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Hope I Get Old Before I Die by David Hepworth review – living legends

From McCartney to Dylan and the Stones, this portrait of rock longevity mixes fascinating detail with rash claims – but is never less than entertaining

Hope I Get Old Before I Die deals more with the “how”, via a series of snappy essays that cover everything from ageing artists’ ability to market themselves (there’s a fascinating chapter on the Grateful Dead, who managed to retain an aura of countercultural cool while flogging their fans ties and golf shirts) to the roles of sampling and social media in keeping august names part of the current conversation. They also have a tendency to mix fascinating details (including one here about EMI so undervaluing the Beatles’ legacy that, in the 80s, they organised a promotion that gave their music away in exchange for Heineken ring-pulls) with rash claims that don’t bear close scrutiny. He can also write movingly, as when discussing Creedence Clearwater Revival, a band so rent by decades of litigation that its founding brothers, John and Tom Fogerty, wouldn’t reconcile even when the latter was dying of an Aids-related illness.

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