Birth

1935. Songwriter Les Reed ("It's Not Unusual", "There's A Kind Of Hush" and many more) born in Woking, Surrey.

On Tour

1964. Britain's biggest rock riot takes place during The Rolling Stones concert in Blackpool's Empress Ballroom. Blackpool is besieged by drunken Glaswegians, in the city for their annual holiday. Unfortunately hundreds of them are amongst the audience of 9,000. Things turn sour when Keith Richards objects to Brian Jones being spat at by youths at the front of the stage. He retaliates with his boot, first standing on someone's hands and then kicking another in the face. Within moments, the band are running for their lives.

It takes several hours for calm to be restored. By that time more than £ 2,000 worth of Stones' equipment has been smashed, curtains in the hall are pulled down, seating is destroyed and the ballroom's chandelier damaged. Two policemen and thirty members of the audience require treatment at Blackpool's Victoria Hospital.

The band are booked in to spend the night at a hotel in Preston, twenty miles away and hastily arrange a round the clock police guard in case they've been followed.

In Custody

1996. Rapper Warren G is arrested at the Los Angeles gay and lesbian nightclub Peanuts following the discovery of a loaded 9mm assault weapon in his trunk. Police are called to a disturbance outside the club and notice the truck which matches the description of one used in an armed robbery last week.

The rapper later holds a press conference to admit that he was arrested at the club but insists he was there on a lesbian only night (?). He is released on $ 10,000 bail and will appear in court on August 16th to face charges of possessing a concealed loaded weapon.

In Church (well, almost)

1999. Following their civil marriage yesterday, Phil Collins, 48, and his new bride Orianne Cevey, 27, have a religious blessing at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel in Lausanne, Switzerland. After the ceremony, a lavish reception is held in the hotel with guests including Eric Clapton.

During their stay at the hotel, Phil arranged for Jack (his Jack Russell Terrier) to have his own suite at a cost of £ 220 a night. Jack got a double bed, minibar, sunken bath and balcony. If that wasn't enough, a dog-sitter was booked to take Jack walkies, whenever the need arose. Orianne's mother didn't fare so well. While Jack was living it up in a suite, she had to make do with a standard room!

On Television

1968. Kraft Music Hall (NBC, U.S.A.) 84. The Turtles - "Elenore". 2m 33s.

Death

1972. Bobby Ramirez (drummer with Edgar Winter's White Trash) dies in a knife fight in a back alley off Rush Street, Chicago aged 23.

Go to Rockmine's main site here.

© Copyright 1995 - 2008 Rockmine Archives. Use of this content is prohibited unless licensed by Rockmine Archives.

Un ricercatore dell’Università di Chichester ha svolto un’approfondita indagine sul dispendio energetico e più in generale sull’organismo delle rockstar. Le conclusioni sono scontate, direi: come cantava Luca Carboni qualche anno fa, ci vuole un fisico bestiale per fare la rockstar...

Nella foto: Keith Richards, mitico chitarrista dei Rolling Stones, uno dei rocker dalla vita più sregolata mai vissuti sulla faccia del pianeta...

In 1998, The Rolling Stones released No Security, a live album that was one-hundred percent better than the studio album its tour was based on (Bridges to Babylon, 1997). The album cover features a concert photo of a long-haired, tattooed road hog, smoking a cigarette and wearing a sleeveless Stones-Lips t-shirt. Next to him is his girlfriend, a tattooed, body-pierced, anorexic road warrior with jet-black hair. This was the Stones! This was the band that released Exile on Main Street, that presided over murder and mayhem at Altamont. No Security was their best album in 17 years and the band hadn’t sounded better in 25 years.

I was at one of those shows. On stage, Mick Jagger was Dionysus himself, stirring all us male, female and gender-bending bacchae into a warped frenzy. Keith Richards pounded out licks on his rhythm guitar that were more thrilling than any battery-operated stimulant known to man or woman. Like Dylan with his last three albums, the Stones proved in one fell swoop that age means nothing; that, at any age, true rock geniuses can kick out the jams if they want to.

