Then and Now

My looks are nothing to write home about but I’m fortunate in that although a bit grayer I look very much the same as I did thirty years ago. Not everyone is so blessed and NBC Los Angeles has assembled a montage of pictures of rock stars, now mostly in their 60s and 70s, as they appeared at the height of their fame and as they look now, that illustrates that pretty well. In the picture above on the left is Grace Slick in her Jefferson Starship days and on the right as she is now.

Coco Chanel once said that at 50 you get the face that you deserve. She also said that nothing is ugly as long as it’s alive. As refutation of that claim, I submit The Rolling Stones. If anybody looks more like Dorian Gray after the portrait he had hidden is destroyed, I don’t know who that might be.

Browse through the montage at the link. It’s interesting in a Grand Guignol sort of way.

46 comments… add one
  • Andy Link

    Cosmetic surgery has, quite obviously, done wonders for some of them.

  • jan Link

    All I can say is,”Wow!” What a difference age makes. Billy Idol and Pat Benetar seemed to survive. But the Rolling Stones look more like the Rolling Dead today, IMO.

  • michael reynolds Link

    What’s odd is that some of them actually look better. Keith not so much.

  • Grace looks like a happy grandma. What’s wrong with that? Paul McCartney does, too.

    Boys like Bowie and Sting and the Boss all look better to me. I always preferred older men.

  • I like the newer David Coverdale expression a lot.

  • michael reynolds Link

    Janis:

    Boys like Bowie and Sting and the Boss all look better to me. I always preferred older men.

    Obviously you are a woman with refined tastes.

  • Practice makes perfect, you know.

  • A little age did wonders for Meatloaf.

  • What’s odd is that some of them actually look better. Keith not so much.

    Agreed. And some definitely had plastic surgery, but in some cases it doesn’t always result in an improvement.

  • jan Link

    Coco Chanel once that that at 50 you get the face that you deserve.

    I remember the age being 40, rather than 50, regarding getting the face you deserve. Before that, youth gives you a free ride for debauchery. After that a person can pay dearly for their lack of mindfulness in matters of the social and healthy habits they keep. The Rolling Stones are an example of that, as they physically wear their lifestyle on their decrepit-looking bodies.

  • Drew Link

    Meatloaf?? My God.

    Anyway, age has finally caught up with the Stones. Keith is looking elderly……..forget the cigarette wrinkles. I first saw them in Cleveland in about 1978. (Don’t tell my parents about the hooch and alcohol supported midnight dash from Indy to Cleveland or the 10 or so of us sleeping on some dive hotel floor for three hours befor heading to the stadium.) They were smashed out of their minds coming on stage, especially Keith and Ronnie. Not again until 1998 and the every tour since.

    It became fashionable to make cartoons and refer to them as the Strolling Bones, complete with wheeze etc cartoon balloons. The fact is, and I’ve had first to 10th row seats for all the 1998 and on tours, that I can’t even believe the energy and vitality. Mick’s voice was dominating. (They said he had lost it when he was thirty!!) The man ran like a marathon runner around the stage. He was 55 – 60 then. As I approach double nickles I can only hope.

    Mick, Charlie and Ronnie seem fit, but Keith’s blood clot plus his past have taken a toll. However, they can play small and more acoustic, blues oriented venues until they drop dead. Old black men are revered for doing so well into their 80’s. Why not the guys who brought that heritage back to America??

    PS – I watch Palladia alot. I just saw a recent Rod Stewart concert. I was never really a fan, but THAT was pathetic.

  • No joke, Drew. I love the Stones, however they look.

    I saw them 1975, in the Cotton Bowl. Nearly sunburned to a crisp that day.

  • jan, I always liked the quote attributed to Catherine Deneuve: “After a certain age, you have to decide between your ass or your face.”

    A slim fanny means an old face.

  • These idiot youngsters probably don’t even know who Catherine Deneuve is.

  • Whimper about this woman’s smoking.

  • Whinge about this woman’s smoking.

  • Catherine Deneuve turns 70 this year. She still looks pretty darned good.

    A few years back I did a couple of posts, “Screen Beauty Over 80”, “Screen Beauty Over 90”, something like that. It might be time for a sequel, “Screen Beauty Over 70”, maybe. Catherine Deneuve, France Nguyen, Sophia Loren leap to mind, just to name three.

    BTW, remarkably, Olivia De Havilland and Joan Fontaine are still alive (and, to the best of my knowledge, still not on speaking terms). They’re both well over 90.

