Post by Admin on Apr 28, 2020 23:11:44 GMT
At the 2011 Grammys, then-67-year-old Mick Jagger was out from the get-go to tell the audience how it was gonna be. He wasn’t ceding anything to age. He still had the musical spirit and the stamina – and the physique – of a much younger Rolling Stone. And he sure didn’t act in what many would consider an age-appropriate way when he performed the late Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” on the telecast.
Wiry and hyper-animated, rail-thin and acrobatic, the brown-haired, blue-jeaned Jagger pranced, danced and promenaded his way through this rave-up of a soul stomper, urging the adoring audience to join in. He came out wearing a gold cape, which he doffed to reveal a resplendently glittery turquoise jacket. The band, fronted by younger guitarist Raphael Saadiq, kept the pace fast – once or twice Jagger even chased around or pushed off of Saadiq.
The performance, more than just a tribute to Burke, was a reminder – a revisiting – of the Rolling Stones’ 1964 appearance on The T.A.M.I. Show, when Jagger fronted his young band through a set of R&B/rock tunes. Now here he was, 46+ years later, still making the same kind of vital and exciting music.
When I say “didn’t act in what many would consider an age-appropriate way,” I mean he’s still performing rock ‘n’ roll like he means it. He hasn’t adopted an ironic or self-amused tone, churning out rote sentimental nostalgia for the oldies circuit. He hasn’t let the fury and power of his music – the connection to roots and authenticity – fade away with time.
And that brings up the enduring power of a song the Stones helped define – “Not Fade Away.” When they released their cover of a 1957 Buddy Holly B-side in the U.S. in early 1964, the Stones were trying to push into a market the bright-sounding Beatles (and the Dave Clark Five) were taking by storm. Their choice was to revamp the Holly song with a rough-hewn and scruffy percussive Bo Diddley beat, powered by Keith Richards’ opening guitar chords, eerily perched between minor and major key and a precursor of “Street Fightin’ Man.”
But the song was too bluesy with Brian Jones’ harmonica, too churning and guttural and too dangerous, to hit big on the U.S. charts, although the momentum of the British Invasion pushed it up Billboard’s Top 100 chart to No. 48. The B-side, a version of the Beatles’ “I Wanna Be Your Man,” accounted for a lot of the sales. (In England, “Man” and “Not Fade Away” had been released separately and both were big hits.) It took the Stones a couple more tries to get a big U.S. hit (“Time is On My Side”) and a full year for a single, “(I Get No) Satisfaction,” to rival the Beatles’ biggest songs.
Yet more and more, “Not Fade Away” has come to be one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most prophetic songs – for Jagger and the Stones, the other rockers of their age group, for rock-loving Boomers. It’s one of the Stones’ key recordings. As the years pass it sounds like the defiant shout of someone who has punched through the fear and loathing of “Gimme Shelter” and is still standing. Still performing with artistic commitment intact.
If you doubt that, look at the impressive list of iconic Boomer artists who perform it – like a badge of honor. Bob Dylan. Bruce Springsteen. Patti Smith. The Byrds. Tom Petty. James Taylor. Sheryl Crow. Tanya Tucker. You can see a powerful 1964 version by the Stones on YouTube, with Jones on harmonica and Jagger playing maracas. Perhaps the band after the Stones to do the most to establish the song in the rock canon was the Grateful Dead. According to Wikipedia, they performed “Not Fade Away” 530 times in their career; it was their seventh most-performed song. (It says something about the importance of the band to their fans that this is so well-documented.)
Back in the era when the Stones first recorded “Not Fade Away,” during the initial stages of the British Invasion, a rival band – The Who – recorded (it hit U.S. charts in early 1966) “My Generation.” It caused a huge sensation in the way a sputtering, stuttering Roger Daltrey made the famous line “Why don’t you all f-fade away,” a reference to older squares who didn’t get the Invasion, sound like he was going to say “fuck.” But even more striking was the line “Hope I die before I get old.” For a long time, that seemed like the slogan of the rebellious, counter-cultural rock generation. It appeared that “My Generation” would become an immortal rock anthem. But time marches on. Now, when the song is performed, it’s as a period piece, a wink at the illusions of youth, especially the romantic attitude toward death.
