Monday, October 10, 2011

Tempus Fugit--And Not In a Good Way

Daniel Richler writes:
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:

Musician Peter Gabriel sits for a photograph during an interview with Reuters in New York, January 21, 2010. - Musician Peter Gabriel sits for a photograph during an interview with Reuters in New York, January 21, 2010. | Mike Segar / Reuters

Here's "Big Daddy" Burl:



Now, that's depressing!

Update: This ain't no "Foggy, Foggy Dew"--but I still love it:

5 comments:

Al the Fish said...

Post a then and now of Peter Frampton, if you want to feel even older.

Carlos Perera said...

Hey! I like Burl Ives!

scaramouche said...

Hey, 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.

Carlos Perera said...

But could Gabriel do "Jimmy Cracked Corn" or "On Top of Old Smokey" as well as Burl? That's the real litmus test!

scaramouche said...

True enough, but could old Burl have sung, say, "Solsbury Hill" or "Sledgehammer"?