"But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need..."
Been rocking out to the Stones all day today; it seemed like the right thing to do. Fifty years ago today, the Rolling Stones took the stage for the first time in a little pub called The Marquee Club in London, thus beginning the most epic career in the history of rock and roll.
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| From: Clashmusic.com |
All day long as the songs played, memories of the times came to mind, helping me relive my misspent youth with the Stones often there providing the music. At the time I liked them better than the Beatles, I think just because of the harder edge to their music, music that had lyrics that sometimes made you think, sometimes made you laugh and almost always made you want to dance or led you into other pursuits suitable to the age of the world and the age of the person.
Getting caught by a policeman while parked and making out with Heather Smith in my 1964 Corvair Spyder while a radio station played every song on the Aftermath album.
Getting an unexpected Saturday night off when we ran out of parts on the assembly line at the Chevrolet engine plant and racing home to shower and dress and head for the nearest bar with a rock and roll band. Buffalo had a lot of those at the time. We had dressed in three-piece suits and went to one of the better ones where we met two girls and danced with them until the band quit then offered to take them home. Home turned out to be Toronto which didn't stop us for a minute. I abandoned my car on a side street and we drove the Queen Elizabeth Way in Bill Toth's new Chevelle, the song of the moment: "Hey you, get off of my cloud." I remember that experience every time I hear that opening line: "I live alone in an apartment on the 99th floor of my block..." We spent the rest of the weekend in Toronto and when I finally returned to my regular life I learned the police were looking for me. A resident on the street where I left my car had seen me run from it and jump into my friend's. She called the police thinking it might be stolen. The police ended up calling my parents who of course immediately imagined the worst possible scenario.
Friday night college parties that didn't really begin until I went to the stereo and played those first notes of "Satisfaction." Years later when some poll had decided that was the greatest rock and roll song of all time, I heard an interview with Keith Richards who described how the famous guitar riff came to be. He said he always kept a tape recorder at his bedside. And one night he woke up with that riff in his head and played it, falling back asleep almost immediately. When he woke up in the morning he had on the tape 15 seconds of Satisfaction and 45 minutes of himself snoring.
Then there were the parties at drive-ins where we rocked and danced until the movie started with Stones music to get us going.
This could go on. I bet fully half the songs in their book raise some sort of memory and listening to most of them today brought a lot of those memories back.
Also, listening today I realized what's missing in a lot of rock music today: Lyrics. Something to say. Often it was about love, of course, but there were others too, and some mysterious and difficult to decipher. I still haven't totally figured out this one:
Sympathy For The Devil lyrics
Songwriters: Jagger, Mick; Richards, Keith;
Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul and fate
I was 'round when Jesus Christ
Had his moments of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game
I stuck around St. Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the Czar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain
I rode a tank
Held a General's rank
When the Blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
What's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah
I watched the glee
While your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the Gods they made
I shouted out
"Who killed the Kennedys?"
Well after all
It was you and me
Let me please introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
And I laid traps for troubadours
Who get killed before they reached Bombay
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
But what's confusing you
Is just the nature of my game, ooh yeah
Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails just call me Lucifer
I'm in need of some restraint
So if you meet me, have some courtesy
Have some sympathy and some taste
Use all your well learned politics
Or I'll lay your soul to waste, mmm yeah
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, mmm yeah
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, get down
Woo hoo, ah yeah, get on down, oh yeah
Tell me, baby, what's my name?
Tell me, honey, baby guess my name
Tell me, baby, what's my name?
I'll tell ya one time you're to blame
What's my name?
Tell me, baby, what's my name?
Tell me, sweetie, what's my name?
© ABKCO MUSIC INC
There are too many to pick a single favorite, but that one certainly is on the list. In addition to the hard rock edge they could sing beautifully as well. Take "Angie," " Ruby Tuesday," and this one which I only started listening to more closely in the past couple of years:
I love the line from that song: "I have my freedom, but I don't have much time."
As he approaches 70 and is still rocking, I have to wonder if he still thinks, "what a drag it is getting old." I doubt it.
