Groupies Are Alive and Well and Digging Aging Rockers
I just returned from the most fantastic cruise and musical experience and I am still on a bit of a high from all the great memories from the musical groups onboard. I am an observer of human nature, including observing my own behavior, and yes, I am well aware that I acted like an overgrown teenybopper (as did many, many others onboard) singing and dancing with abandon.
In other words, I took note of every minute detail of each experience and recorded it in my brain. There is so much to tell, it may take several blogs. Yet the first one is about something that is so foreign a concept to me, that I was in wonder that it still exists.
The groupies, my friend – those HOT YOUNG BABES – are still after rockers. (Think of the movie with Kate Hudson as a groupie called Almost Famous.) With the average age of the cruiser on my oldies cruise being 65 or so, the young people stuck out like a sore thumb. What is shocking to me, is that they are interested in decrepit, aging rockers. (Altacocker Rockers as I called them in this past blog.)
This should not be shocking because using Mick Jagger as an example, he can still snare twentysomethings anytime he wants.
Before I get to the hot young babe groupies who worked the band during the performance like gypsies trying to cast a spell, let me explain that there were other groupies aboard, with more musical interest and less sexual interest.
Take the Monkees groupies that were aboard. They follow The Monkees or Monkee as the case may be (It was just Micky Dolenz on this cruise) wherever they appear just because that is their passion and their thing. (Read my Huff Post blog here on the Monkees Granny Groupie, who was aboard this cruise. I saw her and said hello.) Some of them are youngish from the wave of 80’s superstardom the Monkees experienced as a result of MTV airing their old shows. They milked that new generation, and have diehard fans from that twenty-years-later-era who may rival the 60’s fans like me.
Now mind you, Micky brought his wife, and the idea behind these Monkees groupies was NOT to bed Micky, but just to hear him, see him, be close to him etc. He performed with Mark Lindsay, the former ponytailed lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders, who ALSO had his older groupies onboard, who still follow him around when he performs as well. (He brought his wife along too.)
As I blogged way back when, I was a young journalist when I met Micky up close and personal as he was appearing in a show that I did publicity and an article for a newspaper on in Houston, and I got invited to the Wrap Party. He was single then and tried to pick me up, but then my husband, who I brought along, bounded up to us and snapped our photo. When I introduced him as my husband, Micky got the message. It was a thrilling moment for me to get that kind of attention, but I could never, would never take it any further, even if my husband wasn’t there. It isn’t in me, and G-d knows I had plenty of opportunity in my youth working for the Phillies and going to all their promotions, with married ballplayers.
Getting back to the groupies, I noticed these beautiful, blonde young woman who jockeyed (like me) to sit in the front row at all the concerts. Since I was near them on many nights, I could not help but observe them. One of them, perhaps highly intoxicated, was making so many kissy faces and sexual innuendo sign language at the aging rockers on stage, that I found her to be making a spectacle of herself. It was actually hilarious, particularly when I saw her do it to Mark Lindsay (a bit deteriorated and long in the face, yet still with a sad little-aged ponytail) and Micky D (who also is not great these days and actually was never really known as good looking, but again I must point out the Mick Jagger example). I mean, besides the fact that they both had their attractive wives onboard with them, they were LAUGHING with each other when they saw her do her motions to them. Micky said something to Mark and pointed at her, and then he hid his face from her view and kind of pointed her out again, so she got temporarily embarrassed and turned away. They were ribbing and joking about her for the last portion of the show, and I know this because I saw and heard their comments back and forth as I was right up at the stage, along with the groupies right next to me. Of COURSE they noticed them. You could not miss them!
The next night, they were back on the front row for the Guess Who. Now granted, the Guess Who has a lot of younger replacement members. The only original member of this group is the drummer, who weighs approximately 350 pounds and walks with a cane. (This same original brought his cute, young wife too.) Their newish lead singer (since 2016) is young and handsome and long haired and has a gorgeous voice, so maybe that’s what drew them to this cruise.
At any rate, the embarrassed groupie was back to her kissy faces and hand motions. I had seen the Guess Who concert earlier, so I was able to take my eyes off the group for a bit (THEY WERE AWESOME by the way) so I could observe her do her work. It was hilarious to watch. I pointed it out to my cruise buddy and she laughed too.
Without making a spectacle of myself, I actually almost had an opportunity to be a groupie, when the tallest Cowsill, Paul Cowsill of the 60’s musical group The Cowsills (BEYOND AMAZING as performers) came off the stage and walked up to me and sang The Partridge Family song, “I Think I Love You.” (The Partridge Family was based on the Cowsills, who had their mom and all the siblings in the group.) I almost fainted but then relaxed and enjoyed the few moments of being serenaded by an aging once-upon-a-time teen star. Here’s a photo of that moment in time, captured by a cruise friend named Randy. (Susan Cowsill is singing along to the right of him and me)
The next day, we bumped into the group after they had eaten lunch, and Paul gave me a big hug and thanked me for reminding him of a forgotten lyric. (Of COURSE I was singing along.) They were all the nicest, warmest people, and it was a thrilling, but innocent event. Actually, I got that honor without doing any sexual signals or kissy faces, and so being the approximate age of the groupies’ mothers, I would like to tell them (besides REALLY? REALLY? ARE YOU SERIOUS?) to be demure and classy and have some respect for themselves.
More blogging to come on this great cruise!
Love it.
Interesting to read your perspective on groupies… especially the ones that want to bed the object of their affection. I remember as a teenager having various crushes at different times of my life. There was Jim Morrison from the Doors, BJ Thomas, and Rick Springfield. Jim Morrison was there for my budding sexuality. Some of the songs he sung, that were very popular with his sexy voice, were spell bounding to me. Whereas BJ Thomas and Rick Springfield had nice voices, but were definitely my physical type. I’d like to daydream about meeting these entertainers and how they would happen to fall in love with me. They were very romantic daydreams: always going through the dating process where they would be feeling lucky that I was choosing them. I never became a groupie, because, in reality, they were not what I really wanted either as a sexual partner or a life partner. They were just fun to daydream about. A groupie can really take this to the extreme. The “extremist groupies” would make an interesting psychological study!
This is Sherry, by the way. I forgot to fill in my name and email address. Although, I was tempted to leave it Anonymous… because being mysterious sounded so fitting for the comment I left!
Great blog. I would have loved that cruise. Planning to go to the Happy Together concert at the Keswick on June 20th.
Hi Anita, thanks for reading and commenting. It was the most fun ever. Enjoy the Happy Together tour, it will be fun! I have been to many in the past!