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| Daethgod |
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/21/1045638468266.html
Stones; cold, sober
February 21 2003
By Patrick Donovan
Their recent albums may lack bite, but the Rolling Stones still inspire thousands of bands, from Estonia to Melbourne.
'I think you should have Steve Waugh in your one-day side," suggests the quietly spoken, best-known drummer in the world, Charlie Watts, from New York. "His critics say he's getting slow and old, but he's reliable and could get you out of trouble."
It's not surprising that Watts is sticking up for Australia's old warhorse, considering Watts' band, the Rolling Stones, have been also been accused recently of being too old and irrelevant: "They're just lining their pockets again on the Licks Tour" and "They haven't made a good album since Tattoo You - and that's more than 20 years ago" are just some of the recently voiced criticisms.
Once upon a time, they were the greatest rock'n'roll band on the planet, and with no mediocre album to flog on this tour, they're mining the gems from their unrivalled back catalogue, including Monkey Man, Torn and Frayed and Can't You Hear Me Knockin'?
Their recent albums may lack the bite to be relevant in a rock market flooded with bands such as ... And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, but their legacy is unrivalled, and they're responsible for the formation of thousands of bands, from Estonia to Melbourne.
On every tour they inspire hundreds of thousands of fans. Sure, some are baby boomers on a nostalgia trip, but songs such as Street Fighting Man and Jumpin' Jack Flash can excite younger fans as much as they did their parents. Like Steve Waugh, Watts has held his team together through thick and thin, and Lord knows the spirit, love and hope ingrained in the Stones' music have helped many a believer through some blue moments.
But Watts isn't really interested in discussing the band; he never has been. He's not being rude, he just doesn't know the answers. "You may as well ask me what the show looks like; I just don't know."
This is the man who, when asked by a TV reporter, for the 1000th time, what it's like being in the Rolling Stones, replied matter-of-factly: "It's a job, innit?" In the video 25x5, Watts said being in the Stones comprised 20 years' sitting around and five years' playing. "And now it's 10 years' playing and 30 years' sitting around," Watts tells EG.
When asked if it's true he feeds off guitarist Keith Richards more than anyone else during live shows, he says it's usually because he can only hear Richards's amp. And while he doesn't want to discuss his other colleagues, he believes the Stones hit their peak during the Mick Taylor period, 1969-74.
Watts enthusiastically discusses cricket and jazz, particularly the jazz musicians who comprised Motown house band the Funk Brothers.
He's experienced enough not to be drawn into Beatles comparisons. I suggest that even if the bands were friends, manager Andrew Loog Oldham's creation of the Stones's image as the dark, brooding antithesis of the Beatles lasts to this day. Many young music fans grow up feeling they need to align themselves with one or the other, and the rivalry was rekindled when Paul McCartney and the Stones announced tours at about the same time late last year. When McCartney pulled out, the Stones finally won the war - in Victoria, at least."
Australia's a tough place to pull a crowd, you know? They're quite critical of who they want to go and see. They'll be happy to go one year and not the next, and maybe that's why Paul pulled out," Watts says.
Do the band members have fond memories of Australia, or is it just another bunch of dates?
"Well it's just a long, long way away, really."
Let's leave it at then, shall we?
The 61-year-old Watts is the the most experienced member of the band, wild guitarist Ron Wood, 55, will forever be known as the band's "new guy".
In a recent interview for an Uncut magazine story about the Who continuing their tour despite the sudden death of bassist John Entwistle, Keith Richards said the band would call it a day only if something happened to himself, Jagger or Watts - but not Wood."
Mick, Charlie or me - no Stones," said Richards. "Ronnie, after all, is a new boy - he's only been in the band 27 years - I don't say you'd want to replace him, but he wasn't a founder-member."
Unlike Watts, Wood is happy to talk about the band. This can be partly because he was a fan of the band before he joined, in 1975, and also to his down-to-earth personality.
Solo records-wise, he's the most consistent performer of all the Stones, releasing a handful of albums, the best being 1974's I've Got My Own Album To Do and his most recent, last year's Not For Beginners, on which he displays a knack for a great melody, his raspy voice a cross between Bob Dylan and Keith Richards after hanging out with Gram Parsons for a week.
For this tour he's given up the booze, which, by all accounts, is making a big difference to the band's live sound.
Nonetheless, when asked how he's going, he replies "just as confused as ever".
There are plenty of holes in his memory, and when trying to recall songs, he sings out the rhythm in his head, but can't put a title to them.
He even had trouble recalling the title of B-grade film The Wild Life, starring Chris Penn, in which he had a cameo role as a refrigerator raider.
"Oh, Wild Life, yeah, unbelievable," he says after a long pause.
"At the time I was making small appearances in lots of films, like 9 1/2 Weeks - I was in this art gallery scene, and I got to share a caravan with Kim Basinger, which was great."
