Bantam Books Hope I Get Old Before I Die.

by David Hepworth

Shipped from the UK in recyclable card packaging.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Audiobook

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2024

About the author

David Hepworth is a music journalist, writer, and publishing industry analyst who has launched several successful British magazines, including Smash Hits, Q, Mojo and The Word, among many others. He presented the definitive BBC rock music program Whistle Test and anchored the BBC's coverage of Live Aid in 1985. He has won the Editor of the Year and Writer of the Year awards from the Professional Publishers Association and the Mark Boxer Award from the British Society of Magazine Editors. He is the radio columnist for the Saturday Guardian and a regular media correspondent for the newspaper.

Reviews

[*TUDOR^QUEEN* · Rating 3 out of 5]

I previously enjoyed this author's works, so decided to take the plunge- especially with the lure of Paul McCartney on the cover. Hepworth writes essays on legendary musicians such as Elton John, Billy Joel, John Fogerty, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and others who decades later are still performing successfully as senior citizens. I would have preferred a more straightforward writing style rather than a heady/essay/prose-like delivery. Some of his ruminations went a little over my head. I gleaned the most pleasure and information towards the very end where he expounded on The Beatles, which seem to be his favorite group of all (we have that in common). I learned about some new individual Beatles video content slated to be released in the coming years.

Some points of interest discussed in the book include how massively the music industry has evolved over the decades and how iconic geriatric musical acts can still thrive. It also talked about the MTV/VH1 era when bands went acoustic during "Unplugged", income streams from song publishing, and some horrible business deals bands signed on to. Overall it was a pleasant read for the nostalgia, overview of stalwart musical legends, and how they adapted to changes in the music industry for their financial well-being.

Thank you to Diversion Publishing / Simon & Schuster who provided an advance reader copy via Edelweiss.

[Graham Power · Rating 3 out of 5]

In his groundbreaking 1970 survey of pop culture, Revolt into Style, George Melly characterised pop music as existing in a perpetual present which denied both past and future. ‘The words “Do you remember”, he wrote, ‘are the filthiest in its language’. Pop was ‘the country of “Now” where everyone is beautiful and nobody grows old’. Pop music was made by rebellious youth for rebellious youth and a pop star’s career inevitably of mayfly duration as one wave of idols was rapidly succeeded by another.

More than fifty years on from Melly Hope I Get Old Before I Die portrays a pop world that has been stood on its head. He would recognise many of the names in this book - Paul McCartney, the Rolling Sones, Bob Dylan, the Who - but perhaps little else. The youthful rebels of his book are now octogenarians yet as popular as ever. Many of them are knights, honoured by Presidents, regulars at state occasions, and one is a Nobel laureate. Pop music is no longer about ‘Now’ but continuity and the reassurance of the past. Rock concerts have become spectacular events at which audiences and performers celebrate a shared history. Or maybe they are celebrating the basic yet somehow miraculous fact of survival. The audiences are multigenerational, a far cry from the ‘screaming adolescents’ of Melly’s day, but no one wants new songs from these senescent rockers, they just want to hear ‘some old’. Time was when even pop stars seemed unconvinced that being a pop star was a proper job - “I’d rather be dead than sing ‘Satisfaction’ when I’m 45”, said the 31 year old Mick Jagger - but it has become possibly the only one that can go on indefinitely. As Hepworth says even British judges now have to retire at seventy-five while the likes of Jagger and McCartney show no signs of stopping.

How did we go from perpetual present to endlessly regurgitated past? As a teenager in the late ‘70s I often wondered why bands like the Who and the Stones bothered to continue. They seemed increasingly irrelevant, making albums bought by the faithful, played once or twice and then filed away forever. Hepworth argues that Live Aid in 1985 was the turning point. The then extravagantly unfashionable Queen - formed in 1970 and regarded by many at the time as past their sell-by date - stole the show, upstaging young bands like Spandau Ballet with a set comprised of golden oldies. He also observes how the internet played a crucial part by making the music of the past instantly accessible. This, in turn, influenced the music made by new bands. Perhaps above all it just took the passing of time to transform the dated into the classic and turn rock dinosaurs into legends. It is probably inevitable that we will always eventually feel the pull of the music we loved when young as so many of our memories are contained within it.

