Well, I never really liked the Stones much anyway (I was a Beatles guy), but I was amazed to hear that they’re going back on the road. And I was even more amazed to hear this from the NBC News reporter: “Their average age is greater than that of the Supreme Court.”
And instantly, I thought of the scene in Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-5 in which Billy Pilgrim leans down over his mother on her deathbed to hear her whispered final words. With great effort, she musters her strength and croaks, “How did I get so old?”
But I hear the Stones still put on a great show, which makes them far superior to the U.S. Supreme Court.
I’ve been watching some of their recent concerts on YouTube. They are still AWESOME!! They love what they do, and it shows.
There are, appallingly enough, five Catholics on the Supreme Court. I don’t think the Stones include any.
love The Stones!
aren’t all the others Jewish?
It’s actually six Roman Catholics and three Jews. Yikes.
And yet they consistently side with nutty fundamentalist protestants
Whew! I had never paid attention to their religious affiliation before this. That is a little bit scary sitting there by itself. Perhaps some of the justices aren’t devout?
I wonder what the chances for getting an agnostic Justice on the bench might be when it comes time to do so in the coming years. 0%?
Who’s Jewish besides Ginsburg and Kagan?
I thought all the others were RCs …
Ah, yes, Breyer was raised by a Jewish family.
Before the RFRA brouhaha the big news story was “Will the Stones come to Indianapolis on their tour?”
Indy is on the list… for now
The seem to manage their money as well so they probably aren’t touring because they need to but because they want to…then again, maybe they all have a lot of ex-wives….
They make a mental amount from touring – something like two billion pounds since 1989, and half a billion alone from their last tour. I remember reading somewhere that Jagger and Richards have personal fortunes of £300m each. They’ll be okay;)
Aside from the consistent joy you get from playing great songs live, to people who love you, the money’s enough to keep them touring for a while yet. They’ll keep playing until either they die or ISIS invade and ban all their songs except Under My Thumb.
The re-animation treatments for Keith Richards are very expensive.
They’re gonna make a mint on this tour. I think I’ve read before that the Stones are the most profitable touring rock act in history.
BTW, is anyone else trying to get the image of Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy doing a terrible karaoke rendition of “Honkey Tonk Women” out of their head?
Well, I wasn’t before…
can’t imagine it…
but remember Pat Boone did a heavy metal album…
Good God, that put me off food for the rest of the day. Put me off playing Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out for the foreseeable future, too.
The Grateful Dead are touring*, kind of, this summer too. A very limited tour of 3 or so nights at Soldier Field in PCC’s very own Chicago! The shows sold out instantly.
* Even though I like Trey Anastasio, I’m firmly in the no Jerry, no ‘Dead camp.
Well, I still think of Keith Godchaux as “the new guy” so that shows you where I stand.
That’s ok, I still think of Bob Weir as “the young guy.”
I just saw that story on the NBC News as well. For me The Beatles are the greatest band in the history of our species but the Rolling Stones are okay too. If they can still start it up and put on a show, I say good on them! I just hope they don’t play Altamont again!
my only disagreement with Prof. Dachbodenkatze, the Stones are phantastisch (and Jagger is an atheist on top of that).
Herr Doktor Dachsbodenkatze!! Fantastich!!
Ausgezeichnet!
The proper nomenklature is Herr Prof. Dr. Obergrenzenkatze – so viel Zeit muss sein!
I love The Rolling Stones, but I saw them at that post-SARS outbreak benefit concert in Toronto years ago, and they were kind of boring live.
They also had the unfortunate task of going on directly after AC/DC, who completely rocked the place. By comparison, every Rolling Stones song devolved into a 10 minute jam session at the end, and seemed to go on forever.
Then again, I was a lot younger at the time, so maybe my lasting impression would be different if I saw it now.
