On Becoming Too Old To Rock Anymore

[dbt]

Damn. If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself. Waaaaaaaah.

I started playing in bands when I was fifteen; now I am fifty-four and it takes two days (at least) to recover from a gig--even though I have quit drinking and smoking dope until well after the last set of an evening.

Well, I always told myself that when the time came that I could not pour 150 percent of my energy into a performance I would hang it up. Now I gotta keep my own promise and it sucks having to be as good as my word!

I suppose I could do what all the Old Guys eventually come to: use a chair or a stool onstage, but fuck that. If you ain't standing up, jumping and howling, it ain't Rock and Roll.

Giving up sex because it's too much of a hassle has not weighed on me the way giving up gigs is doing. Hell, live music is better than sex anyhow--because more people can watch without laughing. I don't especially miss my hair, having a gut after decades of being called Bones don't upset me and I don't give the tiniest portion of a rat's ass what anybody might think (or say) about me anymore. "Go fuck yourself if you don't like it" is the Geezer Manifesto, with which I am down so far that I am dug in under it.

But not playing in bars anymore is really, really, really, REALLY going to suck. What A Drag It Is Getting Old. It's like this: a regular male can go into a bar and maybe take a regular female home that night. He might even take TWO regular females home with him if his WILDEST dreams should come true, but he will be buying their drinks as well as his own. And, in the morning, he will be a small pile of ashes when the girls are done with his sorry ass.

Meanwhile on the bandstand, EVERY girl in the joint is watching me. They are dancing their pretty little asses off because they simply cannot help themselves. Their tits are doing The Wave. If I stoop down and play the fiddle in their direction, they are fucking me with their eyes and we all know it. They are hollering a LOT louder for me than they've ever done for any boyfriend between their legs! Besides which, I ain't had to buy a drink or bring my own weed to a gig since 1995. Pussy pales in comparison, but I digress.

It is The Girls I will miss the most. The ones who are the first to holler when a hoedown touches a part of their soul that they didn't even know was there. The ones who are the first on the dance floor and don't care if the boys get up or not, 'cause they mean to party tonight. The ones who will come up to you during a break, smile wonderfully and tell you how much you ROCK and how much fun they're having.

Thank you, Lasses. I have gotten more Love than any mortal man; I just wish it could go on forever. Oh, well. Barmaid! Whiskey all around!

:loveya:
dbt

[opiate69]

1. If I may quote the inimitable Ian Anderson....

The old Rocker wore his hair too long,
wore his trouser cuffs too tight.
Unfashionable to the end drank his ale too light.
Death's head belt buckle yesterday's dreams
the transport caf' prophet of doom.
Ringing no change in his double-sewn seams
in his post-war-babe gloom.

Now he's too old to Rock'n'Roll but he's too young to die.

He once owned a Harley Davidson and a Triumph Bonneville.
Counted his friends in burned-out spark plugs
and prays that he always will.
But he's the last of the blue blood greaser boys
all of his mates are doing time:
married with three kids up by the ring road
sold their souls straight down the line.

And some of them own little sports cars
and meet at the tennis club do's.
For drinks on a Sunday work on Monday.
They've thrown away their blue suede shoes.

Now they're too old to Rock'n'Roll and they're too young to die.

So the old Rocker gets out his bike
to make a ton before he takes his leave.
Up on the A1 by Scotch Corner
just like it used to be.
And as he flies tears in his eyes
his wind-whipped words echo the final take
and he hits the trunk road doing around 120
with no room left to brake.

And he was too old to Rock'n'Roll but he was too young to die.
No, you're never too old to Rock'n'Roll if you're too young to die.

[XNASA]

2. Being on a stage IS better than sex, that's true.

But then, so are a lot of things. I quit playing out last year, and don't care if I ever play out again on a regular basis. I'm content to sit in front of my home studio now.

