Recent rock star deaths are making baby boomers consider their own mortality

A generation which had always measured its life against its music heroes is now having to come to terms with its own old age, writes David Lister

Tina Turner was the most rock legend recent to leave us (AP2008)

In an interview a couple of weeks ago, the great US singer/songwriter Paul Simon became unusually maudlin. Reflecting on the recent death of folk singer Gordon Lightfoot, and the passing of other friends, he said: “Time’s up for my generation.”

He is not alone in being maudlin. Recent music industry deaths have quietly, almost invisibly, traumatised the baby boomer generation. Tina Turner was the most recent to leave us. But before her David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash passed, and before him Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac. A number of baby boomers I spoke to after McVie’s unexpected death were more sad and more shocked than one would expect. A part of the soundtrack to their lives had gone, and it just wasn’t meant to happen.

Of course, rock stars had always met untimely ends. But that was the point. They were untimely. Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, Jim Morrison of The Doors and Janis Joplin were all known as part of the 27 club, dying of drugs or drink at that ridiculously early age. John Lennon was shot. David Bowie and George Harrison had health conditions, and died well before their time.