I’ve seen them four or five times live ( between 1970 in Oakland – about a week before Altamont – and maybe 8 years ago in Toronto) and they were never, ever, boring. Doesn’t look like they are coming to Toronto this time, which is unusual – they love to rehearse here – but might have to drive down to Buffalo for July 11.
Only Canadian stop appears to be Quebec City. Pity.I saw them in New Brunswick 10 years ago. Hard to believe it’s been that long.
Maybe it was 10 years ago I saw them in Toronto. They were here 2 or 3 years ago but it seemed impossible to get seats for less than $600, if I remember correctly.
Saw the Stones in Glastonbury 2013. Fantastic production. Then I turned around and saw McCartney in Seattle a week later.
McCartney’s performance was beyond anything I expected. Polished perfection. Almost too good but he is known to be a consummate showman and it showed.
Mike
Funny how tastes differ. I find McCartney too polished. Love the rawer Stones. But then I am also a huge opera fan, so no accounting for taste;-)
Queen & Freddie Mercury were the whole package. Freddie even sang with Montserrat Caballé
Freddie and Montserrat would have been something to hear!
oh poop my links got spam-botted! look up their “Barcelona” live in 1988 duet and “How can I go On” on youtube
I wish I had seen Queen while Freddie was still alive.
Yeah, now THAT was a voice!
Glad you understood the polished point but I’ve only seen him once and I think having just been to the rather Bohemian atmosphere that is Glastonbury anyone after that might have appeared polished to me. 🙂
I take it you don’t like his oratorio then?
Mike
I agree that The Stones aren’t as good as The Beatles, even before the post-’72 drop off, but The Beatles are The Beatles – a band playing at the birth of modern rock and roll and psychedelia with three of the greatest ever songwriters crammed into their ranks. It ain’t fair on ’em!
Always getting measured against The Beatles must drive them nuts – it doesn’t happen to The Kinks or The Who or The Velvet Underground. Bob Dylan is lauded like a deity and he got away with writing musically patchy albums even at his peak.
Any band constantly set next to The Beatles is going to suffer, but the two Hot Rocks compilations were staples for me growing up and in that context you’re reminded of how many sublime songs The Stones wrote in their purple patch.
Trigger warning: Beatle blasphemy coming. The only Beatles album thst I’m even vaguely interested in listening to any more is possibly Revolver. Can’t stand Sergeant Pepper ( maybe overplayed it back in the day). Same with The White Album. Boring…Love almost any Stones in the car and when cooking. Older Dylan, John Hiatt, Bonnie Raitt, joni, Gordon, Bruce, Eric…
Ducking…
Merilee… I’m pretty sure you are in gross violation of Da Roolz!
That’s why I’m ducking….
Oh, I forgot Laura Nyro among the ones I love. I agree with most of PCC’s musical passions, but the Beatles, not-so-much
I’m Merilee!
You are??
Well, it started out as a Sparticus reference, but I think I might indeed also BE you, as I too love Jefferson Airplane (and some Jefferson Starship) as well.
You are clearly a man of great taste;-). I don’t get the Spartacus ref??
Scroll to near the end where the heading reads “I’m Sparticus!”.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus_(film)
I’m Brian, and so’s my wife;-)
Kind of like Je suis Charlie, I guess.
I agree — except I still really enjoy the Beatles.
Oh yeah, the first Hot Rocks — well, it just rocks.
Love the Hot Rocks albums!
Why are the Stones compared with the Beatles? I think because the Beatles are widely regarded as Number One. It’s an implied compliment to the Stones vthat people think the comparison is worth making.
“I cant believe the Stones are still doing it after all these years……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………FRED AND WILMA”…
They are coming to Indianapolis… or are they? I’m surprised they didn’t cancel the concert in light of the RFRA
I recall an incident about ten years back when I was trying to schedule a haircut.
“How about Friday afternoon?” I asked.
“Sorry, can’t do it then,” said the stylist. “I have to take my mom to a Stones concert.”