Since 2016 David Hepworth has produced a sequence of books which celebrate the pop and rock of the 1960s and ‘70s. With his latest he has finally arrived in the present with the twist that pop’s present is a celebration of its past, so he is still ploughing his familiar nostalgic furrow. The format will be immediately recognisable to anyone who has read any of the others: short chapters which combine opinions, facts and anecdotes in an engaging and witty style which entertains but sometimes feels less than fully thought through. Certainly this one leaves a lot of important questions not so much unanswered as entirely unexplored. Whatever happened to innovation and the shock of the new? Why do major movements like mod, hippie, punk or rave no longer happen? If pop is now largely about the past does it have a future? How do young artists establish themselves in this heritage obsessed culture? To an extent Hepworth is covering the same territory as Simon Reynolds in his book Retromania. The difference is that Reynolds was dismayed by pop’s increasing tendency to eat itself while Hepworth, apparently unshakeably convinced that the music of the ‘60s and ‘70s represents the high-water mark of pop, seems more than content to let the old times roll.

The final chapter has an unmistakably valedictory tone as he muses on the passing of time as measured out by pop records, and the musicians and original audiences of ‘classic rock’ gradually slipping into history. After all, massively successful though it has been, what Hepworth calls ‘Rock’s Third Act’ can’t go on forever. And what then?

[Derrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as interesting as I'd hoped

This didn't turn out to be anywhere near as good as I wanted it to be! I found most of it to be rather dull and boring. I wasn't at all familiar with many of the groups/artists that were mentioned. Even some of the the ones I'd at least heard of, I still didn't really care for all that much. There were a few interesting stories involving bands I've heard of and actually like but other than that, this was a slog to get through and I had to pretty much force myself to finish it!

[Simon S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was wonderful, as I’ve come to expect from Hepworth’s books.

An informed and entertaining collection of essays, filled with his usual wisdom, wit, and the insight of someone who has been observing the world of popular music from close quarters for several decades.

Stars who emerged - sometimes exploded - onto the scene in the sixties and seventies, their lengthy careers far eclipsing the more common “flash in the pan/flavour of the month” trajectory, have had to find ways in the twenty-first century to negotiate technological and social changes for which they were ill-equipped.

Declines in record sales; increasing demand for live appearances; the impact of streaming and sampling; fans who only want to hear “some old”; songs written in “a different time” which now need to quietly fade away; missing, perhaps dead, band members; all things which affect the maintenance of the legend, and which require some creative problem solving. Given the deep personal connection people have with music, it’s a delicate business for favoured artists to adapt to the changing times while not alienating their existing fan base and even, with any luck, expanding on it.

Over these 36 essays Hepworth looks at the careers of some of the biggest names with careers spanning the last forty to fifty years and looks at what has worked and what has not.

It’s evenhanded, enjoyable, and revealing.

[Jim Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I doubt there is a better and more amusing chronicler of the music of the baby boomer generation than veteran UK music journalist David Hepworth.

Born in 1950 and so now in his mid-70s, Hepworth’s youth coincided with rock music’s golden period from the arrival of The Beatles through to the 1970s pomp of Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Elton John and the birth of punk.

But having seen the pop music industry up close and from the inside as an editor of a few of the UK’s once hugely influential and connected music papers, he is an astute observer of the human frailties of the rock gods whom others worshipped.

This book, the latest in a series about the now rapidly disappearing rock generation, focuses on the events of the past nearly 40 years (!!) since Live Aid - an event which at the time seemed like a swan song for that group of stars.

McCartney was in his early 40s back then and it was 20 years nearly since Pete Townshend of The Who had written the words ‘I hope I die before I get old’ in the boomer anthem ‘My Generation’ (a phrase that the title of this volume neatly reverses).

But as it turned out most of those people we thought were becoming too old for rock’n’roll in the 1980s kept on going for another 40 years. As the stars aged, so did their audiences who insisted on continuing to hear the music they associated with their youth. In fact, the boomers and Gen-X crowd increasingly brought their kids along to the legends’ shows.

Who would have thought? I saw McCartney perform in Sydney only last year. He was 82. And a good portion of the audience would have been born well after The Beatles disbanded.

Actually, as Hepworth recounts, McCartney is one of the few of the golden era stars who has aged gracefully and retained a healthy balance in his life, while accepting his designated role of giving the audience what they want - the feeling they first had when they heard those wonderful tunes.

Others, however, found the second and third acts of life in (or reluctantly out) of the public eye a more difficult cross to bear. The book recounts sad (and sometimes hilarious) accounts of bands who, in one last grab for cash, reunited in late middle age and found themselves resenting the indignity of having to sing and perform songs they wrote in their teens or 20s, while trying to move their aging bodies in ways that gravity now resisted.

