Geezer Cover Bands Give Rock Songs New Meaning

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Friday, June 15, 2007

Mick Jagger proclaimed, when he was in his 20s, that “I’d rather be dead than singing Satisfaction when I’m forty-five.” He’s taken some ribbing about that since he’s still at it nearly thirty years past that milestone. He’s a piker, though, compared to a new band taking the UK by storm whose youngest member is over 70.

Fred Knittle wears his belt up high. His nose is tethered to an oxygen tank, and on stage he’s confined to a folding chair. From this unlikely perch, he’s turning rock ‘n’ roll on its head.

Singing Coldplay’s “Fix You,” Knittle transforms the song into a powerful ballad about a grandfather’s healing wisdom. It means something different coming from an 80-year-old retiree suffering from congestive heart failure.

Knittle is a singer for the Young@Heart Chorus, whose members range from 73 to 92 years old. Singing songs they shouldn’t even know, at an age when they’re expected to be sitting quietly somewhere, they subvert all accepted notions of old and young. Songs by bands like the Radiohead, OutKast and Nirvana take on a new dimension when performed by these 23 foot-stomping senior citizens. “Fix You” or the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” become about life and death.

Though little known in America, the Northampton-based Young@Heart has performed from Australia to London, serenaded the king and queen of Norway, been discussed on “The Daily Show,” and been documented in an acclaimed film for British television. They’re now recording an album tentatively titled “Rockin’ At Heaven’s Door.”

More power to ‘em, I guess. But, yeesh, it’s a little weird having grampa sing these songs.

Certainly, they’d have a whole different outlook on the Beatles’ “When I’m 64,” which came out when they were middle aged and they look back fondly on not being quite eligible for Medicare.

Geezer Cover Bands Give Rock Songs New Meaning

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