I missed the 12-12-12 concert in New York’s Madison Square Garden to benefit Hurricane Sandy victims and I wish I’d missed this vile write-up in the New York Times. Snarkily titled “The Music Is Timeless, but About the Rockers …”, it sneered at the star-studded line-up of “retirement-age rock icons,” described their “visible aging” as “tragic,” derided “geriatric acts” like Bruce Springsteen and Roger Waters for refusing to “accept with a certain grace the ravages of time,” mocked Iggy Pop’s “freakishly impressive” body and Roger Daltrey’s “snare-tight” abs (“a specimen for his age, to be sure”), and called out these “men of Viagra-taking age” for “violat[ing] an obvious dictum for seniors: keep your clothes on in public.”
“It’s like hearing that your grandparents still have sex: bully for them, but spare us the details,” wrote Alex Williams. Yes, it is like that, you puritanical, narrow-minded twit! Your grandparents do have sex, and if you can’t bear the thought, cover your eyes. Over two billion people around the world stomached the sight of these legendary musicians rocking out. Many aren’t even US citizens, yet donated travel, time, and energy to raised $30 million and counting for charity. They’re excellent role models if you ask me: in shape, doing good, getting laid, and having a blast. At least Williams had the good grace to give the last word to Mick Jagger (“who at 69 still bounds and gyrates through unimaginably athletic, 2 1/2-hour sets”): “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.” Especially when it comes to rock superstardom.
Maybe Alex Williams has never heard of the blues. Frankly, some of these musicians are ONLY NOW finally qualified to talk about crushing loss, heartbreak, and the way life just keeps playing those nasty tricks on you–and how, nonetheless, you find a way to laugh in his silly face and come right back, dancing. I thought that review was one of the most idiotic and ignorant I’d ever read. Go listen to Alberta Hunter, Alex, and don’t spend too much time on the early recordings.