Not to be creepy about it, but there are many studies that suggest people who retire, ah, die shortly thereafter. Just ask Morley Safer or Paul "Bear" Bryant — to name a few. Maybe we should all just keep working and not buy into the myth of the Golden Days of lush sunsets and endless rounds of golf.

Personally, I'd like to see an investigative study that details how much money the funeral industry pumps into Retirement = Fun advertising.

Anyway, perhaps this all explains why musical war horses like Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, KISS and the Rolling Stones won't give it up. And good for them, I say. It's not like people don't still want to hear their work. Add the name Gordon Lightfoot to that list.

The now-78-year-old Canadian folk-pop songwriter is back on the road and performs Saturday at the Garde Arts Center. No less than the Band's Robbie Robertston called Lightfoot "a national treasure," and a catalog that includes "Sundown," "Carefree Highway," "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," "If You Could Read My Mind," "Rainy Day People" and "Ribbon of Darkness."

Gordon Lightfoot, 8 p.m. Saturday, Garde Arts Center, 325 State St., New London; $60-$80; (860) 444-7373 ext. 1, gardearts. org.