Fitzroy Diamonds

Two years ago when Charlie Watts, the bedrock drummer of The Rolling Stones died I got into a conversation with The Artist but why the Rolling Stones were still going. I said, ‘What’s the point? I mean they are old, in their late 70s if not early 80s, very rich, very famous, their place in history as the greatest Rock and roll band is assured, why go out there and flog yourself, risk tarnishing your legacy or even worse becoming a parody of yourselves.”

The Artist looked at me with pity for she saw the basic fact that I was missing and answered, “Because they are artists, this is what they do, what they have always done. You are an artist first; it doesn’t matter how successful.”

Of course she was right as she mostly is. We don’t expect writers or painters just to chuck it in because they have reached an age or a level of wealth and fame.

My feelings were of course driven by my thinking that rock and roll is special. It was invented for teens; it was the music of youth and rebellion but if I and billons like me are still listening to it in our middle and old age why do the performers have to stay young?

The Rolling Stone numbers are impressive as you would expect from a band that was there to take rock music from its infancy all the way to adulthood. They started in 1962, arguably peaked in the early 70s and here we are sixty years, thousands of concerts, millions of records, billions of dollars later and they are still part of the culture. Next month they release their 28th studio album titled Hackney Diamonds.

Mick Jagger in an interview explained the record’s title this way,

“Yeah, it’s like when you get your windscreen broken on Saturday night in Hackney, and all the bits go on the street… that’s ‘Hackney Diamonds’.”

Don’t you love it when slang is clever, funny and descriptive. I haven’t been to Hackney but in my time in Fitzroy over the years including one personal experience in about 1994, I can say with surety that there are Fitzroy Diamonds too.

The first single “Angry” sounds just like The Rolling Stones so no surprises there. Twisting guitar lines over a solid riff, rock solid drums and bass, little bits of piano here and there, Micks strangled vocals, big sing along chorus and unconventionally for these times a long fadeout.

As far as it goes its good stuff and it got me thinking that maybe The Artist at least partly, answered a different question. I think she answered more the how than the why.

 As history has shown when it comes to defining characteristics, the cliches virtually of rock and roll, the Stones were there first. Youthful fuck you rebellion, Rock and Roll debauchery, massive stadium tours, drug busts, celebrity marriages, duets, fame and the intersection of old and new wealth, importance of copyright and building a brand led business empire The Stones did it first or better. Led Zeppelin came close but they couldn’t do what The Stones did. And that was that despite losing members through the years, the nucleus of The Stones is still there.  It really is the Mick and Keith show and for Mick and especially for Keith it is about the music and specifically where the Stones music comes from.

It comes from the blues. More than any other band that built rock and roll the admiration then reimagining of the traditional blues created by artists like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf etc is at the heart of the Rolling Stones. Others may have done it better or more authentically but when it came to selling a genre based on one of their own root music forms back to the Americans the Stones reigned supreme. That is why they are still here still taking care of business, because at the heart of it, Mick and Keith are not just musicians doing a job or even doing what they love. They are part of a long, long line of performers who play a people’s music, maybe not in the purest sense of the genre but nevertheless they play it because they love it and respect it. They see their contribution to music in that way, not as the biggest rock and roll band that ever will be, but as blues players telling stories and that I think is the why.

Photo by Ruan Richard Rodrigues

My 12 favourite Stones Songs.

Can You Hear Me Knocking?

Tumbling Dice

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Paint It Black

Rocks Off

Loving Cup

Ruby Tuesday

Beast of Burden

Wild Horses

Little Red Rooster

Moonlight Mile

Get Off My Cloud