0:00:02 > 0:00:04This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:04 > 0:00:07From the moment it first fell on alarmed, old ears,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10it was clear that rock and roll was a young person's game.
0:00:10 > 0:00:16Music made by young people for young people that never intended to grow up or grow old.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18And yet, it did.
0:00:18 > 0:00:25So what happened as the music refused to die, and its performers refused to leave the stage?
0:00:25 > 0:00:30What happens when rock's youthful rebelliousness is delivered wrapped in wrinkles?
0:00:30 > 0:00:34These are the stories of Britain's first rock and roll generations
0:00:34 > 0:00:37and their struggle to stay forever young.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47# You know I'm born to lose And gambling's for fools
0:00:47 > 0:00:51# But that's the way I like it, baby I don't want to live forever... #
0:00:51 > 0:00:54The secret of longevity is not dying.
0:00:54 > 0:01:00It's easy, really. You know, just keep breathing at all times.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04Look at Keith. Dear old Keith.
0:01:04 > 0:01:09He looks like he's been dead for 40 years. Do you know what I mean?
0:01:09 > 0:01:12But everybody loves him. They say,
0:01:12 > 0:01:14"Is he still alive?"
0:01:14 > 0:01:15"Yeah." "Is he alive now?"
0:01:15 > 0:01:17"I'm not sure."
0:01:19 > 0:01:24When I walk on stage and I still put the capes on and I go out,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26age suddenly goes out the window.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30I am not 60 years old anymore.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Admittedly, when I come off, it's slightly different.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39I don't go to a party, I normally go back to my hotel room
0:01:39 > 0:01:42and order a hot chocolate and watch the late night movie.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49I had a pair of leather trousers. I called them rubber trousers.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52And I wore them for the first time as a joke
0:01:52 > 0:01:55because I thought it was really amusing, this 50-year-old guy
0:01:55 > 0:01:58wearing leather trousers and I got all embarrassed.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02It probably looks like I think I'm a bit of a rock sausage guy.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05And they were...got rid of.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07Now I go out there in sensible clothes.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16We are the first generation who I think has cocked a snook at age.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19We have carried on being the oldest swingers in town
0:02:19 > 0:02:21and none of us are showing any signs
0:02:21 > 0:02:24of wanting to not go to rock concerts,
0:02:24 > 0:02:31not want to stay up all night, not want to take a lot of recreational drugs if we feel like it.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36We want to rock out but we've all got weak bladders now,
0:02:36 > 0:02:41so we don't want to be stuck in a long queue for the toilets like it was back in the 70s or 60s.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44# People try to put us d-down
0:02:44 > 0:02:46# Talkin' 'bout my generation
0:02:46 > 0:02:50- # Just because we get around - # Talkin' 'bout my generation
0:02:50 > 0:02:53# Things they do look awful c-cold
0:02:53 > 0:02:55# Talkin' 'bout my generation
0:02:55 > 0:02:57# I hope I die before I get old... #
0:02:57 > 0:03:01If the world wants them to come and sing,
0:03:01 > 0:03:03"I hope I die before I get old",
0:03:03 > 0:03:0735 years after they first recorded it,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10I think Pete Townshend is more than happy to do so
0:03:10 > 0:03:13and have a bunch of fans screaming, "Pete".
0:03:16 > 0:03:20- # Why don't you all f-fade away? - # Talkin' 'bout my generation
0:03:20 > 0:03:22# Don't try and dig what we all say... #
0:03:22 > 0:03:26They were actually saying, "Hope I die before I get old".
0:03:26 > 0:03:28# Not trying to cause a b-b-big sensation
0:03:28 > 0:03:30# Talkin' 'bout my generation
0:03:30 > 0:03:34# Talkin' 'bout my g-g-g-generation. #
0:03:34 > 0:03:38Guys, you're old. What happened?
0:03:39 > 0:03:46What happened started in the 50s, when an entirely new species emerged with its very own music.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50They were called teenagers and their music was called rock and roll.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55The jazz critic Brian Case once said
0:03:55 > 0:04:01before teenagers, there was just this transition between boy and man
0:04:01 > 0:04:04and he called it, Brian called it, junior man.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11And there was suddenly a group called youth.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17When you're between the age of 12 and 18,
0:04:17 > 0:04:22that's where music in general is going to have its most powerful impact on you.
0:04:22 > 0:04:28You're going through a rather treacherous path with puberty and post-adolescence.
0:04:28 > 0:04:35The music that they latch onto, it represents who they are or who they want to be.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37Pop music started a lot of things.
0:04:37 > 0:04:42It's spurred that wonderful thing, which is the joy of every young person, of their
0:04:42 > 0:04:47parents shouting up the stairs, "Turn that bloody racket down".
0:04:50 > 0:04:55One of the social functions of rock has always been defiance of the older generation
0:04:55 > 0:04:59and fencing off a particular kind of experience
0:04:59 > 0:05:03that young people have for themselves.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Elvis certainly loved his mum, but...
0:05:06 > 0:05:08his every gesture, his every note,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12was all about social disenfranchisement and rebellion.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14Here's this guy who wears weird clothes.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17He wears pink and black, for heaven's sake, like a pimp.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19Um...great.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23I think what rock and roll invented was a teenager as an end in itself.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26As a kind of final product.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28As a flower of human life.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31Some of these wild young flowers
0:05:31 > 0:05:34were picked for rock and roll stardom
0:05:34 > 0:05:36by a business now trading in youth.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41You always heard these stories that people in English showbusiness were sort of discovered.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43Someone was driving along in a car
0:05:43 > 0:05:47and they saw this really good-looking kid on the side of the street and they said,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49"Get in the car, I'll make you a star".
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Well, none of my friends would have got in the car.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54Unless they had really good sweets.
0:05:58 > 0:06:03The man with the best sweets in town was impresario Larry Parnes,
0:06:03 > 0:06:06who ran a stable of hopeful performers.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10All you needed to gain entry was to be young, male and good looking.
0:06:10 > 0:06:16Once in, Uncle Larry re-christened you for the new youth market.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18Hello, Larry Parnes speaking.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21Marty Wilde was Reggie Smith.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25Vince Ego, Duffy Power, Billy Fury.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29He wanted to change my name, would you believe, to Elmer Twitch.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34Honest. And I said, "I don't think so, Mr Parnes."
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Thank you too, mate.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Well, that just about wraps it up, doesn't it?
0:06:38 > 0:06:44Georgie Fame, Lance Fortune, Dickie Pride,
0:06:44 > 0:06:46and if you saw them when you were a young, as I did,
0:06:46 > 0:06:51they were the only musicians that could play rock in the country, the people that played with them.
0:06:51 > 0:06:56They were all sort of handsome, pure-skinned guys that all the girls screamed at.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59It was very much aimed at the girls.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03The music wasn't taken seriously and it wasn't meant to last.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06It was only the soundtrack to growing pains,
0:07:06 > 0:07:10temporary and disposable, just like the people who made it.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14The newspapers gave rock and roll, as it were, "We give this six months".