The key phrase there is “if they want to.” For that same 1998 tour, PBS filmed a Stones concert at the St. Louis TWA Dome that had all the sinister menace of an ice-cream social. There were no Hell’s Angels working security. There were no savage groupies rushing the stage. Mick and Keith worked the crowd of grownups with about as much daring as a clown at a First Communion party. And it’s not that they’re too old for their old antics now. Like I said, I was at one of the 1998 shows where they at least came close to replicating their Seventies salaciousness. What happened was that the Stones had sold out, become house-broken and user-friendly.

And I’m afraid they gave Martin Scorcese’s Shine A Light the same PBS-treatment. You know you’re losing your edge when your emcee is Bill Clinton in his tailored suit; when Hillary is just dying to introduce her elderly mother to your band. This film was shot live at an August 2006 charity concert for the William J. Clinton Foundation (on Clinton’s birthday) at the 2,800-seat Beacon Theater in New York City. The cost per ticket for this intimate affair ran into the thousands. Thus, I doubt the good folks on the No Security cover and their ilk were in attendance. Watching this exquisitely filmed benefit, however, you do see a lot of Susie Sunshine blondes and Midtown investment-banker types. You also see from the close-ups of their faces that they know almost none of the words to the songs.

Now, Mick can still move and Keith can still play. Mick still shakes that 23-inch waist for all its worth and Keith hooks into his chords something fierce. But while Mick’s voice has kept up, he bungles lyrics left and right and censors out many of the politically incorrect verses that helped make The Stones the bad boys of rock n’ roll. And please, Keith, don’t sing! You can’t remember the words and you look like you’re going to nod out over the mic. Stick to guitar! The playlist is perfect – “Loving Cup” (duet with Jack White, The White Stripes), “All Down the Line,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Brown Sugar,” “Some Girls” – but it’s all delivered with the verve of Peter, Paul and Mary. And why did Mick pick a pop tart like Christina Aguilera to duet with on, “Live With Me”? She’s got a voice, I’ll give her that, but no grit. The Stones should stick to blues and soul powerhouses like Buddy Guy, who gave us the one true-grit moment of the film, where he and Mick croon out Muddy Waters’ “Champagne and Reefer.”

Scorcese meant well. He did a great job of directing and editing too. But he picked the wrong show to film. Scorcese intersperses into the film ample Sixties and Seventies interviews with Mick, Keith, and drummer Charlie Watts. In some, Mick is making nice with British authority figures who find the Stones’ music and influence too ribald. (If you ask me, Mick has carried this diplomacy way too far, especially over the past couple decades. Artists shouldn’t have to apologize for their work.) In several other clips, you see the Stones as twenty and thirty-something rockers, fielding questions from interviewers who want to know how long the band thinks it can keep its act up. Okay, Marty, we get the point! They’re old and they’ve lasted! Can we move on now? Scorcese also films the opening sequences of Shine A Light in black-and-white, as if to harken back to the Stones’ salad days in Swinging London, an era which birthed timeless black-and-white rock films like Hard Day’s Night and Don’t Look Back. But The Stones aren’t living their 1960s glory now that they’re in their sixties.

Nor should they. Lest I leave the wrong impression, let me make clear that I’m not asking the Stones to do more X-Rated shows or start barroom brawls. For the past 15 years, what I’ve been asking them to do is precisely what they did in the Buddy Guy sequence of Shine A Light: Go back to your blues roots, Stones. Do what Dylan’s doing. Slow it down. Don’t try keeping up with know-nothing young bucks (though I do like The White Stripes - good choice there). Dig deep for soulful songs again. Stop pandering to stadium effects; you got enough money already.

Un documentario concerto che racconta quello che generalmente non si vede e che si trova dietro le quinte di uno spettacolo. Un concerto per beneficenza intervallato da interviste ai componenti della band e da documenti storici dove Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood e Charlie Watts appaiono giovanissimi e alle prime armi...

Due ore di spettacolo che volano via a suon di grandi successi e di Musica...due ore...peccato passino così in fretta!

Un breve recensione è presente a questo link: Recensione di "Rolling Stones - Shine a Light" di Martin Scorsese.

Birth

1949. Terry "Geezer" Butler (Black Sabbath) born in Birmingham, England.

On Tour

1998. Convicted murderess Pamela Keary escapes from prison in Minneapolis, telling fellow inmates she's going to see The Smashing Pumpkins who are playing the city this evening. Police arrest the 17 year old at the gig.

