Retired But Still Rocking

The fact that The Who are still touring sometimes makes me wonder just what the appeal is. There are only two of the original members left, and they're not alone. These days it seems like every other day some rock group is "coming out of retirement for one last tour," or whatever. Frank Sinatra made a business of retiring; The Rolling Stones appear to be doing likewise. And as The Who have proved, death is no obstacle.

On the one hand, it's somewhat pathetic to see people who sang a song about hoping to die before they got old still on tour. There's an element of the macabre when musicians die in the midst of a tour and the band continues the tour anyway. I'm not accusing them of being cold-blooded or money-grubbing; I think that, were I in their situation, I might do the same thing. In fact, if I were a rock star and I died, I would want my band to continue on in memory of me, or something like that. It is convenient that the two things hardest to replace, lead guitar and vocals, haven't died yet (but AC/DC seemed to do alright for themselves after their singer died, so you never know).

On the other hand, why shouldn't older bands keep playing music? If people want to see them, let them play. It's what they do. If you hate going on tour, fine, but if you genuinely enjoy making music for your fans, then who am I to condemn you.

So why drum up hype by "retiring" or declaring this to be "absolutely the last tour ever" (N.B. I am not quoting anyone). Why not just keep making music. Many non-rock-star-types do it; why can't they? I imagine that a fair amount of it has to do with hype and money, but again, other non-rock musicians manage to make a go of it without being superstars. Maybe it's an opportunity to play smaller venues, to be more intimate.

And maybe sometimes people should just let things go. The Beatles never reformed and toured, even when it would have been possible (I suppose Paul and Ringo could get together with two other musicians, but it's hardly the same, as should be amply evidenced when Paul himself sings his old songs solo). Sometimes it's time for a good thing to end. That doesn't mean you have to stop making music, but perhaps some people need to stop living in the past. And I say this as someone who will never get to see his favorite band tour again, so perhaps you should take that with a grain of salt.