To understand why the Stones chose Ronnie Wood ahead of other guitar maestros of the time, such as Roy Buchanan, you have to go back to one night at Ronnie Wood's country English estate in 1974.
Wood was guitarist with Rod Stewart in the Faces, and with Stewart eyeing a solo career, Wood decided to make his own album, I've Got My Own Album To Do.
A veritable who's who of English rock royalty, including his mates Richards, Jagger, David Bowie and Faces members such as Stewart and drummer Kenny Jones were hanging around nightly at Wood's estate, the 'Wick, playing, writing and singing back-ups in his new home studio.
Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, who replaced the late Brian Jones, had never felt comfortable or fully accepted in the band, and was frustrated by Jagger's and Richards' refusal to use or give due credit to the material he contributed. (In Richards' absence, Taylor reportedly wrote the guitar parts for two of the band's finest songs, Sway and Moonlight Mile, but received no acknowledgment.) A prolonged jam resulted in the song It's Only Rock'n'Roll - which the Stones would use as the title track of their next album. Wood was considered the natural replacement when Mick Taylor quit a year later.
They must have been some pretty wild nights at the 'Wick?
"Yeah, my old house, the 'Wick, the house that Pete Townshend just got arrested in - let's hope he's all right," says Wood. "That house does have some history. I bought it from John Mills, the actor, and me and (Faces bassist) Ronnie Lane moved in. Keith came back to the 'Wick one night to escape these people in a club. My ex-wife said, 'Come back, Ronnie's making an album', and Keith said, 'Oh, I'll do anything to get out of here'. He came for one night and stayed four months! "There was one night that was interesting. I got Ringo Starr and Keith Moon down, and there was no drum kit, so they all started to play guitar, they all learnt the chord of E. All these drummers playing the one note all night."
Wood would soon learn his first lesson about Stones Inc.
"Mick and me wrote It's Only Rock'n'Roll and I Can Feel the Fire. Mick said, 'I'll tell you what, Woody, you can keep I Can Feel the Fire and I'll take It's Only Rock'n'Roll'. At that time I had no bargaining power, so I said, 'All right, Mick, let's go'."
Equally good songs, but Jagger, ever the opportunist, saw the anthemic potential in the latter.
"Didn't suffer too badly," Wood agrees. "Yeah, it doesn't matter, it's only money."
Two songs on I've Got My Own Album are credited to Jagger/Richards, Sure the One You Need and Act Together. Were they Stones outtakes?
"Nah, Keith wrote those at the 'Wick especially for me. They were very sweet. But like Lennon and McCartney, him and Mick were a team who shared all the songs they wrote."
And Miss You? Wasn't that written by Bill Wyman but credited to the Glimmer Twins?
"Nah, that was (session pianist) Billy Preston. He said, 'Thank you and f--you, the Rolling Stones', after that."
Wood had a big shoes to fill; Taylor had taken the band to new heights on Let It Bleed, Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main Street and Goat's Head Soup.
Taylor, primarily a blues guitarist who cut his teeth in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, lacked confidence and was disenfranchised by the band's superstar status in 1975.
"Mick Taylor was always the youngest member (he was born in 1949), like I'll always be the youngest member of the Stones," says Wood. "He would worry too much and thought he couldn't play the guitar. He had no confidence. I would say, 'Mick you're fantastic'. I would always go in to bat for him. He had a band called the Gods when I was in my first band called the Birds, and he said he couldn't go on; he would say, 'Can you play for me, Ronnie?'. So I would play his set and then my set with the Birds. When he left the Stones he was growing in confidence, but he wasn't accepted as a songwriter. Against Jagger and Richards - that's a strong songwriting team. So what you have to do is just wait, knowing you're the young member, knowing your time would come. But Taylor never had that patience. A bit like Bill Wyman, who, apart from hating playing, left because they didn't like any of his songs."
What was wrong with Je Suis Un Rock Star?
"Yeah. Keith said, 'The trouble with your songwriting, Bill, is that you can't write 'em'."
Wood had the patience and finally got his chance with songs such as No Use Crying and Black Limousine."
Gradually I got them in, and when they started writing strongly again, I stepped back, which is the only way to do it."
The first Stones album Wood played on was 1976's Black and Blue, on which Wood and Richards displayed a natural chemistry, their guitar lines interweaving on funky jams.
But Wood received no credit for his contribution, Hey Negrita. Rather, it was listed as "Inspired by Ron Wood". What's up with that? Did he actually write it?
"You had to do your apprenticeship before you got a money credit. So there were lots of songs, like Miss You, which was 'inspired' by Billy Preston, and Hey Negrita was 'inspired' by Ronnie Wood - even though I wrote it."