0:07:14 > 0:07:16A hit or a miss?
0:07:16 > 0:07:20There they are. They've said undoubtedly that it's a...
0:07:20 > 0:07:22All right. Onto the next.
0:07:22 > 0:07:30Nobody ever thought that the pop thing ever had more than, like, a quick innings. Like a short...
0:07:30 > 0:07:33"We'll have a look at it and then we'll get rid of them."
0:07:33 > 0:07:39Do you think that you've got a good chance of being on stage still at 45, say?
0:07:39 > 0:07:42I hope to. I don't know about my chances.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46They probably thought, "This will last for a couple of years
0:07:46 > 0:07:49"and then I'll go back on the coal".
0:07:51 > 0:07:55I think Hank and I wanted desperately to have a career somehow.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57Didn't know how.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59We just wanted to be up there.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07Hank was the first real, young,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11talented, seriously talented, player
0:08:11 > 0:08:16that came up with exciting, fresh stuff, solos and stuff,
0:08:16 > 0:08:21and we were British, so we were the British rock and roll bit.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30We started writing, Hank and I, at 16, which was really...
0:08:30 > 0:08:32it was crap. But we were writing.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36Like, I was 15 and I was in a band and we had a number one record
0:08:36 > 0:08:42and I went to the bank and, you know, I thought, "I'll get a loan and maybe buy a car and everything".
0:08:42 > 0:08:46"Well, what is your income for next year"?
0:08:46 > 0:08:49"Income for...I don't know." "Next."
0:08:59 > 0:09:01The grown-ups remained doubtful
0:09:01 > 0:09:05that the Beatlemania gripping British youth in the early 60s
0:09:05 > 0:09:06was a fever that would last.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08# Twist and shout
0:09:08 > 0:09:10# C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby... #
0:09:10 > 0:09:14Even The Beatles accepted the idea of their own in-built obsolescence.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19There's a great interview with the Beatles around 1964 or 1965
0:09:19 > 0:09:22where Lennon and McCartney are saying, "Well..."
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Obviously we can't keep playing the same sort of music until we're about 40
0:09:26 > 0:09:29because when we're old men playing From Me To You,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32nobody's going to want to know at all about that sort of thing.
0:09:32 > 0:09:39"Another couple of years and then John and I will write songs for other people, younger people".
0:09:41 > 0:09:46The new tyranny of youth meant that by 1963, The Shadows already seemed middle-aged.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51By the time the Beatles came, we'd been going nearly five years then.
0:09:51 > 0:09:56We were like the Rat Pack because we were in tuxedos, silk shoes,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59frilly shirts, bow ties.
0:09:59 > 0:10:05It was like Dean Martin on lead guitar, Frank singing.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07Whereas all the new stuff, the Beatles with their hair
0:10:07 > 0:10:10and the funny collars, they were cool, they were young.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13We were like, we were the establishment.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19When the Manfreds formed, I was the youngest one in the group.
0:10:19 > 0:10:24Manfred said, as we were rehearsing
0:10:24 > 0:10:29in his terrifyingly cold flat in south-east London...
0:10:30 > 0:10:34.."Man, we're going to be bigger than The Shadows".
0:10:34 > 0:10:38And I thought, "Well, of course we are.
0:10:38 > 0:10:39"Because they're old."
0:10:39 > 0:10:42And of course, they were two years older than me.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46# And tonight, you would hear
0:10:46 > 0:10:50# The saddest song of the year
0:10:50 > 0:10:56# And you'd be mine once again come tomorrow. #
0:11:01 > 0:11:06In 1965, The Who recorded one of the ultimate anthems to youth.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09One that damned growing up and growing old.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14The young went on the offensive, claiming their territory through guitar, bass and drums.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25With me, it was like, bam, OK.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27You either like it or you don't.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Rock was full impact music
0:11:30 > 0:11:34for young people who wanted to go out, have a good time,
0:11:34 > 0:11:38have sex, spend a bit of money,
0:11:38 > 0:11:43create tribes for themselves, whether it was the mods and the rockers, you name it.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47They wanted music that related to their condition
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and was on the cutting edge
0:11:50 > 0:11:54of the youth experience in whatever era they lived through.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02The older generation were still recovering from a world war and just wanted some peace and some quiet.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06To the younger generation, old age just seemed boring.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13Our image of it was our image of our parents and so that's what we thought age was,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16a father who was coming up for retirement,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20certainly by the middle-late 60s they would be retired.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24The extent of their activity would be going fishing, pottering in the garden.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28So, it was very much a kind of a life that had folded down
0:12:28 > 0:12:31and had stopped being in any way innovative
0:12:31 > 0:12:33and in any way full of changes.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36I think the whole point about the baby boom generation
0:12:36 > 0:12:38was that we made it up from the beginning
0:12:38 > 0:12:41and we've been making it up ever since
0:12:41 > 0:12:43and we've been pushing those barriers forward
0:12:43 > 0:12:46and refusing to accept the idea of being old.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48# Hope I die before I get old. #
0:12:48 > 0:12:53How long do you think audiences are going to go on accepting this music that hasn't got any quality?
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Don't you think people are going to suddenly come to the conclusion...
0:12:56 > 0:12:58What has got quality in the pop business?
0:12:58 > 0:13:02What's got quality in anything? It's just a matter of standard.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06In the pop business, we're lucky that there are no standards, you know.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09In My Generation, you wrote, "I hope I die before I get old".
0:13:09 > 0:13:11- Do you in fact mean this?- Yes.
0:13:11 > 0:13:17He wasn't saying that, "That is the case", he was saying that that is how young men feel.
0:13:17 > 0:13:24He was reflecting a kind of new confidence in being young.
0:13:25 > 0:13:33Ironically, the British beat boom of the mid-60s was, to a large extent, based on music that was already old.
0:13:33 > 0:13:40Bands like The Stones, The Animals and Manfred Mann worshiped American blues of the 20s, 30s and 40s.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45# I'm in a mood, baby... #
0:13:45 > 0:13:51Their recording heroes were still alive, but were, by rock and roll's new standards, old men.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57The first music I listened to was jazz
0:13:57 > 0:14:02and then when I started to listen to blues, people were all mature.
0:14:02 > 0:14:08Miles Davis was born in 1925. Charlie Parker, likewise.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12Muddy Waters was born in 1914 or something.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16I thought, "I don't care about young people, anyway."
0:14:17 > 0:14:19Youth culture, youth movement,
0:14:19 > 0:14:23youthful-isation of pop and all that,
0:14:23 > 0:14:27has always been mostly complete shit.
