...like the new Martin Scorsese/Rolling Stones Concert Film "Shine A Light", which I caught on the immense IMax Screen on 67th Street and Broadway yesterday--a trip to the Imax an experience not unakin to having an up close and personal audience with Oz, the Great and Powerful--sound and vision telegraphed, nay sledge-hammered relentlessly into your photo-receptors/auditory canal, plus...crowd control courtesy of the Imax factotums who ordered everybody (press liggers mainly) to move their seats to make room for late-coming idlers/dawdlers...

okay, I have to admit, I'm more than partisan here, Stones were--and may still be-- my alltime favorite band-- they were fer sure growing up in Syracuse (I still clock lots of mileage with 'em on my Nano, pre-68 Stones predominantly)...

"Then I'm gonna teach you 'bout the rolling stone"--lewd lyric by Richard ("Louie Louie") Berry from his song "Rockin' Man" (check the ace Ace compilation "Get Out of the Car")

Stones first rolled into my consciousness upon my overhearing the immortal meme-like efrain of "The Last Time" on someone else's transistor, a riff from the Gods which burned itself into my brain and wouldn't switich off (Brian played this motif live on the D and G strings, up around the 7th and 5th frets, of his Vox Phantom--not at all what they teach you in "Guitar Player"-- not at all obvious a guitar voicing...and not as easy to play up there as it sounds)...and before I ever set eyes upon the band live or even in a trashy magazine, I recall seeing a long-haired adolescent British lad of schoolboy age mime to this same track from what appeared to be the stage of the Marquee Club on a special British edition of the Jack Lescoulie-hosted early 60's show "1,2,3.Go!", on an episode where Jack took us kids on a trip to jolly old London--who was this kid anyway, about 12 or 13 years old at best? Boy did a mean Mick impression)...

at Camp Kennebec up in North Belgrade, Maine (where I endured 7 enforced, sequestered summers), I remember my friend Ben Sandmel (N'awlins based music writer who last I heard was managing the Hackberry Ramblers) sharing his well-thumbed copy of the Ballantine paperback "Our Own Story by The Rolling Stones, as we told it to Pete Goodman" with me (hie thee to Alibris)-- which really further, uh, fired my imagination (book was a great, great read, containing eye-catching photos of Brian giving the finger to photographer Nicholas Wright who was snapping a pic of him blowing harp at the "Not Fade Away" session... and Keith, barebacked 'cept for a sweater slung over his shoulder, traipsing down a hill clutching what looked like a woman's handbag)...

In fact, my first actual rockrockrockaroll experience was catching the Stones the day before Halloween 1965 at the Syracuse War Memorial (guys played at Cornell in Ithaca that same afternoon, those were the Jerry Brandt/ALO days)...local DJ "Dandy" Dan Leonard compered, and first off introduced upstate act Ed Wool and the Nomads, who were on for barely 2 numbers, and who were then joined by New Yawk hairdresser/personality Monte Rock III (who later scored a hit with "Get Dancing!" under the moniker Disco Tex, with His Sexolettes ... Monte also played the disco dj in "Saturday Night Fever" who utters the immortal line: "I love that polyester look!").. couldn't sing much, but sported green-dyed hair that evening (yes)...he was followed by Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells, who were cresting then with "I Sold My Heart to the Junk Man", and brought us straight up to the blue empyrean over the roof of the War Memorial....followed by largely unsung r&b greats and "Shindig" stalwarts, The Vibrations, who shimmied and twisted and soulfully stirred the pot some more ...who were then followed by The Rockin' Ramrods, a garage British Invasion knock-off from Boston, who had a regional hit out on Claridge then with "Don't Fool with Fu-Manchu" ( trying to tie-in to the Christopher Lee/ Seven Arts film out then, the B side was entitled "Tears Melt the Stones")...and finally...

On came the Stones!

They opened with Solomon Burke's "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" from "The Rolling Stones- Now!" (get the CD reissue which has the longer, alternate take of the track), Mick, wearing a hound's tooth-checked jacket (coulda been the inspiration for Dylan's clobber on his electric tour with The Hawks a year later), pointing to various audience members at each "I Need You, You You!" juncture, squeals, swoons, general audience pandemonium ensuing on the beat, Syracuse audience up but not quite out of their seats/out of their heads...Keith duckwalked up and down the stage flailing his black Gretsch Country Gentleman as Mick tried out some new moves, including up-ending and inverting his mic stand in a 180 degree arc over his head, Brian looking beatific in plaid wool pants and fuzzy sweater, Bill stood there stock still chewing gum, every so often tilting his bass up to head level Ernie Brooks style...and Charlie? Charlie knocked out one great groove after another, effortlessly, immaculately dressed, without breaking a sweat...