And Hepworth deftly sets these personal stories in the context of the huge changes in the economics of the music industry over the past few decades. As we know now, those changes mean few artists have been left able to make a living out of recorded music (with streaming services destroying their income). This forces them to rely on live performance - just when their emotional, creative and physical capacities are dwindling.

There are so many brilliant anecdotes in this book that reveal the very human, real life stories behind the public lives of so many of these iconic performers. But perhaps the saddest is the long, bitter years of John Fogerty, the frontman of Creedence Clearwater Revival - who at one point at the end of the 1960s and start of the 1970s rivalled The Beatles as the biggest band in the world. Fogerty, like many young rock stars, had been robbed of the royalties from his huge back catalogue by an ill-judged contract with the greedy label owner who signed the band when they were in their teens. Fogerty spent years in court unsuccessfully trying to get out of the contract. Meanwhile, he fell out badly with his old former band members, including his own brother Tom. His bitterness was such that he refused to reform the band for live performances, which was their only way out of penury. When CCR was indicted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame around the turn of the century, the other members turned up with their instruments - expecting a reconciliation. But Fogerty ignored them and played instead with Bruce Springsteen.

Tough business is rock’n’roll. Even tougher business growing old.

Highly recommended.

[Nick Shears · Rating 5 out of 5]

36 entertaining essays on why most ageing rock stars never retire. Full of Mr Hepworth’s usual wit, erudition and familiarity with the subject. He’s the one music writer whose books I will buy without question. Thank goodness he keeps writing more of them.
Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in classic rock, especially.

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very interesting! I never really thought about the aging of rockstars before, frankly, beyond the occasional comment that a particular artist was *STILL* touring... I found the individual stories both surprising and not, when I stopped to think about them, and very enjoyable to listen to. The narration was solid and kept me engaged.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free audio review copy.

[Ron Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another read suggested by a Goodreads friend (thanks again Jim.) I thoroughly enjoyed this account of rock music. It starts in July 1985 with Bob Geldoff and Midge Ure organising the Live Aid concerts in the UK and US. It had been preceded by the release of the song, “Do They Know It's Christmas” which had a star studded line-up.
Hepworth argues that this concert brought together many acts that had passed their prime but demonstrated that there was a huge audience out there for these aging rock stars.
The book is a mixture of nostalgia, the lives of ageing rockers, the influence of technology on popular music, the luck of song writing, the occasional insight into the private lives of musicians, and finally the theft of rock music from the monopoly held by the young. Hepworth writes about the three ages of rock.
I came away thinking that many had great musical and song writing talent but essentially they were just average suburban blokes, and they were mainly blokes. They weren’t gods and many had difficulty dealing with the fame and fortune of their rock star status. The availability of drugs was the undoing for some. Others managed to put this behind them and live healthy lives well into their seventies.
I have been a passenger on this journey and one of the delights is reliving concerts, bands and their music that meant so much to me. I remember the visit to Australia by the Beatles in June 1964. A friend of mine actually went to the concert at Sydney Stadium, Rushcutters Bay.
I saw the Rolling Stones, The Who, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, The Kinks, Jethro Tull (not mentioned by Hepworth), Bob Dylan (at the time I was more of a Donovan fan!) Led Zepplin and others. Naturally I saw many Australian bands. Interestingly the author mentions that single artists fill the charts in recent years.
After Live Aid many of the successful bands from the seventies reformed and toured with great success. As John Lydon from the Sex Pistols is quoted, “We found a common cause, your money.”You might not get rich but you’ll get more pussy than Frank Sinatra was a 1970s quote totally inappropriate for the 1990s and beyond. The baby boomers were willing to play exorbinant ticket prices and sales from accompanying merchandise meant the money came rolling in.
As I write we are approaching the fiftieth anniversary of radio station Double JJ starting. I clearly remember that Sunday when I was driving to the beach and tuning in the station as it began broadcasting. In the late eighties I moved to country New South Wales where there was no Double J and Triple J didn’t arrive till the mid 1990s. So I never got to appreciate Blur and Oasis.
It was rather sad to read of the animosity that many band members held towards each other. This animosity was dealt with by the bucket loads of money that was offered to the bands to reform and tour.
Some rock musicians never knew when to retire and some virtually died on stage. Glen Campbell’s last tour is a sad story. I bought David Bowie’s Black Star on the Friday and he died on the Sunday. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s inability to conquer the bitterness that led them to never reform, even for one concert. Some performers died early while others lived a full life and into their eighties they are still performing.
Hepworth’s chapter on his sixty year relationship with the Beatles is a worthy read.
Hepworth is an engaging writer, his stories are never salacious, vituperative or condescending. He has touches of wit and humour. It is a formative telling of the story of rock music over the last five decades and centres on the bands, artists, technicians and promoters who all made it happen. A book I would highly recommend, especially my peers who also travelled on this journey.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of reflections on how rock and roll has developed into a heritage industry. All the usual suspects are here but Hepworth throws in the odd musician like Liz Phair who I have never heard of. Crucially no one outstays their welcome. Chapters are concise, Hepworth makes his point and then moves on. For me, it helped explain my enduring fascination with the music I grew up listening to and justify my decision to spend upwards of £50 a ticket for the privilege of seeing incomplete versions of The Stranglers and Buzzcocks in concert.

