Yes, You’ll Still Need Me When I’m 94
Veteran rockers, businessmen and thinkers should prepare the way for a more gerontophile future.
Paul McCartney, performing in Boston on June 7.
Photographer: Boston Globe/Boston GlobeOn Saturday evening, 80-year-old Paul McCartney will headline Glastonbury, the UK’s premier live music festival. Over in Hyde Park, the Rolling Stones, fronted by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, both 78, will strut their stuff. Other touring rockers include Bruce Springsteen (72), Elton John (75) and, of course, Bob Dylan (81), who is on an optimistically conceived “never ending tour.”
This refusal to fade away is not confined to wrinkly rockers. The best new book I’ve read recently is “Leadership: Six Studies in Strategy” by the 99-year-old Henry Kissinger. Rupert Murdoch is back on the marriage market at 91 and Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping to make a political comeback at 72. These days more and more older people are not so much raging against the dying of the light as continuing with business as usual well into what used to be regarded as the twilight years.