Back when the question was who put the bomp in the bomp-she-bomp-she-bomp, nobody envisioned rock 'n roll growing up or growing old. But as the baby boomers have aged, they've taken the music with them.

Many have been amused by how the Rolling Stones have dealt with their status as aged rockers.

We figure it's time to hold up some true role models, those who have made the transition from rebel to middle--or (Yikes!) upper middle--age without losing their rock 'n roll identity.

Here's our Hall of Fame of Graceful Aging:

Bob Dylan: Dylan, 56, still delivers a great live show, even if he has cut back on his touring. His latest album, "Time Out of Mind," is full of fierce, fully realized songs, mostly about relationships gone south.

Other than a recent health scare and some questionable television appearances (what was he doing with Willie Nelson on the 1993 Country Music Association Awards?), Dylan is still up for a tussle and likely to win more often than not.

Rickie Lee Jones: If this year's Lilith Fair has a masters (well, mistresses doesn't sound right, either) division, the first person we'd sign up would be Jones, 43.

Her newest album, "Ghostyhead," finds her embracing the hard rhythms of techno, a startling departure from her jazzy, scatty "Chuck E.'s in Love" days. Jones is still restless and curious, the mark of an artist who isn't ready for the rocking chair.

Cyndi Lauper: Anyone who saw the massively pregnant Lauper, 44, strutting her stuff on the Tina Turner tour this summer knows she's still a compelling artist.

Lauper is no longer blasting her way through such deliciously anthemic hits as "She Bop" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"--her latest album, "Sisters of Avalon," blends Celtic rhythms with dance beats. But the new work has a distinctly rock 'n roll edge even if it lacks the in-your-face element of her earlier hits. (By the way, the baby is due next month.)

Joni Mitchell: Mitchell, 54, has influenced everyone from Janet Jackson (who samples "Big Yellow Taxi" on her new album, "The Velvet Rope") to all the young singer-songwriters out there--Ani DiFranco to Jewel.

Mitchell's last album of new songs "Turbulent Indigo," won a Grammy for best pop album in 1996--26 years after she won her first Grammy for "Clouds."

Mitchell, who was inducted--finally--into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, still plays pinball and snaps at old flames (she recently got into a tussle with Jackson Browne), which makes her cooler than a lot of people half her age.

Bruce Springsteen: Oh yeah, like you don't think so. Springsteen, 48, may not be filling stadiums with the E Street Band, but he's still writing great songs and delivering mesmerizing live shows. (His solo acoustic version of "Born in the USA" from his "Ghost of Tom Joad" tour outrocks Metallica on a good day.)

Besides, Springsteen has made the usual rock 'n roll territory of girls and cars and stars and bars emblematic of America's recent history. In his early songs, the girls could be trouble, the cars were roaming the Jersey shore, and the stars hung over the bars where misfits gathered.

Now, though the stars still shine, the cars and the girls are crossing the border looking for a better world, and the bars are home to border patrol agents who wonder on which side their sympathies really lie.

Neil Young: Young not only rocks at 52, he rocks as though he's still a teen-ager in a garage in the suburbs somewhere. He has snubbed award shindigs, thanks to old grudges (skipping the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction for Buffalo Springfield last year), headlined the H.O.R.D.E. jam fest this summer and even made a record with multiplatinum grungers Pearl Jam.

Young has his mellow side (his recent solo albums, most notably "Harvest Moon," have more connection with folk music than rock), but when he hooks up with fellow reprobates Crazy Horse, it's feedback and fire forever. he said.