"The Stock Never Drops on Rock n Roll- Larry Bud Melman"
I love old music, more than probably 95% of late twenty-something Americans.
When you listen to music made from the 50's to the 80's there is one sinister byproduct that you must face. My musical heroes are all either dead, geriatric or nearing the age where they get discounts on Grand Slams at Denny's. This isn't too hard to stomach on the face it, time comes for us all, death is inevitable and life is pain I get all that just fine. The part that turns my stomach sour is when you see an artist in the latter two categories is coming to a town near you.
I first became radicalized in this subject when a few years ago someone I knew was excited to be first row of an AC-DC stadium concert, yeah I know AC-DC was a kick-ass band in the 70's and 80's but why on earth would someone pay hundreds of dollars to see 80 year old men singing songs about drinking, fighting and fucking when 9 times out of 10 they haven't done any of those since the Bush administration! I want to see AC-DC in 1979 in a slimy club in New York not in the sanitized, corporate NFL stadium that every "living legend" does. I believe that it betrays the ethos of rock n roll laid down by the legends who these acts were inspired by, Rock and Roll in my mind, at its heart is a young mans games because it exists to push against the establishment. When your music was considered "Satanic" in 1980 but is being used in Amazon commercials in 2026 you know something has gone wrong.
Next, sadly this is a man I love dearly, Paul McCartney. I love the songs he crafts and I would say its undeniable that he is one of the best songwriters of all time. He said something once to the effect of "Nobody is gonna want to hear a 40 year old man sing From Me to You", well now he's almost 84 years old still singing "She Loves You". Watching him play Band on the Run on SNL and Colbert made me supremely sad, he sounds every day of 80-something, the drop off in voice is very much akin to Julie Kavner's Marge Simpson. It makes you want to put earmuffs on and pretend it doesn't exist. He has more fame, money and accomplishments than any other musician has or ever will and I know for him its probably the ego-feeding that performing gives him but c'mon there has to be a line where you gotta hang 'em up.
Two points to chart here; Ozzy Osbourne gets a pass for playing shows till death, I don't think you could have written a better send off to his career and life plus his personality and just sheer levels of cool were too much to retire to a quiet life. The crazy inverse of this too is KISS, maybe the band most renowned for squeezing every single penny out of their music and likeness actually hung up the boots and facepaint in 2023 after 20 years of finale tours, its mildly noble.
Would you rather have had these legends take their bow before it became too late? What do you think the popular music landscape today would look like if every musician of this era decided to preserve their legacy instead of squeezing it for as much corporate profit as possible? I believe the landscape of music would be in a very different spot than it is now, corporations might not have a stranglehold on festivals and concerts as a whole and a lot of bands that fell by the wayside might have been able to make solid careers. Sadly, we will truly never know.
See you at the Rolling Stones Wheelchair Tour 2030
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