They played a whole 20 minutes! (yeah, those were the days...)..

Ending with "Satisfaction", Mick prowling the lip of the stage, goding the audience on to rush it, and him, his every move shadowed by a black security guard doppelganger moving as one with him in front of him...a couple girls broke through the security perimeter and rushed onstage... but were quickly beaten back and hauled off by the rent-a-cops..

And then they waved to the kids with the signs in the upper tiers ("Charlie is My Darling"), ran off the stage without an encore, the lights came up fast... and.. as I was already a huge fan of the group... I was, as they say gob-smacked-- I couldn't believe I'd actually seen them live, they'd been there, they'd played, but suddenly they were sort of like this hazy vision who had strutted and fretted their hour (well, 20 min.) on the stage, big as life and twice as natural...

and now they were gone, vanished...the memory lingered on (for decades in my case)...made you want to see them again and again ( "always leave them wanting more" my Dad once advised me when I described having played a 3 hour marathon solo concert in Prague to him)...

It was truly the best concert I had ever experienced up to that point--first true rock event of my life (subsequent to the Stones I'd only ever witnessed live, lessee, Andres Segovia...The Righteous Brothers... Peter, Paul and Mary...and Hermione Gingold, starring in "Milk and Honey" on B'way)..

Best ever concert--

until I caught Beefheart live at Ungano's NYC in 1971 in his NYC debut...

but that's another story...

So last night, I went up to the IMax Cinema with Caroline, courtesy of Cineaste editor/film fanatic about town Richard Porton... sighted Premiere.com's big Glenn Kenny sitting a few rows in front of us, and invited him back to sit with us for the big collective peep...

And lo and behold, it was a DAMN GOOD Stones concert film (well, the band is usually never better than totally awesome live, so that was no big surprise)...with a few choice historical clips sprinkled throughout (shame whomever won't release Andrew Loog Oldham and Peter Whitehead's "Charlie is My Darling" documentary, Andrew initiated that film when he was only 19 and not technically of age to sign a binding contract in the UK, so there has been some dispute as to its ultimate ownership--shame, as it is a profoundly amazing--and unsettling--film, as good in its way as "Don't Look Back")...

Caroline was in heaven throughout, the group played magnificently and looked fit and in fighting shape...

Only minor quibble from my end is that there was nary a full frontal shot of Brian or Bill to be seen (unless you count the footage of the Stones in drag shooting the picture sleeve for the "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow" single-yep, Stones got to Drag City first, before both Zappa and Bowie)..

Another memorable highlight from the last week or so, Caroline and I had a wonderful dinner with John Nichols, the Washington correspondent for "The Nation" (which should be required reading on your syllabus, class)...I heard John speak earlier that evening on March 25th at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen in New York up on West 44th Street, just down the road apiece from the Algonquin Hotel, as part of a lecture series sponsored by the magazine, he was erudite, provocative, witty, and very much to the point about the coming election (turns out he's an Obama supporter, as am I), he had quite a fan club rooting for him there in this magnificently paneled, august old Labor Library (I once heard my childhood friend Walter Horn deliver a lecture to the Henry George Society there, it's a fantastic space unknown to most Manhattanites), the audience was mixed race and mixed age, Old Lefties and young informed activists abounding--the guy should really run for office himself as he is quite the charismatic and persuasive speaker on the big issues that really count, or should count, to us all...in short, a very cool guy...Gore Vidal described him thusly: "Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols’s sword is the sharpest."

Afterwards I invited John downtown to dine and hang with me and Caroline at our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Pepe Verde.. literally, a West Village hole-in-the-wall boasting really fresh and delicious home-cooked Italian food...

and what can I say, it was one of the best meals we've shared with anyone in a long long while, John was delightful and had us in stitches (I mean, anyone who can switch from informed gossiping about the candidates to discussing the relative merits of Blue Oyster Cult vs. Black Sabbath is alright in my book!)...

Always good to make a new friend--sadly, a precious commodity not that easy to come by the older one gets (just you bear in mind/true friends is hard to find/yr gonna need somebody on your bond)...

but in John's case it was really effortless, delightful fun getting to know him better...

and you should know him better as well, dear reader...

check out John Nichols' blog at http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat


Some things just stick in your mind...

xxLove


Gary

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Posted By Gary Lucas to Gary Lucas at 4/02/2008 10:55:00 AM