David Malvinni - Experiencing the Rolling Stones

Titles in The Listeners Companion provide readers with a deeper understanding of key musical genres and the work of major artists and composers. Aimed at nonspecialists, each volume explains in clear and accessible language how to listen to works from particular artists, composers, and genres. Looking at both the context in which the music first appeared and has since been heard, authors explore with readers the environments in which key musical works were written and performed.

Experiencing David Bowie: A Listeners Companion, by Ian Chapman

Experiencing Jazz: A Listeners Companion, by Michael Stephans

Experiencing Led Zeppelin: A Listeners Companion, by Gregg Akkerman

Experiencing Leonard Bernstein: A Listeners Companion, by Kenneth LaFave

Experiencing Mozart: A Listeners Companion, by David Schroeder

Experiencing the Rolling Stones: A Listeners Companion, by David Malvinni

Experiencing Rush: A Listeners Companion, by Durrell Bowman

Experiencing Stravinsky: A Listeners Companion, by Robin Maconie

Experiencing Tchaikovsky: A Listeners Companion, by David Schroeder

Experiencing Verdi: A Listener's Companion, by Donald Sanders

A Listeners Companion

David Malvinni

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Malvinni, David.

Title: Experiencing the Rolling Stones : a listeners companion / David Malvinni.

Description: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, [2016] | Series: Listeners companion

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015035072 | ISBN 9780810889194 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780810889200 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Rolling Stones. | Rock music19611970History and criticism. | Rock music19711980History and criticism.

Classification: LCC ML421.R64 M34 2016 | DDC 782.42166092/2dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015035072

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To my family, Valerie, Sofia, and Joe, for all their love and support.

Know what rhythm holds men.Archilochus, fragment 128, as quoted by Maurice Blanchot,
Writing of the Disaster, 5

Experiencing the Rolling Stones for the First Time Again

The Rolling Stones were the first band I ever loved. Long before I was ever passionate about any other band, it was the Stones that kindled my love for popular music in all its forms. My parents had given me an 8-track tape of Metamorphosis (1975) when I was, like, six years old. I played that until it didnt play anymore. Then during the summer of 1978 my father got a seasonal job in Tucson, Arizona, and at age eleven I started hanging around the Record Bar store. The staffers loved the Stones and turned me onto more of their work. One of the staffers showed me a photo of the band from the 19751976 tour with Billy Preston and Ollie Brown, where a shirtless Mick is laying his head on Bill Wyman, and Keith and Woody are smoking cigarettes. I stared at this photo for what seemed like hours. Wow! For fifty cents an album, I bought used copies of Rolling Stones: Englands Newest Hit Makers, 12 X 5, Flowers, Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!, and Out of Our Heads, in addition to albums by other artistsa few that come to mind from this era are Cheap Tricks In Color, Eddie and the Hot Rods Life on the Line, the Dickies Paranoid, the Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks (of course), Televisions Marquee Moon, the Modern Lovers Live, Led Zeppelins In Through the Out Door, Emerson Lake & Palmers Works, Jethro Tulls Heavy Horses, Pink Floyds Animals, Black Sabbaths Sabotage, Yess Tormato, Iggy Pops Lust for Lifebut it was the Rolling Stones that I listened to the most. The first fan magazine I ever got was about the band. For my birthday my parents bought me the newly released Some Girls. I played it over and over again until the grooves no longer existed. Then for Christmas 1978 my parents gave me a beautiful silver poster of the Stones (wish I still had it and that fan mag). I loved that poster, and its shininess fascinated me. Of course I tried to get whatever albums I was missing, like Aftermath, Sticky Fingers, Goats HeadSoup, Got Live If You Want It!, Exile on Main Street, Its Only Rock n Roll, and oddly, More Hot Rocks. (For some reason I didnt get Black and Blue; Between the Buttons; The Rolling Stones, Now!; Tattoo You; or Decembers Children until many years later as an adult.)

When the Stones played on Saturday Night Live in 1978, it was like seeing the Greek Gods come to life. Simply amazing! I even obtained copies of solo projects like Jamming with Edward!, Bill Wymans Monkey Grip and Stone Alone, and Ron Woods Gimme Some Neck. The first bootleg album I ever purchased was from the 1978 Some Girls tour. My parents were strangely concerned when the record seller told them that the F-bomb was strewn throughout the bootleg, though the word escaped their notice on the Some Girls LP itself. They let me buy the bootleg anyway (I was pretty ticked off at the record store owner for warning them; no wonder the store went out of business). When Emotional Rescue came out in 1980, I also played the album till the grooves bled, and loved the albums poster.

The band often gets tagged as the worlds greatest rock and roll group and of course this is true, and ALWAYS will be. But why not tag the band as one of the supreme blues ensembles in the history of popular culture? Honestly, that is not said enough. I suppose there are those critics who would say that the Stones are pretenders to the blues throne, having little in common musically with Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters, Mance Lipscomb, Reverend Gary Davis, Howlin Wolf, Freddie King, or any of the historical blues greats one could name. Well, the truth is the Rolling Stones are NO pretenders to the throne when it comes to the blues. They never were and never will be (as David Malvinni amply demonstrates in this volume) pretenders playing the blues. One only needs to listen to the Stones covers of blues classics like Little Red Rooster, Im a King Bee, Love in Vain, You Gotta Move, or original songs like Fancy Man Blues, Down in the Hole, Sister Morphine, No Expectations, and Cook Cook Blues. The Rolling Stones understand the blues perhaps as well as, if not better than, any rock band ever has.