  • I have this thing for Sean Connery. And Ian McKellan. I saw him as Salieri in “Amadeus” on Broadway.

  • Raquel Welch looks great. Last time I saw her she was 69. A few years ago. Where does Linda Evans fit in all this?

    I found some “Forever Krystle” body powder in the linen closet last week. We’re talking Krystle Carrington of “Dynasty.”

  • Linda don’t look so hot. She was one of those girls put together by the guy who did Ursula Andress, wasn’t she?

  • Brigitte Bargot tickles me no end.

    She just doesn’t give a hoot.

  • Bardot, of course.

  • Ursula Andress was John Derek’s second wife—Linda Evans was his third. Bo Derek was his fourth and they remained married until he died in 1986.

    Bardot turns 79 this year. She’s certainly a character. You can’t exactly say she’s aging gracefully but she isn’t a physical wreck, either. Mentally, on the other hand…

  • She was a sex symbol. Hard to find an honest man in that milieu.

  • I mean by “sex symbol” Simone de Beauvoir used her for “The Lolita Syndrome” in 1959, according to Wikipedia.

  • jan Link

    The interesting aspect about age is that sometimes people’s appearances simply evolve over time. Consequently, no matter what digit they advance to the physical structure and facial contours of the person remains somewhat constant and recognizable. There’s an older neighbor of mine who is like that. She has a lithe figure, wears her white hair in a bun, walks a lot, and has looked relatively the same year over year.

    Then there are those who seem to transform overnight. I don’t know if it has to do with a weight gain, different hair style/color or facial hair change, however, they become entirely different looking people. I know that cigarettes constrict the small facial capillaries of one’s face causing more wrinkles. So, this too can be one reason for more aging in some than in others.

  • So what’s David Lee Roth doing? Modeling for Brooks Brothers?

  • Let’s see, jan, I have known my MIL for 19 years, she’s 92, 92-19=73, and she’s hardly changed a lick. She’s a little plumper, and that’s about it.

    Took a load of satsumas to Magnolia House today.

  • Not that she ever smoked.

  • And because there is never really a place to respect Ms. Schuler’s work:

    http://janisgore.blogspot.com/2013/01/sally-in-profile.html

  • jan Link

    Janis

    I think the rapidity of aging has a lot to do with a person’s genetic make-up and overall temperament. For instance, my dad, who died when he was only 67, was very ‘boyish-looking.’ He always wore his hair in a crew-cut style, never grayed, was trim and fit-looking, maintaining a wry wit that left the family in stitches. He was actually not a healthy man, but ironically never looked unhealthy. His cocky attitude seemed to sideline any of the by-products of ill health.

  • Sounds much like my late husband.

    By the way, my MIL started the mantra “Are you going to live in that big house by yourself?”

    Hell, yeah. It’s only 2,000 sq. ft. We ain’t talking a Rowlett, TX, 6,000 monster.

    I spent years in 700 sq.ft. apartments. I own this house , mortgage free, dogs. I plan to live in it alone as long as I can.

  • My husband and I designed and I designed and planned the renovations, and I put back into it. I’ve used acetylene torches and kneepads, and shopvacs, and linseed oil. And lots of paint.

  • And rotary sanders and mouses and chisels and a hell’s cabinet of cleaning solutions for brushes.

    So yeah. I plan to stay. I got a team of horses outside that says I can. (Cain’t go wrong with two Tahoes.)

    Everbody seem to have they eye on my land.

  • Never cross a girl who read “Lonesome Dove.”

  • I might actually call SAW, INC., the name on the card that I picked out of a box of gauze the other day. Specializes in machine guns.

  • WTF?

  • Oh, Lord. I’ve done it again.

    I’m sorry, Steve V. I’ll try to do better.

  • Lost the card. Maybe just a nice 12-gauge.

  • These bastard children were snorting cocaine while I was buying art.

  • Ann Wilson has hit some roadblocks because of her weight. Doesn’t mean her voice is any less, and I count her as one of the great women’s rock voices.

    Note “rock.”

  • Drew Link

    Cathy D, eh?? She was perhaps my first movie type attraction. Other guys were messing up Farah Fawcett posters. CD had a classy look.

  • Sophia Loren caught my eye first.

    I’m absolutely heterosexual, but I know a beautiful woman when I see one.

  • Farah was pretty enough, but not in the same class at all.

  • How would I give Ms. Bardot a New Year kiss on the cheek?

    She really is lovely.

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