There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears

‘For the Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon

*

So there’s this new single from the Beatles
’Now and Then’
that came out a few weeks after the Rolling Stones
Dropped a new one
New songs from the Beatles and Stones
What a life
No decades
Pandemics
Politics
May stand in the way of 1960s legends
Not even death
‘Now and Then’
Sung by John Lennon
Is the result of a protracted backstory
involving a 70s demo
90s sessions
and 2020s AI

These coalesce into a song that is inert

That’s just my stupid opinion
countless others have heralded
‘Now and Then’
A beautiful swansong
Is this sentimentality
projecting genuine affection for the Beatles onto
a Frankenstein’s monster of a song
Peter Jackson
Director of ‘Get Back’
Developed technology in that biopic
applied here to extract John Lennon’s voice
he has made a video for ‘Now and Then’ too
Which, if anything, is worse than the song
The disgusting aesthetics
play to the sentimental narrative
Of seeing the Beatles back together
A what-could-have-been alternative history
Mired in multiverse meme perversions

As AI flourishes
promising only dystopia
there is reluctance
To understand its threat
I wonder if This unknowing makes it
more comforting to perceive AI
as A kind of magic
spiritualism, almost
that John is in there
willing ‘Now and Then’ into existence
Willing the ABBA hologram show
Into existence were collaborators of
Bowie, Beyoncé, Yung Lean
As well as the four living original members

ABBA Voyage
has brought joy to thousands
But not me
cynical, joyless Me
the unbeliever
The naysayer
Full of hatred

I did what only a fool would do
and attended ABBA Voyage alone
A solitary man
Amidst a sea of
hen dos
Birthday parties
School reunions
Friends separated since before lockdown
“Let’s meet at ABBA Voyage”
Time travel
to youth
While youth immerse themselves
in music from a better time
Before Brexit
before covid
Turned Britain to An Unrelievingly
angry, isolated, xenophobic place
ABBA Voyage is a happy island

But like ‘Now and Then’
I found it inert
The promised liveness wasn’t there
I couldn’t construe what the live band
that included Little Boots and a fella from the Klaxons
brought to the iconic master tapes
They were playing along to
I was left watching
a ultra HD projection
listening to familiar songs
Wondering
Is that all there is
And yet ABBA had done it
Uploaded
Their voices
Bodies
Movements
And expressions to the cloud
So that the voyage may carry on
After they enter
That dark, unthinkable place
Where 60s and 70s legends
Are no longer with us

My mother is dead
I’m 41
life is changing
I’m entering a time
When those constants
I thought would be around forever
Are not
The Queen and Paul McCartney
Immaculate mainstays of my existence
Macca belting out Hey Jude at Jubilees
Gold diamond platinum
That was never meant to end

now there is only Paul
we keep him on stage
Where we demand the man in full
40-song setlists
Nothing less
Bass guitar gripped above the head
Like a trophy
the voice and body must defy age
For 3 hours until our Na na na catharsis
The overpowering swell of emotion
To hear
Songs Sung by a Beatle
A living Beatle
Hamburg
The Cavern Club
John and Yoko
Yesterday
we’ve lately allowed your hair to grey

For years old rockers held on
Ronnie Wood jet black

Today A little salt and pepper is permitted
But baldness remains a no no
Only public intellectuals like Peter Gabriel can lose their hair
For Virile kings like Mick Jagger
Rod Stewart
slapheadedness = death
Death
Glenn Frey, the Eagles
Death
Freddie Mercury, Queen
Death
John Entwistle, the Who
Death
Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones
Only Weeks before Charlie Watts passed away
He revealed
he would be sitting out the next leg of their tour
There was poignancy there
Did he believe
Did he hope
There were more shows to come

Watts himself announced his replacement
Steve Jordan
This was a blessing
The King is Dead
Long live the King
the Eagles replaced Glenn Frey with Glenn Frey’s son
The Who shipped in Pino Palladino within days of Entwistle’s death
Queen became Queen + Paul Rodgers
Then Rodgers traded in for the younger Adam Lambert
I wonder
why bands don’t just pivot
Page & Plant style
Still play the songs but retire the band name
the answer of course
is about brands, not bands
The ‘Mamma Mia!’ musical
brought a magnificent blossoming of the ABBA brand

