lessons learned, mentor others, etc.
I just have no patience for what you did previously. It’s earned you nothing if you contribute nothing today.
StringOnAStick
@cain: Musicians are (hopefully)passionate about music, but if you are a musician then I guarantee that the fun of playing together is a huge part of it. I’m an amateur musician and while I leave the truly skilled playing to my husband, I’ve been told many times that I have an excellent voice. My speaking voice is memorably deep for a woman so I’ll do some songs that are from the male POV because hey, that’s my range. I love that my voice is getting deeper with age because it opens up more classic jazz tunes for us.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@zhena gogolia: I have to try again when I get out of work.
Cat48
Well, John, we got a few things we wanted & I’m hoping for more things! Something happened during the GOP Lunch. I read that Susan Collins got a nasty call from a Maine newspaper’s Editorial Board. They were upset bc the GOP were not allowing witnesses or records. I’m sure this made Collins very concerned, & she had to plead with Mitch? Plus I called along with several others but we’re just regular folks so we probably weren’t as important as a Maine newspaper?
cliosfanboy
Finally saw Ringo Starr last summer with the All Star band. Great concert. Would see again. Hopung to see Cheap Trick sometime.