Sep 202013
Put me up front with those teenybopper girls. This is my Rolling Stones. This is the reason rock ‘n roll was invented to serve youth culture. This is the reason we start bands. Find me one Mick Taylor-era performance that has half this clip’s unity and energy.
Well, Mod, I’m certainly not going to take issue with this great clip, one of the best representations of early Stones I’ve seen, with the bonus of the never failingly hip Mike Douglas. Me, I love early Stones. Really. But should they have gone on like this forever, playing Chuck Berry covers and stuff?
I don’t know why “we” start bands; never started one. But the whole idea of rock and roll existing solely to serve “youth culture” — I think that’s bunk. Fabian was invented to serve youth culture, too. So?
I’d prefer not to have to pick one over the other (and the nice thing is that I don’t have to), but I doubt I’d take the savage young Stones over the decadent Stones who gave us this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k64CrBxCAtI
We’ll have to disagree on this one. To state the obvious, Chuck Berry’s original version of Carol is a thousand times better than this performance. The Stones’ studio recording of Not Fade Away is merely half as good as Buddy Holly’s, but the live take here is pretty thin. And the Muddy Waters song at the end? Embarrassing. I wonder why some songs were live and some memorex.
This clip makes me feel more like whoever the old dudes sitting around with Mike Douglas at the beginning were.
I’m fine with us disagreeing on this, but I still may decide to challenge each of you to an alley fight over the matter. I fear that some of you are paying too much attention to the music (and the source material) rather than the stuff that the little girls understand. I, too, had moments where I could see myself identifying with the old guys already on Douglas’ panel, but we know better. WE know better, misterioso, just like we rally behind the needs of the youth culture and start bands, etc.
You can have “Dead Flowers.” That says all that needs to be said on the matter. I love you, man, but I’ll be waiting for you in the alley.
I’m w/Mr. Mod on this one. People forget how a group like the Stones would have been utterly inconceivable in the mainstream Top 40 back in 1963. Although the Beatles were the first in the Brirish Invasion, most, if not all, of the “Nuggets” teen-combo “garage” bands main inspirations were the Stones & the Yardbirds.
Here’s a clip of them on the Hollywood Palace w/Dean Martin acting like a dick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5LRyUAY3QQ
All I know is when I started a band the little girls really, really, misunderstood. Probably just as well.
I, for one, can’t wait until you post the youtube where Chuck Berry is correcting Keith’s version of that Carol riff. Painful and amusing
I don’t think I have that in my giant box of VHS tapes. It’s weird how some songs seem live and some aren’t. Mike is less clueless than Dean Martin was (Dean was edited out of his own show in reruns because he was such a dick and by then The Stones were more popular than Dean ever was). I see where you’re trying to go Mr. Mod, but I’ve always said that Mick Taylor joined a band that was already The Rolling fucking Stones, it’s not like he made them good. They were already fantastic.
So here’s a quick and easy clip to find that shows plenty of energy.
http://youtu.be/5w1QNhp1fS0
I have never had any interest in the understanding of little girls. Also I think energy is over-rated.
Me also prefer caveman era. Not Fade Away is a desert island disc for me. Buddy Holly’s version is nice and slick with cute backing vocals, the Stones’ is punk as fuck. I liked them covering these songs, not thinking whether they’re better or worse than the originals, but enjoying them in the hands of the first proper rock and roll group. I like how Brian uses a different harmonica for each note (in the clip), too.
Buddy Holly would have wiped that look off Mick’s gob with a bicycle chain.
Suburban Kid makes a good point: as clever and classy as Holly’s original is, the Stones’ version is worthy of being a single. Buddy’s version is like a proto-deep kut.
I am presently watching that 1981 small club show the Stones did with Muddy Waters. The classic, more pedestrian Ron Wood-era Stones had its merits!