The Rolling Stones at One World Together at Home

I just want to say that I thought The Rolling Stones' performance of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" tonight at the Global Citizen's One World Together at Home Concert in support of the WHO's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund is one of the best things I've ever heard on television.  Come to think of it, at in-person concerts and on the Internet, too.

Mick Jagger somehow sounded at least as good as he did on the original recording in 1968, bringing the brilliant lyric and melody home with perfect power and style, while strumming a strong acoustic guitar.  Keith Richards put in some tasty acoustic guitar work as well, and a good lower harmony line in most of the choruses.  Ronnie Wood, who wasn't on the 1968 recording - Brian Jones played electric guitar for the Stones then - was outstanding on his electric guitar, both in terms of what he looked like and the music he produced.  And he threw in some good high harmony near the end.  Jagger and Richards each looked great in their own ways. too.

And speaking of looking great, Charlie Watts looked perfect, playing an armchair and three whatever they were in front of him, certainly not drums.  Yes, Watts was playing air drums like nobody's business, smiling into the camera, looking vaguely out of it as he always does, and that was one of the best parts of the Stones' performance.  I would have loved to have been the fly on the wall when that decision was made - Charlie Watts pretending to play drums.   Once upon a time, a vocalist lip-synching on a television performance was anathema to snooty critics.  Watts tonight in that one fell performance legitimized air-performing and air-singing - which is what lip-synching is - forever.

In a way, that's part of what all great public music performance is - it's never precisely how you play and sing, but the impression that the public gets of whatever kind of music you're making.  In Watts' case, he wasn't actually making any music, but it didn't matter at all, the Stones - including totally off-camera bass and keyboard - pulled it off.   Certainly filled my prescription.

And it was for a fabulously worthy cause, the most important cause of our lives right now.

The Rolling Stones - Never Over

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.