In Court

1966. A Munich court rules that The Rolling Stones do make music and not just noise. The city authorities had hoped that the court would find against the group and they could claim back £ 1,270 tax relief for "musical performances" on the group's concerts at Circus-Krone-Bau on September 14th last year.

In Politics

1985. Mr Barney Hayhoe, Minister Of State in the British Government, announces that the £ 190,000 in V.A.T., paid on tickets for Live Aid, will be waived. The tickets had not made it clear that the fee was voluntary and therefore would be excluded from the tax.

On Television

1976. Disco (ZDF, West Germany) 60. Silver Convention; Jürgen Drews; Rubettes; Bob Dylan (video clip); Peter Maffay; Martin Mann; Vicky Leandros; Smokie.

Death

1996. Chas Chandler (born Bryan James Chandler), member of The Animals, the man who "discovered" Jimi Hendrix and manager of Slade dies in hospital while undergoing tests for a heart aneurysm, aged 57.

Go to Rockmine's main site here.

© Copyright 1995 - 2008 Rockmine Archives. Use of this content is prohibited unless licensed by Rockmine Archives.

“Seguindo sua batalha contínua contra a dependência alcoólica, ele entrou num período de reabilitação”, disse o porta-voz. “Seus familiares e amigos mais próximos informaram que ele está procurando ajuda e tentando uma recuperação.”

O anúncio foi publicado em diversas agências internacionais, depois que tablóides britânicos noticiaram que o guitarrista, agora um senhor de 61 anos, fugiu para a Irlanda com uma jovem atendente de bar russa. A viagem acabou ocasionando o fim do seu casamento de 23 anos com sua antiga esposa.

O abuso de substâncias por Wood – entre elas o álcool - já é conhecido no meio musical. Certa vez, dizem publicações especializadas, ele estava tão dependente de drogas que o outro guitarrista, Keith Richards (que ironia!), teve que persuadir, às vezes com uma faca ou arma, Wood a ficar sóbrio.

Wood chegou a admitir, no ano passado, que sua mulher e o vocalista Mick Jagger recomendaram que ele entrasse em ma reabilitação antes da turnê de 2002 dos Stones. Em 1975, o guitarrista teve que ser submetido a uma cirurgia que colocou uma prótese de septo nasal no seu nariz, depois de anos de dependência de cocaína.

In 1970, on that farm in the desert, the cutest, most attractive guy there, in my estimation, was Peter Bagley. He was from New York City. He had a great dog and a volkswagen bug. He was funny, smart and practical and had lots of black curls.

He was also tall, Taurus and taken. A lovely woman named Cheryl shared his space. She knew a good thing when she saw it.

Sharing space. What a concept.

I can't quite remember now who actually lived in the little white farm house.

I think it was Traube Dick. His name was actually Richard Traube. His mother was a Park Avenue Psychiatrist. He was flambouyantly gay and sweet with blonde curly hair and was the oldest among us. Probably in his 40's. He must have been responsible for a regular influx of cash.

I believe the charming wastrel, Fireman Bob, turned Traube's name around to highlight the "dick."

 Dick is standing on the far left in the group photo. To his right, standing in the upper row is another guy named Dick (Cheryl's ex) Kathy from Ohio and Ed Red Van. In the middle row: Cheryl, Big John and Flute John. Front row seated are Dick Traube's dog, Bill Lashbrook, Little John, Cheryl's dog and Peter Bagley and his dog.

Fireman Bob had the coolest old bread truck. I think it was an International Harvester. It rocked and he loved to coast over the hills on the main road from Hemet, CA to see how far he could go without the aid of using the gas pedal or the brakes.

Though there were two bedrooms in the farm house most of us preferred to live "outside." There were two long stable like structures that had been converted into individual quarters. They were divided into simple rooms with sturdy wood stoves made from large, 50-gallon oil drums.

It was very rustic and charming.

I roomed with Alice (see pix) before she and Bill hooked up. In our space we had one full mattress, rocks Alice had collected on her walks around our acreage, a book by Alan Watts, a few items of clothing, backpacks, boots and my Silvertone guitar.

