| August 27th, 2005 08:50 PM |
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| Hannalee |
(Can't remember if this has already come up)
After three decades of seemingly terminal decline, Mick and Keef have finally rediscovered the fire in their bellies. And they've even stumbled across a new-found political side
Nigel Williamson
Sunday August 28, 2005
The Observer
The Rolling Stones
Fenway Park, Boston
It was always a rock'n'roll tradition that the Rolling Stones named their world tours after an album. In 1989 we had the Steel Wheels extravaganza. Five years later they took to the road with the Voodoo Lounge marathon and in 1997 came the blockbuster Bridges to Babylon tour. Since then there have been several more juggernaut treks around the world, each breaking the box-office records set by its predecessor. But in eight years there hasn't been a tour linked to a new album, for the simple reason that they appeared to have neither the inclination nor the inspiration to make one. Until now.
Two years ago I put it to Mick Jagger that the Stones had become a touring-only band, a nostalgia act living on the jukebox memories of their old hits. His reaction was more hurt than offended. 'I can see why people might think that,' he admitted. 'But that's really not the case. I think the Stones have to make another album.' True to his word, A Bigger Bang, the group's first album of new songs since 1997, appears next week. It contains 16 songs, more than any album since 1972's Exile On Main St, and the general consensus is that its classic blues-rock swagger makes it their most convincing effort since 1978's Some Girls. Tellingly, for the first time in 20 years, the often-warring Jagger and Richards worked in tandem on the songs, among them 'Sweet Neo Con', a savage indictment of the current regime in Washington, complete with references to Guantánamo Bay, Halliburton and the war in Iraq.
At Boston's Fenway Park last weekend, on the opening night of their Bigger Bang tour, before a capacity crowd of 36,000, they played just four songs from the forthcoming record. Sadly, 'Sweet Neo Con' was not among them. Perhaps they didn't want to offend Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California, whom Jagger declared they were 'honoured and proud' to have in the audience. Yet it was clear that creating new music again has refocused the band and, in particular, re-energised their lead singer in spectacular fashion.
The reviews have been among their warmest in years, raving about the spectacle as much as the musical experience. Certainly, there was plenty of razzmatazz. The 90ft high, 285ft wide steel-constructed stage, weighing in at 300,000 tons, looked like a cross between the Guggenheim and an airport lounge and is said to be the largest and most expensive ever assembled. Giant screens showed an animated video of exploding molten rocks, depicting the original big bang. All that was missing was a commentary by Professor Stephen Hawking. There were jets of fire, fireworks and inflatables. Halfway through the show, the entire central section of the stage lurched forward like a carnival float, carrying the band 100 yards to a second stage located in the middle of 'the sacred turf' of what is normally the Red Sox baseball field.
Yet from our ringside $450 seats, it was the music and the magnetism of Jagger that were most striking. Does he look silly wiggling his bum and swivelling his hips at 62? Sure, but not much sillier than the moves were when he was 22. His vocals were less mannered than in years and his commitment total. It was as if, after the knighthood, he's reflected on how he wants to be remembered and concluded that he'd rather go down as the greatest rock'n'roll singer in history than dilettante socialite and jet-set philanderer - and frankly, the last time you got that impression from him was sometime back in the 1970s.
For so long, Keith Richards, aka the coolest man on the planet and the human riff, has been seen as the musical core of the band, and he played and strutted with his customary, Pirates Of The Caribbean swashbuckling glee. But let there be no doubt: this show was all about Jagger reclaiming his place at the heart and soul of the Stones. His command of the stage was so monumental - even playing slide guitar at one point - that you hardly noticed Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood were there.
Nor was this another routine run-through of their greatest hits. After almost an hour and a half, the only song they had played from their Sixties/early-Seventies pomp was 'Tumbling Dice'. The rest had been a mixture of new songs, including the dirty blues of 'Back Of My Hand' and the rudely rocking 'Oh No, Not You Again', a heartfelt tribute to Ray Charles on 'Night Time (Is the Right Time)' and gems from later, lesser-regarded albums, such as 'You Got Me Rocking', 'Beast of Burden' and the seldom - if ever - played 'She's So Cold'.
If it was intended as a denial of the theory that they peaked in 1972, followed by three decades of decline, it could not have been better made. Only then, with the winning post in sight, did they hit the jukebox buttons with 'Satisfaction', 'Honky Tonk Women', 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' and 'Brown Sugar'. Appropriately, they ended with 'It's Only Rock'n'Roll', and as Jagger sang, 'but I like it' you realised he still means it. Which after all these years is some kind of miracle in itself.
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| August 28th, 2005 06:34 AM |
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| egon |
so it's mick jagger and his rolling stones nowadays? |
| August 28th, 2005 06:44 AM |
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| Moonisup |
"and the seldom - if ever - played 'She's So Cold'"
suuuuure  |
| August 28th, 2005 08:14 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
quote:
egon wrote:
so it's mick jagger and his rolling stones nowadays?
That comes up every now and then. |
| August 28th, 2005 08:26 AM |
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| exile |
quote:
Hannalee wrote:
Yet it was clear that creating new music again has refocused the band and, in particular, re-energised their lead singer in spectacular fashion....
he'd rather go down as the greatest rock'n'roll singer in history than dilettante socialite and jet-set philanderer ... this show was all about Jagger reclaiming his place at the heart and soul of the Stones. His command of the stage was so monumental - even playing slide guitar at one point - that you hardly noticed Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood were there.
pretty big rap for Jagger  |
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