I believe the stones got better later on. I saw them in Hyde Park, London in 1969, at least I think I did. They were doing some kind of concert for one who had died….I believe drowned in a swimming pool. I may still have some pictures.
Brian Jones. He founded the band. Was its best — or, at least, most versatile — instrumentalist; most authentic bluesman, too. None of it, in the end, kept him from getting tossed.
He couldn’t handle his booze or his drugs or his wimmins or the 24/7 carousing, or the vicissitudes of rock-stardom, the way Keith could. (Apparently, wasn’t as accomplished a swimmer either.) Then again, who could? Good thing Ronnie Wood saw, when he came over from Faces, that even trying would be playin’ with fire, so stayed offa that cloud.
The first real rock concert I ever attended was a Stones concert. In Zurich in 1968.
They are coming to Milwaukee, I hear. Should I go?
Why not. Probably cost a bit more than 68.
And the audio will, no doubt, be better. You could hear nothing but the crowd roaring at the concert in Zurich.
“And instantly, I thought of the scene in Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-5…”
Surely, the most Slaughterhouse 5-y thing you’ve encountered today is the positively Tralfamodorian cat in the previous post.
being from a later generation, I never understood the Beatles VS Stones thing, I love them both (like Ringo, I’m neither a mod nor a rocker). Sadly, I have not, and will not ever be able to see the Beatles. I did see the Stones back around the Bridges to Babylon album, and it was great (nosebleed seats and all) but I didn’t quite get why Jagger changed his damn clothes every song! Alas, Bill Wyman was not on bass, and Stu was no longer with us, so I don’t feel like it really counts.
Did get to see Who bassist John Entwistle before he died (awesome show!) and I’ve seen Dylan at least 5 times, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page twice, and post-Duane and Barry Allman Brothers a couple of times before Dickey left, so I guess that’s not too bad.
and, I did get to be a one-gig roadie for Frank Zappa’s band, now known as the Grandmothers (…of Invention) (notice, I said Roadie, not a Groupie…)
It was their founder and original lead guitarist Brian Jones who died in 1969, about a month after he had been fired as his talent had withered due to his drug addictions and his legal troubles prevented him from being able to go the U.S. on tour as Mick & Keith wanted to do.
As an adolescent in the ’70s, I got into ’60s rock in a big way — the Beatles were my favorite by far, despite their having broken up before I even became aware of them, but I also loved the Stones and the Who, as well as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the Kinks. Ray Davies’ “Big Sky” from the Village Green Preservation Society lp is a great skeptical themed song.
The Kinks are among my favorites. I like the Beatles, but if I never heard another of their songs for the rest of my life, I could still die happy. I can listen to the Stones over and over again and not get tired of it. Members of the Kinks hated McCartney because they thought him arrogant. Members of the Stones are certainly not short of ego, but there is something tongu-in-cheek about it.
Agreed about the Stones not taking themselves too seriously;-)
The case can be made (in fact, I occasionally make it myself in the early morning hours some nights) that Ray Davies, the Muswell hillbilly himself, is the best individual songwriter of that generation of Brit rockers.
Ray Davies was undoubtedly brilliant. What he didn’t do was radically change what a pop song could be. ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, ‘A Day in The Life’, ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘I Am The Walrus’ we’re all brilliant and ground-breaking. Ray Davies was great but Mr. Lennon was a genius.
You don’t need to convince me of Lennon’s genius; I’m a “John”-guy from way back. I stressed Ray D. as an individual songwriter to exempt the Lennon-McCartney catalogue (and the Glimmer Twins’, too).
I’ve long pondered, though, the musical affinity between Ray D. and Lennon & McCartney — that Lennon-McCartney was greater than the sum of its parts and that you couldn’t replace either without bringing down the whole…but that if there’s one songwriter that could’ve possibly fit in there somewhere, it would be Mr. R. Davies. Like those two, Ray has been an assembler of disparate musical tropes — like them, drawing on everything from English beer-hall music to country & western, from Tin-Pan Alley to 12-bar blues, from Motown girl groups to Kurt Weill, and everything over, above, and in-between.