Oh, yeah and this tome, "Living on the Earth" by Alicia Bay Laurel was always at hand. Old School DIY.

We'd all hang out together in the living room of the farm house where the turntable was set up. In addition to Leonard Cohen and the mighty Taj Mahal, we had the Rolling Stones. Somebody would put on "Little Queenie" and Traube Dick would dance, his long golden ringlets bouncing in rhythm with Keith Richards borrowed Chuck Berry chunka chunka rhythm. We'd dance and laugh and then spill out into the moolight to smell the sage.

The more boisterous of us, usually Big John and Little John, would occassionally indulge in philosophizing about the ways of the world. Big John was tall and blessed with good looks. Little John was short but determined to overcome his deficit in stature.

Big John was none too bright nor motivated. In contrast, Little John was wildly ambitious. Big John often punctuated his talk with a physical enactment of the phrase "big fucking deal." The word "big" required that he stand up wave his arms in a wide arc. "Fucking" required a couple of hip pumps and "deal" brought on a feigned dealing out of poker cards. That was his theater. It broke up the room when things got a little too sedate.

After too much wine Little John would strip naked as proof that we really were living free from the moral bondage of previous decades. Hardly anyone ever joined him in his nakie-ness.

Little John eventually took up with "the foxiest chick" in the town of Aguanga. Some pretty little girl who had been blessed with four kids by the time she was 19 and then left on her own to deal. Little John was no fool. He recognized the opportunity and he really was good with those kids.

The farm house had a large kitchen with an enormous stove. An old fashioned stove that could and did literally hold a 50-pound turkey.

How do I know? Let me tell you about Mike Eppley.

Again, it was November, 1970 and that means for those who clung to tradition, Thanksgiving.

One of the animals on the farm was a turkey named Mike Eppley. I never asked why he was stuck with that moniker. Must have been named after someone with whom he shared certain traits. This was one very well-fed turkey. It grew and grew. By November M.E. was more than ready to be the star element of a very big holiday feast.

Everybody was invited.

As you may expect Mike Eppley became a point of contention. There were vegetarians and there were meat-eaters who wanted to live out their back to the old ways, grab-a root-and-growl fantasies. They wanted the agrarian life their grandpas had -- slaughter their own livestock, drink the milk of their own goats, eat the eggs of their own chickens and pull the vegetable out of their own fields.

Yes, somebody made a big lasagna. The veggie people did dairy. But they frowned, post-Thanksgiving, on those that snacked on Mike Eppley's drumstick thighs.

I'm Learning!

My family's picnic is coming up on August 3rd. I hope to have the book, "Coping With The Cubs: A Life of Depression, A Year of Hope" completed and published online before then so I can crow about it to all my kin. Also, I've been working on getting down the main guitar part for "Brown Sugar," perhaps my favorite pop song of all time, so I can play it for my nephew Doug, the aspiring musician of the clan. Doug loves the acrobatic-fingered virtuosos like Joe Satriani, whereas I prefer rhythmic kings like Keith Richards.

I bought my first guitar in January and have been teaching myself how to play. My pal Skip Frank, the trombonist and former Louisville-area high school music teacher, has given me a few theory pointers but mainly I've depended on instructional books and You Tube vids. It's a slow learning process but I'm taking tiny steps forward all the time. One obstacle is that my fingers are sausage-like and I have the genetic misfortune to have been born with spatulated digits, meaning my fingertips are abnormally flat and rounded. That makes it only slightly easier for me to master a musical instrument than for an arthritic butcher to become a neurosurgeon.

A Normal Human Hand Over A Big Mike Hand

Still, I'm pretty proud of myself for taking on the challenge in my 50s.

As for the book, my feelings about it are baffling. I love it and hate it. Sometimes I read what I've written and think I'm one of the finest scribes who's ever trod the Earth. Other times I fear my mother won't even take the time to read it. I suppose that's the emotional lot of all writers. Then again, I saw Joyce Carol Oates on a panel discussion yesterday and wondered why I couldn't be more like her. Oates has written 49 complete novels and eight novellas and has published 32 short story collections, at least eight plays, and countless essays, poems, young adult books and children's stories. What the hell kind of coffee does that woman drink?

