| November 21st, 2005 07:24 PM |
|
|
| Ten Thousand Motels |
Posted on Mon, Nov. 21, 2005
Time is on the Rolling Stones' side - here's why
By Tony Hicks
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
The age jokes will continue until the Stones roll no more.
You've heard 'em: When does Mick Jagger break out the walker? Is Keith Richards still technically alive, or is he merely being maneuvered via remote control? Have high-fiber drinks replaced alcohol backstage?
In 50 years, no rock 'n' roll band so big has lasted as long as the Rolling Stones, certainly not while making new music and avoiding casino lounges. The more they defy time, the more they boggle our minds. To be hitting the stage night after night at 60-plus years old is simply crazy.
Or is it?
Not when considering the Stones' roots and influences.
Blues musicians such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, without whom the Stones would not exist and whom they still idolize, rarely relied on youthful image. They rarely relied on having to look a certain way for television. They rarely relied on corporate sponsorships.
They played until they couldn't play any more. It's just what they did. And it's probably what the Stones will do.
For all their business savvy, image manipulation and musical window-dressing, the Stones are still playing their rocked-up version of those same American blues tunes they fell in love with during the London blues-revival explosion of the early 1960s.
Jagger and Richards, who knew each other as schoolboys, got randomly reacquainted on a train while both were in college. After recognizing his old friend, Richards noticed Jagger was carrying "The Best of Muddy Waters" with him.
Thanks to Waters, a friendship - and a band - was born. The Stones even named themselves after Waters' "Rollin' Stone" blues.
Like so many young London musicians, they were already blown away by Elvis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. They were thirsty for what inspired that initial rock 'n' roll wave. The early '60s London scene was directly or indirectly responsible for turning out the Animals, John Mayall, the Yardbirds, Cream, Fleetwood Mac, the Small Faces (and the Faces), Led Zeppelin and the Kinks, among others.
As young musicians looking for direction, the Stones fell hip-deep in the sounds of Waters, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter and others. Before they were even officially a band, members of the Stones were jamming with London's pre-eminent blues musicians, Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies.
Despite all their wanderings over the years, from psychedelic to country to disco, the Stones have always remained, essentially, a blues/rock band. And blues musicians keep trudging onstage, essentially, until they die.
All of the Stones but 58-year-old Ron Wood are in their 60s and not much younger than Waters when he died in 1983 at age 68. Howlin' Wolf died at age 65, just a year older than Stones drummer Charlie Watts. Jimmy Reed was only 51 in 1976 when epilepsy and alcoholism ended his life. All three were still touring when they died. B.B. King, the living patriarch of American blues, still tours heavily at 80, though health problems force him to play shorter sets sitting down.
The blues masters of the early and mid-20th century who influenced the Stones came of age in a much different time, to be sure. Musicians had to play live to eat. There weren't a lot of royalties being fairly distributed. Nobody was paying millions to use a song in a car commercial.
The Stones obviously don't keep touring because they need the money. But, like those blues musicians they loved (and even the first generation of rock 'n' rollers still out there performing), playing is just what they do. They can try to be fashionable, they can dye their hair, they can haul the latest Jumbotron and laser technology to every stadium in the world. But at the root of it all, they just keep playing. They still pour themselves into their live shows, and they sometimes tour the world and back again.
The reasons why blues musicians grow into revered elder statesmen while the Stones get tagged as a bunch of overgrown kids is pretty simple. Blues musicians never contended with being pop idols. They never had their faces plastered on TVs and fan magazines all over the world. Unlike pop stars, they never had thousands of teen girls screaming for them in arenas.
But those screaming kids grow up and grow old. So do their heroes. Rock 'n' roll was always supposed to be for the young.
But the Stones, like the still-active Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, are rooted in a time before rock 'n' roll. Playing until they can't play anymore is what their heroes did. So it only makes sense that they'll keep going. They probably couldn't stop if they wanted to.
|
| November 21st, 2005 08:24 PM |
|
|
| mrhipfl |
That's what I like to hear. |
| November 21st, 2005 08:59 PM |
|
|
| corgi37 |
Nice article. Does David Hasselhoff own the papers? |
|
