Well, it took me all of two months to break my promise of only writing about movies on this here blog of mine. Oh well. I can’t help it. I’ve been thinking about the greatest rock and roll band of all time today, The Rolling Stones.
As any of you who see my Facebook posts may be aware, my parents saw The Stones in concert last night in Newark, New Jersey. I ordered the concert on pay per view so I could watch along with them and it’s unbelievable how those four lads can still get it done after FIFTY years. They were joined by Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, the Black Keys, and John Mayer in the show, but Mick, Keith, Bill, and Charlie were the attraction.
Let’s begin with the obvious: Mick Jagger is the greatest frontman of all time. Case closed. Any questions? His moves have inspired a hit song. There’s no one like him and if you could bottle whatever “it” is that Mick has, we’d all drink it.
More importantly, the Stones have been able to do something maybe no other band has done – take five decades of musical genres and master them, from rock to blues to R&B to country to disco to pop to ballads and on and on. That’s another thing that makes them special. Other bands have come and gone, but the Stones have stuck around, stayed with the times, and now are deservedly considered the best ever to do it. I love The Beatles. I love Led Zeppelin. I love The Doors. But The Stones… they’re just something else and their longevity may have a lot to do with it.
This longevity is something that struck me last night as I watched their incredible concert. They did an amazing job covering many in their extensive catalog of hits: “Get Off My Cloud”. “It’s Only Rock and Roll”. “Paint It Black”. “Gimme Shelter”. “Wild Horses”. “Miss You”. “Honkytonk Woman”. “Midnight Rambler”. “Start Me Up”. “Tumbling Dice”. “Brown Sugar”. “Sympathy for the Devil”. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”. “Jumpin Jack Flash”. “Satisfaction”. I don’t know about you, but just reading that list of songs makes me smile.
And, what’s even more astonishing is the number of songs that they COULD have played and the crowd still would’ve gone crazy. We’re talking dozens more songs. That’s what 50 amazing years in music provides to the fans. That’s why it takes seven minutes for The Rolling Stones to sell out a concert.
Just so I’m “fair” in keeping this a “movie blog”… um, Martin Scorsese LOVES to use R.S. songs in his movies, particularly “Gimme Shelter”. And Mick Jagger had the unfortunate distinction of starring in the really bad 1992 sci-fi dud Freejack with Emilio Estevez and Anthony Hopkins.
Back to the music. If reading that incredible list of tracks made you smile, here’s 12 more personal favorites of mine that weren’t played last night.
From the 1966 album Aftermath, “Under My Thumb”
From the 1967 album Between the Buttons, “Ruby Tuesday”
From the 1971 album Sticky Fingers, “Bitch”
From the 1973 album Goats Head Soup, “Angie”
From the 1976 album Black and Blue, “Fool to Cry”
From the 1978 album Some Girls, “Beast of Burden”
From that same album, “Shattered”
From the 1980 album Emotional Rescue, the title track
From the 1981 album Tattoo You, “Waiting on a Friend”
From the 1986 album Dirty Work, “Harlem Shuffle”
From the 1989 album Steel Wheels, “Mixed Emotions”
From the 1997 album Bridges to Babylon, “Anybody Seen My Baby”
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