0:14:27 > 0:14:35It's just been about seizure and marketing of a folk movement
0:14:35 > 0:14:41by the same old commercial and industrial forces that take anything
0:14:41 > 0:14:47and try to just identify the most defenceless consumer.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51# I'll satisfy your every need
0:14:51 > 0:14:52# Every need... #
0:14:52 > 0:14:56The narcissistic rebelliousness of British rock and roll,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00young, gifted and white, gathered speed with The Rolling Stones.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03# Let's spend the night together... #
0:15:03 > 0:15:07While The Who were busy burying the older generation,
0:15:07 > 0:15:12The Stones were singing about finding their satisfaction in sex.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17- # Let's spend the night together. - # Come on, baby. #
0:15:17 > 0:15:22'Obviously, you know, rock and roll, especially when you're a young band,'
0:15:22 > 0:15:24there's a lot of testosterone flying around.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27It has all those great sexual connotations.
0:15:27 > 0:15:35Largely, the rock and roll myth has been built up around that sexual thing as well, which is very true.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39I'm meeting audiences today that probably,
0:15:39 > 0:15:45even with the help of Viagra, they're not going to be into sex, but they still love the music.
0:15:45 > 0:15:53# Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64? #
0:15:53 > 0:15:55The arrival of album culture in the late 60s
0:15:55 > 0:15:59proved that rock and roll was now thinking more in the long term.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01It didn't sound disposable any more.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06It was growing up, just like the people who made it.
0:16:06 > 0:16:11The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's album dared to imagine what life would be like at 64,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14completely unthinkable for My Generation.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18People did think Sgt Pepper was going to last.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22They might not have thought that Beatles For Sale was going to last,
0:16:22 > 0:16:23cos that was still a pop record,
0:16:23 > 0:16:28but I think by the time they'd spent £13,000 recording Sgt Pepper's,
0:16:28 > 0:16:31they weren't expecting that to be toast by Christmas.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36It went serious.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39Quite a bit serious.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43The 20-year-old experienced musicians
0:16:43 > 0:16:47started to take things a bit seriously and think, "Where can we go, what's different?"
0:16:47 > 0:16:54Of course, it dragged along the kids as well, but only of a certain age.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58People were able to... They were growing up with these bands
0:16:58 > 0:17:01and they were able to sort of
0:17:01 > 0:17:06appreciate a bit more depth lyrically and musically.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13# That her face at first just ghostly
0:17:13 > 0:17:18# Turned a whiter shade of pale. #
0:17:18 > 0:17:21I always did think that "Somebody is going to be listening to this
0:17:21 > 0:17:24"in five years' time", you know, ten years' time.
0:17:31 > 0:17:36If rock and roll was attempting to grow up, the grown ups weren't having it.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40They're response to this more mature form of musical expression was just as parental.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44These new, better educated kids on the block should still be seen but not heard.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47Daddy had spoken.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55I remember seeing the Pink Floyd when Syd Barrett was in the group being interviewed.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59It was the only televised interview with Syd Barrett, in fact,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02and Roger Waters is sitting next to him
0:18:02 > 0:18:05and here's some crusty old kind of Swiss,
0:18:05 > 0:18:10bad classical composer saying, "Well, it's all too loud. It's all too...I can't...".
0:18:10 > 0:18:13For me, frankly, it's too loud. I just can't bear it.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17I happen to have grown up in the string quartet, which is a bit softer.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20So, why has it got to be so loud?
0:18:20 > 0:18:23Just being totally condescending and they're sitting there
0:18:23 > 0:18:25and they're trying to defend themselves at the same time.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29I mean, everybody listens. We don't need it very loud to be able to hear it.
0:18:29 > 0:18:34Some of it is very quiet, in fact. Personally, I like quiet music just as much as loud music.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40The end of the 60s saw the beginning of the rock and roll casualty list.
0:18:40 > 0:18:48The death of Brian Jones in 1969 seemed to crystallise a live fast, die young attitude,
0:18:48 > 0:18:52and brought a new reality to, "Hope I die before I get old."
0:18:54 > 0:19:01There has long been in human culture the tradition of sacrificing the young men.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03It's a recurring theme.
0:19:03 > 0:19:09Mozart, Jesus and Charlie Parker all died in their mid-thirties.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16If you really want to be a rock star, die young, because then you've fulfilled your role.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19Your only role was to be young.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Yeah, I was thinking of writing a song called 27 Forever
0:19:26 > 0:19:33cos Jimi died when he was 27, Janis and Jim Morrison, you know.
0:19:33 > 0:19:34that will be the chorus,
0:19:34 > 0:19:39# 27 forever! #
0:19:41 > 0:19:47I tried living fast and dying young and it just didn't work.
0:19:47 > 0:19:52The closest I got to death was on LSD and I realised it was the drug.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54It wasn't real.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58I was only living for the moment, that's for sure.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03And, in fact, I had the youth ideology. I didn't expect to live long.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06I didn't even learn to do anything properly. I couldn't see the point,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09since I had no intention of living long enough to need to know anything very much.
0:20:14 > 0:20:21The 1960s were a vertiginously steep learning curve for me. And I didn't get anything right.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36In a way, I suppose people expected casualties at that point
0:20:36 > 0:20:38because it still was a risky business,
0:20:38 > 0:20:40even if you were only a risk to yourself.
0:20:40 > 0:20:48When Syd Barrett had his LSD-induced breakdown, there hadn't been any LSD-induced breakdowns.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52Even Jimi Hendrix or Jim Morrison, with all those people,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56I feel like their demise was part of their trajectory.
0:20:56 > 0:20:57They weren't cut off.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00Basically, my youth was...
0:21:00 > 0:21:04I consider it a failure as an event in itself.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07I had to live longer to get anything done.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10That's all I know. I had to live this long
0:21:10 > 0:21:18in order to just to get every third or fourth track on every third or fourth record I make spot on.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23# You'll be different in the spring
0:21:23 > 0:21:26# I know you're a seasonal beast
0:21:28 > 0:21:34# Like the star fish that drift in with the tide
0:21:34 > 0:21:37# With the tide
0:21:37 > 0:21:41# So until your blood runs
0:21:41 > 0:21:45# To meet the next full moon
0:21:45 > 0:21:49# Your madness fits in nicely
0:21:49 > 0:21:53# With my own, with my own
0:21:53 > 0:22:00# Your lunacy fits neatly with my own. #
0:22:00 > 0:22:06It's perfectly accepted for everyone, from poets to politicians, that they mature as they get older.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08This is expected.
0:22:08 > 0:22:13Especially in really important things like wine and brandy and...serious stuff.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19The Stones themselves seemed determined to mature.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24After the death of Brian Jones, they picked themselves up and went back on the road.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26For the band, it wasn't over yet.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31The Stones had been in serious decline at least three or four times,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35where, musically, they've been at a dead end
0:22:35 > 0:22:38and I don't know if it's Jagger or Richards or whoever,
0:22:38 > 0:22:41but someone has picked them up by the scruff
0:22:41 > 0:22:43and said, "OK, now we're going to be this."
