You Can’t Always Get What You Want

I wish I could show you the rest of this photo. My brother-in-law opened for the Rolling Stones last month and before the show they took a photo of Wilco with the Stones. When they sent the photo to the band they strictly forbade any online posting. (I can’t imagine why, considering there are about a trillion pictures of the Stones floating around the Internet.) Since I don’t want to get my sister in trouble (although this might anyway), I’m just posting this small section of the photograph showing Jeff with my nephews Spencer and Sammy. The fact that it is Keith Richards leaning on Spencer must send his C. Q. (cool quotient) permanently into the stratosphere. Especially since, unlike most nine year olds, Spencer actually knows and appreciates who Keith Richards is! Richards will turn 63 in a few weeks and while I used to think he looked quite ravaged, now that he’s older it works and he looks great.The best part of this photo, though, is the look of shock and wonder on six-year-old Sammy’s face as he gazes at Ron Wood. Wood is 58 but looks 28. He sports a rocker’s long shaggy haircut and is wearing a purple t-shirt, a bright red leather jacket that looks like something left over from the Stones’ 1973 tour, and tight black jeans. Despite their senior citizen status, the Rolling Stones have the bodies of 15-year-old boys. How do they do it? They sure don’t know from middle-aged spread. Ron Wood has a very mischievous look on his face and he has just jumped into a flamboyant pseudo-rockstar pose for the photo, thus producing the priceless look on Sammy’s face. On the other side of Wood stands a smiling Mick Jagger wearing a gold tuxedo jacket, his arms crossed in a bemused stance. Jagger turned 63 last July and he looks sort of like a kindly uncle here, provided you have a 63-year-old uncle with a 28-inch waist who can dance like Tina Turner. On the other side of Keith Richards is drummer Charlie Watts. He is the oldest member of the band at 64 and, while also being in fantastic shape, looks more his age than the others. He was battling throat cancer a year ago but is happily in remission. Watts is the only one with gray hair and he’s starting to look a bit like Star Trek’s George Takei.

I’m no Rolling Stones aficionado but it’s almost impossible not to be in awe of this group. They started performing in 1961 when I was two freaking years old and they are still going strong. My brother Bruce, who is five years older than me, was the most sophisticated rock fan in our house during the 1960s. I heard many of the Stones’ greatest hits wafting from his bedroom over the years and yet today I can still only name the classics like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Brown Sugar,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Beast of Burden,” “Honky Tonk Woman,” and my favorite, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

I guess I was more of a Beatles man in my pre-teen years even though my first exposure to the Fab Four was via their 1965 cartoon series (who’s got the rights to those gems—I haven’t seen an episode in 40 years!). I do remember the hoopla of the Beatles’ appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” when I was 5 and the insanity of those girls screaming through their entire performances. I studied the album cover of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” when I was 7 and was first in line to see “Yellow Submarine” when I was 8. I remember exactly where I was at age 10 when I heard that the Beatles were splitting up and of course I will never forget the exact moment ten years later when I first learned that John Lennon had been murdered. Listening to any song by the Beatles or the Stones immediately sends me back into my early childhood. How crazy is it that the Stones played at a venue a few blocks from our house just the other day and that Paul McCartney will be performing at the same place next week? I guess no crazier than Spencer and Sam Tweedy’s bonding with Keith Richards and Ron Wood!

I wish I could offer some deep esoteric insights on the music and careers of the Rolling Stones but I just wasn’t cool enough to have followed their development in anything but a superficial way. The reality is that I remember listening to bubble gum acts like “The Herman’s Hermits” (my sister had a huge crush on Peter Noone), “The Monkees,” and even the god-awful “Archies” (“Sugar, sugar…oh honey, honey…you are my candy girl, and you got me wanting you…”) way more than I listened to the Stones. How embarrassing is that? For that matter I spent more time listening to movie soundtracks when I was young than rock music. But I longed to be a rocker like my older brother who had two bands of his own: “The Inscrutable Ambiguity” and “The Psychotic Referendum.” I don’t remember if the bands were any good but I do remember Bruce's classmates Helene Lazowski, Robin Burack, and Cheryl Geisler sitting in our basement gazing at them like true groupies.

Despite the fact that I was a total nerd, I went through several periods where I at least tried to look the part of a rocker. I was the first person at our school (and possibly the last) to wear a Nehru jacket to class following the Beatles’ trip to India in 1968. Emerald green yet. I grew my hair halfway down my back, wore ripped jeans and peace signs to school, and even went through a scary punk phase in the 70s (not the music, just the clothes, I was probably listening to the Captain and Tennille at the time).

But just as I lived vicariously through my brother’s record collection in the 60s, my faux rocker wardrobes in the 70s, my sister’s ultra-hip rock club Lounge Ax in the 80s, and my brother-in-law’s growing success in the 90s, I can now turn to my young nephews and hope some of the cool rubs off on their uncle who suddenly looks like he could be Mick Jagger’s father. Oy.

