The Rolling Stones at 50

[Adam Blake]

I was putting them up as a hedge, as I'm sure you are too genteel to point out. They are just kids having fun. They'll grow out of it. It was never like that for me. It's signs and pointers from early childhood - the idea that there's something out there worth finding, not a religion so much as....um.....utopian Anarchism?? (God....)

I always liked the idea, long before I could put a name to it. It's not just the 60s. It's also in Wilde's essay "The Soul Of Man Under Socialism". The ridiculously romantic idea that people could be free enough to just realise their artistic potential. And it seemed to me, when I was a kid, that something not a million miles away from all this was going on, somewhere over there, in the 60s.

Anyway, The Stones seemed central somehow. I heard their 1st album as a five year old the same summer I saw "A Hard Day's Night" at the pictures. I was very impressed.

If The Beatles had stayed together, making a series of duller and duller records, returning to touring on a stadium level and Paul and Ringo were still out there treading the boards with a bunch of overpaid session musicians - believe me, it would be much, much worse...

I told you it had more to do with me than them.

[NormanD]

We're up to our arses in Rolling Stones right now. Here's a live clip I just found and liked. No one else has to. They're live at The Marquee, 1971
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTjni_t3 ... re=related

[AndyM]

I like a lot. Mick's little bolero jacket is very ducky, too.

[NormanD]

So's his flamenco clap at the start.

[AndyM]

Indeed. He'd have made a good palmero.

[Rob Hall]

That is some playing from Mick Taylor, isn't it? Wonderful stuff.

[Chris P]

The Rolling Stones at 55 now? Any further thoughts on Brown Sugar anyone?

Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he's doin' all right
Hear him whip the women just around midnight
Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good
Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should
Drums beatin' cold, English blood runs hot
Lady of the house wonderin' when it's gonna stop
House boy knows that he's doin' all right
You should have heard him just around midnight
Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good
Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should
Brown Sugar, how come you dance so good
Brown Sugar, just like a black girl should
I bet your mama was a Cajun Queen,
And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen
I'm no school boy but I know what I like
You should have heard them just around midnight
Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good
Brown Sugar, just like a black girl should
I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, wooo
How come you, how come you dance so good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, wooo
Just like a, just like a black girl should
Yeah, yeah, yeah, wooo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Sug ... tones_song)

No. 5 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time, accordingly

"The song was written by Jagger with Marsha Hunt in mind; Hunt was Jagger's secret girlfriend and mother of his first child Karis. It is also claimed it was written with Claudia Lennear in mind. Lennear made this claim on BBC's Radio 4 (25 February 2014, Today), saying that it was written with her in mind because at the time when it was written, Mick Jagger used to hang around with her."

[Adam Blake]

Lyrically, it's as vile as it ever was. Musically, it remains a monument to how inimitably well Keith and Charlie could swing.

[AndyM]

I always heard 'Cajun queen' as 'tent show queen' (which I thought was a pretty good phrase, as it goes).

[Adam Blake]

I always heard 'Cajun queen' as 'tent show queen' (which I thought was a pretty good phrase, as it goes).

Me too!

[john poole]

Another vote for "tent show" and not "Cajun"

[Chris P]

Lyrically, it's as vile as it ever was. Musically, it remains a monument to how inimitably well Keith and Charlie could swing.

It remains a monument to Mick's way with words, phrasing and singing too, despite the dodgy lyric. I agree with Andy that Under My Thumb is one whole league wronger, but then I'm not a young black woman

[NormanD]

Any further thoughts on Brown Sugar anyone?

Oh, don't start this one up again, ffs.

[Chris P]

"He wouldn't let it lie"
"I would've let it lie"
etc etc TM Vic and Bob