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was super cool and really interesting. Would definitely recommend if you’re at all interested in rock history.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fine book from Hepworth, looking at the continuing performances and popularity of the rock stars of the sixties.

[Tara Prince · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting look at music and musicians over the years. It was fascinating to see how each decade had so many changes in music and how we ingest it. The way the stars age and won't stop playing wasn't that surprising. Highly recommend if you have an interest in history of music.

[Stuart Ovington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read about why successful musicians rock till they drop.

[Marvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Hope I Get Old Before I Die' (Why Rock Stars Never Retire) by David Hepworth (2025)

How did pop music, initially intended to be solely about groundbreaking innovation, develop such a comfortable connection to its history? How did we arrive at the point where rock stars continue to thrive in their 70s and 80s? These are topics explored in Hepworth's latest book.

In the introduction, he writes when Paul McCartney closed 'Live Aid' in 1985, he was 43 years old. Who could have dreamed that someone who at the time already seemed like an old musician, would still be performing 40 years later?

The book is essentially a series of essays about aging rock stars and explores the underlying factors of their continued success. As Hepworth says, many of the artists don't know any other life. For most, money is still a draw, and they're addicted to the buzz of the job.

Hepworth also challenges the audience. Do we keep our music idols young in our minds and hearts because we are getting old? In some ways, seeing acts 50+ years after we first discovered them, is a way to relive our glory days, and to feel a connection to the simplicity and warmth that the past gave us. The music is inside us, and we want to feel close to the people who made it. It's a feeling that never goes away. We also like to believe that the music we grew up with is better than what came before or after. 

Hepworth's writing style which uses sophisticated language, including British terminology, and references, sometimes requires some acclimation. But he effectively balances humor and pathos, preventing the work from becoming overly academic.

If you're of a certain age and passionate about music, this book will feel nostalgic and heartfelt. It's highly recommended for music buffs, and especially for those who idolized their musicians of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. We grow old together.

[Warren Seddon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t normally do reviews of books I think are below 3 stars, I appreciate that it takes a huge effort to get things written and published. This book really irritated me, however, and I can’t help myself. It should just be called ‘stuff I know about music’ as it completely fails to answer the question its title suggests it’s aiming for. It lacks any thematic drive or narrative arc that suggests a story is being told or a question is being explored in any serious way. It’s just random chapters of detail about different bands scattered haphazardly without any real order. It’s final chapter then very optimistically opens with a reference to ‘the train of events’ he suggests he’s written about. The train comes off the tracks very early and comes nowhere close to recovering. Very disappointing. I’ve primarily given it two stars rather than one to assuage my guilt about the negative review, although I guess I’ve now undermined that as well….

[Ryan Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like the subtitle duped me, which lowered my enjoyment of this collection of essays about rock stars of the 1960s and 1970s as they age. I expected a more complete answer to the interesting question of why rock stars don’t retire. What I got was: they can make a lot of money. Had this book been billed as a collection of anecdotes about aging rock stars, then perhaps I would not have picked it up but I would have enjoyed it more as I would have known what I was choosing to read. As it is, Hepswoth’s essays don’t do much more than repeat stories about aging musicians that have been told in other places also.

[Brian Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and enjoyable book about why rock stars never retire . Told in Hepworth's inimitable style , which at times is insightful, other times mocking, other times pretentious and other times pompous . He get away with it because of his encyclopedic knowledge and analysis of the music business as well as his clear affection for it .

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to Goodreads and Division Books for an advance copy of this book that looks at rock and roll in the year of our Lord 2025, and how the music of youth and rebellion as become a nostalgia show complete with casino shows, monthly arena shows, and songs that never get old, just the people who sing them.

