Remains Of The Daze

Our last post on the ageing of Keith "Keef!" Richards made us wonder about the effects of age on some other iconic figures in the rock and roll world. So we dug up some photos. Here they are. It's not as bad as it could be, but probably a little worse than you wish it was. (No idea what that meant. But you get the idea).

                                                      THE DAZED AND DISABUSED


                                                                  IGGY POP

 Cutting edge Iggy Pop, circa 1977

And he still wants to be your dog

Yup, it's official. Iggy Pop, aka Jim Osterberg, the man who wanted to be our dog back in the heady early days of the punk movement and was willing to cut himself on stage to prove it,  is now an old guy. He's 64, to be exact, but of course, being Iggy, he's still out there doing what he's always done, and still does better than a lot of performers half his age. His band, The Stooges, took a major hit two years ago when guitarist Ron Asheton died shortly after Iggy and the band reunited to record "The Weirdness", their first album in over twenty years. But even though the Stooges are no more, Iggy seems poised to continue indefinitely, inspiring new generations of fans who may or may not have seen this strange, surreal joint appearance that Iggy and fellow rock icon, David "I love nihlism" Bowie made in 1977 on...of all things...The Dinah Shore Show.


                                                                   GRACE SLICK

Surrealistic Pillow Daze: Grace Slick with Jefferson Airplane

Amazing Grace? From White Rabbit to white hair.

The former lead singer for San Francisco-based The Jefferson Airplane and its later (and much lamer) incarnation Jefferson Starship, Grace Slick never really achieved the iconic status that fellow 60s female rockers Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell enjoyed. But she earned her place in rock history with powerful vocal performances on classic psychedelic anthems like "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love." But it was her extra curricular activities and personal life that seemed to draw the most attention from the rock press, which honed in on her out of control drinking binges (she once insulted an entire audience during a concert in Berlin by swearing at them and yelling, "Who won the war?"), her ballooning weight, and her marriage and subsequent break-up with band founder, Paul Katner (they initially named their daughter "god"). Things seemed to even out for Grace in the eighties, though, when she finally quit drinking, lost weight, and Jefferson Starship clawed its way back onto the charts with a string of mainstream hits, including the saccharine, so-bad-it-makes-you-want-to-kill-puppies "We Built This City." These days, Grace is focusing on her visual art, animal rights activities, and "spirituality." To see Grace in action, go here.


                                                                      JIMMY PAGE

When he was fab...and hot


There was a time when we used to be absolutely ga-ga over Jimmy Page, best known as the hedonistic, wip-toting lead guitarist of The Yardbirds and Led Zepplin. He had it all, at least in our estimation:. He was tall, whippet thin, dark-haired and he played the guitar like he was making love to a woman. Sometimes it was acoustic strumming, other times it was electric licks, but it was always passionate and even transcendental. Our ardor has waned over the years, as that particular kind of ardor is wont to do, but there's no question that, back in the salacious 70s, Jimmy Page was the dark Lothario of rock and roll, going through groupies like Lady Ga Ga goes through fishnet body stockings.. (His long-term relationships, though rare during that period of the Jimmy Page Story, included a year with fourteen-year-old Lori Maddox and an extended bout with Groupie author Pamela Des Barres)/  The other members of Led Zepplin weren't exactly Bobby Brady either, but Jimmy Page was the one that the girls openly and unabashedly salivated over, as chronicled by  Pamela De Barres in her groupie tell-all book, I'm With The Band: Confessions of a Groupie.. "He was beautiful. I'm sure that anyone he ever touched fell in love with him," she gushed. (What about the ones he whipped, though? But that's another post.)  Jimmy's well-documented interest in black magic and black arts only seemed to make him more intriguing to women, cementing his place as the go-to bad boy of 1970s rock and roll.

 Been a long time since you rocked and rolled: Jimmy with Led Zepplin. 

And these days? The man who gave us "Black Dog" has gone grey, of course, as have the groupies who used to squirm their way backstage for late night guitar lessons. But he's traded trashing hotel rooms for elder statesman of rock and roll status, a role with which he seems very comfortable, as he did when he made a surprise appearance at a Donovan show at Royal Albert Hall in June of this year. Rust never sleeps, rock and roll will never die, and Jimmy Page will probably always turn heads, if, these days, it's more likely to be as a result of his musicianship. To see some of that old Jimmy Page black magic, slither here.

Jimmy and Donovan at Royal Albert Hall last June

So, that's it for this edition of "Even Rock and Rollers Get Fat And Old.." Hope it hasn't been too frightening. Perhaps it's even been inspiring. All we know is that we'd rather belong to Rock and Roll's "Over the Hill Club" than to its sister organization,  the "27 Club."  Skol.