I recall noting during an earlier controversy here on Xroads about the validity of Bob Shane's continuing to use the KT name after he had retired in 2004 - and it is that time period to which I refer, not 2017 - that at least then it was preferable to have a supremely talented and professional trio carrying on the KT name, tradition, and music to having naught but old vinyls and ever more precarious recollections to depend on.
I mention that because it's somewhat analogous for me to my reaction to these videos. Simon is 80 and Mitchell is 78, and not surprisingly neither is as robust of voice as each was even a decade or so ago. But Simon is still Simon and Mitchell is still Mitchell, and as wonderfully talented as a passel of younger musicians are (Billy Strings featured by Ken last week in his Artist and Song Showcase and Molly Tuttle spring immediately to mind - neither has reached age 30 yet), I am not sensing the same spark of genius that gave the world "Sounds of Silence" when Simon was 23 or "Both Sides Now" when Mitchell was 26 and dozens - scores - of other tunes by them and a multitude of their contemporaries.
But that's just an ordinary pitfall of age, and I'm sure that twenty-something folks today will treasure their own memories and music five decades from now when they hit the fourscore and ten years mark. C'est la vie.
Still, it's great to see a couple of old troupers back in the saddle again refusing to let the years dictate to them who they must be but rather reminding us all of who they are.
Paul Simon and friends with "The Boxer":
Joni Mitchell with "Both Sides Now":
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