Meanwhile They denied a reunion for so long
When they eventually did reunite
they did so as
Avatars
Fixed in a 1970s jumpsuit heyday
Would It have been too much effort to do it for real
or an underwhelm
to present something age-appropriate
Say, An intimate, stripped down theatre show
Piano-led, acoustic
when Leonard Cohen
Stepped back on stage in his 70s
There was no pretence that this was anything but a man in his 70s
Joni Mitchell’s recent live return
Celebrates survival
The changes and challenges of rehabilitation
She had to teach herself to play guitar again
Phil Collins
Having farewell toured both Genesis and his solo self
Made a comeback
(They always do)
But when Phil returned
He couldn’t stand for long periods
and had to give concerts sat on a stool
He wasn’t able to drum
Gone was The shaven-headed heartthrob
Who bounded
Before crowds of half a million
The voice was still there
But the body was failing

The Boss
Bruce
Indefatigable
across four-hour marathon gigs
Flying guitars
Knee slides
multiple orgasms of ‘Born to Run’
was felled
By Peptic ulcer disease

The name sounded so ordinary
One of those irritable ailments
That come to us all
Had somehow got the Boss
He who Chris Martin revealed
Is protected from mortality
By eating one meal a day
OMAD
One meal a day
can’t be much fun
Nor can there be much fun
In an atrophied setlist
The perpetual Greatest Hits
How do you keep love alive
How do you bring not just professionalism
But joy and curiosity to art
After 60 years
I just love the Rolling Stones comeback
‘Angry’
a fluorescent-coloured confection
it hits all the spots
I listen to ‘Angry’
In the morning
When in need of something feelgood To get me out of the house
Something I can sing along to
Something with handclaps
The video features
A leather-clad blonde
in the back of a convertible
Writhing about In ecstasy
to the sound of the new Stones single
Sexist?
Yeah
It is also a nostalgic vision
A simpler time when rock and roll was a delivery system for good times
And good times were embodied by cars and girls
But surely 20-something hotties
no longer appeal to men at this age
OF COURSE THEY DO
Theirs is a virile, still-breeding generation
Just Look at De Niro and Pacino
whose fertility is proof not only of immortality
But their attractiveness

Age will not weary them
No way
They are better than ever
better than ever being the motto of reunions
The Stone Roses – better than ever
Blur – better than ever
Pavement – better than ever
Because
Better than ever
means we too, the ageing fan, can be better than ever
That our best work isn’t behind us
But what about just different
To not be competing with the past
When I think of artists whose new output is met
not with comparison to their past
Or false claims of
‘It stands up with their best work’
I would say Scott Walker and Bob Dylan
Scott Walker took his art on a fantastical journey
From ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’
To ‘Zircon, the Flag Sitter’

Bob Dylan’s ‘Murder Most Foul’ slipped out
During the early days of lockdown
An absurd listen
Absurd in its list of songs and musicians
That sprawls for minutes
Old blues numbers referenced next to 80s pop
It is reminiscent of the way some grandparents
Talk and talk
The list of associations representing
A wealth of knowledge
But possibly confusion
It is like a death song
Imbued with the weight of memory
A reckoning with one’s youth
As well as his unique position in pop culture
This is Bob Dylan
enigmatic carrier of myth
more than a living legend
He is history
The music of ‘Murder Most Foul’
slippery, layered
doesn’t have the weighty solidity
Of some of Dylan’s latter-day output
nor hark
in its words and instrumentation
for a time gone by

It was released the day after my mother died
I listened to it often then
Pressing play would fill up another 17 minutes
Now I usually listen late at night
When I’m on the train home from work
Too tired to read
Too tired for three-minute thrills
wanting to lose myself in something I don’t really understand.