Yea I agree with you and I am happy I got to see him live on a couple of occasions. A genuine legend and giant in music, he was and is a very talented man. His memoirs are excellent, also.
I depart with you a bit on baby boomers. In my direct experience (I'm 37) they have consistently been the most self cenetered and some even narcissistic bunch I have ever encountered.
Younger people (20s-30s) tend to be more beholden to a strange mixture of strong self esteem and almost no genuine self assurance. Boomers tend tohave strong self esteem and exagerated self assurance. Both combos aren't notably good - the self esteem is shallow, and the self assurance is often very misplaced.
I can't speak for every member of that class, but I do criticize the class mostly because of one lost 'gut check.' Even though most were not hippies nor were they protesters, they did fail to keep those types honest and in check when they were branding their generation as such. They also, as a class, stood by and let a small & vocal group of women lay the foundation for what has esentially become a de-balled male population in the 21st Century.
The truth is a lot of crap when down of the watch of the baby boomers - while most are not directly responsible, most certainly didn't mount an effective countermovement to the wide-eyed navel gazers that they allowed to define their generation.
My generation stinks, by the way. :-)
I think the problem young folks have with a lot of boomers is that the ones you describe didn't make great parents. Nothing worse than a preening self obsessed parent.
The Boomers were also the first generation that had it easy...(sans Vietnam for those that went)..relatively speaking and their large numbers have tended to expand everything unrealistically....
...the economy and culture.
It just sort of gobbles up everything.
Leftist culture never really took off where I'm from.
We got a bit of the dope and sexual revolution stuff.
The Civil Rights movement at which I was at ground zero is more honestly attributable to pre-boomers.