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| Mel Belli |
Rolling Stone redux and the wisdom of Keith Richards
By Peter Carlson, L.A. Times Syndicate
So there I was, minding my own business, blissfully flipping though the new 40th anniversary issue of Rolling Stone, which features nostalgic interviews with Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Tom Wolfe, Bob Dylan and Jack Nicholson, all of them reminiscing about the good old days of 1967. I'm reading along, having a fine time, when suddenly a strange feeling came over my brain and I heard a voice whispering in my ear: You have experienced this already.
Well, at first I thought I was having some kind of Rolling Stone-induced acid flashback, because hey, man, I lived through 1967 myself. But the lampshades weren't breathing and the walls weren't pulsing, and I realized that this was no flashback, I was just remembering the 20th anniversary issue of Rolling Stone. Didn't it contain interviews with the very same people?
Only one way to find out: I got up off my chair and crawled deep into the bowels of the fabled Magazine Reader archives - way back, past random issues of George and Rosie and Regardie's and, voila!, there it was, dated Nov 5-Dec 10 1987, Rolling Stone's 20th anniversary issue. My heart racing, I flipped to the table of contents. Yup! Interviews with Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Tom Wolfe, Bob Dylan and Jack Nicholson. Also George McGovern, Jane Fonda, and Jackson Browne, who are interviewed in the 40th anniversary issue.
Well. Does this mean the Rolling Stone Rolodex needs some updating? Probably. There are a few folks in the 40th anniversary issue who weren't in the 20th - Patti Smith, Steven Spielberg, Michael Moore - but there isn't a single black face and only two women. My memory isn't what it used to be, but I'm pretty sure black people and women had already been invented back in 1967 and maybe some of them have some memories worth sharing.
But the interviews that do appear in the issue are kind of fun. There's a lot of hemming and hawing about the meaning of the '60s, which might drive non- baby boomers up the wall, but there are also a few good anecdotes and at least one bit of genuine wisdom. The wisdom comes from Keith Richards.
"Any life lessons you'd like to pass on to the younger generation?'' the interviewer asks.
"First of all, don't do anything if there's not joy in it, a sense of exhilaration,'' Richards replies. "A day is a day, and each one is going bye- bye, and you've only got so many more in front of you. Friendship is probably one of the most important things in life. ... It's about friends - the ability to make friends, the ability to forgive friends. And their ability to forgive you. It's just the ability to enjoy other people's company, really. Then you've got it all, man. The rest is gravy.''
Keith Richards, voice of wisdom. Who'd a thunk it?
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| Strange_Stray_Cat |
The voice of wisdom? That would be me  ... |
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