Books Written By Oates Last Week

Oates has been quoted as saying, "I'm drawn to failure. I feel that I'm contending with it constantly in my own life." My response, with all due respect, is "Joyce, shut up." I can give her lessons in failure.

Failure, oddly enough, has been missing from the Wrigley Field world this season. We go into the mid-season all-star break with the Cubs tied with the Los Angeles Angels for the best record in baseball. The team is clicking on most cylinders and has about 47 players on the all-star team. How weird and unlikely would it be for the Cubs to end their World Series victory drought precisely at the one-hundred-year mark? Not that I'm betting on it, of course. As I've moaned here previously, the Tampa Bay Goddamned Rays will win the Fall Classic this year, defeating the North Side boys. It's only fitting.

"Apres moi...,"

Ben Joravsky continues to lambaste the Farouk of the Fifth Floor (aka: Mayor Richard M. Daley) in the Chicago Reader. If you're not up on Bennie's work on the Mayor's power grabs and tax-financed war chest you're missing some of the finest muckraking journalism in the country today.

I understand the Immortal Milo Samardzija has just about completed yet another novel, this one with a science fiction tinge. Sheesh, he must be drinking Joyce Carol Oates' brand of coffee. Anyway, get on "Schoolboy" right now so you can read this new tome when it comes out. The guy sure knows how to splotch a piece of paper with ink.

Oh, and keep a block of time open for "Coping With The Cubs."

Big Mike

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction es una de las grandes canciones de rock de todos los tiempos. Compuesta por Mick Jagger y Keith Richards se lanzó como single en Estados Unidos el 6 de julio de 1965.

Fue el primer número uno de los Rolling Stones en Estados Unidos y se mantuvo durante dos semanas (sustituyendo a ‘I Got You Babe’ de Sonny & Cher). Ésta canción determina a los Rolling Stones en otro de los miembros fundamentales de la ‘Invasión Británica’.

The Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - (1969)

The Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - (1997)

A source told Britain’s The Sun newspaper: 'Ekaterine is absolutely besotted with Ronnie. She has told everyone Ronnie has left his wife for her and they are a full-on item. She said she went to Ronnie’s house in London and met his wife Jo.

'She said Jo had told her she knew what was going on and begged her not to take her husband away. Ekaterine claimed she told Jo, 'I am not taking him. He is leaving.’ She and Ronnie have been seeing each other ever since.'

However, Jo – who married Ronnie in 1985 – has branded Ekaterine 'mad' and claimed the pair are not having an affair. She also claims Ronnie – who has been treated for alcoholism – has started drinking again and says she knew he was going to Ireland to have a drinking session with Ekaterine.

Jo said: 'Ekaterine is mad – she is a terrible alcoholic. I know her – she’s been here. She’s a friend and he’s a guy.

'Ronnie’s been drinking heavily – maybe two bottles of vodka a day. I was quite alright that she was hanging around with him. They have been staying in Ireland and Ronnie’s art man was with them. Ronnie told me she was staying there and I said, 'OK – get on with it and have a drink, go mad. Drink your guts up.’ They’re not boyfriend and girlfriend, not in that way.'

Ronnie is believed to have met Ekaterine in a bar in April after the London premiere of 'Shine A Light’, Martin Scorsese’s documentary about the Rolling Stones.

Music News

Birth

1947. Jeff Hanna (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) born in Detroit, MIchigan.

On Stage

1973. Lonesome Stone, a Christian rock musical, opens at London's Rainbow Theatre. The production charts the history of the Jesus revolution amongst hippies and students in the U.S.A. As well as a cast made up of volunteers from The Jesus Family the show features the rock group, Sheep. Described as a multi-media experience, Lonesome Stone employs the latest back-projection techniques.

In Fashion

1992. Jerry Garcia (The Grateful Dead) launches a range of eight ties featuring his designs. They go on sale everywhere from Bloomingdales in New York to Tie Rack in the U.K. He's never seen wearing one himself but President Bill Clinton gets a full set which he does wear.

