The strange maths of ageing...

Knopfler at 40:

I don’t care if my liver is hung by a thread
I don’t care if my Doctor says I ought to be dead.

Knopfler at 53:
Who puts the do-re-mi in our pockets

Keeps the party going on?

It's the man who sells the potions

I'm just one who plays the songs.....

There stands the bottle Ladies and gentlemen

All these bottles don't have to tell you, friends

These days miracles don't come falling from the sky

Raise your glasses to the doctor, to a stand up guy

George Michael just out of teens:
Bad Boys Stick together,
never Sad Boys

Good guys, they made rules for fools,
so get wise...

George Michael at 38:
The rich declare themselves poor

And most of us are not sure

If we have too much but we'll take our chances

Because god's stopped keeping score

I guess somewhere along the way

He must have let us alt out to play

Turned his back and all god's children crept out the back door

It's hard to love, there's so much to hate

Hanging on to hope when there is no hope to speak of

And the wounded skies above say it's much too late

Well maybe we should all be praying for time

This can go on and be applied to almost everyone you can recall being rebel while on the right side of age – barring a handful like Freddie Merc, who continued his rebellion past his prime and succumbed to the excesses of it.

I have watched this happening to Bruce Sprinsteen – the Boss of Rock – as he stepped into a different orbit with Human Touch. Then a decade and half later, I watched him in the Seeger sessions in 2006 and marveled at this gross transformation of a person which was reflected in his music.

Golden Oldies? Just a passing phase for everyone.