What happens when you get too old to be an Angry Young Man?Nick Lowe, one of the people who drove a stake through the heart of corporate crap rock of the late 70's, has a new album out. I've only heard a few cuts from it and I like it, but what I like even more is this part of a review from The Week magazine:
"With At My Age, the 58-year-old Lowe has delivered a set of excellent original songs and covers, all rooted in the kind of music that inspired him as a young man. He sounds confident and playful, singing ’50s and ’60s-style pop and rockabilly tunes over organic arrangements. The pretension-free disc doesn’t try to be forward thinking—Lowe knows that’s for the kids, said Neil McCormick in the London Daily Telegraph. Other musical veterans should take a page from Lowe’s book: Instead of competing with their own pasts, they should “make music they actually like, with humility, passion, and all the skills they have acquired.”
Which leads me to writing novels. I'm a year younger than Mr. Lowe, and one of the problems I'm having with my WIP, the book I started sometime in the fucking Eisenhower administration, is that I know it doesn't have the edge it would if I was 25 years younger. And that bothers me. Because I'm reading books by Ray Banks, Victor Gischler, Duane Swierczynski and other young punks who are pushing the form.
And I'm not pushing anything, except old age. And I worry that I've lost a step or two. In fact, I know I have. And I see it in other writers I once admired. I'm reading a book right now by one of the revered names of the biz and while the story's OK and the pacing is what you'd want from an old hand, he's written one character that's strictly TV. I mean, sweet Jesus, some of the dialogue is so bad that I thought I was reading Gil Thorp.
So I worry. And I work. And I wonder if what I'm doing is worth a damn. Then I read what I've written and I like it and know that, in the end, that's what counts. That's the Looney Tunes Rule and it applies to everything.
The Looney Tunes Rule: Write What You Like And Others Will Like It Too.
Chuck Jones and Tex Avery said it in every interview - they didn't create those great cartoons to make kids laugh. They created them to make themselves laugh.
So, while I'm not pushing the genre the way some of my younger friends are, I'm writing what I like. No, I don't have the chops of Ken Bruen, but I'm going with the strengths of my age and in the words of that reviewer I'm going to make music I actually like, with humility, passion, and all the skills I have acquired.
It's the best I can do.
I'd like to open the floor to this question of age. Are there writers you think have lost something? Is it the young who push change? Age and writing. What do you think?
Talk to me.
8 comments:
As a reader, I think it's like anything else David. Things change as you age-personally, I like it that way. People become more interesting, richer. I think, though, they also become afraid to show that. They think they have to stay the same, so they try to show the world the same face and I believe that's why an author's writing starts to lose something.
Well, let's talk about coincidence first. I'm listening to the Nick Lowe CD on Rhapsody ("Long-Limbed Girl" to be specific), and I click on your blog. Kind of a shock.
Anyway, I'm an older guy than you are. I'm still writing about the same character I was writing about 20 years ago, so I probably haven't changed that much. I mean, I wasn't cutting edge even then, so I'm certainly less so now. It's just occurred to me that I don't have a contract, so maybe everything has passed me by. And you know what? That's okay. One thing about being older (in my case) is that I'm all right with being out of fashion. Probably because I was never IN fashion.
I'm pushing myself in my work. Okay, I'm not as young as Duane or Dave White or Gischler, but I think we older writers can bring something to the table that they can't bring, and maybe it doesn't have that youthful, angry young man edge, but we have a few more years of living and experience that no doubt seeps into our work and makes our work stand out in a different way. And that's not a bad thing.
I think (or hope) that there are other traits valuable to books too. I know very well what you mean, but some of my favorite books have been written by older writers. I don't think Daniel Woodrell is a youngster or Cormac McCarthy or Pelecanos and they are still pushing the genre. Plus their writing has great depth and humanity.
Ah, I love you ladies. You give an old man such encouragement.
Hey, McCartney was just talking about how he had to be young in order to write "When I'm Sixty Four". (Go ahead and argue he should have written "Revolution" and I'll be here when you get back.)
Anyhow, his recent album, which I think is his best since he was writing with Elvis Costello, has some remarkable songs that certainly benefit from his age.
"Searching for the time that has gone so fast; The time that I thought would last; My ever present past."
caught me a BIG FISH, Lefty:
Seriously, Karl: except for you, the best I hear even the most war-minded of Administration flaks say is, "I'm sure we'll win some day; be patient." How are you seeing that we are on the "verge of historic victory?"
dont be a STRANGER at CY,,, the fishings GOOD
thought youd like a GOOD LAUGH,,, maybe misjudged!!! perhaps a MODICUM of GAME is in order...
Here it be,,, note the INNUENDO.... yarrrrrrr
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