Aging is inevitable. Everybody grows old. Still, the news hit me hard. It was like I was getting hosed down with cold water. Would you believe? The Rolling Stones is 60 years old.
How can that be? Mick Jagger is the Peter Pan of rock. He is supposed to be ageless. When together with Keith Richards, they are the Katzenjammer Kids, the brats of the comic strip who are always up to mischief. And the Stones were mostly always up to something. Remember how the Beatles looked like choirboys when compared to the Stones?
So now, we find out that although they remain active, recording and performing, not even Mick and Keith and present third member Ronnie Wood, are exempted from aging.
The Rolling Stones was born in London, England in 1962. It was formed by Brian Jones who recruited Jagger, Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts for the group. Jones also thought of the name. He was probably inspired by the saying about a Rolling Stone gathering no moss.
They certainly did not. They were teen-agers who just wanted to play music instead of finishing college. They mostly played the blues and rock and roll. I wonder if they thought then that they would become one of the most successful and most influential bands of all time. Their music also made them extraordinarily wealthy.
Those boys practically invented hard rock and what fun they had doing so. Tossing convention to the wind, they romanced beautiful women, got involved with drugs, had a lot of fights, amongst themselves and with others. To their fans, they symbolized the rebellious counterculture of the times. To those on the other side of the fence, they were famous for their notoriety, which even at this late time, would still show itself once in a while.
Oh, but they really made great music. At the beginning with tunes like Little Red Rooster, Not Fade Away and It’s All Over Now, it was merely just to rock harder and louder than everybody else. But as the boys got used to their playing together, they also found their own riffs and learned to mesh those with the beat.
Then with the band behind him, Jagger trotted out his mouth and with the now legendary mouth, sang out the theme of the defiant ‘60s generation, “I can’t get no, no satisfaction, no satisfaction…” No Satisfaction indeed, he composed it with Richards and he sang it like he meant every word.
Get Off My Cloud, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Paint It Black, Ruby Tuesday, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Woman, Brown Sugar, Tumblin’ Dice, Angel, It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It), Fool to Cry, Miss You, Emotional Rescue, She’s So Cold, Start Me Up, Undercover of the Night, Harlem Shuffle were some of the great hits that followed.
Now, Jagger and Richards may have composed the tunes that hardened and darkened rock and roll, but these guys could also cut a dreamy ballad. Their so lovely As Tears Go By is one of my favorites.
Jagger, who is also an actor and movie producer, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and is now Sir Michael Philip Jagger. He is now 78 years old. Acknowledged as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, Richards, who is now also 78, refused the honor. He is a bestselling author and he appeared in the Pirates of the Caribbean films as the father of Jack Sparrow.
Bassist Wyman, 85, is a writer and photographer and an archaeologist who invented a metal detector. He now has his own band, the Bill Wyman Rhythm Kings. Considered one of the greatest drummers of all time, Charlie Watts was also named one of the UK’s Best Dressed Men. He passed away last August at the age of 80. He was the Stones’ graphic designer and was a breeder of Arabian horses.
Singer and songwriter Brian Jones, the man who put the Stones together drowned in his swimming pool in 1969. He was 29 years old. He did not grow old.