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The Music Is Timeless, but About the Rockers ...

Don Emmert/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Numerous people on Twitter took issue with Roger Daltrey’s appearance, as well as others, during the “12-12-12” benefit concert.
By ALEX WILLIAMS
Published: December 19, 2012


THERE was Roger Daltrey, 68, with his open shirt revealing a Palm Beach perma-tan, and abs so snare-tight that they immediately raised suspicion. (“Implants!” charged a few skeptical members of the Twittersphere.)

There was Jon Bon Jovi, 50, with his flowing mane now a shade of coppery gold that only a hairdresser could love.

There was Paul McCartney, 70, with his unlined face retaining an eerie degree of his Beatlemania-era boyishness.

Last week’s star-studded “12-12-12” concert — a showcase of retirement-age rock icons like the Rolling Stones, the Who and Eric Clapton — not only raised millions to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy, but as the “the largest collection of old English musicians ever assembled in Madison Square Garden,” as Mick Jagger joked onstage, it also inspired viewer debate about whether is it possible to look cool and rebellious after 50 without looking foolish?

Rock stars, after all, face the same battles with crow’s feet and sagging jowls that everyone else eventually does. But their visible aging happens under the microscope, and seems somehow more tragic since they toil in a business built on youthful rebellion, and contrasts so sharply with our shared cultural images of them, frozen in youthful glory.

The issue takes on added relevance for graying fans from the baby boom and Generation X who grew up taking style cues from these rock heroes (and continue to make geriatric acts like Bruce Springsteen and Roger Waters some of the biggest draws in the concert business). If rock immortals can’t accept with a certain grace the ravages of time, what does this portend for the rest of us?

Perhaps this is why so many of the concert’s 19 million American viewers turned into fashion critics during the show, zapping the rockers on blogs and Twitter not just for looking old, but for their occasionally clumsy efforts to appear young.

“I want to re-knight Sir Paul for those next-level dad jeans,” tweeted Julieanne Smolinski, 29, a New York writer, in reference to Sir Paul’s crisp, pre-faded dungarees, which looked like Gap deadstock from 1991.

“I will donate $1,000 to #121212Concert if Roger Daltry buttons his shirt,” tweeted Alan Zweibel, 62, a comedy writer.

The quickest route to ridicule, it seems, is for aging rockers to proceed as if nothing has changed. The truth is, years have passed, and to deny this is a form of visual dishonesty. With his shirt thrown open during a rousing rendition of “Baba O’Riley” Mr. Daltrey — a specimen for his age, to be sure — unfortunately invited comparisons to his groupie-magnet self from the “Tommy” era. In doing so, he violated an obvious dictum for seniors: keep your clothes on in public.

But he is not the only offender. At 65, Iggy Pop still takes the stage wearing no shirt, just jeans, as if it’s 1972. It’s not that his body is not freakishly impressive for a man his age. Aside from a few sags and bulging veins, his torso generally looks as lithe as a Joffrey dancer’s.

The problem is not the image itself, so much as the image suggested, as if these aging sex symbols are still attracting hordes of groupies to the cozy confines of their tour buses.

That may well be true, of course, but when these flesh-baring rockers are men of Viagra-taking age, that’s a visual most people could do without. It’s like hearing that your grandparents still have sex: bully for them, but spare us the details.

Hair is complicated for seemingly anyone over 40 — to dye or not to dye, that is question. But it is a tougher call for rock stars like Mr. Bon Jovi, whose hair has always been a key element of his brand. If, one day, the pop-metal crooner were to appear singing “Lay Your Hands on Me” sporting a professor emeritus shock of white hair, as the fellow “12-12-12” performer Mr. Waters of Pink Floyd did, would anyone heed his siren call? (I guess we should be grateful that Mr. Bon Jovi hasn’t gone the route of Roy Orbison, who maintained his jet-black coif well into his 50s, giving him the unfortunate look of an aging blackjack dealer at a lesser Vegas casino.)

