Too old to cut the mustard?

 

Dads! A bunch of embarrassing old farts aren’t they? If they’re not making a tit out of themselves in social clubs with their ties tied round their heads dancing to Gangham Style, they are wearing cream slip on shoes with green socks to look ‘trendy’ to try and impress a young lady who is younger than their grey pubes!

But, not all of them are in the mould of Peter Stringfellow; two of these national treasures have proved recently that they are still quite cool and relevant in today’s world of music.

Recently – crinkly old Rolling Stone Keith Richards and cuddly old Dave Gilmour of the recently disbanded Pink Floyd have both released solo albums to critical acclaim.

They may sound a bit rough round the edges, this is to be expected due to them having a combined age of 302, but what are important here are the production techniques taken up by these two elder statesmen. They play with a proper band and record on tape! Maybe this is due to them knowing every trick when it comes to recording or that they simply know how to sound good – who knows! One things for true though – it works! Gimmicks and gadgets really don’t get a look in and its evident in the sound they create – it’s called quality recording that isn’t just created via a computer and generic overdubs!!!

I know some people may look on these old geezers as being past their best and looking like they have just been dug up, but who says the world of music should be full of clean cut kids with their chizzled looks and their blindingly perfect white teeth? Do we really have to have beautiful, brainless, robot-like wankers being churned off Simon Cowell’s conveyor belt every week backed up by shit karaoke style backing tapes? The answer is no!!! Just look at the popularity surrounding Jeremy Corbyn lately that proves old people are still cool!!!

From a personal point of view the ‘rise’ of these dinosaurs of rock is also quite poignant being somewhat of a wrinkly rocker I! But less about my Gentleman’s area, I’m talking about my continued and much enjoyed participation as lead singer for The Outriders (or my backing band as they have become known as late).

Many years ago, when we did original material, I would never have dreamt about doing cover versions! It was a strict no no! But, the older you get, the more ideas tend to become less frequent! Your desire to be original becomes less important, but your love for music grows stronger!

Maybe not everyone feels this way, but I certainly see it as more credible than being viewed as the oldest hipster in town! Perish the thought!!!!

But getting back to Dave & Keith – the difference between these two giants of rock music compared to my meagre musical history is this – they have the RIGHT to be cool! They can be forgiven for looking like the oldest hipster in town! They have earned the right to have continuous praise and respect thrown upon them simply for what they have achieved over the years and that they still possess a level of integrity most young musicians these days would take a lifetime to achieve!!!

An example of this would probably have to be David Bowie! You can forgive Bowie for creating Tin Machine as he created Ziggy Stardust! You can forgive Bowie for The Laughing Gnome as he is not just a great singer, but a great actor too! you can forgive Bowie for his duet with Mick Jagger as he released Hunky Dory, Space Oddity, Low, Station to Station, Aladdin Sane and countless, timeless pop songs that everyone knows and loves! Bowies is still releasing critically acclaimed music today at the age of 68 even following health scares. His latest work didn’t go down to well, but I thought it was magnificently bold and experimental that only Bowie could pull it off!!

Which brings us to the not so cool side of rock stars getting old – arise Sir Mick!

Mick – as much as I love him, has never done anything outside The Stones worthy of applause! You could even go as far to say that he is nothing without The Stones

Dreadful films including psychedelic babble laden semi-biographical mess Performance and the futuristic Freejack where he played quite possibly the most camp and un-scary bounty hunter Vacendak. As for Ned Kelly, I know Mick was famous for changing his accent to suit his surroundings, but he was the only Australian outlaw to ever sound like he was either from Dublin or Texas rolled into one!

Musically, Sir Mick hasn’t fared much better! She’s the Boss was pretty grim and Wandering Spirit wondered somewhere between the ether and the darkest depths of his own arse!

 

Add to these turkeys the ‘collaborations’ Mick has recently done with Joss Stone and Taylor Swift you get a slight whiff of your pissed Uncle Knobhead dancing with your eighteen year old niece at someone’s wedding! (With them cream slip-ons on)  

But, the old saying ‘too old to cut the mustard, but can still lick the jar’ is the side of these musical titans that I like to still believe in!

Personally I think the saying ‘with age comes wisdom, but not always class’ is more appropriate

 

 

Mol