At least Wood received credit and royalties for co-writing Faces songs such as Stay With Me and Ooh La La from another frugal band leader, Rod Stewart, who was considered on par with Jagger as a frontman at the time.
Did Wood end up having to choose between the Glimmer Twins and Rockin' Rod?
"Nah, I never wanted to split the Faces up; I never said I was leaving. It was a rumour started by Elton John on the way to a gig in London. He was travelling with Rod in Rod's limo. Elton said, 'You know Ronnie's leaving the Faces?', and Rod said, 'What?' and ended up telling the rest of the band, and when we went on stage at the Sundown in North London, no one in the band would talk to me. I thought, 'What? I've been sent to Coventry! What the hell's going on?'."
But he knew the Stones wanted him.
"Mick Taylor quit right in front of me and Mick Jagger. He said, 'Mick, I'm leaving the band'. Mick said to me, 'Would you join?'. I said, 'Yeah, I'd love to, but I don't want to split the Faces up', and Mick said, 'Either do I'. I sorted out the rumour with the Faces and said, 'Nah, I'm not leaving the band until the Stones get desperate for a guitar player', and about a year later Mick rang me up and said, 'Ronnie, I'm desperate', and I said, 'Well, funny enough, Rod's just handed his cards in, he's just left the band', so it made my choice easy. I was always with both of them, but I knew Mick was the main man, even though I'm still working with Rod, on a project called You Strum and I'll Sing, which we're going to follow up with after the Stones tour."
I suggest that Stewart needs Wood back, and Wood agrees.
"After Atlantic Crossing it was all downhill from there," he says with a laugh.
Interestingly, Faces pianist Ian McLagan remembers it differently. In his entertaining book All the Rage, he writes that Wood said "I'm leaving the group" just before they went on stage before a show in Roanoke, on McLagan's birthday, May 12, 1973, explaining Wood had stopped hanging out with the band in favour of his girlfriend, Kate, who McLagan called "the Yoko Ono of our times".
But with Stewart saving his best songs for solo albums and headed for disco-pop stardom, the Faces didn't have much left in the tank.
After years of blown-out, inflexible tours, it looks as if the Stones are loosening up. They rehearsed 140 songs in Toronto (Wood knows, because as "the new guy" his job was to write them up on the blackboard). Watts, who says he'll be using the same drum kit in the theatres as in the stadiums, says the band had to re-learn many of the old songs.
How flexible are the shows? Do the Stones take spontaneous requests?
"We could, but we don't, because if someone wants to hear a ballad, it could ruin the mood of the show," says Watts.
In a recent "Best Stones Songs Poll" in Uncut magazine, Wood modestly included numbers such as Stray Cat Blues and 19th Nervous Breakdown - written before he joined.
Without a new album to promote for this tour, the band have been afforded the opportunity to dip into more obscure songs from the back catalogue, he says."
It's very exciting to me, because I get to play my favourite songs I wasn't on. Like the early stuff, like Stray Cat Blues, Can't You Hear Me Knockin'? It's a living dream to me, to play them my way, with respect to the way Brian Jones and Mick Taylor played them. But I'm doing it better - much more focused," Wood says with a cackle.
"The other night we played in Boston, and the gig was billed as 'Getting to feast on Beggar's Banquet'. We have nights of Exile On Main Street, Some Girls, we have soul-reggae nights. Keith calls it our 'Fruit of the Loom tour' - small, medium and large. At clubs we've been doing (everything from) She Smiled Sweetly to Otis Redding's Can't Turn You Loose.
"This tour is by far the best tour I've ever done with anyone. When we get down to Australia you'll see why. It's absolutely loose. It's the proper Stones."
The Rolling Stones play the Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Park, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday next week.
The Forty Licks compilation is out on Virgin/EMI.
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| woodywoodpecker |
Great Article Deatha!
You tell em woody!! |
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| EthanWickedAsHeSeems |
Very nice read on a rainy morning, thank you.
Btw, I dont think theres any way in hell another tour would happen without Ronnie...no matter what Keith says. That was a very disrespectful thing to say. Keith has jealous problems too often...with Mick's wonderful GoddessITD and Ronnie's improved playing might be making him self-conscious. I dont think he has the right to be a bully to them anymore...even if his solo albums are better than Micks...except GITD imho...and Ronnie's bad playing last time around. Its time to work together to make another tour happen WITH SOUL...not just about money, as Im afraid thats all that keeps them together nowadays. Take away Blondie and the horn section and see how you do by yourself nowadays Keith. Stop being an asshole. |
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| BILL PERKS |
MAC WAS REFERRING TO RONNIE LANE IN HIS BOOK,NOT WOODY.IS IT REALLY HARD TO INCLUDE THE FACTS? |
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| steel driving hammer |
Nice article, thanks! |
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