0:22:43 > 0:22:47# Oh, get down brown sugar
0:22:47 > 0:22:50# Just like a young girl should
0:22:50 > 0:22:54# Oh, get down, get down, brown sugar
0:22:54 > 0:22:58# How come, how come, how come... #
0:23:07 > 0:23:13If The Stones had discovered the secret of survival, at least for now, The Beatles didn't.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19As if to prove that longevity in rock and roll was still a struggle
0:23:19 > 0:23:24for a group of young men growing up together, they split in 1970.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30You know, I was a kid, I was a young kid
0:23:30 > 0:23:32and I saw the Beatles go to London
0:23:32 > 0:23:35and one meets Jane Asher and one meets Patti Boyd
0:23:35 > 0:23:37and then they stop hanging around together
0:23:37 > 0:23:41because you probably don't want to hang around with Ringo
0:23:41 > 0:23:45when you've got Patti Boyd or Jane Asher waiting, you know what I mean?
0:23:45 > 0:23:49So, I was there. They hung out together, seriously.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53They'd be in the dressing room behind at Top of the Pops,
0:23:53 > 0:23:58writing Paperback Writer, two of them, you know, two lads,
0:23:58 > 0:24:03and bit by bit they were separated by their careers and the money
0:24:03 > 0:24:08and they moved to another city, they weren't exposed to the same... You see it all the time.
0:24:08 > 0:24:15You know, people make it and they leave behind what it was that made them what they are.
0:24:15 > 0:24:21I mean, Paul McCartney, it was a very gentle slope down, if you like.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24Lennon never really recovered from Primal Therapy.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Even Harrison, who had been desperate to get out of the Beatles,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30once there were no Beatles to compete against, somehow,
0:24:30 > 0:24:32didn't seem to have anything to compete with.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39The Fab Four would go on to enjoy successful solo careers for many years to come.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43But would the surge of creativity that fed them in their youth
0:24:43 > 0:24:47prove more elusive for them and their generation as they grew older?
0:24:52 > 0:25:00Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend and Paul McCartney can go play arenas 40 years after they first had hits.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02Great.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07But...they ain't writing good songs. You know.
0:25:07 > 0:25:12The outpouring of creativity that creates this career
0:25:12 > 0:25:14is a factor of youth.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16I don't think it's depressing to admit
0:25:16 > 0:25:19that you're probably going to do your best stuff
0:25:19 > 0:25:20by the time you're 30 as a musician.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25I think most people get it right in their first and second albums.
0:25:25 > 0:25:31# Something tells me I'm into something good
0:25:31 > 0:25:38It's rare that beyond that, people don't just do another version of the same stuff.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42# Something good Oh yeah, something good... #
0:25:42 > 0:25:48You don't need the hardening of the synapse to be a great musician,
0:25:48 > 0:25:50you know, or to write a good song.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56No performer of the early 70s demonstrated rock and roll's
0:25:56 > 0:26:01reliance on youthful invention and raw power more than Iggy Pop.
0:26:03 > 0:26:04As I'm older,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08I don't think I can write a rock song like I used to.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11I can sing it good.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15I can sing one of my own songs better than anybody else,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19but to write a new one, it is hard to get them that good
0:26:19 > 0:26:23because you don't have the animal energy to work with.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27You don't have the same amount of animal energy.
0:26:27 > 0:26:28I find. I'm being honest.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35But not all rock and roll of the early 70s was an expression
0:26:35 > 0:26:38of sexual energy and youthful physicality.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44By now, prog rock was plundering the classical music collections
0:26:44 > 0:26:46so beloved of its middle class parents
0:26:46 > 0:26:49as proof of its intention to last,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53while its perpetrators contemplated careers beyond the age of 30.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59I remember when I started in the 60s and doing things.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02People said, "What are you going to do when you're in your 20s?"
0:27:02 > 0:27:03I said, "Don't know".
0:27:06 > 0:27:08And then when you're still doing it in your 20s, they say,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11"What are you going to do in your 30s"? I said, "I don't know".
0:27:13 > 0:27:18Then you find you're in your 30s and people say, "What are you going to do in your 40s? You go,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21"There's a reasonable chance I could still be doing this".
0:27:24 > 0:27:32As a result, performers found themselves living with their songs and growing into their material.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38I go through stages where there's certain songs
0:27:38 > 0:27:41that it's, "Oh, no, I cant do that again".
0:27:41 > 0:27:46And then, I've been doing it so long, it goes around in a circle
0:27:46 > 0:27:50and it comes back into fashion again, you know.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55We Got To Get Out Of This Place has been, like, so successful at different times and spaces.
0:27:55 > 0:28:02It was the most successful song that troops requested constantly for 10 years in Vietnam.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05# We got to get out of this place, baby
0:28:05 > 0:28:07# If it's the last thing we ever do... #
0:28:07 > 0:28:11And then it faded away and went away again.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15And then Iraq, all the troops requested We Got To Get Out Of This Place.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19# We got to get out of this place... #
0:28:19 > 0:28:22It's a written in the contract. "We want him to come down here
0:28:22 > 0:28:24"but he's got to sing We Got To Get Out Of This Place".
0:28:24 > 0:28:27It's written in the contract. It's weird.
0:28:27 > 0:28:32And there's a wonderful, wonderful version by Joni Mitchell
0:28:32 > 0:28:35of a song that she did when she was young, Both Sides Now.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38It's an eye wateringly wonderful song.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42# Bows and flows of angel hair
0:28:42 > 0:28:47# And ice cream castles in the air... #
0:28:48 > 0:28:55And she sang it began in her 50s, I think about an octave lower, with an orchestra.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57# I've looked at clouds that way
0:28:58 > 0:29:02# But now they only block the sun... #
0:29:02 > 0:29:08It's so moving because you think it's taken her three decades
0:29:08 > 0:29:11and now she understands the song she wrote when she was in her youth.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15# So many things I would have done
0:29:18 > 0:29:20# But clouds got in my way
0:29:23 > 0:29:28# I've looked at clouds from both sides now
0:29:28 > 0:29:33# From up and down and still somehow
0:29:33 > 0:29:37# It's cloud illusions I recall
0:29:40 > 0:29:43# I really don't know clouds
0:29:48 > 0:29:49# At all. #
0:29:54 > 0:29:58In 1976, before the 60s generation had a chance to mature,
0:29:58 > 0:30:00they were rudely thrust aside by punk.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05Either you make a punk record or we don't know what to do.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08You have to just pack up, go, go and do something else.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11It was a three-chord reign of terror. The ultimate Oedipal act,
0:30:11 > 0:30:16snarling, spitting and clawing its way to the stage.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21It was best to just keep a low profile for a while.
