Photo: Paul McCartney & Mick Jagger | Analysis by Brandon Griggs, CNN | Music fans around the world held their breath earlier this month when Carlos Santana collapsed from heat stroke during a show in suburban Detroit. Santana, who postponed six concerts “out of an abundance of caution” while he recovers, is a legendary guitarist whose distinctive blend of rock chords and Latin rhythms have won him 10 Grammys.
He also is 74.
And of the rock icons out on tour this year, he is one of the youngest.
Bob Dylan is 81 and has been touring almost nonstop since last fall. Paul McCartney turned 80 last month shortly after wrapping up North American dates on his “Got Back” tour. Former Beach Boy Brian Wilson, 80, is touring through September. The Rolling Stones — anchored by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, both 78 — are playing stadiums across Europe. The Who, with Pete Townshend, 77, and Roger Daltrey, 78, are touring into November.
Also on the road this summer are Eric Clapton, 77, Rod Stewart, 77, Elton John, 75, and 78-year-old Roger Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd, who is still packing arenas with his majestic songs and mind-bending stagecraft. The list goes on.
At arenas and stadiums across the world, we are witnessing history. Never before has such a grizzled group of rock icons graced so many major stages at the same time.
This moment is something to celebrate. But it’s also a little bittersweet, because it marks the twilight of an early generation of rock ‘n’ roll — the rockers who came right after seminal artists like Chuck Berry, Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis.
We can still get a thrill from hearing these performers live: the visceral punch of the opening guitar chords to “Start Me Up,” the lilting piano intro to “Tiny Dancer,” the shimmering sonic brilliance of “Good Vibrations.”
But let’s just say it — by almost any standard, these rock stars are old. And it forces those of us who grew up with their music to acknowledge that we’re getting old, too.
As critic Steven Hyden wrote in his 2019 book, “Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock,” “You can’t talk about classic rock now without also thinking about death.”
‘It’s better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out’
In 2019, Damon Linker wrote a widely shared essay for The Week, provocatively titled, “The coming death of just about every rock legend.”
In it he predicted that most aging rock icons were likely going to die in the next decade or so.
“Behold the killing fields that lie before us,” he wrote, before listing 28 rock stars in or on the verge of their seventies: Dylan, McCartney, Wilson, Jagger, Richards, Daltrey, Townshend, Waters, Clapton, Stewart, Elton John, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Ray Davies, David Gilmour, Debbie Harry, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Bryan Ferry, Don Henley, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen.
Three years later, all 28 of them are still alive. (So are Tina Turner, now 82, Ringo Starr, 81, Neil Diamond, 81, Sly Stone, 79, Bob Seger, 77, Stevie Nicks, 74, Ozzy Osbourne, 73, Bonnie Raitt, 71, and many others.)
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Read the rest of Brandon Griggs’ analysis here:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/23/entertainment/classic-rock-twilight-touring-cec/index.html
This Summer Marks the Twilight of Classic Rock