Given the raised eyebrows that Mr. Jagger and Mr. McCartney attract with their ever-chocolate locks (though at least Mr. Jagger’s wrinkled magnificence suggested his face had been untouched by a surgeon’s blade), it is no wonder the new tonsorial compromise of choice for aging rockers is strategic baldness. A close-cropped buzz cut or shaven head simply erases all visible evidence of follicular aging, as well as lending them a vague bouncerish tough guy appeal. It works for Phil Collins, Moby and Seal. With his shaved head, Paul Shaffer, the David Letterman foil, looked nearly as age-ambiguous playing piano behind Adam Sandler on the comedian’s “Hallelujah” parody during the “12-12-12” as he did playing in the “Saturday Night Live” house band in the late ’70s. It would have worked for Michael Stipe, too, if he hadn’t chosen to tarnish the effect with a silver Robert E. Lee beard. Ultimately, there is little to be done about graying temples or sagging jowls (short of medical intervention, anyway). This leaves clothing as the prime area for rock stars to experiment with age denial, without looking plastic.

Most fading rock gods seem to intuit that overly sexualized stage outfits turn into clown costumes after a certain age. David Lee Roth, who scissor-kicked his way through the ’80s in skintight tiger-stripe jumpsuits, took the stage on a recent Van Halen tour dressed more like a groom atop a biker wedding cake: black leather pants, shinny blue shirt, black pinstripe vest.

Take a lesson from Eric Clapton and his well-fitting suits: after 40, it’s time to lose the sequins, unless you’re Liberace.

Sometimes, though, even a keen fashion sense is not enough to ward off the jibes.

At the “12-12-12” concert, Mick Jagger took the stage in a subtly snazzy gray python jacket, a Bordeaux taffeta shirt and black jeans. The jacket and shirt, designed by his longtime companion L’Wren Scott, were a far cry from his sequined jumpsuits of the ’70s, but that did not stop the wisecracks. “Mick Jagger looks like your aunt trying to be cool at a wedding,” tweeted Gregg Hughes, known as “Opie,” the SiriusXM radio shock-jock.

But Mr. Jagger, who at 69 still bounds and gyrates through unimaginably athletic, 2 1/2-hour sets, has a built-in response at the ready. As he put it long ago, “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

keep it up Mick we LOVE it...

"till the next time..."

Yeah, Mick is always the smartest of the bunch.

what a shock-clown. He's trying to be cool by tweeting this statement...

“Mick Jagger looks like your aunt trying to be cool at a wedding,” tweeted Gregg Hughes, known as “Opie,” the SiriusXM radio shock-jock.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-12-20 19:00 by custom55.

Maybe it's just me but with the hat, jacket and all
I thought he looked more like a Vegas lounge act

Marv Peck

Y'all remember that rubber legged boy

Okay, Roger Daltrey is misguided. Remember when Keith let his gut hang out on the Babylon tour and everyone recoiled in horror? In the end it's about the music and that's what is beginning to suffer with age. 11 years ago the Who were magnificient at the 9/11 concert. Now Pete stuggles to play. That's okay. So does Keith. But while the Stones can hide Keith a little bit, especially with the high level Ronnie is playing at, the Who don't have that luxury.

Billy Joel sounded okay but you worry about his health. How can you have all that money and not get yourself into a fat camp, or something. You'd think he'd want to enjoy his rich life as long as he could, but he doesn't look well.

Paul McCartney has been kind of fun lately. It's good to be reminded, like he did when playing with 'Nirvana', that he may be the squarest looking Beatle, but there was always more there than meets the critical eye. In the end it's about the music. Rock and Roll is not supposed to be dignified, but let's face it, our greatest heroes are like us, ageing and doing the best they can.

Media alert: Young New York Times hipster/writer writes snarky article about people over 40. Next.

Quote
DEmerson
Media alert: Young New York Times hipster/writer writes snarky article about people over 40. Next.

Yup ... but it was a fun read anyway. I liked the part about baldness and buzz cuts. Rock star clothes are always interesting, IMHO.

>>>Most fading rock gods seem to intuit that overly sexualized stage outfits turn into clown costumes after a certain age.

LOL. We definitely do not want to see a reprise of the sequined jumpsuit.

Mick's Sinatra-esque ensemble with the hat was a definite fashion crime. But his lithe body in the simple black jersey and trousers recalled the glorious 1969 tour.

When Mick was strutting and preening in black and white on the video screen behind him there were moments when it was 1969 all over again. He looks fantastic. Killer smile. Physique to die for. And 100% natural with no additives. (Possibly colorants though...)

There is such a thing as aging gracefully. Rod Stewart, Frank Sinatra, even Jeff Beck come to mind. As does Charlie Watts.

I don't really think Jagger is aging gracefully. He is stuck with his rock star persona the same way Donald Trump is stuck with his hairstyle.