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This blogger, Richard Gehr, is not an employee of AARP. The opinions expressed in the blog are not necessarily the opinions of AARP and AARP assumes no liability for the content posted by Mr. Gehr or any other participant

Richard Gehr | October 08, 2007

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If the amazing Young@Heart Chorus has a star, it's probably Steve Martin. No, not that Steve Martin. This Steve Martin is a robust-voiced 80-year-old with the sharp-tongued spirit of a rocker a quarter his age. When Martin complains about being "just tired and bored with myself" in Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark," you believe him. And when he sings about heaven (in David Byrne's Talking Heads song "Heaven") as "a place where nothing ever happens," you're convinced he has pondered this idea more than once. Lyrics take on new meanings as they grow up, and the Northampton, Mass.-based Young@Heart Chorus, which ranges in age from 68 to 88, is there to pick up the pieces. Members have arrived and departed (dearly) since the group was formed in 1982. They've toured internationally, too, yet didn't deliver their first full-length New York performance until Sunday afternoon at the Paris Bar in Gramercy Park's National Arts Club. The show was part of the group's Road to Nowhere tour (another Talking Heads reference), as heralded by the 21 singers' stylish matching black T-shirts.

Accompanied by a five-piece band that included a couple of thirtysomethings, and led by chorus founder Bob Cilman, the Young@Hearts bookended their show with the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want." They mixed classic-rock hits like the Zombies' "She's Not There" and the Velvet Underground's "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" with alternative-rock hits such as Sonic Youth's "Schizophrenia" and Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees." But unlike Mrs. Elva Miller, these seniors singing rock were way beyond shtick. Their material resonated with experience, loss, and even hope. After joining Steve Martin onstage in the middle of "Heaven," Young@Heart fan David Byrne led the group in a beautiful, possibly new, gospel-tinged song. "Even though a man is made of clay," Byrne sang, sneaking reading glasses up to his face to peak at the lyrics he held in his hand, "everything can change on one fine day."

Comments

Steve Martin says:

Dear Richard,
Thank you for your kind words. We had a great time at the Paris Cafe. P.S. I challenge the Hollywood Steve Martin to an arm wrestle.

-The real Steve Martin

10/23/07 07:07 PM

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