Wiry and hyper-animated, rail-thin and acrobatic, the brown-haired, blue-jeaned Jagger pranced, danced and promenaded his way through this rave-up of a soul stomper, urging the adoring audience to join in. He came out wearing a gold cape, which he doffed to reveal a resplendently glittery turquoise jacket. The band, fronted by younger guitarist Raphael Saadiq, kept the pace fast – once or twice Jagger even chased around or pushed off of Saadiq.
The performance, more than just a tribute to Burke, was a reminder – a revisiting – of the Rolling Stones’ 1964 appearance on The T.A.M.I. Show, when Jagger fronted his young band through a set of R&B/rock tunes. Now here he was, 46+ years later, still making the same kind of vital and exciting music.
When I say “didn’t act in what many would consider an age-appropriate way,” I mean he’s still performing rock ‘n’ roll like he means it. He hasn’t adopted an ironic or self-amused tone, churning out rote sentimental nostalgia for the oldies circuit. He hasn’t let the fury and power of his music – the connection to roots and authenticity – fade away with time.
And that brings up the enduring power of a song the Stones helped define – “Not Fade Away.” When they released their cover of a 1957 Buddy Holly B-side in the U.S. in early 1964, the Stones were trying to push into a market the bright-sounding Beatles (and the Dave Clark Five) were taking by storm. Their choice was to revamp the Holly song with a rough-hewn and scruffy percussive Bo Diddley beat, powered by Keith Richards’ opening guitar chords, eerily perched between minor and major key and a precursor of “Street Fightin’ Man.”
But the song was too bluesy with Brian Jones’ harmonica, too churning and guttural and too dangerous, to hit big on the U.S. charts, although the momentum of the British Invasion pushed it up Billboard’s Top 100 chart to No. 48. The B-side, a version of the Beatles’ “I Wanna Be Your Man,” accounted for a lot of the sales. (In England, “Man” and “Not Fade Away” had been released separately and both were big hits.) It took the Stones a couple more tries to get a big U.S. hit (“Time is On My Side”) and a full year for a single, “(I Get No) Satisfaction,” to rival the Beatles’ biggest songs.
Yet more and more, “Not Fade Away” has come to be one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most prophetic songs – for Jagger and the Stones, the other rockers of their age group, for rock-loving Boomers. It’s one of the Stones’ key recordings. As the years pass it sounds like the defiant shout of someone who has punched through the fear and loathing of “Gimme Shelter” and is still standing. Still performing with artistic commitment intact.
If you doubt that, look at the impressive list of iconic Boomer artists who perform it – like a badge of honor. Bob Dylan. Bruce Springsteen. Patti Smith. The Byrds. Tom Petty. James Taylor. Sheryl Crow. Tanya Tucker. You can see a powerful 1964 version by the Stones on YouTube, with Jones on harmonica and Jagger playing maracas. Perhaps the band after the Stones to do the most to establish the song in the rock canon was the Grateful Dead. According to Wikipedia, they performed “Not Fade Away” 530 times in their career; it was their seventh most-performed song. (It says something about the importance of the band to their fans that this is so well-documented.)
Back in the era when the Stones first recorded “Not Fade Away,” during the initial stages of the British Invasion, a rival band – The Who – recorded (it hit U.S. charts in early 1966) “My Generation.” It caused a huge sensation in the way a sputtering, stuttering Roger Daltrey made the famous line “Why don’t you all f-fade away,” a reference to older squares who didn’t get the Invasion, sound like he was going to say “fuck.” But even more striking was the line “Hope I die before I get old.” For a long time, that seemed like the slogan of the rebellious, counter-cultural rock generation. It appeared that “My Generation” would become an immortal rock anthem. But time marches on. Now, when the song is performed, it’s as a period piece, a wink at the illusions of youth, especially the romantic attitude toward death.