TUESDAY WITH THE STONES!

Long Live The Rolling Stones!
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It's about 40 minutes away from the next movie show time for "Shine A Light" as I write this BLOG. I may go back and see it. This is Martin Scorsese's bio-concert film shot two years ago in New York's Beacon Theater. First of all, I love this band because they refuse to die and otherwise go away. Critics have called them dead since the late 1970's, but they are the most reinvented rock and roll act without equal. I must say that they are a curious concert draw. As I told Singer/Songwriter Bud Buckley during a telephone call two days ago, the one thing I didn't like about the show was that it was over-produced. A supporting keyboardist was just fine to have along. However, I would have penciled-out four aspects from the show, had I been Scorsese: (1.) the horn section, (2.) the back up singers (3.) Jack White III. And yet with the typical heavy-handed management and faceless money men aside who encourage this crap, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards play through a patch work of stacked Fender amps with the "drive" switch left on throughout the entire show--and THAT I love. They are a loud, open band. And yet, they are mesmerizing for guys at or over age 60 who are millionaires many times over. Their mortality is very visible with lean "skin and bones" appearances and deep crevices lining their faces. Nevertheless, center-stage is Jagger--who possesses the same energy he had 40 years ago-- losing 10 pounds per performance that no 20 year-old could possibly keep up with. More so than the live CD "Get Your Ya Ya's Out" from 1969 or any live outing since, this concert set list contained a heavy dose of hot blues rock. Footage of Jagger on a private jet poring over pages and pages of songs numbering into the hundreds as he assembles a set list for the show leans heavily towards the albums, Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile, Some Girls, & Tattoo You receiving ample representation. The arrangements are quite different with new intro's and less than perfect singing tossed to the wind with rushed tempos but all of it--still "in your face". Buddy Guy joins the boys with Muddy Waters' Champagne & Reefer and he burns the wires but good. Lastly: (4.) I would have also penciled out Keith Richards' solo turn as vocalist. As a guitarist, he is a genius, if not an intentionally self-destructive chain smoker who seems to shrug his shoulders at death and dying. He and Woods are incomparable with trading solos and even Jagger picks up a Taylor acoustic guitar in an impressive showing with harmonica. I was probably the only person present in the theater who didn't recognize Christina Aguilera who walked on stage to sing Live with Me with Jagger as a duet, but she was flawless. Rarely featured live, She Was Hot and Just My Imagination are attacked by the band on extended outings as if they were a hungry clan worried about raising enough rent money. The film is definitely worth seeing, and kudos to the decision makers who kept the stage simple and not a technical distraction of the band's 1990's shows. How long this band will go on touring is any one's guess. But I'd like to catch them live. If you can't, this is the closest you will get to the experience. The Rolling Stones are a tradition in an age where manufactured schlock has it's 15 minutes of fame. These guys refuse to bow to convention and fashion. They could care less about aging; they just rock. All in good fun!

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SET LIST

1. JUMPING JACK FLASH
2. SHATTERED
3. SHE WAS HOT
4. ALL DOWN THE LINE
5. LOVING CUP
   
6. AS TEARS GO BY
7. SOME GIRLS
8. JUST MY IMAGINATION
9. FARAWAY EYES
10. CHAMPAGNE & REEFER (WITH BUDDY GUY)
11. TUMBLING DICE
12. BAND INTRODUCTIONS
13. YOU GOT THE SILVER
14. CONNECTION
15. SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL
16. LIVE WITH ME (WITH CHRISTINA AGUILERA)
17. START ME UP
18. BROWN SUGAR
19. SATISFACTION
20. PAINT IT BLACK
21. LITTLE T & A
22. I'M FREE
23. SHINE A LIGHT

Directed by: Martin Scorsese; Director of Photography: Robert Richardson; Editor: David Tedeschi; The Rolling Stones are: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ron Wood, Darryl Jones; Produced by: Victoria Pearman, Michael Cohl, Zane Weiner and Steve Bing.

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START ME UP!