Forgive me, music nerds, for I have sinned. It has been almost a month since my last confession. My confession is this: I'm not a very big Rolling Stones fan.
Like Kiss, I appreciate their place in music history, and the fact that they've influenced many, many bands that I like. But for whatever reason, I've just never loved the Rolling Stones. Again, it could be a generational thing, in that I like the bands that were inspired by them, but not the source itself. They wrote some great songs, and I love those songs, particularly Angie and Paint It Black, but I don't own any Rolling Stones albums, and I've never felt compelled to check them out in depth.
To me, Keith Richards is a marvel of modern science, the fact that he's still living, but not a marvel on guitar. Sure, Satisfaction is a cool riff, and one that lead to the creation of many other cool riffs from guitarists who were inspired by it. But if I don't hear Satisfaction ever again, I'll be ok with it. Conversely, I still like hearing Smells Like Teen Spirit, even though I've heard it 1,000 times now.
There's an old theory that people are either Beatles or Rolling Stones fans, just as there are introverts and extroverts, as if preference for one band over the other indicates the personality type of a person. Maybe that's true, because I do like The Beatles far more than I like the Rolling Stones. But even then, I'm not a crazed Beatles fan. I like the music they created after Beatlemania died down, when they were experimenting musically, socially and spiritually, and, consequently, when they were growing scruffy facial hair... At the same time, I dismiss any "best album ever" list if they list The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as #1. It's a classic, no doubt, but there have been far better albums released since, by both The Beatles as well as others. Which brings me back to the Rolling Stones; they're fine for what they are, but there are better bands out there, and there were better bands that existed at the same time as the Rolling Stones, who should have gotten much more attention than the Rolling Stones.
Oddly enough, I had a Rolling Stones shirt when I was a kid. It was one of their tour shirts I think, with the lips and tongue logo in an Andy Warhol style montage. My grandparents gave it to me, which I've always thought was odd, because they were too old to be into that kind of music, and I have no idea where they got it. I wore it though, with very bad 90's swim trunks... There is photographic evidence... In retrospect, I feel bad for wearing it, having zero knowledge of its meaning. Like kids today buying Ramones shirts, or things with the Misfits' Crimson Ghost logo on them, having no idea what it all means. I had no clue who the Rolling Stones were then; I just liked the logo. I was more of a Beach Boys guy back then. Well, Beach Boys, Ritchie Valens, Miami Sound machine, Chicago (the band, not the musical), Air Supply (Lay off! I still defend my love for Air Supply.), and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cassette tape that I got from Pizza Hut...
I don't begrudge anyone for liking the Rolling Stones. But seriously, shouldn't they have called it quits decades ago? Enjoy retirement. Use your senior citizen discount. Get Keith a new liver. Go antiquing. Play some shuffleboard. Eat pudding at 4 in the afternoon, and call it a night at 6. You've earned it. At least God finally stepped in and stopped them from fathering more illegitimate children. But seriously, it's time to hang up the lips, before the lyrics to Brown Sugar are changed to "Brown Sugar. The nurses say I shouldn't eat it anymore..."
As penance, I shall say 10 hail Lemmy's, and keep my appreciation for Air Supply to myself.
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