This We Dug: The Rolling Stones

(David Rinck recalls the moment that made him a rocker.)

The other day, I picked up the obligatory copy of Keith Richards’ new autobiography “Life.” OK, no surprises — there’s some really interesting stuff in here, but it predictably enough reads sort of like “This I Took.” Maybe he should get a program?

Also, I happened to see the new(ish) Martin Scorsese live film of the Stones. “Shine A Light,” about a month ago, and I really didn’t think it was very good. I mean, come on guys: Christina Aguilera? Really? And poor ol’ Keith looks like he’s just exhausted. Well yeah, when you talk about the Stones nowadays, it’s hard to ignore the fact that these guys are getting a bit torn and frayed. But let’s be fair here …

The story of the Rolling Stones and me goes back a very, very long time. Rewind to my very first impressions of music, some of my earliest memories, and there they are. In fact, even though it goes back into faded sectors of my memory chip, I can pinpoint exactly the first time I heard the Stones. I was only six, but I still remember this like it was yesterday.

Summer in San Diego, I’m with my dad and my grandfather, and we’re driving home from a day at the beach. Mission Beach to be exact, and we were in that old Jeep Cherokee we used to have (and that I would one day inherit). My dad was in the front seat at the time diving, and we were just pulling off the freeway at the College Ave exit, and he puts on the car radio. “Satisfaction” comes on. And that exact moment, my dear friends, was THE precise moment I really heard my very first rock-‘n’-roll song.

“Electrified” is the word that comes to mind here. It was like a bolt of lightening came out of the sky and froze me. Keith Richards hitting that instantly recognizable riff, perhaps the most recognizable in all of rock and roll, Charlie’s drums banging out that rock steady turnaround after Mick’s “no, no, no!” Wow, I was struck, struck, struck, and I was in love, love, love … And the funny thing is, my dad turns around and goes, “I hope you kids never get into this rock-‘n’-roll stuff.”

This is still one of my very favorite, or OK, even probably my very favorite song (sorry, Dad).

In the next few years, every chance I got, I stopped and listened when they played the Stones on the radio. And play they did, timeless songs, so classic they almost seem like a cliché now, songs like “Ruby Tuesday,” “Paint It Black,” “Get Off My Cloud,” Heart of Stone,” “Jumping Jack Flash,” “Street Fighting Man,” “Gimme Shelter,” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Sympathy For the Devil” on albums like 12×5; Rolling Stones Now!; December’s Children; Aftermath; Between the Buttons; and of course Let It Bleed and Beggar’s Banquet, arguably their finest albums.

And what’s this? A lot of their records have these songs that are not credited to Jagger/Richards, but who are these guys? And through the Rolling Stones I discover Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Buddy Holly and lots more through covers like “Little Queenie,” “Not Fade Away,” “Route 66,” and “Carol”. In my opinion, the Stones’ versions are the definitive versions of “Just My Imagination,” “20 Flight Rock” and “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg.”

Sometime when I am still in grade school I think, I started trading in my comic books for records, and I pick up Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street, arguably their finest albums, and what’s this? This rocks a little harder, tunes like “Rip This Joint,” “Tumbling Dice,” “Happy,” “Brown Sugar,” “Bitch” and “Dead Flowers” (a song that I would forever associate with girlfriends (because of that line “I know you think you’re the queen of the underground”), and one of the very first songs I would actually learn to play.

Soon I’m in junior high, and a big night out for us was spending the night at a friend’s house and staying up late and watching Saturday Night Live (in the great old years, with the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players), and for a real big night, “Don Kirchner’s Rock Concert” is on after that. Well, one night I was at Dave Klowden’s house (he’s my very oldest friend, we actually met in the sixth grade when our parents lived a block apart in Del Cerro), and who’s on SNL but the Stones themselves? That was when they had just recorded Some Girls, arguably their finest albums, and I remember them doing “Beast of Burden” and “Shattered.” I wish I could go see them in person, but they skipped San Diego on that tour, and I was too young to go to L.A. and see them.

Fast-forward to 1981. By now, I’m a committed punk rocker and in fact the idea of a band of my own is starting to gel in my head, but the cry for “no more Stones, Who or Beatles” doesn’t stop Pat Works and I from jumping in that same Jeep Cherokee that I had first heard “Satisfaction” in, and driving up to see the Rolling Stones at the L.A. Coliseum. They were touring for “Tattoo You” then, arguably their best album. That was such a fun show. Remember that trip. Pat?

