dotage, dote, tops the charts, in the same boat

Happy Birthday Bob Dylan

A curious dotage

Mr Dylan just turned 70. He still tours, and tops the charts—but is he a golden oldie, or a tarnished one?

Dylan, who will be 70 on May 24th, ought to be in McCartney’s boat, but somehow finds himself in Lennon’s. His albums have been getting more successful, not less. “Modern Times”, released in 2006, went to number one in America, the first Dylan album to do so since “Desire” 30 years earlier. His last set of new songs, “Together Through Life” (2009), went to number one both in America and in Britain, where he hadn’t topped the chart for 39 years. No living person had ever returned to number one after such a long gap.


dotage
(dō'tĭj)
n.
A deterioration of mental faculties.

[Middle English, from doten, to dote.]

dote
(dōt)
intr.v., dot·ed, dot·ing, dotes.
To show excessive fondness or love: parents who dote on their only child.

[Middle English doten.]

doter dot'er n.


idiom:

in the same boat

1. In the same situation as another or others.