I've been reading Keith Richards' endlessly entertaining, opinionated and well-remembered autobiography, where we learn that he actually wrote those songs with Mick Jagger filled in with genius lyrics written usually in under an hour, plus some songs like "Brown Sugar" that were almost all Mick.
If the book isn't enough to make you want the Stones to record and tour again, then how about Jagger's show-stopping performance, to my eyes and ears easily the best and least reliant on technical effects, at last night's Grammy Awards show:
He turns the prestigious overblown event into a classic rhythm & blues revival, all in the name of the last Solomon Burke. Per Richard's book, it was the African-American musicians and communities that welcomed the Stones when they first toured in the early-to-mid-1960's sharing their homes -- and daughters -- and warmth, while so many whites called them "girls" for their then outre long hair. So Mick is clearly repaying a debt, both of musical inspiration and hospitality, and to see him striding, hopping across the narrow wings of the stage is to see a miracle in action.
Make up, Keith and Mick, and come back Rolling Stones!
They're the ranking white blues band of all time. They have arguably the #1 or #2 song catalog of any band or artist, and they're still minting them. They may age but they don't get fat. They are the longest continuously running rock and roll band in history.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you've ever fallen in love with the Rolling Stones for any stretch of time, you owe it to yourself to run out to your nearest IMAX theater playing Shine a Light:
Scorsese with a load of the best Cinematographers in the business, eye opening names like Robert Elswit who just won the Oscar for There Will Be Blood and John Toll who's won two -- and these are just the camera operators.
Here's the set list. Lots of other snippets of Stones tunes in some of the interstitial flashbacks to earlier in the Stones' long careers. Opening with "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is brilliant, the moment when Mick and Keith took the band away from Brian Jones (not really seen in doc) and forged their signature ragged blues-meets-hard-rock sound. Second song is "Shattered" which is their gift to NYC. "All Down the Line" a highlight, along with guest appearances by Jack White, Buddy Guy (great, great version of Muddy Waters' "Champagne and Reefer") and Christina Aguilera.
Besides being in unparalleled shape for a 63 year-old (when the movie was shot), Jagger seduces everyone in sight, with equally unparalleled expertise and command. He gets Buddy Guy to twangs a call-and-response to his harmonica playing. He dirty dances convincingly with Aguilera. The front of the audience is clearly programmed with young women, all of whom are reaching out to him for the entire show, except when snapping mobile pix. Jack White comes on already horny for Mick, glowing and pumped to be sharing a mic. Mick even seems to seduce Keith -- brilliant guitar and vocal duo on "As Tears Go By".
Nice to see those boys all grown up -- 44 years and counting:
Once again showing the world politics done right, or at least most entertainingly, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who's wife suddenly divorced him last October (sure, guess why) has gone legit by marrying ex-uber model Carla Bruni.
He's 53 and she's a trophiesque 40, but best of all, the most notorious romance in Bruni's past was with Mick Jagger, which was the homewrecking last straw in his marriage to ex-uber model Jerry Hall. In Bruni's own self-defense:
Bruni has already spoken: "It was a fling. I was in my 20s so I wasn't thinking about a relationship.
"There are so many other women with Mick. I don't think I was responsible for his divorce from Jerry Hall. There were maybe ten other women."
Hey, Mick, satisfaction all down the line, heartbreaker.
So Sarkozy rolls like a Stone, Carla gets respectable, and Steven Taylor fires the best line:
