Last night in Atlanta Jagger did something that was (for me) a first: on "Midnight Rambler" he now sings the entire song in the 3rd person. The Midnight Rambler is no loner Jagger, but someone he is telling us about. So there are many lines that lose their impact. "HE's called the midnight rambler.."
HE's called the hit and run rape her in anger".
At first I was VERY let down. "What the f*ck is this? This is Mick Jagger! He IS the rambler!!"But Jagger is 62; I got to hand it to him: he is doing his thing. He does it day in day out; at night. And maybe he just doesn't want to be the midnight rambler anymore.
It's like Keith talking about Thumb and Shelter being from the same song tree.
I myself don't see it, right? But it is Keith talking about his tunes - so it's got to beright. Jagger re-interprets the Rambler differently now - I got to go with it.
To me this is not about him wimping out and editing himself to make something more paltable or adult friendly. For one thing the "adults" there want to see him be the Rambler still./

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."

Yeah that sucks. My point is he should return to his Ramblerpersona and go wild. He lacks depth now when he shoes depth in interviews. When he acted Jagger in interviews he was real onstage.

i think it's in Greenfiel's book that Mick was already saying in 72 that it gets him down to be "channelling" a serial murderer night after night.

Self imposed censorship - maybe its because of the grand children.

Apparantly at Jades birthday bash sometime last year or whenever, she said to him, "Ok dad bring whichever girl you like, but no-one under 25 please......".

If they'd imposed sensorship on themselves, they wouldn't have any grand children.

Ah, it's Mick trying to be something he isnt. Sir Mick.

How old is the girl in "Stray Cat Blues" nowadays? 13->15->16?

The truth is that they are not anymore twentysomethings who give a flying f-ck about anything. Quite telling is Mick's confession in '95 Rolling Stone interview that he coud not write songs like "Brown Sugar" anymore. Anyway, that's good. I even feel like some certain words used in "Oh No Not You Again" are not very wild and brave but more like cheap, tasteless and embarrassing for sixtysomethings.

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-02-10 13:33 by Doxa.

Yes Doxa, without thrying to get too deep here, its eems to me that Jagger is struggling a bit with who to be. because when he is IMO being himself we get "Rain Fell Down". The lines about people in London (= he) being scared. And you can't be the top rocler of the planet writing songs like that.b At some point you got to be the Rambler. Or write about 'black pussy'.
So he goes back and forth between "Brand New Set of Rules" and "Oh No Not You" and "Rough Justice" (both really not that good. brown Sugar had so much more pozazz.
The real Jagger I think is in "Blinded by rainbpows" and "
Rain Fell Down", "Dangerous Beauty" and maybe even "Neocon".


"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."

ChelseaDrugstore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> The real Jagger I think is in "Blinded by
> rainbpows" and "
> Rain Fell Down", "Dangerous Beauty" and maybe even
> "Neocon".

That would make him a terrible songwriter.

I had a similar feeling of letdown when listening to Wild Horses on Stripped. It's no longer "let's do some living, after WE die" but now "let's do some living after LOVE dies". Kinda ruins what is the climactic line in the song, IMO.

yes dj, I don't like that change either.
Potted Shrimp - well that is really my point. That lyrically the true Jagger speaks in those songs and you really can't be Mick Jagger and those songs be your vehicles.

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."

ChelseaDrugstore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes Doxa, without thrying to get too deep here,
> its eems to me that Jagger is struggling a bit
> with who to be. because when he is IMO being
> himself we get "Rain Fell Down". The lines about
> people in London (= he) being scared. And you
> can't be the top rocler of the planet writing
> songs like that.b At some point you got to be the
> Rambler. Or write about 'black pussy'.
> So he goes back and forth between "Brand New Set
> of Rules" and "Oh No Not You" and "Rough Justice"
> (both really not that good. brown Sugar had so
> much more pozazz.
> The real Jagger I think is in "Blinded by
> rainbpows" and "
> Rain Fell Down", "Dangerous Beauty" and maybe even
> "Neocon".
>

Yeah, I think I know what you mean. The 'real' Jagger can be found on that direction. The problem is - and I think Jagger knows it himself - the results are not very convincing (at least commercially, like his solo stuff). So he plays it safe and takes his old role type back - rambler bad boy image; THAT ol' Rolling Stone image. The problem in there is that the nostalgic role is a bit ridiculous nowadays - but it still gathers millions of $$$$.

Funny to say but somehow I feel sorry for Mick for not able to grow up... (anyway, of all the people in the world, wouldn't we all men would like to be in his shoes?)

- Doxa

since 1999 jagger sings like that
maybe the age

People think i'm crazy
Women think i'm tasty

Jagger no longer says "Hear him whip the women just around midnight either".

I noticed since the Licks tour that he dropped the last line from Rambler. The song now ends "I'll stick my knife right down your throat" and leaves out baby and it hurts.

As for the Stary Cat groupie...at Roseland she was 19.

It's kind of like when the protagonist in Brown Sugar became a "young boy" instead of a "black girl". Those whippings after midnight went away as well!

I always wondered what prompted the shift to "young boy". Depending on how "young" that boy is, that could be even more politically incorrect than "black girl"!

Ross



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-02-10 18:12 by Ross.

I think Mick has dropped most of his macho stance. Especially when he sings. He does that wavering tremelo thing now. From time to time it comes out but when you listen to live discs from before the 90s, Mick was really growling. Now he sounds really whimpy. I really noticed on ABB. I mean listen to Streets of Love..terrible (at least for me).

I wish they would have stuck to the old Stones bad boy image. There must be a way to do it and not look silly. I mean, Muddy Waters seemed very macho right up until the end.

Al Green still weaves his magic and doesn't look silly. It can be done! Most white bands haven't figured it out though. I think the Stones are no longer trying to be a white blues band. They are an old white band trying to be a younger white commercial band.

the "whip the women" line went south a *long* time ago - even in 72 he sang it that way maybe twice in concert.
Stanley Booth wrote that when they were recording Brown Sugar the engineer at Muscle Shoals had to remind him
that "last night you sang a line about whipping the women."


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

Even Jagger makes mistakes.The age of the girl in Stray Cat Blues has varied.
Their his lyrics so maybe he taylors them accordingly.

the BS line may offend the sensibilities of Lisa Fisher.

No, I think Lisa does have a sense of humor.

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."

At least he's not the walrus.

Frankly, I see nothing wrong with Jagger using the third person in Midnight Rambler. After all, this is now a historical commentary, rather than MJ adopting a "stage persona". He's Mick Jagger -- who else would you want him to be? Albert DeSalvo? Lucifer, maybe?