Rolling
Stones too expensive for students
By Jon Matsumoto
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
The year is 2030 and Green Day is playing to packed stadiums throughout the world.
Billie Joe Armstrong and company are all pushing 60, but the aging Cali punkers
are still out there hammering out the chords to “Longview” in front
of 50,000 fans.
If this vision is hard to imagine, it’s for a very good reason. Plenty
of rock bands endure for decades, but virtually none of them are capable of routinely
selling out mammoth stadiums a few years before they might qualify for social
security. That is every rock band with the exception of the Rolling Stones, the
British titan that formed back in 1962 when JFK was president and television
had only recently taken off.
Friday night the Stones showed it is are still a massive draw on the road by
selling out Angels Stadium in Anaheim. They weren’t exactly handing out
discounted tickets either with some nosebleed ducats priced at $99 and some floor
tickets going for $450.
An office building-type edifice was also erected on stage to give some fans the
chance to see the band from a unique vantage point. The price for this pleasure
no doubt equaled the monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Brentwood.
But beyond the numbers and statistics that inevitably tail a band now in its
43rd year of existence, there is little doubt the Stones can still rock with
power and conviction. Vocalist Mick Jagger still sings with sensual sass and
verve and moves like a man half his age. Like an old bluesman who will surely
continue to play music until he has one foot in the grave, Keith Richards slung
out his classic guitar riffs and Chuck Berry licks with passionate abandon. Drummer
Charlie Watts, who recently overcame a bout with throat cancer, anchored the
band with a rhythmic touch that was both authoritative and dexterous.
Many of the band’s biggest hits were on display from the raunchy “Honky
Tonk Women” and the swaggering “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll
(But I Like It)” to the hurricane-like “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”
The Stones also dug deep into its past for other crowd pleasers like “Ruby
Tuesday” and”“Get Off My Cloud.” The latter song, released
in 1965, was one of about four songs played on a small, mobile stage that moved
out to the middle of the floor section on a track. This was the Stones at its
best with just the four core members and a keyboard player. Otherwise, the band
prowled a huge stage that also featured backup singers and a brass section.
Clearly, these shows are big business for the Stones, which is probably why the
quartet only played three songs from its current “A Bigger Bang” CD.
Despite being hailed as its best album in more than 20 years, the 16-track work
has sold poorly. The decision to regale its fans with old chestnuts instead of
challenging them with more quality new material was disappointing. The Stones
made brilliant, historic albums like 1972’s “Exile on Main Street” by
taking chances, not by playing it safe.
It was also unfortunate the show didn’t attract more young rock fans, at
least young fans who didn’t just simply tag along with their parents. Rock ‘n’ roll
has always divided itself along generational lines. You’re simply not supposed
to love music your parents embrace. But the qualities that make a great rock
song haven’t really changed much since the form was more or less invented
in Memphis in 1954 with Elvis Presley’s landmark “Sun Sessions.”
But if the Stones now attract a crowd heavy on the overweight and out of shape,
it is partly of their own doing given the outlandish ticket prices they are charging.
It may only be rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s too expensive for the
young and curious.
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