It’s often said that back when we were in grade school, you were either into the Stones, or you were into the Beatles. Is this true? I don’t think I was really even aware of the Beatles when I was in grade school. They were just some nice guys in a band that broke up long before I could have seen a rock concert. On the other hand, punk rock defined my generation musically, but I easily saw in our Doll forefathers David and Johnny, some Mick and Keith. In fact, over the years, I learned a few things about music, what it means and what it represents, and the Stones were there at every intersection.

And though every one that grew up sometime in say … well, like the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s or ’90s, knows the great tunes of the Stones canon, I bet everyone also has one (or maybe 10) favorites that were never on their greatest-hits albums. My list would include “Out Of Time,” “Jiving Sister Fanny” (from the strangely overlooked Metamorphosis LP, arguably their greatest album), “Waiting On A Friend,” “You Got The Silver,” “Before They Make Me Run,” “Little T&A” or for that matter ALL of the songs Keith sings.

So okay, I actually haven’t bought a new Stones album since Stripped (arguably their finest live album), and Keith’s new book is a bit gratuitous for my taste nowadays, and the Scorsese film seems to just underscore how old these guys have gotten. But let’s be fair here, yes the Stones have gotten older, but then they’ve been there in the background (and often in the foreground) for almost 40 years of my life. This is a band that I have literally grown up to.

I remember their slogan used to be at one point “The Greatest Rock-‘n’-Roll Band in The World,” and well, I’d be hard pressed to disagree. And like most of us here, I can honestly say, it may be only rock-‘n’-roll but I love it, and The Rolling Stones and rock ‘n’ roll are to me simply synonymous.

— David Rinck

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17 thoughts on “This We Dug: The Rolling Stones

  1. One of my earliest memories was around age two, looking at the 3D cover of Satanic Majesties …

    … Alongside that other big British band’s psychedelic ensemble cover. I never felt conflicted about liking both, although I did listen more to the other guys when I was real small.

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  2. “Life” is the first book I’ve read in ages. “Metamorphosis,” also a favorite album of mine (with the US version of “Aftermath” a close second). I wasn’t inclined to watch “Shine A Light,” but recently purchased “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones.” I still love the Stones, same as ever, but can’t bring myself to watch/listen to their current output. I absolutely love old footage, the older the better. I guess their appeal to me is gauged by how obviously high (on pot)they were, and how much Keith’s ears stick out, funny, I know. Some of those early interviews are terrific, what with the big cheesy grins and huge bags under their chinky eyes. They were just discovering weed and America, and looked like giggling kids (with the munchies) in a candy store.

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  3. >>are the stones the first band to continue to stay together no matter what happens

    Lou: That raises the question of what “staying together” means.

    Three out of five original parts … Bill Wyman was never a major force, but … Is this still the original band? If so, would it be if Charlie retires? Hard to picture touring under that name if either Mick or Keith stopped.

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  4. Wow! I totally forgot I saw the Stones live. (Only one of those big monster bands I ever saw.) It was around 1997, and a friend gave me a ticket.

    It was at Oakland Coliseum, the largest show I’ve ever been to. I don’t understand the point of events that big. It seemed more like a … Parade? Crowded shopping mall? Animatronic Disney light show? … Than a band.

    I can prolly count the number of shows I’ve attended with more than 2,000 people on … Two hands.

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  5. Matt, I just checked the available data, and it looks like most sociologists agree that Ron Wood is better than Brian Jones or Mick Taylor, so the Rolling Stones remain intact at a 4/5 original to current ratio (O/C rate).

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  6. Does anyone remember when they played at the San Diego stadium?

    I lived in Tierrasanta which is on the hill by the stadium and I might of been in middle school at the time?

    You had to camp out at the stadium to get tickets and the schools made it clear you were not to miss school and go to the stadium. Well, I went and camped out.

    What I remember is being very uncomfortable, J Giles opened up. By the time they came on I was WAY………up high in the stadium, mushyrooms were way kicked in and there was a cherry picker that went out over the crowd. Other than that I do recall being very much in trouble at home and school.

    I think that was the only mega show I went too and it must of been not much later than that- that it was the Lions Club for me.

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  7. david, now i will go listen to ‘ruby tuesday’ and do the same silly dance my mom and i used to whenever that song came on.

    i think, for me, the songs that i love most by the stones are ‘gimme shelter’ followed closely by ‘sympathy for the devil’ and ‘you can’t always get what you want’. i love their epic stuff. the songs that give me chills for the amazing arrangements.

    still, i have to agree, there is something about ‘satisfaction’ that just does it right here >points to solar plexus. oh, and ‘jumpin’ jack flash’, too. raw music, right up in your face. excellent, and lasting.

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