"Moses said to
Pharaoh, "Let my people go,"
Pharaoh, he don't listen, but someday he's gonna know. Who's that parting the waves of the mighty red, red sea? Moses can ya ask the Lord, for a dollar for baby and me?"
Today I think I wanna talk more about the Rolling Stones. It seems my friends, and maybe my generation, missed the boat on them, but I think there's more rubber under those tires. I think people only see them as they are now, like a touring hits band, but today I want to give the Stones a little light. Shine A Light, if you will...
Now, I've never heard it written that Mighty Mick Jagger was a great lyricist, but I'd beg to differ...
and I'd like to address this, among other selling points of my beloved Rolling Stones. Hear ye, Hear ye...
Exhibit A: I'd like to present to the court, Gimme Shelter... circa 1969. Album: Let It Bleed.
First off, the Beatles go and make a killer record called Let It Be, now this was later in May of 1970... but here's a big parallel, they say Let It Be, and although one of the all time classic songs, and wonderful as it is, I'm way more interested in something that says "Let It Bleed." Let It Bleed?!? Yes, I will, that sounds like me, let it bleed all over everywhere, the stage, the walls of your room, let it all bleed out everywhere, everything you're piling up inside, everything that makes you mad, everything that hurts... the loneliness of teenager-dom, yes! LET IT BLEED!
I'm with you... so
ok, my 13 year old ears are ready to go! Now I hear this
hypnotic riff, here
check it out... NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! My 13 year old body and mind felt like I was in some kind of emotional
war zone, maybe I was gonna get slashed down, and blown to smithereens tomorrow! My future, what's gonna happen, will I succeed, will I fail? This is what my brain was doing at 13 when I first heard
Gimme Shelter, now as I got older the meaning and the song grew with me, changed with me, moved with me... it was always there, I wanted to play music for a job, my whole career scope was 100% RISK! and the
failure rate was 99.9% So yes, "A Storm is
Threaten' My Very Life Today..." YES NOW!... "If I Don't Get Some Shelter, Lord, I'm gonna fade away." RIGHT ON! That's only talking about my future as I saw it at a young age... forget about everything else! I was clearly being spoken to here...
Moving on...
Exhibit B: Beast Of Burden... now this song is for the ladies... it's not, "I love you so much, I'm so in love, look at me, mushy mushy!" ... it doesn't promise any great feats, no dashing good looks, no flowers, nope, all it says is...
gimme all you got, I'll take it all, all your trouble, all your sickness, all your undesirable." Ain't I rough enough?
oooh. Ain't I tough enough?
oooh.... it's all in the "
ooh's" sung very
un manly, in falsetto... but so PERFECT! "All your sickness, I can suck it up. Throw it all at me, I can shrug it off, all I want, is you to make love to me." - that's any good
marriage I know... The thing I love about this song is that... it promises NOTHING... except, I'll never be the thing that drags you down... I'll never be your beast of burden... brilliant.
check it out...
Exhibit C.... FINAL.... 100 Years Ago... from the album Goat's Head Soup. Let me present you with some words...
Went out walkin' through the wood the other day
And the world was a carpet laid before me
The buds were bursting and the air smelled sweet and strange
It seemed about a hundred years ago
Mary and I, we would sit upon a gate
Just gazin' at some dragon in the sky
What tender days we had no secrets hid away
Well, it seemed about a hundred years ago
To me, that is my youth... I travel at lightning pace these days... I never see my friends, or my mom, I rarely have any time for long walks or anything of the sort... If you're an adult with a full time job, I'm pretty sure your life is similar... ps- call your mom. but when I was very young... I remember summer... I remember summer so well, I remember long days, and hours on end with nothing to do but live, it was awesome... and it seemed about 100 years ago...
I'm not saying to you that every Rolling Stones song is great, there are some bad ones, there are some bad lyrics as well... but there are some gems in there, and if you're willing to use the preview button on itunes, you can find the really good ones...and there are SO MANY! They say some things I don't back, but there's a lot I do back, but I do feel that my generation hasn't quite found the richness that is in the stone's music. It's in a ton of stuff. AND, even some of the later stuff is pretty amazing... go see for yourself.