0:30:21 > 0:30:28These weren't kids of the optimistic 60s, but a new, young generation who felt abandoned.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33Everyone was in their way, and, as always, no-one understood them.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37- I know what I would do with them. - What would you do with them? - Give them a bloody good hiding.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40I went to the Roxy Club when I was about 16,
0:30:40 > 0:30:44which was the big punk club, and there was a band on called Eater.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46I think the average age of them was 14.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50So, yeah, there was a definite feeling that it was a time for young people.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55Punk represented the kind of reckless joy
0:30:55 > 0:31:00that I remembered that we had at that age, when we were young.
0:31:00 > 0:31:06That recklessness of youth, I think, is a great, valuable contribution of new youth culture.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09You think, "Blimey, I've forgotten to be that brave."
0:31:09 > 0:31:11When punk came along, I felt too old.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15I thought, I can't pretend the Beatles never happened.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18I don't think music began with Siouxsie and the Banshees.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24All of the main people in punk, John Lydon, The Sex Pistols,
0:31:24 > 0:31:29The Clash, The Damned, they had a big thing for the Rolling Stones.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31Joe Strummer, huge fan of the Stones.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35The Who, all those groups, they loved them.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39It was just a pose on their part to say, you know, they're passed it.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43# No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones... #
0:31:45 > 0:31:50One of the problems is, when you're young, you're part of that group.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52You run things.
0:31:52 > 0:31:59It's very easy to forget that coming up underneath is the next lot and then one day, you sort of, like,
0:31:59 > 0:32:02fall of the end of the cliff and drop down and they take over
0:32:02 > 0:32:04and when you look back up at the cliff, you think,
0:32:04 > 0:32:08"Oh, shit, is this what's going on"? What happens is,
0:32:08 > 0:32:12they'll just pelt stuff down. They'll just drop rocks on you.
0:32:12 > 0:32:18# No more heroes any more No more heroes any more... #
0:32:18 > 0:32:22I suppose it was an easy target in those big punk rock groups.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26They just were, because, if you had no money and you were playing in your local pub,
0:32:26 > 0:32:30you weren't going to be wearing a great big cape and have 44 keyboards, of course.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35Now you see punks who are 40 years old, plus,
0:32:35 > 0:32:39and time is a great leveller and you look at these guys
0:32:39 > 0:32:43who've still got the sort of things through their nose and stuff
0:32:43 > 0:32:48but, you know, time has made them more mature
0:32:48 > 0:32:52and given them some perspective on who they are as human beings.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54I sort of like that. I think that's nice.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58I like to see old punks. It warms my heart.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01This should've been our next single, but they wouldn't play it on the radio.
0:33:01 > 0:33:03It's called Too Much, Too Young.
0:33:05 > 0:33:07# You done too much, much too young
0:33:07 > 0:33:11# You're married with a kid When you could be having fun with me
0:33:11 > 0:33:16# Oh, no, no gimme no more pickni. #
0:33:16 > 0:33:20The bands of the post-punk era, though less dismissive of the past,
0:33:20 > 0:33:24still believed that rock and pop music were part of an essentially young experience.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28Only now, that experience was of Thatcher's Britain,
0:33:28 > 0:33:32one that the older generation of established bands seemed to ignore.
0:33:35 > 0:33:37When I was 16, my favourite act was Elvis Costello,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40and you're just talking about five years' difference.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42It's big when you're young.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44So he seemed like an old geezer to me
0:33:44 > 0:33:48and I don't think that it was so much that you were looking for someone who had a similar age,
0:33:48 > 0:33:52I think you were looking for someone that could speak for you, really.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57When you're 14, you do think someone who is 28 is really old, and certainly 30 is way past it.
0:33:57 > 0:34:03I think I remember saying at the time is, even when I wrote Baggy Trousers when I was probably about 19, saying,
0:34:03 > 0:34:07"I will never sing this song when I'm 30, because I'll be too old".
0:34:07 > 0:34:09# The headmaster's had enough today
0:34:09 > 0:34:12# All the kids have gone away Gone to fight with next door's school
0:34:12 > 0:34:14# Every term, that is the rule
0:34:14 > 0:34:17# Sits alone and bends his cane Same old backsides again
0:34:17 > 0:34:18# All the small ones tell tall tales
0:34:18 > 0:34:20# Walking home and squashing snails... #
0:34:20 > 0:34:23But no, the feeling was that if you were over 25,
0:34:23 > 0:34:26you were too old to be in a band, certainly when I started.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30# Oh what fun we had But at the time it seemed so bad
0:34:30 > 0:34:33# Trying different ways to make a difference to the days... #
0:34:33 > 0:34:38I do believe I'm a better act older than I was younger.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43That doesn't mean to say that you haven't already written the best song you're going to write,
0:34:43 > 0:34:48but I think there's a greater depth to being a performer than just the writing part.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52# All I need was the love you gave
0:34:52 > 0:34:56# All I needed for another day
0:34:56 > 0:35:00# And all I ever knew
0:35:00 > 0:35:02# Only you. #
0:35:02 > 0:35:06It's having a greater understanding of emotion, of sex,
0:35:06 > 0:35:07of all of those things
0:35:07 > 0:35:11that allow you to put a message across, or to communicate.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15To communicate, I think, you know. I've become a better communicator.
0:35:18 > 0:35:24In the early '80s, The Stones were back, again, having been absent from the stage for six years
0:35:24 > 0:35:27while punk and its aftermath had been the centre of attention.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30They were proving that they were in for the long haul.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33No-one was going to call, "Time, gentlemen, please" on them.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35# Under my thumb
0:35:35 > 0:35:37# There's a woman
0:35:37 > 0:35:40# Who once had me down... #
0:35:40 > 0:35:42Knocking on 40. How old are you now?
0:35:42 > 0:35:44I'm 38, so I'm not 40.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48Er, I think I could do this particular kind of physical show
0:35:48 > 0:35:53for about another...say five years.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57So, I said to myself last year,
0:35:57 > 0:36:00I figure I can only do it for five years, this kind of show.
0:36:00 > 0:36:02After that it's going to look like Barry Manilow,
0:36:02 > 0:36:06or, I can still sing, but you know, I can't do all this other nonsense.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08How would you feel if it suddenly all started to fade
0:36:08 > 0:36:09and suddenly they'd had enough?
0:36:09 > 0:36:11It doesn't happen like that, does it?
0:36:11 > 0:36:19It sort of slowly, slowly they sink into oblivion.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23It doesn't all stop and no-one comes, you know what I mean?
0:36:23 > 0:36:26But I can understand your fears for me, but still,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29you know, we'll soldier on, you know?
0:36:29 > 0:36:36Thank you. Good evening. It's so nice to be back.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39In July 1985 the benefits of soldiering on
0:36:39 > 0:36:44reached unexpected and unprecedented heights with Live Aid.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48The international event sometimes looked like a rock and roll Dads Army
0:36:48 > 0:36:51as acts like Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, The Who
0:36:51 > 0:36:55and The Beach Boys joined pop stars of the '80s on stage.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02Watched by more than 400 million viewers in 60 countries,
0:37:02 > 0:37:06this was the rock and roll survivors' finest hour.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09Suddenly, being 40 no longer meant being uncool.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15These were the masters, the legends,
0:37:15 > 0:37:18the acts deemed capable of feeding the world.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22Now some years ago within spitting distance of the stadium,
0:37:22 > 0:37:26four Londoners formed a band to speak for their generation.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31They eventually spoke for two. Now they sing to save a third.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33Please welcome The Who!
0:37:35 > 0:37:38The previous establishment, did come back in.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42They did poke their heads above the parapet again.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49And, of course, it was ideal for anybody that was still capable
0:37:49 > 0:37:52of playing and singing from an older school.
0:37:52 > 0:37:57What was your... Your opposition now was the New Romantics.
0:37:57 > 0:37:58I mean, easy job.
0:37:58 > 0:38:05I have the pleasure of introducing to you a group that's been together for 25 years.
0:38:05 > 0:38:12A lot of young people heard some bands for the first time,
0:38:12 > 0:38:16some older bands, and went, "These are fantastic!"
0:38:16 > 0:38:23And then the most hated people in their musical vocabulary, their parents, said,
0:38:23 > 0:38:26"We love them, too."
0:38:26 > 0:38:29I'd like to welcome Alison Moyet!
0:38:31 > 0:38:35I was picked up in a helicopter with Bono and David Bowie, which was, like, you know.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39When I get out of the helicopter I've got Roger Daltrey waving at me
0:38:39 > 0:38:45and Freddie Mercury blowing me kisses and it's like, these are, you know, bona fide stars.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48I mean, these are the real deal, do you know what I mean?
0:38:48 > 0:38:53And, um, so that was kind of a, blew me away, but maybe all it does,
0:38:53 > 0:38:55putting those people back on the stage again,
0:38:55 > 0:38:58is just reminding people that they really loved those acts.
0:38:58 > 0:39:04# Someone still loves you. #
0:39:09 > 0:39:14There were, of, course, no rules yet in place for how the older generation of rockers should behave.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17How to grow old gracefully or disgracefully,
0:39:17 > 0:39:23especially given their essentially youthful, often rebellious back catalogue.
0:39:27 > 0:39:32The notion that an artist would be unsettled,
0:39:32 > 0:39:37or even disturbed by the fact that having been a rebel in his youth
0:39:37 > 0:39:43that he finds himself re-enacting it 10, 20, 30, 40 years thereafter
0:39:43 > 0:39:49is, you know, an intellectual critic's construct that has no meaning in real life.
0:39:50 > 0:39:56Real life happens in a series of nanoseconds that get strung out, you know, one after the other.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00And moment by moment by moment...
0:40:00 > 0:40:02people like to survive.
0:40:02 > 0:40:07I mean, did these guys, you know, like their fathers, my father as well,
0:40:07 > 0:40:13spend six years of the Second World War in a foxhole, you know, dodging bullets?
0:40:13 > 0:40:17I mean, now that's something to survive, OK?
0:40:17 > 0:40:21Taking a lot of drugs and lying on a ratty old mattress,
0:40:21 > 0:40:23it's a lot easier to survive that.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27# I can see it in your eyes Take one look and die. #
0:40:28 > 0:40:32And survive they did, some despite the booze, the drugs
0:40:32 > 0:40:36and a life spent almost entirely on the road. That's why we love them.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43Motorhead's Lemmy may not have had to dodge bullets,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46but by any reasonable standards he should be dead.
0:40:49 > 0:40:56I've been on the road now, man and boy, for almost three years. I'm actually only 17.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00I mean there's some days you don't feel like it as much as others,
0:41:00 > 0:41:03but I'm sure that's much the same in plumbing, you know?
0:41:03 > 0:41:07Some days you don't feel like standing up to your arse in cold water, you know?
0:41:07 > 0:41:09Do you think it's a bit weird though?
0:41:09 > 0:41:13There was all that, you know, live fast, die young thing in rock music earlier on.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18A lot of them did, you know. It's fair enough. I didn't think of much of a plan really.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23You know, I thought live fast, keep going. Much more fun.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29My hair is not having a good day already.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32I dye my hair. I don't understand why people keep their hair grey.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35You're all right. Look at the job you're in. You're not in my job,
0:41:35 > 0:41:38you know what I mean? I'm talking about people in my job.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42There are people that get on stage and it looks like, I don't know,
0:41:42 > 0:41:46Rip Van Winkle times four, you know?
0:41:46 > 0:41:50But the lifestyle isn't a great one for surviving.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53- It depends on how you approach it. - How have you approached it?
0:41:53 > 0:41:55From the side, usually.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57On tiptoe, so it doesn't know you're there
0:41:57 > 0:42:00and then you get your hands round the throat.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05I, you know, I just, you have to be careful about what's offered,
0:42:05 > 0:42:07you know? You can't do it all cos it'll kill you.
0:42:07 > 0:42:14But, as I say, some people... are in the basket weavers hotel and some of us aren't, you know?
0:42:15 > 0:42:21Do you think in the '60s people just thought, well, we don't care cos we don't want to get old anyway?
0:42:21 > 0:42:24There was a sense of that, but then again,
0:42:24 > 0:42:29you don't know if you want to get old until you get almost old.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33That's when you decide on that one. "Oh, it doesn't look so bad now!"
0:42:33 > 0:42:39- How is it possible to do what you do?- How is it possible to stop?
0:42:40 > 0:42:44It's what I am, you know? It's what I am, it's not what I do any more.
0:42:44 > 0:42:46A long time ago it became what I am.
0:42:50 > 0:42:56What had begun with Live Aid in the '80s continued into the '90s with projects like War Child.
0:42:56 > 0:43:02Performers from three generations of rock and roll, Paul McCartney, Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher,
0:43:02 > 0:43:10came together to record Come Together in the new spirit of multi-generational tolerance.
0:43:10 > 0:43:15It was no longer a case of "my generation", but "your generation, too".
0:43:15 > 0:43:18# Come together
0:43:18 > 0:43:21# Right now
0:43:21 > 0:43:22# Over me.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25# Over me
0:43:25 > 0:43:27# Over me. #
0:43:27 > 0:43:30It wasn't only on stage that this spirit was at work.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33Audiences for the music also began to span generations.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39Every major band I know that reformed
0:43:39 > 0:43:42said that if they had a pound for every time someone came along
0:43:42 > 0:43:45and said, "There's two generations of the family here"
0:43:45 > 0:43:51or "Three generations. There's the grandchildren, my kids and the wife and I."
0:43:51 > 0:43:55And it's the only thing they've got in common. It's the only thing that links them together.
0:43:57 > 0:44:02They're as old as your parents, but they don't exactly look or behave like them.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05Rock and roll survivors can't act their age.