[Ron Green]

3. When I was younger, and playing rock and roll and pop music, it was mostly

about the scene: the girls, the applause, the approval of others. Fortunately for me, I learned to play better music as I got older, and now it's about the music. I don't have to be the sound track to someone's desperation any more. I'm happy to be playing jazz now, with good players, and looking forward to the rest of my life learning and growing in the music instead of having to recover from a gigs.

Yeah, I hung up my rock and roll shoes, and I've got a new lease on musical life because of it.

[Disturbed]

4. I don't care ANYMORE

What an audience thinks matters little to me. Well..I wouldn't the audience to feel that the band I'm playing in sucks but I don't play in bands that I feel suck. haha In fact, I quit a band that was paying me well because the only one in that band that didn't suck was the drummer. I just couldn't do it anymore.I play bass and play the Blues. Age isn't a factor.

[dbt]

5. Thank you ALL for your responses,

each one illuminating a different facet of what I'm going through. I will never give up playing music, it's just that gigging is killing my ass.

I'm sure that after a few Saturday nights of wondering where the gig is, that I will calm down. A few more Saturdays and I will probably hook up with the family bluegrass group in the next town because they don't know too many tunes yet. Besides that, the youngest girl in the band (must be all of nine) is going to be a champion flat-picker; I GOT to be around for that!

Now excuse me, for I must go back to railing against Time and Gravity.

Cheers,

:beer:
dbt

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. I found it liberating not playing bars anymore..............

I stopped playing out (the bar scene) a couple of years ago. I got tired of getting home at 3 in the morning, lugging all my equipment (4 guitars, amps, monitors, etc...), driving in lousy weather, and worse of all the club owners. I didn't miss it at all and you know what? never got laid from a gig, not even close (I guess I never put those vibes out) but then I've been married for 30 years now.

What I did miss was the camaraderie of the band and learning new stuff.

We all know lots of musicians, like ourselves, who have gotten older and have put aside the formal playing. I invited a couple of guys over to play and they would bring someone else and the next thing I know we have a full band with very capable musicians getting together every Tuesday night and working on songs. The beauty of it is we are doing it for ourselves and having a blast. What we have eliminated is the stress factor which allows us to grow musically and do things we might not have been able to do in a formal band. Another upside is that we can choose the songs we want to do without worrying if they are dance able or whatever. It is liberating.

The funny thing is that we probably have about 50 tunes now and will be playing some parties this summer for the hell of it. The difference is that we will be playing what we want without thw "work" label attached to it.

Trust me, it's not all that bad.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Not Too Old. Just Not Healthy Enough

I still enjoy it a lot, but two things derailed our train.

1) I have MS and staying up until 3am and moving gear is something i just CANNOT do. Being 48 has nothing to do with it. I'm just not physically able.

2) My last band, which lasted forever, used to travel with 4 & 1/2 TONS of gear. At some point, that seems a bit much and makes one reconsider gigging. But then, you get used to that big sound and the cool lighting and the 2800 watt monitor system and all that. So, doing it now, on a smaller scale, would seem like a bring down.

If we're going to go small scale, we can do that in our little studio or we can go to a jam night or go open for someone else. Then, we can scale down and it's not on us! All we have to do is be the best we can be that day. No other responsibility.

Besides, none of us NEED the money. We liked it, but we never needed it. So, we pulled the plug.

But, i'd still do it if i could, and if we could afford a full crew so i never had to move anything heavier than a drumstick.
The Professor

[dbt]

8. Thank you, Professor.

I hear you about moving the gear! "Never mind the groupies. What we want is Roadies!"

:hi:

[ProfessorGAC]

9. LOL! Absolutely!

I played in a band in the early to mid 80's that had a full 6 man crew. Even included a keyboard tech. All i did was show up and play. Didn't even have to call up the first set of patches. He had that done for me. As a 2nd guitar player (songs that scream for 2 guitars, ya know), i didn't even have to tune my own guitars. We had a guy who took care of that, too!

It was so cool! Of course, that band wasn't as good as the band after that, but we were "right place, right time". Tons of work, for LOTS per gig, and didn't have to move a thing.

Not exactly an artistic statement, but man it was easy.
The Professor