(Keep in mind that Ray has, between the Kinks and his solo career, put out scores and scores of records — You Really Got Me and All Day and All of the Night; Well-Respected Man and Dedicated Follower of Fashion; Waterloo Sunset, Lola, Apeman, and Sunny afternoon; Muswell Hillbillies, Village Green, Preservation Society, Schoolboys in Disgrace, and The Decline and Fall of the British Empire; Superman, Destroyer, and Come Dancing. I could go on and on — and would, but I’d burn up this damned Calvinist keyboard before completing the Davies’ catalogue. Keep in mind, too, that when I speak of an “affinity” among the Lennon-McCartney-Davies triumvirate, I mean this strictly musically. In terms of personality, who the hell knows? I’d as lief predict next decade’s hurricanes. All three of them strike me as a bit teched in the head; sic transit genius.)
Finally, when you’re providing a short list of tunes to back up John’s ground-breaking brilliance, please find a place to plug in “Norwegian Wood.” Thanks.
Ray is absolutely a songwriting genius, and I agree with your assessment of him vs. McCartney and Lennon. So versatile, so insightful, and so much great music over so many years.
A few random thoughts on Ray Davies and The Kinks.
I’d forgotten he invented heavy metal!
I heard his brother on the radio recently. He’s still very bitter – mainly because his older brother was much more talented.
I’m sure The Kinks started out, like the Stones, as a blues cover band. Their manager described them as the worst blues band he’d ever heard. They took a different musical route.
I agree with what you say about the eclectic tastes of Davies and the Beatles.
“I Go To Sleep”, unreleased by The Kinks, is an almost forgotten gem. If you google “I Go To Sleep” “Hynde” and “Albarn” you’ll hear what I think is a great version of a beautiful song.
I did & I did. Enjoyed it, thanks.
Reminded me that I came across a clip a while back in which Albarn joined Ray for a couple of tunes, including “Waterloo Sunset.” Good to see that Ray, his baby-mama Chrissie, and Albarn all seem to be on the same charts.
Fred, we had very similar experiences and must be of very similar ages! 🙂
The question endures: which one is the most overrated band in the history of rock music — Beatles or Stones? (Of course, there are some other candidates, like The Queen, but usually you can’t take them seriously at al. Cf. “Radio Gaga” or “I want to ride my bicycle”.) After years of pondering, my answer is: The Rolling Stones.
I’d say none of those. How about The Grateful Dead, The Doors or Jefferson Airplane?
Played the first Doors album into the ground – if that’s not mixing metaphors, or sumfing…
The Doors is a good candidate! The Deads and JA are more like cult bands. There is not such constant universal hype associated with them. Overrated – sure – but not #1.
The run of albums from Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed, Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street is absolutely phenomenal. One of the great anthologies of rock and blues music in history.
If you guys want to hear the Stones in their prime, download the concert “Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out” < they were on fire those couple of nights.
The Stones were at their best playing simple rock’n’roll songs like “Jumping Jack Flash” or “Honky Tonk Women”, but they are truly pedestrian when they try to play any kind of roots music, especially the blues.It should be obvious if you have ever listened to Muddy or Wolf. Moreover, I have never heard a convincing ballad performance from The Stones. “Angie”? Gimme a break! Jagger’s talent is too limited. But they are nevertheless a rock band (unlike Queen…).
How would you classify Queen?
A novelty act — an entertaining novelty act, not without its charms, but a novelty act nonetheless.
Hmmm. Considering the broad universe encompassed by the term “rock and roll” in the years since the 1950s, I’d classify them as a(n excellent) rock and roll band.
They did some really unique things. But so did Yes, Alan Parsons, Pink Floyd, ELO, Moody Blues, etc., etc.