0:44:05 > 0:44:07It just wouldn't work.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14# Now last year I was 21
0:44:15 > 0:44:17# I didn't have a lot of fun
0:44:19 > 0:44:21# Now I'm going to be 22
0:44:22 > 0:44:25# Well I say oh, my and boo-hoo
0:44:27 > 0:44:30# Now I'm going to be 22
0:44:30 > 0:44:32# Oh my, boo-hoo. #
0:44:32 > 0:44:37It's just, this has been the most comfortable and free part of my life
0:44:37 > 0:44:40and I suppose this is the only part of my life
0:44:40 > 0:44:45in which I've attained possession of all the cliches
0:44:45 > 0:44:49that young rock stars are supposed to have.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54Beautiful sexy chick, long legs, check.
0:44:55 > 0:45:00A fantastic hot convertible car, check.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04House in the country, check.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07Place in the islands, check.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11Really good band, check. Fans, check.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19So, you know, so what if my knee hurts?
0:45:19 > 0:45:22I don't give a fuck! I don't care.
0:45:22 > 0:45:23Yeah.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32It's the travelling that's the bad part, you know, especially today.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35But the thing is is that you put up with that
0:45:35 > 0:45:37and you make sure you've got a good book
0:45:37 > 0:45:40and you do your homework for the next gig
0:45:40 > 0:45:46and you get up and walk around and moan and groan about your breaking back
0:45:46 > 0:45:52and then when you get off and take a pill, fall asleep and wake up and you're in Budapest!
0:45:52 > 0:45:54Hey-hey, you know. You get over it.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59You're just swept along with it, you know,
0:45:59 > 0:46:03until you either fry or sometimes die.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05# I love you only
0:46:05 > 0:46:08# I never have thought about any other woman
0:46:08 > 0:46:09# Any other woman no... #
0:46:09 > 0:46:12I don't practise. I don't rehearse.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18# Some foolish thing Some simple thing I've done, girl!
0:46:18 > 0:46:22I'm not a home going, "La, da, de, da, da", you know.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28# Oh, please don't let me be misunderstood... #
0:46:29 > 0:46:34My voice is right there when I call it up,
0:46:34 > 0:46:36- it's- never, ever not- there.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50We do think it's kind of peculiar that Mick Jagger
0:46:50 > 0:46:54still snakes across the stage doing that wriggly hip dance.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59You then, you look at the body and then you look at the face
0:46:59 > 0:47:02and there's a kind of moment of disconnect.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06But there's also a sort of, "Wow, gosh, well, that's great", you know.
0:47:06 > 0:47:11He's 67 and he's still able to do that.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18I think Mick Jagger is a better performer nowadays than he was in the '70s.
0:47:18 > 0:47:23He goes out there and he really pulls out the stops.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25He's an amazing performer,
0:47:25 > 0:47:29and it's the same with Iggy. I mean, you're dealing with great performers.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33You're dealing with some of the greatest performers of the 20th century.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36It's one of those things that when you think about it a lot,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39the more you think about it actually the odder it gets
0:47:39 > 0:47:43that you're singing Let's Spend The Night Together and you're 67.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46There's an uncomfortableness, I suppose, that people feel
0:47:46 > 0:47:51when they think that somebody is, er, acting,
0:47:51 > 0:47:58or their act asks you to pretend that they're still young.
0:47:58 > 0:48:03I mean, there's nobody in the world that us old lefties admire more than Arthur Scargill,
0:48:03 > 0:48:08but as his personal advisers we would have said, "Ditch the haircut."
0:48:08 > 0:48:12And in the same way I think that Arthur Scargill and Mick Jagger have a similar,
0:48:12 > 0:48:17create a similar slightly embarrassing frisson.
0:48:17 > 0:48:22# I'll see you in my dreams
0:48:24 > 0:48:30# Hold you in my dreams... #
0:48:30 > 0:48:37I'll do anything that is actually applicable to a 68 year-old bloke
0:48:37 > 0:48:41cos I've seen bands go out there and they just think they are teenagers.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45They just go out performing teenage songs and they're old men
0:48:45 > 0:48:48and I think it's undignified, you know?
0:48:48 > 0:48:51Know what I mean? How can you do that?
0:48:51 > 0:48:54How can you wear leather trousers when you're incontinent?
0:48:54 > 0:48:57You can't get them off quick enough.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04Especially when the wigs are all doing that!
0:49:04 > 0:49:05# ..Were mine
0:49:08 > 0:49:12# Tender eyes that shine... #
0:49:12 > 0:49:19One particular song of mine that I don't perform called That's What Love Will Do.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23It's all about a bloke sitting up the back row of the pictures with his 18 year-old bird.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27I keep reminding myself I haven't been up the back row of the pictures
0:49:27 > 0:49:33with an 18-year-old bird since I was, what? 18.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37I think as you get older, you should be reflecting, you know,
0:49:37 > 0:49:43just as a film-maker would reflect or a poet would reflect or a novelist would reflect, your age.
0:49:43 > 0:49:44You should be, I think.
0:49:44 > 0:49:49# Well come and do your worst, boy That's the way, that's the way
0:49:49 > 0:49:53# Hit me where it hurts, boy That's the way, that's the way
0:49:53 > 0:49:58# Come and do worst, boy That's the way, that's the way
0:49:58 > 0:50:01# But I'll never give it up I'll never give it up... #
0:50:01 > 0:50:06I write more songs about death, about losing friends.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11I mean, you just can't help it. It's, er, death isn't that far ahead, you know?
0:50:11 > 0:50:15It's closer than looking back the other way at this point.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18# Hey, hey, hey, hey. #
0:50:18 > 0:50:21While many acts soldiered on regardless,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24others had slipped from view into semi-retirement.
0:50:24 > 0:50:30But the new millennium witnessed the entirely new phenomena of the revival and the comeback.
0:50:35 > 0:50:42Leonard Cohen, now in his 70s, had already decided to stop recording and performing altogether.
0:50:42 > 0:50:43At least, that was his plan.
0:50:46 > 0:50:51# Well he talks like this You don't know what he's after
0:50:51 > 0:50:57# When he speaks like this you don't know what he's after... #
0:50:57 > 0:51:00He goes to a Buddhist monastery
0:51:00 > 0:51:03and retires from the world. He's never going to sing.
0:51:03 > 0:51:08# Beneath the bridge that they are building on some endless river... #
0:51:08 > 0:51:15While he's in the monastery, his manager steals all his money and he comes out and he's broke!
0:51:15 > 0:51:16And, "What am I going to do?"
0:51:16 > 0:51:20"You've got to go on the road, Leonard. That's what you've got to do."
0:51:20 > 0:51:22- And now he turns up, he loves it.
