Buffalo Springsteen? Some 70 year-old Priest is recording? No Neil Young?

Yes, yes, while shitty music from 20 somethings isn't for us, neither is shitty music from 70 somethings.

As Richie Furay (late of ugh, Buffalo Springfield and argh, Poco) admits, most people figure he's 70 by now and out of show biz.

Pretty much right on both counts. He's a grandfather and his day job is being a pastor at some funky church in Colorado somewhere.

IF I'M BEING HONEST, as much as I hate the Viley Virus and Justa Beeper music, I haven't exactly been cheering over the new releases from McCartney or Neil Young or Elton John...to name three (as opposed to Springsteen, for example) that I used to like a lot.

Way too many rockers over 50 are, to paraphrase a Randy Newman song, dead but they don't know it.

Not until they're doing their Percy Sledge impression.

Yeah, it's too bad that the record business is so sucky that we can't afford to indulge our morbid curiosity and actually BUY every new album from a has-been. Instead, we do the illegal downloading. Or we buy from somebody who hasn't disapointed too often (Mr. Newman comes to mind) and who doesn't wear out his welcome by throwing new product out there every year, good or bad (Mr. Newman again comes to mind).

Furay mentioned in Rolling Stone that after what turned out to be a brief re-union with Buffalo Springfield, he was inspired to write some new stuff. He thought there would be a new Springfield album. But the ever-nasty Neil Young walked away after a few shows, simply deciding not to waste the time he has left with boring old farts. Not when he can be a solo boring old fart.

No, the rest isn't "history." What we have is, obviously, a pathetic solo album almost nobody will play, and one that probably doesn't remotely live up to the hype Rolling Stone is heaving. After all, who in their right mind listens to Buffalo Springfield, Poco, or Richie Furay solo albums? You might as well add every fucking solo album from Crosby Stills and Nash, and every solo album from Young since "Harvest." And not much on CSN or CSN&Y holds up at this point. Unless you're the type of idiot who rolls-doobie and grooves to "Marrakesh Express," in which case, my advice is to put a gun to your head.

It's just sad that "the industry" isn't more forgiving or more flexible, especially considering the fucking hell that's involved in making ANY kind of album, writing ANY kind of song, and dealing with butt-heads and asswipes and shit-for-brains jerks every step of the way.

Furay? He had to wait and hope for luck and good health in getting somebody interested, after two years of hauling his old bones around to pay-to-play or barely-pay gigs. He also had to put his pastorly duties on hold and tell his God-followers to go flock themselves while HE romped off to play those Underoo shows in front of baked old hippies who actually cared about Buffalo Springfart. AND...he had to deal with the disappointment when his pal Neil Young walked away, something that another prima donna asshole, Stephen Stills, should've anticipated.

In the end, the number of old heroes who have something to say, who can get it down on paper, and get it to US, is few. The ones who put out something worth US buying is fewer, still. As we trudge toward the grave, we get lonelier if we expect our old music idols to keep up with us, staying alive and productive. Few of them look or act as youthful as they were (or as we might be) and few even have the incentive of packed houses or a decent royalty check. Indeed, the 21st Century is shhhhhh, let's not discourage the naive....