Some day I may forgive them, our dearly departed elders; parents, teachers, clergy, and all those we believed to be the wise ones of our long-since dearly departed youth. All those who advised us to “remember the golden mean – moderation in all things”, while failing to add the crucial qualifying clause “ … including moderation”.
How our young lives were blighted by the discipline and abstemiousness imposed on us – greatly assisted by being poor. If you don’t have means, temptation is no friend. It is a tease, a torture, a promise of what could be but for being poor, and those elders; parents, teachers, clergy, and those we believed wise.
They who warned us of the appalling dangers of the rock’n’roll lifestyle and its inevitable, if short, journey to hell.
Oh, to be young again and live vividly that lifestyle. Instead of which we look back with deepest regret at opportunities avoided, feeling now like former taoiseach Charles Haughey who, allegedly, lamented that sexual liberation arrived too late for him.
It was not so for us, just those dire warnings.
So many of the rock idols of our youth remain alive and prospering, none the worse for the wonderfully scandalous lives they have lived, the mountains of drugs consumed, or lakes of alcohol drunk, and millions stashed away to see out their days in the manner to which they became accustomed so, so long ago.
It surely defies the laws of physics and physiology that Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones is 82, his age at last catching up with “look”. Yes, Cliff Richard is 85 also, which is somewhat less surprising considering his generally goody-two-shoes life. Congratulations, Cliff.
But, for God’s sake, Ringo Starr? He is 85 too. Seriously? Justice, or what? As is Motown’s Smokey Robinson. Mick Jagger is only 82, with Iggy Pop a mere child at 78, the same age as Elton John, suggesting Yellow Brick Road is really the path we should have travelled on.
[ Ringo Starr: ‘Every generation, if they’re into music, listens to the Beatles’Opens in new window ]
So many of our elders – parents, teachers, clergy, all those we believed wise – did not reach those ages. I rest my case.
We were a deliberately disadvantaged generation. Fed full of misinformation and disinformation by those we thought knew better. They didn’t.
We were misled, deprived, and are now distraught.
Distraught, from Latin distractus, for “distracted, frantic, deranged”.