Re: The Stones must stop as presently constructed!
Date: September 2, 2007 12:14
<<<<have a drink. relax. sing whatever your heart tells you to sing>>>>.
Now i agree with that, better advice cannot be given and advise you to do the same.
Apparently the problem my brother is that what you see as cool and what I see as cool are very different. For instance, I though the kids on stage WAS A COOL IDEA. And what you must accept is that if they want to do it they will whether you spend 250 quid or not; if that makes you so unhappy maybe you shoud not spend the 250. As for you not taking your kids to the office, that is your decision. However in the States over the years there has been a growing trend in exposing the young to the working world of their parents on occaision with Father / Son, MOther / daughter days and even High School Students that symbolically take over the Office of Mayor for a day etc.
And I do disagree with even your interpretation of some lyrics...for instance SFM...Mick IS reporting what he sees happening around him, but for himself? "well what can a poor boy do, except..." He is not going to take part in the street revolution. Salt of the Earth, "Lets drink...raise a glass," but "they don't look real to me." Yes, sit in Nellcolte and raise a snifter of expensive stuff to the "common foot soldier." C'mon, even Nellcolte and the legendary EOMS happened out of circumstances BASED ON A BUSINESS DECISION,the boys went into exile to save money. And they did not go to any hostel, but rented a damn mansion overlookng the mediterranean.
As for why they shoud worry about things like Life and Look and the press, it is because they ARE PERFORMERS NOT REVOLUTIONARIES, whose income can be greatly affected by press. It is why in the beginning they were much more likely to cater to Melody Maker, and even such rags as Cream. It is why Keith had to respond to the story of snorting his dad, it had possible financial reprucussions.C'mon, revolutionaries?? The Stones are the rock band that sang the friggin Rice Krispies Jingle for a few bucks. Many of us foisted our counter culture dreams uopn them because they did drugs and did not conform in look and apparel to our parents.
And I am glad that you would not whore out your reputation, but remind you that historically as a banker you are right up there already, yep, money lenders and tax collecters. I find it ironic that we expect so much coolness and retained sixties sentiments for the band, while overlooking the fact that by being professionals, and you as a banker, a keeper of the root of all evil money, a capitalist to the core, have become the very authority figures that in the 60's the youth culture said could not be trusted. Do you want us to believe that you are the kind banker that will grant a mortgage at a lower than expressed rate to two high school drop outs with a bad credit report because "dude, you know, the man just wants to keep us down and we're good people, we just don't believe in all that BS about earning money." If a widow falls a year behind on her house payments because she never worked while her husband was alive, will you as a banker forgive the debt and let her stay in the house she has been in for 30 years, the one that she raised 6 kids in, or will you like Snidely Whiplash remove her...oh wait, whats that ?? Oh I see that is all just business.
And that is all it is with the Stones and all it ever was. Lennon, Mick, Keith have all given famous interviews in their lives when they have asked us not to make them leaders.The ultimate conundrum becomes this, we will never know if 30 years ago all the really cool things we thought about the Stones had anything to do with reality of their lives. They were 5 young guys living to excess because they could afford it, and any veiled attempt at social relevency, in the end, may well have to do with the fact that back then it was the most commercial decision the band could have made. C'mon in the days of Marianne and the legendary bear skin and chocolate douch with Keith stumbling, Dylan on the turntable , and the police raiding Redlands in amazement, can any of us really believe this behavior was part of a deep commitment to social change for the masses? Who sees the years Keith spent in a heroin fog as a concious decision on his part to solidify his empathy with the downtrodden?? Yes the examples are extreme, but so is the example of a single bank gig as a sign of what is crass and wrong about the Stones.
They became performers at a young age to score a few bucks and shag some chicks without having a 9-5 job. While we were foisting the title of revolutionary counter culture heros upon them , they were hiring the ultimate New York business shark, Allen Klein, to make sure that they got a bigger cut of the hard earned dollars we were shelling out. And now that we have walked away from that revolution--how many of us would relish the thougt of our daughters rolling around naked in the mud blasted on LSD having casual sex at an event like Woodstock-- now that we have walked away and put on ties and hand out mortgages or persriptions and look for the best investment potentials for our retirement portfolios, isn't it the slightest bit hypocritical to point out that our revolutionary idols have clay feet?
The Rolling Stones wanted to be entertainers as their profession.They did not forsee, nor, in my opinion, ever accept Quixote's lance from us when we wanted them to joust with the windmills of social change for us. They were, however, with great business acumen,willing and able to pose in any transitory image that solidified their grip on our wallets until the time ( at least the last 10 years) where they no longer had to pretend. The appeared in the mid 60's as pop stars, in the late 60's and early 70's as socail avatars, by 78 they were somehow a raw punk band that had a mega disco hit, and through the early 80's they were the elder statesmen of a still vibrant rock world. By the time they reformed for Steel Wheels, they no longer needed to be anything other than their most famous claim, The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.