I'm in a musical mood today - see my review from an hour ago of The Blue Dahlia's new La Tradition Américaine album - and I wanted to say something about The Rolling Stones. Yesterday was Mick Jagger's 75th birthday (jeez, he's just four year older than me), and I've been listening to and watching a lot of their videos on YouTube. Especially this one, definitely one of my favorites, because it most typifies what I've always loved about The Stones:
The sheer energy of these guys - look at how they move - was always one-of-a-kind. In this song, add to that Mick's especially good strutting, Keith's rhythm (with his feet - he's playing lead guitar), and the great angry delivery of Brian Jones. Even stoic Bill Wyman manages something close to a smile, and Charlie Watts was, well, Charlie Watts. (This video probably benefits from an overdub of the song that was better than the sound at the live performance, but that doesn't matter.)
I've always considered The Stones second only to The Beatles - a long way below the Beatles, but a long way above every other band. But over the past few days, and especially epitomized by this video, The Stones have moved a lot up for me. They're still no threat to The Beatles, but they're much closer.
Rob Sheffield, in his superb Dreaming the Beatles, provides a good account of The Beatles and The Stones. The two were woven together in all kinds of subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Next time I hear Lennon's inimitable "I Dig A Pony" on The Beatles Sirius XM Radio Channel, I'm going to quietly chide him for his attack on The Stones as imitators. True, they did imitate and get inspired by a lot of The Beatles. But The Rolling Stones had a passion and energy on stage, and some kind of bite to their music, that The Beatles never quite had.
The sheer energy of these guys - look at how they move - was always one-of-a-kind. In this song, add to that Mick's especially good strutting, Keith's rhythm (with his feet - he's playing lead guitar), and the great angry delivery of Brian Jones. Even stoic Bill Wyman manages something close to a smile, and Charlie Watts was, well, Charlie Watts. (This video probably benefits from an overdub of the song that was better than the sound at the live performance, but that doesn't matter.)
I've always considered The Stones second only to The Beatles - a long way below the Beatles, but a long way above every other band. But over the past few days, and especially epitomized by this video, The Stones have moved a lot up for me. They're still no threat to The Beatles, but they're much closer.
Rob Sheffield, in his superb Dreaming the Beatles, provides a good account of The Beatles and The Stones. The two were woven together in all kinds of subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Next time I hear Lennon's inimitable "I Dig A Pony" on The Beatles Sirius XM Radio Channel, I'm going to quietly chide him for his attack on The Stones as imitators. True, they did imitate and get inspired by a lot of The Beatles. But The Rolling Stones had a passion and energy on stage, and some kind of bite to their music, that The Beatles never quite had.
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