As an Elvis fan, you always wonder how an old Elvis would have been. As a Springsteen fan (and to an increasing extent a U2 and Wilco fan), aging becomes a fascinating thing. How does art react? How does the artist? Is there acceptance? A search for youth? Or something else?

This weekend brought two strong stories in that vein, both worth your time. The first was the Trib review of Tony Bennett, now 85, at Ravinia.

It's not an exaggeration to say that Bennett has made no significant concessions to the passage of time, at least as a performer. His voice sounded as burly as ever. His stamina never flagged as he delivered an uninterrupted, hour-plus show (including a duet with daughter Antonia Bennett, who opened). His lightly comic stage patter revisited anecdotes and quips he has been telling audiences for decades.

But if the stories remained the same, the song interpretations were different – or at least refreshed. Rarely has Bennett played with time as daringly as he did on this occasion. In both up-tempo songs and ballads, he repeatedly delayed the starts of phrases to the last possible moment, thereby adding unmistakable rhythmic tension to the proceedings: Would he miss the downbeat? Would he fall out of sync with the band? Would he accidentally truncate the line? Not a chance.

The second is a Los Angeles Times interview with Glen Campbell, 75 and in the early stage of Alzheimer's. The conversation is remarkable.

"Ghost on the Canvas," which he is describing as his final album, comes out Tuesday, and next year he plans to go full bore into his Goodbye Tour, envisioned as a string of performances in various countries that may stretch as long as two years, if Campbell's health holds out. He's starting it with a handful of dates in the U.S., including an Oct. 6 show at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, before fall dates in England, Ireland and Scotland.

He speaks of the new album with great zeal, but on this day as he struggles with some of the symptoms most commonly associated with Alzheimer's — failing memory, occasional disorientation, difficulty completing conversations — he often looks for help from Kim and from Julian Raymond, his cowriter and producer.

This tour should be something, to see what a pleasant outlook, true musical passion and muscle memory win and lose against a disease.

The Times interviewer says the new album "may be the most movingly autobiographical work he's recorded, beyond even Meet Glen Campbell, the 2008 set [which is fantastic -- go find it on iTunes], also produced by Raymond, that revivified his career with covers of songs by Green Day, U2, Tom Petty and the Velvet Underground." The title track of the new one has been circulating since July. It's going to sound great live.

Paul Westerberg wrote it.

The other good article I read about aging this weekend was the San Francisco Chronicle's on volunteers who stay with those dying alone. Among other things, it brings home the power of music and voice.

Sometimes they'll hold a patient's hand, or talk softly or read. Sometimes they'll play music. Sometimes they'll just sit, knowing it's enough to be a quiet presence in the room. Most of the patients who die are unconscious, and it's impossible to say whether they're even aware someone is with them.

"But one of the things we've learned is that hearing is the last to go," said Laura Donnelly, the volunteer who started the program with Becker [Therese Becker, the manager of spiritual care services at Kaiser Santa Clara Medical Center]. "We feel that they can hear us and know that they're not by themselves. That's my hope, anyway."

trackback / comment rss feed