When you get to a certain age it’s alarming, isn’t it, to see the idols of your youth growing old. Once upon a time Peter Gabriel, the lead singer of the legendary prog-rock group Genesis, was a lithe Adonis in flares who brought the band’s mythic songs to life with graceful mime and surreal costumes.
Today, at the age of 61, he’s a stout fellow with a white goatee who resembles Burl Ives.Here's Gabriel in Adonis-in-flares times:
Here he is in his Ivesian incarnation:
Here's "Big Daddy" Burl:
Now, that's depressing!
Update: This ain't no "Foggy, Foggy Dew"--but I still love it:
Post a then and now of Peter Frampton, if you want to feel even older.
ReplyDeleteHey! I like Burl Ives!
ReplyDeleteHey, I like Burl, too, but he was never an Adonis. And I never panted for Frampton. He was much too fey in a "non-threatening boy singer" (or whatever they called it on The Simpsons) kind of way. But Gabriel in his Adonis days was pretty damn H-O-T, and even in his Burl Ives phase, his sexy singing can still send shivers down my girlish spine.
ReplyDeleteBut could Gabriel do "Jimmy Cracked Corn" or "On Top of Old Smokey" as well as Burl? That's the real litmus test!
ReplyDeleteTrue enough, but could old Burl have sung, say, "Solsbury Hill" or "Sledgehammer"?
ReplyDelete