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. I say nostalgia is going to be the death of us. Everything is going wrong because people want the world they imagine they had as children. The air is poison, not the Brett Michaels-kind, the water has more lead than a Zeppelin, our politics is corrupted, movies lack originality. Books, well nobody reads. And music. Music is old. I must hear at least once a day people complaining they don't make music like they used too. That the songs they grew up with were so much better. To quote an animated show that should have ended twenty years ago," I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me, and it'll happen to you, too.". This is the price of getting old, and even worse changing with the times. But as long as one holds on to 16 as long as the can, well, there is a soundtrack for you. David Hepworth looks at this issue in his latest collection of essays, Hope I Get Old Before I Die: Why Rock Stars Never Retire, a book about money, power, fame, and not wanting to fade away.

Hepworth starts with an old man on stage. Paul McCartney at Live Aid, looking his every 40-some odd years of life. This was the moment Hepworth said that things started to change. That bands that thought, like Mick Jagger shaking one's tail feathers in their 40's would be ridiculous. Hepworth goes into the reasons why musicians keep rocking in the free world, the main reason is money. Lots and lots of money. Rock stars get used to a certain lifestyle, and don't really like to change. As the population ages around them, and no one wants to admit they are getting like their parents, there are a lot of ways to make money. Tours of course, the idea of tours have change dramatically, as have the prices to see these bands. Publishing, royalties, and more have changed too. And the fact that it really is hard to give up public adoration.

A book that is about fame, music, and the fact that people don't want like too look to the future. The future is dark, uncertain, and seemingly doomed. The past is open free, and full of good feelings and music that is familiar, one that people don't have to try and figure out, just listen too. Hepworth really captures this feeling, with writing that is very well researched, and snarky in so many good ways. Hepworth is not nostalgic. He remembers the problems these musicians had, what they did, and how things went wrong, until they went right again. This is music writing at its best, the writing of rebellion, of looking at sacred cows and declaring their clothes ugly, boring and uninteresting. I miss this kind of music writing, as I am not immune to nostalgia myself. I enjoyed this book quite a lot.

[Susan Scribner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The answer to Why Rock Stars Never Retire is glaringly obvious: Baby Boomers, and money. There, FIFY. Also, is there any real difference between septuagenarians attending a Rolling Stones concert in 2025 and my late Greatest Generation mother's lifelong obsession with Frank Sinatra? Other than the fact that we deluded ourselves into thinking that our music was going to change the world?

Even if it doesn't offer any surprises, music journalist David Hepworth's latest is a lot of snarky fun as he profiles: feuding but cash-starved band members on tense reunion tours; obscure artists who experience a career renaissance when they announce that they have terminal cancer; the transformation of Las Vegas "residencies" from last refuge for has-beens to cash cow for superstars tired of endless travel; and why the only act bigger than the Beatles is actually the Beatles themselves, as evidenced by the Anthology project, Cirque du Soleil's Love, the Get Back documentary, Apple's planned four interconnected biographical films (coming to a theater near you in 2027)...

Catnip supreme for a music-loving Boomer like me.

[Tomw34 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this from the library. It's interesting and well written, starting with Live Aid and it's effects on making stadium rock big business for casual music fans.

Problem is ... the evolution of classic rock into a merchandised big business is kind of depressing to read about. It's a little sad to read about these former rebels/outcasts becoming stadium mascots and selling the rights to their logo to t-shirt companies for huge sums. After a while it almost feels like a true crime book about how 60s rock got killed.

[Peter Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this volume by David Hepworth immensely. In his third age now.Writing about artists surviving in their third age, using his accumulated knowledge gained in his first and second ages to offer up explanations of why past actions resonate in the rose-colored present and indeed make artists who only just passed muster back in the day have grossed much more than they ever could in their heyday.

[Ryan Fischer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty fascinated by the phenomenon of the still-touring 85-year-old rocker. Hepworth does get into some of the economics and psychology of it, but maybe not as much as I wanted. Sometimes, the tone gets a little snarky, and the abrupt, short chapters felt choppy. The book is mostly redeemed by some personal reminiscences and thoughts in the final chapter - I wish that had been the tone throughout.

