50 x 7: Seven Random Thoughts on The Rolling Stones at 50

This week marks the 50th anniversary of The Rolling Stones’ first public gig, at the Marquee in London. To commemorate the anniversary, the boys took the photo on the left right outside the front door. I was actually kind of moved by the photo until I read that the Marquee no longer exists and this is a replica on a soundstage. (I think that guy with the hat might be a replica, too.)

The Stones were originally marketed as the bad boys of rock & roll (though The Beatles were at least as decadent). But now Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are national treasures, knights of the roundtable, best selling authors, pillars of society. They’re so... respectable.



I wasn’t exactly sure how to pay tribute to the Stones, so I thought I’d string together Seven Random Thoughts on The Rolling Stones at 50.

1. The Stones' ridiculous longevity is due almost entirely to Mick's Peter Pan complex and fierce business acumen. Given Keith's drug problems, Charlie Watts' disdain for rock stardoml and Bill Wyman's general indifference, it's hard to imagine the Stones making it out of the 1970s any other way,

2. Breaking the half-century mark will surely become more commonplace in the years to come. You can be sure, for example, that whatever's left of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band ten years from now will still be giving 3 ½ hour, quadruple-encore shows, though they may start as early bird specials.
 

3. The Stones' last great album of all-original material, Some Girls, came out 34 years ago in 1978, roughly one-third of the way into their career. I highly recommend the recently released Deluxe Edition of Some Girls, which contains a bonus disc of material almost as good as the actual album, such as "Claudine" and "Tallahassee Lassie."

4. The Stones' founder and first guitarist, Brian Jones, was in the band about seven years. He was fired and drowned two weeks later. His virtuoso replacement Mick Taylor was in the band for five. He quit. His strung-out looking replacement Ronnie Wood has been in the band for 37 years, yet is still considered the "new guy." And while talented, he has made a fraction of the impression of the other two.

5. Despite their reputation as the hardest-living band in show business, only Jones is dead. Four-fifths of the original members are still alive (Wyman is no longer a Stone but is still musically active). And no members, original or otherwise have died in 43 years. I work in advertising and I'm pretty sure the fatality rate is higher.

6. The first Stones record I ever bought was Beggar’s Banquet, in 9th grade or so. It is still my favorite. Back then it had the RSVP cover you see here because the original bathroom graffiti cover had been banned. I bought it because I loved "Sympathy for the Devil" but it was the deep tracks like "Prodigal Son" that lit my Stones pilot light and told me it was time to start digging.

7. If you are surprised the Stones made it to 50, you shouldn’t be. Jagger predicted it in 1972 on The Dick Cavett Show.
 

Congrats, boys, here's to 50 more - though I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Buy The Rolling Stones on iTunes here.