It was a reasonable question in 1963: What did John, Paul, George and Ringo plan to do when all those screaming fans lost interest in the lads from Liverpool?

"We can't keep playing the same sort of music until we're 40," replied McCartney. "Old men playing 'From Me To You' -- nobody's going to want that sort of thing."

Turns out, Sir Paul was spectacularly wrong. More than half a century later, the world is still mad for the Fab Four and countless other artists whose heyday was eons ago. But as a slew of vintage acts are discovering, age and illness do intervene eventually. Playing rock'n'roll is not a leisure pursuit, and the demands of singing (or shrieking), strumming nimbly, and keeping a thunderous beat -- or even just a steady one -- are a lot of senior citizens.

While McCartney has managed to persist inti old age -- he performed for nearly three hours at Fenway Park on the eve of his 80th birthday in 2023 -- an alarming number of oldsters are being sidelined of late.

[Snip of discussion of sidelined acts]

-- from the 3-10-24 Boston Sunday Globe

I have been reading Twilight of the Gods by Mellers, and find that it is the first book I have read that really delves into the magic that the actual note-for-note music of the Fab Four creates. I borrow my books from the library first, to see if I can live without them or not. This one I am putting on my short list to buy...https://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Gods-Beatles-Wilfred-Mellers/dp/0028713907

Mellers digs deep into the John/Paul use of music with lyrics, to express and elicit emotion...he talks about how George was, in effect, short-changed and not taken seriously, and how Ringo remained the most humble of them all, musically speaking...

I find I can appreciate each of their contributions far more than I did before...

He also has a section on their individual post-Beatles work which is interesting, and shows the contributions of Linda and (gasp) Yoko...

Thanks for the info, Pamela. I haven't read that book, and will see if it's in the local library system.