He Said, He Said

On a recent morning, the journalist Bill Wyman received a UPS package containing a typed manuscript. On reading it, he saw that it seemed to be the thoughts, at some length, of singer Mick Jagger on the recently published autobiography of his longtime songwriting partner in the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards. A handwritten note on an old piece of Munro Sounds stationery read: "Bill: For the vault. M."

Hmmm, given that this is 2010 I'm somewhat skeptical that these are the the actual words and thoughts of Mick's reaction to Keef's new autobiography "Life." Nonetheless I found it an interesting read...

Mick Jagger Responds to Keith Richards About His New Autobiography

...I take the point that professionalism, one's word, rock 'n' roll merriment … these are fungible things in our world. It is a fair charge that I have become less tolerant in these matters over the decades. In our organization, inside this rather unusual floating circus we call home, I am forced into the role of martinet, the one who gets blamed for silly arbitrary rules. (Like, for a show in front of 60,000 people for which we are being paid some $6 or $7 million for a few hours' work, I like to suggest to everyone that we start on time, and that we each have in place a personal plan, in whatever way suits us best, to stay conscious for the duration of the show.)...

The Armpit Collection XII: The Rock n Roll Quartet

Led Zeppelin Song Remains the Same (full version)
The Stooges Fun House
The Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street
The Velvet Underground Loaded

These albums are pieces of a tightly wound (albeit loosely played) version of rhythm and blues based rock n roll - in my mind. This version was created when blues and country were formally being introduced to popular culture. It was cemented by Elvis Presley, climaxed in the mid sixties, exploited in the later sixties and early seventies, and of course was later changed, progressed, shit upon, however you want to see it. I love rock n roll at it's earlier forms, like earlier Armpit entry, Elvis' first RCA record, and I love other types of music that might be labeled as rock n roll, like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon or the Boss' Born to Run, for instance. But it's that exploited period where I find just the right elements of cynicism, romanticism, classicism, any cism you can think of, for my rock n roll. There are many bands who enter popular music culture in an attempt to ride on a wave of great music, some are the wave, like Led Zeppelin or the Stones. And then bands like the Stooges and the Velvet Underground flex greater influence to later generations of musicians, yet their musical output might be placed somewhere else due to the time of their existence. The albums above all came out within a few years of each other, the height of rock n roll exploitation and change. You've got raw-driven-sex rock n roll in the Stooges, expertly-crafted-large rock n roll in Zeppelin, gritty-romantic-self produced rock n roll in the Stones, and self aware-song form experimentation-attitude rock n roll in the VU. All those adjectives are there and they most certainly are rock n roll.