0:51:22 > 0:51:29# You can hear the birds go by You can spend the night beside her
0:51:29 > 0:51:33# And you know she's half crazy
0:51:33 > 0:51:35# That's why you want to be there
0:51:35 > 0:51:39# And she feeds you tea and oranges
0:51:39 > 0:51:41# That come all the way from China... #
0:51:41 > 0:51:44He's making more money than God.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48He's filling the O2 Arena for a week, or whatever it is,
0:51:48 > 0:51:54and the Albert Hall for three nights and going and doing the same thing all over the world.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57# You've always been her lover. #
0:51:58 > 0:52:02And you can just tell by looking at this he's like a pig in shit!
0:52:02 > 0:52:03He's just loving it.
0:52:03 > 0:52:07It's like, "Why didn't anybody tell me I could have fun doing this?"
0:52:12 > 0:52:17Audiences who had grown up and grown old with their heroes wanted them back.
0:52:20 > 0:52:25Age had invested their favourite bands with a new authenticity.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27Performers couldn't believe their luck.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31Even Brian Wilson returned from the wilderness to be a Beach Boy once again.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38# And God only knows what I'd be without you. #
0:52:38 > 0:52:40Here's one called God Only Knows.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51It was like the zeitgeist, understood.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54"Ah, OK. That's how you do it."
0:52:54 > 0:53:01You get the personality of the most important person who wrote the songs, who did the singing.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04You put them in front. You've got a bunch of young virtuosi
0:53:04 > 0:53:06to fill in the rest of the parts.
0:53:13 > 0:53:18You don't worry about trying to get the rhythm guitar player out of rehab.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25You just, you know, get the best young kids you can
0:53:25 > 0:53:29and go out there and do it exactly the way it was on the record.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31# The world could show nothing to me... #
0:53:31 > 0:53:34You've got to have been away for quite a bit.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36Have not done particularly much
0:53:36 > 0:53:39and at the same time have a lot of myth around you.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43Did he have psychedelic drugs and went off his head?
0:53:43 > 0:53:45Did he write all that stuff?
0:53:45 > 0:53:49Did he do it all himself? So, you know, there's a great big mystery surrounding the man.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55He looked like Brian Wilson in some strange way.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59Brian looked like a deer in the headlights, but he did everything and he was great.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04A lot of the people that are of my age group that go to see these groups,
0:54:04 > 0:54:07they want to be transported back to a time when they were young.
0:54:07 > 0:54:11They want that. I could give a toss about being young.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15Being young just got me into trouble.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19The struggles of youth, you know. I mean, they're overrated.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22This whole talk of youth, youth, youth, it's overrated.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25Being a young just isn't that hot any more.
0:54:25 > 0:54:27That's what it is.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29# Cos when you're 15
0:54:29 > 0:54:33# And somebody tells you they love you
0:54:33 > 0:54:37# You're going to believe them... #
0:54:37 > 0:54:43But the struggles of youth still find their most perfect expression in music.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46The pop business is now younger than ever.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48Kids are singing to kids again,
0:54:48 > 0:54:53and the market has refocussed its attentions on young girls as its main consumers.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55# Baby, no
0:54:55 > 0:54:59# Baby, baby, baby, oh... #
0:54:59 > 0:55:03It's a wrinkle-free Disneyfied world populated by beautiful performers.
0:55:03 > 0:55:05Like their predecessors,
0:55:05 > 0:55:08they're probably thinking that they won't be singing
0:55:08 > 0:55:11about the problems of being 15 when they're 64.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14But stranger things have already happened.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17# Thought you'd always be mine. #
0:55:17 > 0:55:19A hit or a miss?
0:55:19 > 0:55:23There they are. They've said undoubtedly it's a...
0:55:23 > 0:55:26All right. On to the next.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30When McCartney, Dylan and The Stones
0:55:30 > 0:55:36and Paul Simon and Crosby, Stills and Nash are unable to play any more,
0:55:36 > 0:55:44when that generation goes, will classic rock continue, or will that be the end of it?
0:55:44 > 0:55:48Or will people be sitting around in, you know, aquatic shopping malls
0:55:48 > 0:55:52in 200 years time listening to Comfortably Numb?
0:55:52 > 0:55:54I mean it's just, I don't know. Wait and see.
0:55:54 > 0:55:58I haven't seen my birth certificate in years.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01Get a life! Get swiftcovered.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05Rock and roll is now revelling in a long life.
0:56:05 > 0:56:09What was about risk and youth is now about enjoying a grand old age.
0:56:09 > 0:56:17It's about longevity, survival, nostalgia and refusing to grow up, give up or shut up.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21You ain't playing soccer for Manchester United when you're 64,
0:56:21 > 0:56:24but you can play the stadiums when you're 64 in a rock band.
0:56:24 > 0:56:25You really can.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28Hank and I are on the way to 69.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34And every night we're laughing, I'm looking across at Hank and thinking,
0:56:34 > 0:56:39"I've been playing with him for 52 years. Since I was, you know."
0:56:39 > 0:56:44You're looking across and he's laughing and me and we're doing a solo or something
0:56:44 > 0:56:48and we're bouncing off each other and I think, "This is unbelievable, this is."
0:56:48 > 0:56:54# Move it, move it, move it Move it, move it, move it
0:56:54 > 0:56:56# Move it, move it, move it. #
0:56:57 > 0:57:00I would never have quit.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04That's the only attitude that's going to work,
0:57:04 > 0:57:10and for a real artist it's that you're just not going to do anything else.
0:57:10 > 0:57:12You're just not.
0:57:12 > 0:57:18Why stop now when I have the best band that I've had in a long time?
0:57:18 > 0:57:21That's my job, innit?
0:57:21 > 0:57:23It's a job.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26I signed up for it, I've got to do it, you know?
0:57:26 > 0:57:29One, two, three, four.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35I would like to live to a ripe old age because, er,
0:57:35 > 0:57:41I've already said to my missus that after I've been burnt and slung somewhere
0:57:41 > 0:57:49that if there's a gravestone anywhere it just has to read, "This isn't fair, I've not finished yet."
0:57:49 > 0:57:53# Did your dreams die young?
0:57:53 > 0:57:57# Were they too hard work? #
0:57:57 > 0:58:01I've got about three years to go before I become a living legend.
0:58:01 > 0:58:07They give you a special pass for the buses and things.
0:58:07 > 0:58:11But suddenly your fee doubles and, um...
0:58:11 > 0:58:16and people start noticing all that work you've been doing for years.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19# Non, rien de rien... #
0:58:19 > 0:58:24There was this movie came out just recently about Edith Piaf
0:58:24 > 0:58:30and that put me on fire again and made me realise, like her,
0:58:30 > 0:58:37please let me get to the stage just one more time!
0:58:37 > 0:58:41And if you fuckers out there, if you've come to see me die,
0:58:41 > 0:58:45well, it's not going to be tonight!
0:58:45 > 0:58:51# Forever young
0:58:52 > 0:58:58# Forever young
0:58:59 > 0:59:06# May you stay
0:59:06 > 0:59:10# Forever young. #