I agree. I was a long term Queen skeptic, then I listened to their catalogue. Folk tend to get a bit tribal with music and don’t always give bands a fair hearing. Queen pass the “double album ‘best of’ with no fillers” test.
A fellow chem major at my college (and a Christian nerd) had a Don McLean greatest hits cassette. Sure enough, American Pie was the only good song.
American Pie I maybe liked the first ten times I heard it, but not the next 10,000…
I too like Queen. When I listen to them I often think there isn’t anyone making music like that anymore.
@Matt G
Re Don McLean, “Castles in the Air” is also good. But I don’t know much else of his.
“Wild Horses”?
I’m not a big fan of Stones’ ballads, either, but “never” has such a ring of finality to it. Anyway, it got Mick back in Marianne Faithfull’s good graces, supposedly.
I love their early bluesy stuff.
Down Home Girl:
Lord I swear the perfume you wear
Smells like turnip greens,
boink boink boin
And every time I kiss you girl
It tastes like pork and beans…
Who could get any more romantic than that?
Liked Wild Horses at one point, but it has been way overplayed on the airways.
Voilà!
You gotta stop listening to those noisy, noisome, noxious stations on the right-side of your radio dial, Merilee — the one’s that play Stairway to Heaven and Free Bird every hour on-the-hour. 🙂
LOL – More like Sirius Classic Rock;-)
As far as “Wild Horses” goes, I’ve always preferred Old & in the Way’s bluegrass cover.
Yeah, sure. (Great cut, by the way.) Similarly, I prefer the Townes Van Zandt cover of “Dead Flowers” — the one T-Bone Burnett used on the soundtrack for The Big Lebowski. But that doesn’t take anything away from the Stones; it’s testament to the great songs that Jagger and Richards wrote.
It’s the same with Dylan — only more so. Sometimes you have to listen to other artists’ covers of his songs (the Byrds, the Band … hell, even the Turtles) to appreciate the melodies or — nowadays — even to understand the words. But, again, that doesn’t diminish Dylan as an artist. The vast universe of great covers of his songs just secures his status as The Great American Lyricist.
What goes for Dylan goes even more for Leonard Cohen. Great writer, naff voice.
I think Cohen’s voice perfectly suits his haunting and melancholic songs. Give ‘Last Year’s Man’ a listen. Nobody could do it better. You need a special voice to sing: ‘the skylight is like skin, for a drum I’ll never mend’. Goose pimply. And a children’s choir tagged on the end.
Cohen is fantastic live! Love the gravelly voice (Tom Waits’s, too).
I love Cohen’s songs — all based on covers. I decided I had to have the REAL THING. I got the Essential collection CD. And found it to be music to open a vein to.
And I like a good melancholy song. Too dark and consistently so for me.
I would agree that Cohen’s voice does suit his style of song. Nonetheless, I don’t think anyone would maintain he has a good voice by the usual standards. I’m not knocking him, his voice is what it is.
I could draw a parallel with one of my favourite musicians, Mark Knopfler. His voice is only just barely adequate, if you listen to him on e.g. Brothers in Arms (any of the many versions) you can hardly hear what he’s saying.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2rx3IAEISA
But then nobody ever listened to Dire Straits to hear Mark Knopfler sing.
Cohen’s voice is sexy as hell, imo;-)
Maybe not the best voice but he’s the best singer of Leonard Cohen songs.
Sexy voice? Well…not for me to judge. He did seem to get better looking as he got older. That’s a neat trick (Hugh Laurie managed it as well).
Here’s a very idiosyncratic song. It’s in waltz time with Jewish folk influences:
“Take This Waltz” Leonard Cohen
youtube watch?v=JQm1OmLMNno
Agree that Leonard has gotten better-looking with age, in a similar way to Richard Gere. Take this Waltz is a wonderful song.
I loved that Ya Yas album and also Love You Live, which was recorded (live) in Toronto.
