The Rembis Report And Other Fascinating Topics - Volume CXXVII

The Rolling Stones are touring again and they are sponsored by AARP.

Don’t laugh. That is no joke. It is true. Talk about being badass old dudes owning it, ladies and gentlemen, the Rolling Stones! This alone demands respect. How many of us are able to say we have done what we loved for our entire lives? Not everybody, that is for sure.

Mick Jagger turned 80 this year and still struts around the stage like he did fifty years ago. Keith Richards gains octogenarian status in a couple weeks. We don’t know how much longer these guys will be around, but their music is timeless. It is conceivable that there will be fans listening for many, many more years to come.

I know that not everyone is a fan. Some folks might merely like them, just think they are “okay,” or may not like their music at all, but there are more than enough people willing to stand in line, strap on a wristband, and be scrutinized by security to fill stadiums to see them on stage, even from behind a column in the nosebleed section, or stand outside in the parking lot just to say “I heard them live!”

Their recent album Hackney Diamonds sounds like something they might have cut any time during their long career. You could present it as a lost recordings, recently found, and not know whether it was late 20th century, or from the early 21st. The energy of Hackney Diamonds is that of any of their many albums. It is as true to their nature as it is raw. That is about as deep as I can get in describing music. It is rocky, it is bluesy, it is pure Stones. To be blunt, they have still got it.

I recall an interview where Keith Richards tried to explain what he has been trying to accomplish with his music all these years. To paraphrase, he said “I am just trying to get that sound. A specific sound, so hard to get, I can’t really describe it.”

Interviewer: Did you ever get that sound?

KR: Not really, (he laughs and smiles) came close a couple of times. You know, it’s a feeling. It’s tough man, but when you get close there is nothing like it. It’s bliss.

I have watched lots of footage and interviews over the years, so I am not sure where I heard that one, but it is evident that following his bliss was the key to Keith Richards, and the Rolling Stones, success. They love what they do.

Founding members Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, and longtime guitarist (since 1975) Ronnie Wood are the “official” members of the band. Their current tour will feature other supporting musicians, most likely, those who collaborated on Hackney Diamonds. Three guys alone can’t get the sound they need to sound like the Rolling Stones.

It was always a team effort of people loving what they do. In the below article, reporter Joe LaPointe compares the band as they were in 1969 with what he witnessed in 2019 and found little difference, in their power, enthusiasm, and stage presence.

This is what is really cool about them, for just a minute, you might get that feeling and hear that sound that Keith Richards pines for. Their playlist can take you back a lifetime. The Rolling Stones fulfill a need we have; to symbolize what rock’n’roll is, delivering raw music with incomparable grace, setting a standard for other rock bands to follow.

And they are a tough act to follow. There is a lot to say about the Stones. Way too much for a short weekly report like mine, and much, much more than Wikipedia has packed onto their own pages, but please take a look.

Although I have been a longtime fan, every time I do a bit more research, I learn something new, or get a reminder of something important. Besides making tons of music, they were civil rights activists, refusing to play segregated venues in the 1960’s. While all of the main members of the band, Richards, Jagger, Wood, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman, made major contributions to the collective, all of them enjoyed producing their own solo acts along the way. Mick Jagger was knighted by Queen Elizabeth. Keith Richards did lots of drugs and got clean and sober. They played with legendary bluesmen B.B. King and Muddy Waters. They made infamous appearances in movies and on TV shows. From there, the stories just get off the charts crazy. There is just way too much stuff to tell so I am not listing a bunch of trivia. If you want to know anything more about the band, you can find it online or in a book somewhere.

But I want to point to a couple of things that stand out to me. I am not sure where and when I heard Mick Jagger say this (because I watched and listened to these guys a lot), but in a recent interview he was asked about writing a memoir. He said that all of the information is already out there and that he had no interest in such a project because (to paraphrase) “Writing a memoir takes a couple of years of living in the past and I just don’t want to do that. I like moving forward, doing something new.”

I found that refreshing. Commendable. A trait to admire. Even though much of the Rembis Report is a reflection of what once was, combined with observations of today, I get it. I too like to look forward and move on. There is little to be done about the past other than to think about it.

While we can listen to their music for years to come, I am hoping that we will witness a great transition as the Rolling Stones retire from their place on stage, and pass the guitars and microphones to a new generation. Nobody looks forward to mourning their passing, of course, but the inevitability of their demise is obvious. Someday, we will no longer be able to watch the original band perform live.

Yet, the show can go on.

This is the right time for the Rolling Stones to integrate fresh talent for the next generation. They could step back and shutter the windows, lock the doors and leave behind a legacy of memories, but I hope they choose another path.

Let’s just say, 20 years from now, for example, the fellows are still with us, but not up for performing. That may be the case. We could just listen to records and watch old shows, but I think Mick and Keith would want more than that. They would probably love to rock out in the front row of one of their own shows, not as performers, but as VIP guests, watching their band perform with the new artists who will carry the weight of that musical crown into the future.

That might sound like blasphemy when you first hear it, but this is not unrealistic.

The Royal Danish Orchestra has been around for 575 years. We still produce plays written by William Shakespeare. The Rockettes have been high-stepping at Radio City Music Hall since 1925. Fleetwood Mac has had a pretty great run with multiple bandmates and styles since 1967, and several other rock bands who produced hits from the 1960’s through the 1980’s are still around, some with no original members.

Quiet Riot released an album in 2019. While they are recognized as a band that has been around since 1975. No founding members are still rioting with band and they have had a ton of changes. The band had three separate periods of complete inactivity. Guess it got a little too quiet for them. Nothing wrong with some of the gang shaking off the dust, picking up a few new players and making a little more noise, though. It is a great homage and keeps fans engaged, even if the timeline is a little fractured.

Music is eternal. We listen to classical tunes that were written centuries ago every day. Rock and roll has staying power. Turn on any of the hundreds of “classic rock” stations around the country and you will hear one of about 300 songs that are about 50 years old, which we have listened to constantly for 50 years.

I don’t know if this will happen, but I would love to see somebody carry the torch for the next 60 years, or 600 years. I know I won’t see that, but it would be lovely to see it start. Young songwriters and musicians with passion for the craft and respect for the legacy that is the Rolling Stones taking the stage would be beautiful to witness. And it would be way more appealing than A.I. karaoke holograms touted as RS 2.0.

Rock’n’roll will never die.

Thanks for reading.

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