[Aran Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love David's work
this is the third book of his I've read and I will get around to the others
the last chapter about the longevity of the Beatles captured exactly how I feel about them, almost brought me to tears which was inconvenient as I was in the waiting room at my daughter's ballet class (who also loves the Beatles)

[Wallace McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a pleasant read about the rock industry and how and why artists keep touring, how some have adapted to the changing industry and continue to be successful. Covered a fair number of stars and a few lesser known ones.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hope I Get Old Before I Die is an interesting look at the careers of several popular musicians … Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, etc. Although it was a bit slow in parts, I think music fans will enjoy it. Thanks to Goodreads, the author, and publisher for this giveaway. I have given an honest review.

[John Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nostalgic and inspiring. A good read into my youth. The music that we grew up with and defined us.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining to read, not particularly enlightening. Sometimes that's enough.

[William Dury · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, good insights into the already well reported story of 1960’s rock. Making it all seem fresh again is a very good trick. Marred a bit by last chapter personal Beatle-mania revelations. Some things are just better left unsaid.

[Joe O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The idea that pop and rock music is an industry built for lengthy, many decades-long careers is a relatively modern development. To paraphrase the sub-title of David Hepworth’s thoroughly entertaining book, why can rock stars never retire?

The reasons explored by Hepworth are numerous. Whether because of punishing financial commitments and unexpected tax bills, ruinously expensive divorce settlements, creative restlessness, keeping their extended entourages in the lifestyles to which they’ve become accustomed, or addiction to the adrenaline jolt that only public adoration can deliver, rock stars are increasingly finding that they can check out any time they like but they can never retire.

David Hepworth studies these themes in a series of 36 essays, most of them based around a single artist (whether from The Who and Led Zeppelin, on to Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Madonna and Liz Phair). Many of these essays discuss the increasingly regressive vista of pop music, and how an artform “which was once supposed to be about the shock of the new [has] come to have such a comfortable relationship with its past”.

Hepworth pinpoints a couple of hinge moments in popular music’s transition into a heritage industry. Live Aid was one of those turning points where we could definitively say that rock and pop were no longer the preserve of the young, and where a boomer audience who ‘refused to put away childish things’ reasserted its purchasing power. The retroism of Britpop represented another staging post in “the end of looking forward” where, as Hepworth claims, “suddenly everything was heritage”. And the warning signs for the advent of the ‘rock heritage business’ were already there in the 1980s with the creation of the Graceland shrine to Elvis Presley and the wretched Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

When it comes to excavating the past of rock music, this is far from David Hepworth’s first rodeo, and he brings to “Hope I Get Old …” the gimlet eye for detail and wry detachment that characterised his earlier books. Reliably but enjoyably snarky, Hepworth deploys a much-needed irreverence for the antics of pompous old fools like Roger Waters or John Entwistle’s ludicrous country squire lifestyle. Hepworth is sharp and astute when analysing the changing economics of the industry, but without getting caught too deep-in-the-weeds of the financial figures, preferring to focus the bulk of his attention on the follies of the ‘Gods of Rock’.

[Paul Sand · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a Boomer like me, you may have noticed that "our" music often plays in the background of supermarkets, dentist offices, hotel atria, …

And you may notice people humming, sometimes singing, along to the tunes.

And you will often observe that many of those people were definitely not born when those songs came out.

So I wonder if there wasn't something timelessly special about that music. If people will be listening to it, humming/singing along, decades and centuries hence, long after Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, and Huntr/X have faded into obscurity.

Let me note that's not the theme of this book by British music journalist David Hepworth. He makes clear the primary reason "rock stars never retire" is economic: if they want to maintain their profligate lifestyles, it requires more income that can be generated via nest-egg investments.

(He also alleges that "oldies" radio stations never play songs made before 1980. Is that true? That would pretty much contradict the thesis I outlined above.)

I really enjoyed the book. Hepworth is insightful and witty, his knowledge of music, business, and personalities is wide and deep. His chapters are usually short, each concentrating on a music icon (e.g. Paul McCartney) or event (e.g. Live Aid) or combination thereof (e.g., Elton John dinking his song "Candle in the Wind" for Princess Diana's funeral). In his last-chapter musings, he wonders (as I have done) whether AI will eventually resurrect dead artists to not-exactly-live performances of their old songs. Or new AI-written songs that ape the style of their greatest hits.

As a bonus, Hepworth provides a 30-song playlist, "Songs of Innocence and Experience". And the first song in the list is Southside Johnny's version of "All the Way Home". One of my own favorites! A song written by Bruce Springsteen, but Hepworth claims (correctly) that Bruce's rendition "can't touch" Johnny's.

Ironically, Southside Johnny actually did retire recently.