No, you can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
And if you try sometime you find
You get what you need.

Update: Well, I didn't get in trouble for posting the photo (not that much anyway), but my sister is insisting that I correct the wrong dates in my mention of her late, lamented Lounge Ax. She and her partner Julia ran it from 1989 to 2000. It was such a great club, what a travesty that it was forced out of business. Perhaps one day it will rise like a phoenix somewhere else in Chicago. I'm trying to think if any of the Stones ever stopped by there but all I can remember is the time that Donny Osmond came in (can you see now why I'll never be cool?). Film fans will note that several scenes from the excellent film version of Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" were shot at Lounge Ax so at least it's there for posterity.

Comments

[The Retropolitan]

Danny, you might want to crop that image just a little tighter; I guessed who they were before I read the post, so lest anyone get mad atcha...

[OldOldLady Of The Hills]

Hi Danny..
I am of a different generation than you and neverr really got 'The Stones'. I certainly got The Beatles but not at first, at all....I love the way you express yourself and while doing so give us so much 'cool' information, too. I am unfamiliar with your Brother-In-Law...(how pitiful is that?)...but most of the Rock music of the last 20 years has passed me by. Oh Dear, I AM showing my OldOld Lady stripes, aren't I?
I always love reading your posts, my dear....

[Vicki]

I'm smiling from ear to ear. What a great pic...

[Rosie]

I just had a dream about seeing the Rolling Stones the other night...but they were at least 30 years younger than they are now...Actally, it was pretty cool.

I've recently gotten into the Stones, and begun to appreciate the greatness of their music and, of course, their utter coolness. Musically, well, I could probably write a full blog entry about how cool it is that they take their influences from really American folk music: country and blues. Also, they never struck me as being great singers (unlike the Beatles who could pull fantastic harmonies out of nowhere), but that was part of what made them so special, it seems like it made them almost more true to what they were trying to portray. Not to mention that they wrote such darn catchy songs...like the ones you mentioned...and whenever I listen to "Paint It Black" I can't help thinking that this is probably the earliest strains of punk rock. And everyone can still sing the choruses of their greatest hits.

A couple years ago, I was sitting in homeroom with the 'punk rock' kids who worshipped kurt cobain, michael stipe and billy corgan. I was used to them criticizing my musical taste, and could usually shrug it off. But on this particular day, they were having a conversation that didn't concern me at all. One of them said "The Rolling Stones suck." I turned around. Now, at this point, I wasn't the biggest stones fan...I could hardly sing the choruses of the greatest hits. "Excuse me?" I said. "The Stones suck." he responded. "Just because you don't like them doesn't mean they suck," I defended a band I didn't even understand. "No, they just suck," the kid said. To this day I still remember the look on his smug elitist face. Funny how someone can claim to know so much about music and yet deny something that is so obviously an influence of their favorite bands.

Pardon my rant...I guess I've just been thinking about the Stones a lot lately...Thanks for writing about them, Danny, this was another excellent post.

[Jack]

The Stones are just cool. No more need be said.

[heather]

That is really great, Danny. The littlest nephew looks wary! I love the Rolling Stones but I am forever a Beatles gal.

[Your Brother Bruce]

Re: Your Update

Danny, Don't forget Susie's signed T-shirt from Jagger from when he dropped in ther bar she managed looking for musicians, before she bought in to Lounge Ax.

[Neil]

One day, that photo is going to be Sammy's prize possession. That look is priceless.

[Natalie]

Fabulous photo. I hope your beautiful nephews don't end up looking like those old rockers. The Stones were great, yeah, (esp. No Satisfaction) but Mick-the-prancing-big-mouth never appealed to me.

[amba]

Beatles or Stones? My answer back in the day was Stones. The raunch and the irresistible danceability . . . the Beatles were clever lightweights by comparison. A less-known Stones song that's a favorite of mine: "Moonlight Mile." Druggy as hell, but climaxes in the best metaphor for sex ever -- "I'm goin' home, riding down your moonlight mile" -- and an unmistakable musical orgasm.

That Joker-like slice of Keith Richard leaning on your nephew is priceless.

[Dr. Judy]

Hi Danny,
I was Spencer's doc back in Chicago awhile back, and even saw Sammy once or twice. Your sister told me about your blog and I quite enjoy it. That picture really captures the boys perfectly. Spencer is "too cool for school" and Sammy just goes with the flow, analyzing and asking "why" a lot. I love those boys. Thanks for sharing.

[Shannon]

I saw the Stones here in San Diego a week ago and I was blown away by Mick Jagger's youthful energy. He was constantly in motion. When he left the stage for a while, the energy level of the crowd (which was huge) dropped. When he came back, the crowd went crazy. It was a fun, but predictable show - I would have LOVED it if Wilco had opened for US.

The image of a kid in punk rock clothes listening to Captain & Tenniele is PRICELESS.

[TimeToRock]

great post. the stones can do no wrong in my opinion.