‘Bob Dylan is like China. We can see what he’s doing but never work out why he’s doing it…’
As music writer David Hepworth correctly points out in the introduction to his latest book, Hope I Get Old Before I Die, there are literally thousands of books, films and plays about the first stages of a rock star’s career, the boom period, but there are precious few about the much less sexy final act. Hepworth’s eighth book about rock music (I’d urge any fans of the genre to also check out his earlier work) delves into what happens to rock stars as they approach pension age…
While there are passing references to more modern-day artists such as Oasis and Liz Phair, Hepworth mainly stays with the artists he has been writing about for decades: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, David Bowie et al. This isn’t to say that any of this latest book is repetitious, however. While he has covered all of these artists before, he has never pondered them through the lens of old age, and this gives Hope I Get Old Before I Die a vitality that is often lacking from other books about rock music that tend to recycle lots of stories that proper fans will have heard many times before.
Subtitled Why Rock Stars Never Retire, Hepworth’s latest explains to the reader why bands continue to spend their golden years traipsing around the world performing the same old songs that they have been playing for decades, namely, money and adoration. Hepworth is refreshingly honest about his heroes, cynical even, but hey, it’s a cynical business. His writing, as ever, is engaging and universal, and while I’d have liked to have heard a little more Tom Waits and a little less John Fogerty, there’s no accounting for taste.
Hepworth closes out his book with a list of songs by famous musical artists from later in their careers, and this, if nothing else, is worth the price of purchase alone. The list serves as a timely reminder that while genius often goes hand in hand with the flush of youth, there’s usually a little more stardust that remains even long after the crowd have stopped cheering (or stopped cheering for new material at least).
Fans of rock ‘n’ roll should check out all of Hepworth’s books, but this one feels particularly him. And it’s all the better for it.