That’s an … unwise question. I can think of a few (and it wouldn’t include Beatles or Stones), but I won’t name them because such usually degenerates into a shitfight.
The Queen lives in Windsor Castle, I know of no group by that name.
Damn that was a reply to Petu W of course…
And, no doubt, The Queen is not amused.
April 1st…
Oh, but you did this yesterday!
I do not like them.
Can you imagine Jagger’s reaction if someone, in 1970, had told him that he’d still be rockin’ in 2015?
“Mate, I want what you’re smokin’.”
As my 80-uyear-old mother says: They’ll still be out there when they are using walkers and wheel-chairs!
The whole Beatles/Stones rivalry was largely media hype — along with a dose of historical contingency, when the Beatles’ original “rivals,” The Dave Clark Five, went to bits & pieces before they ever really got started.
Musically — with the exception of the Stones’ ill-considered foray into psychedelia, Satanic Majesties Request — the bands had little in common. The Beatles were a pop group (with McCarthy having the strongest pop sensibility among them), though Lennon and Harrison could rock out from time-to-time on their own.*
Stripped of the gewgaws, the Stones were (and are) a straight-up R&B band. Their purest album is Exile on Main St. — and the distilled essence of those sides is the track Sweet Virginia. (I named a fishing boat after that song; a man can’t love a tune more than that.) Not convinced? Well come on down, grab a glass of California, scrape the shit right off your shoes, and have a listen.
________
*Sure, Ringo could rock, too, but what he was mostly is a cool, charismatic guy who kept the steadiest backbeat in the business. He was a local star in Liverpool before he joined the Beatles, and would’ve kept right on being a star (as Lennon noted in one of his Rolling Stone interviews) even if he’d never hooked up with them — think Jack Nicholson with a heavy Scouser accent and a hammer-like “matched grip” on the drumsticks.
Agree on Satanic Majesties. The psychedelic ones have not held up well, except, perhaps, for White Rabbit. Hey, no one’s mentioned The Airplane, who were great. Also a little bit of The Starship (always liked Miracles).
2000 Light Years From Home, anyone? Heaven, too.
The Airplane had a lot of great stuff that never made it to the radio. In Time, for instance, or Two Heads, Martha, Things Are Better in the East.
Nice track. Thanks for the link. Take away the sax and it’s country blues. Who’s playing acoustic guitar on that track?
Just dug out my Stones No Security album (mid 90s, I think – and think I saw that tour in Toronto.) Some really good songs, including You’ve Got me Rocking, and some vocals by Dave Matthew and Taj Mahal (these two were not in Toronto). Great cooking music! Keef’s face only about half as “lived-in” as currently.
Don’t know if Keith Richards does this one live or not. He should. “Losing My Touch” from 2002. Go to youtube for a treat.
Since we’re talking about brit pop I’ll throw in a related kitten picture. The cover of Queen II:
http://imgur.com/X6M71GV
Forgot to mention loving Zeppelin!
And this:
Viking Kittens! – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0P4rPOaNb4
My “Queen skeptic” comment was posted as anonymous for some reason.
Freddie Mercury was a brilliant performer. The all time best rock front man – in my opinion. His actual name was Farrokh Bulsara. Born in Tanzania from indian parents.
I just watched Queen at “Live Aid”. Mercury’s powerful voice, physicality and nervelessness are stunning.
.
Someone didn’t like “Bicycle Race”. A great 3 minute operetta with half a dozen gear changes. It also has these skeptical lyrics (needs the music to appreciate):
You say God
give me a choice
You say Lord
I say Christ (uttered as an expletive)
I don’t believe in Peter Pan,
Frankenstein or Superman
All I wanna do is bicycle
bicycle bicycle
A good Bombay-born atheist Parsi friend of mine was visiting his cousin in London ages ago and the cousin’s kid was jamming with some friends in their basement, one of whom was Farouk. This was maybe a year before Queen made it big.