The Rolling Stones -- Still Together After 50 Years!!

I forgot how much I really loved the music of the Rolling Stones as a teenager. It is pretty amazing that they have just celebrated their 50th anniversary of performing together. That must be some kind of record -- I don't know of any  other groups who've performed together for so long. It got me remembering some of my favourite Rolling Stones songs: "I Can't Get No Satisfaction", "Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown", "Jumpin Jack Flash", "Ruby Tuesday". They are all very catchy tunes that make me want to move my body. And I can't deny -- I do enjoy watching Mick move and dance while he's singing! I remember when, around 1965, the Stones played on the Ed Sullivan Show and he (Ed) made them change their lyrics from "Let's Spend the Night Together" to "Let's Spend Some Time Together". I really love, in the video below, how Mick rolls his eyes when he sings "Let's Spend Some Time Together"!

I grew up in (very) small town Ontario. My mother allowed me to come to the big city of Toronto and see the Beatles, but, no matter how desperately I begged and pleaded, she would not let me come and see the Rolling Stones. She thought they were scruffy and she thought the songs they sang "weren't nice"!! Oh the joys of being a teenager in the 1960's!

So I recently checked out some early photos of the Stones, thinking I was going to find photos of these young scruffy guys (I guess her assessment stayed in my memory!) but I couldn't find any scruffy photos of them. In  fact some of them wore suits!

The following video is from the Ed Sullivan Show 1965 or so -- some great songs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7JEGcWGbKE&feature=player_detailpage

And just for fun, here they are performing in Brazil in 2006 -- some 42 years later. Mick's energetic performance is really something to watch

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5W4k6vD2WY

My original idea for this blog post was to explore how the Rolling Stones managed to stay together and keep performing for so long while the Beatles performed for only a few short years and, although they continued recording together for awhile after that, from my understanding there was enough conflict between them that they did eventually split. I have my ideas about this  which I will share next blog post. It feels like enough to just enjoy some Rolling Stones music for now.

It is so great to be able to go back and remember and watch and listen to the musicians that so influenced our younger days. I'm finding that I can really appreciate their music and their lives and their personalities from a much deeper, more mature perspective. It feels very powerful, to me, to re-connect with the music that touched me so deeply in my teens and to understand how influential that music and those musicians were in developing my view and experience of the world.

Barbara