Song of the day: "The Moon Is Up" - Rolling Stones, Voodoo Lounge.
Angie...lights out, couple skate ....roller skating at Frenchtown, NJ. I still have "smells" that are attached to this song.
ReplyDeleteWhen my little brother was 2 years old he broke our record player by spinning the arm around. I was five at the time and all I can remember of my parents record collection was that they were kept in a big old trunk which someone probably could have used to ship over to america had they decided not to stay in sweden. My dad's a Stones fan and I keep thinking that had my parents bought a new record player I might have known these things you just told me.
ReplyDeleteMy dad got me a record player for graduation but I never asked him to actually play me something, I think I'm gonna do that when I go home this summer. Make him tell me some stories. The fact that he slept on a beach in '78 after an impromptu trip from NYC trying to find Bruce Springsteen's house but not finding a ride home is to me age 21 like what his bedtime stories about "boggligar" were at age 6.
I'm thrilled about the way you write about it. I'm really into music whatever period, but I only could write with this enthusiasm about books. I COULD tell you why my favorite book is my fvourite book and everyone I told read it afterwards ;-)
ReplyDeleteThank you for making me listening to some of the songs later. Although I have listened to the Stones before.
I feel like I'm back at school.. but this time I like it. I'm looking forward to more posts!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I've seen you mention iTunes sometimes, haven't you gotten Spotify in the US yet?
The Stones were the heart of their generation. They wrote songs that definined how rock can be energizing, cemented its link to the Deep South Blues. Whereas the Beatles were the darlings, they were not allowed to stay on the sidelines in regards to the great social changes taking place. They were the mind of the day and spoke of their times with amazing songs, many of which hold up today.
ReplyDeleteThe Stones were the heart, and wrote songs that tapped to the feelings of frustration and joy of the Individual. Whereas the Beatles gave us 'Love Is All You Need', and anthem of its time, the Stones gave us 'Satisfaction' , 'You can't Always Get What You Want', 'Under My Thumb' and 'Plundered My Soul' which speaks to love, lust amd the ennui and elation of any generation. I highly reccomend digging deep into their older catalogue. Stones' songs today are unmistakeably Stones' songs without being a parady of their younger selves. They tapped a deeper root in music with messages personal and timeless.
Rock at its purist of guitars, good riffs, and timeless lyrics that anyone can relate to.
On a personal note, my father always said he wanted 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' played at his funeral. When the day came we found a version played by a bell choir for the viewing (a decision made for decorum), but we made sure the full album version played at the wake.
The part about gimme shelter...I went back and listened to the song again...damn. Powerful stuff.
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ReplyDeleteHello Brian.
ReplyDeleteI really love the fuckin' Stones.
Now, I have 30 years (like you, i think) and really understand yr words.
Bye,
Luca
The late 60s/early 70s were a fruitful time for the Stones. They toured a lot and were accessible, unlike the Beatles. The early 70s were not the greatest time for music, but the Stones and Who did some of their best stuff then. I watched "Shine a Light" recently and was surprised to see the Stones still had a little glimmer of what their power was about, although they kind of became dinosaurs in their later career. They were what I listened to until punk came along to shake things up later.
ReplyDeleteCatch you in August!
Brian. Dude, I have been trying to track you down for the past couple years. You deleted your MySpace account you used to write me last, so that was a dead end. I finally found you on Twitter and it led me here. I've just been trying to find ya to say hey and catch up. Are you coming anywhere near Dayton anytime soon? Maybe we could grab dinner with the spouses, like we talked about but never did. Drop me a line! gingerkclarkATyahooDOTcom
ReplyDeleteTwitter led me here, coincidence that the Stones were already in my ears this morning? Sticky Fingers was the soundtrack to my late teens - a covers band was my intro to live music.
ReplyDeletePlease Brian speak about Tom Waits.
ReplyDeleteP.s. Look >>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMEBYezgxDs !!! Amazing!
Bye,
Luca
Favorite stones album - some girls, love it that there are 2 covers for this album (vinyl). But love the story behind & the making of exile on main street.
ReplyDeleteThank you - for your music and for these posts. just got the Chamberlain CD in the mail - I'm only 5 songs in, but I freakin' love it!
ReplyDelete