| 8th October 2007 01:32 AM |
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| Child of the Moon |
(I posted this on my MySpace blog - home to many rants and raves from yours truly - just last night. It seems to have gottena warm reception from friends, so I thought I'd share it here. Keep in mind, I was mildly buzzed when I wrote this, so if it seems a tad scattershot... well, there ya go.)
Greatest live album of all time?
A Brussels Affair, by the Rolling Stones. Unfortunately, you won't find it in any stores, as it's strictly a bootleg release. But goddammit, what a great piece of music. The band sounds like they're playing for their lives on this one. Keith Richards may as well have been doing so, judging from his ragged, fuck-all abandon version of Happy, wherein he sounds as if he may die at any moment. Midnight Rambler and You Can't Always Get What You Want stretch on forever, the jams intensifying every measure. Street Fighting Man charges by in a blur. Heartbreaker and Dancing with Mr. D are a thousand times more vicious than their LP counterparts. Gimme Shelter is, simply put, terrifying.
The Stones, in '72 and '73, could have blown the Who off the stage, easily. No frills, no spectacle. Just five guys (really, an eight-piece, thanks to the presence of Nicky Hopkins, Bobby Keys, and Jim Price) kicking ass, night after night. I wish they would still do it like this.
Although, the '75/'76/'77 album Love You Live is severely underrated. Dig the version of Happy on here, with Keith's positively jubilant "Yeah-heeeey!" at the start. Love You Live is the sound of a band having fun, despite the dark circumstances surrounding many of the recordings (Keith's infant son died in his crib back home of suffocation while the band was due to play in Paris... that night, Keith came alive, and many of the album's tracks come from that show... they are invariably intense).
Really, the Rolling Stones were at their live peak from 1969 up 'til 1982. After that, they became less of a band and more of an attraction. This is not to say that they don't still rock and roll with the best of 'em. I've seen them three times, and I can assuredly say that they still put their hearts into it every night. But when Steel Wheels came around, the shows became more of a spectacle, and the mythos surrounding the band was diminished. It went from, "Hey, man, I'm gonna see the fuckin' Stones tonight," to, "Hey, guess what? I got tickets to see Rolling Stones. I love that Satisfaction song they did. They're so old!" The moronic sector of the baby boom generation, looking for a few nostalgic kicks, effectively destroyed the darkness that the Stones had fought so hard to cultivate. Actually, I take that back. It was less the baby boomers than it was the old fucks who knew one or two songs from the radio (but couldn't tell Exile On Main Street from their own asses), and kept buying up high-priced tickets to somehow make themselves look hip. The demand for a good-time spectacle, I think, drove the Stones to become what they became in the late '80's. Thankfully, to a certain degree, they have retained much more of their old sloppiness and soulfulness in recent years - in my opinion, the Bigger Bang tour was a triumph in this context - but the spectacle still remains.
I suppose we also have a new kind of culture to "thank" for that one, too. Just putting on a great show is no longer enough. Artists have to resort to big visuals and aesthetic kicks and eye candy to really make a dent in today's hit parade. Those who rebel against this are destined to live outside the parameters of poular music, no matter how many critics and fans they win to their respective sides. The Stones, god bless 'em, are still a collective cash cow, and they have been for many years. I accept this, and I readily buy into the more consumeristic side of the group. I mean, jesus, I can't have enough t-shirts. But I think a lot of people forget that this band isn't still together purely to make money. The Beatles have been broken up for ages, and the mass media/market continues to milk their legacy dry. The Rolling Stones could have called it quits years ago and could still be living in absolute decadent comfort in the South of France or wherever. But they didn't. They still play because they want to. They still play because their hearts and souls are still in it. Keith has stated many times - almost an incalculable number of times - that he will keep playing 'til he drops dead, because he can't imagine not playing. Even if the entire arena is empty, he'd just as soon play a full set for the satisfaction of playing it. I used to question Jagger's commitment, but since 2002 or so, I have becme convinced that he is more of a Stones cheerleader than almost anybody. How many other "old" acts still feel it like these guys do?
The point of all of this is that the Rolling Stones are still the Greatest Fucking Rock and Roll Band in the World. So fuck you.
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