In Hospital

1977. Garrie Lammin rhythm guitarist with Cock Sparrer has his hand stitched at hospital after being slashed by a broken bottle after tonight's gig at The Music Machine in London's Camden High Street. Mr. Lammin, ever the gent, had gone to the aid of a punk maiden being hassled outside the venue by some Teddy Boys.

Talking of Mr. Lammin; his concern over Keith Richards problems in Canada, prompted him to write to NME. The letter, published in the July 23rd edition, reads: "If Keef goes down for life, can ya please ask him if I can have his Dan Armstrong?".

On Television

1996. Late Show With David Letterman (CBS, U.S.A.) Musical guest: Garbage, making their network television debut, perform "Stupid Girl"

Death

2002. R&B singer and piano player, Rosco Gordon dies from a heart attach at his home in Rego Park in the New York burgh of Queens aged 74. Despite having a string of hits (on the R&B charts) in the 1950s and 60s, he made little money from his songs. He quit the music business in the early 60s after he learnt that he'd lost the rights to over 300 songs, including the R&B standard, "Just A Little Bit" which was covered by such diverse artists as Blue Cheer, Rory Gallagher, Etta James, Elvis Presley and Them. He moved to New York and bought into a dry cleaning business after winning a card game. In 1969, he launched his own label, Bab-Roc, from home, financed by profits from the dry cleaning and was eventually lured back to touring in 1981. His most recent album was "Memphis, Tennessee", released by the Canadian label, Stony Plain in 2000.

Babble

I'm at a bit of a loss today. It's another festival weekend and I haven't got a paddling pool deep enough for all the mud I'd need to make the cinema room a truly fulfilling experience. It's always hard to know what to do in these circumstances. I had considered taking the projector outside and having a festival weekend in the garden but I just can't get enthusiastic about it.

So, it's going to be another weekend of recording all the different feeds on the Freeview and terrestrial channels and never getting time to edit them to disc. The big news for this weekend is that I've reworked the whole rockmine.tv concept and will have a one-page link to EVERY YouTube clip I've included in the blog. It really does make for interesting viewing and a great way of wasting time at home or at  work. Needless to say, I'll post the news when it's online. 

Go to Rockmine's main site here.

© Copyright 1995 - 2008 Rockmine Archives. Use of this content is prohibited unless licensed by Rockmine Archives.

For someone who has spent the past 30 years in the most famous rock ’n’ roll band of all time, Ronnie Wood really doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He never has. It’s probably the crowd he runs with.

In the mid-’60s, after a short stint with influential Pop-art rockers the Creation, of “Making Time” fame, Wood was drafted to play bass in the Jeff Beck Group, Beck’s post-Yardbirds solo outing. Along with an unknown singer named Rod Stewart, the group released Beck-ola and Truth—groundbreaking albums that blueprinted the English interpretation of Chicago blues, and made way for the coming of hard rock and heavy metal.

But it was in the early ’70s, when Ronnie and Rod joined Brit soul sensations the Small Faces, that Wood’s astounding guitar playing was first truly showcased. Abbreviating the band name to the Faces, the band released three powerhouse records—Long Player, A Nod is As Good as a Wink … To a Blind Horse, and Ooh La La. From the screaming, sleazy bar rock of “Stay With Me” and “You’re So Rude” to tender, fragile ballads like “If I’m On the Late Side” and “Debris,” penned by the great Ronnie Lane, the Faces could have an audience tearing out the seats one second and crying in their beers the next.

With a legendary, booze-soaked live show, the band was a rolling, five-year blowout, musically driven by Wood’s beautifully disheveled playing. Reversing the guitar trend of the early ’70s, Ronnie’s cranked, open-tuned guitar would blast out ear-shattering, overdriven rhythm, then clean up for sweet, melodic leads. With amazing slide playing, and slinky, tremolo-drenched shuffles, Wood’s playing with the Faces is a revelation: loose and grooving, always in the pocket, seemingly effortless. And when Wood closes the last Faces album with a vulnerable and heartfelt vocal performance on “Ooh La La”—his first on record, delivered while the band watched laughing from the control booth—the vulnerability of his voice and his swirling acoustic guitar lines perfectly underscore the regret in Ronnie Lane’s lyrics, becoming a fitting goodbye to the band. I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger, Wood sings. I wish that I knew what I know now when I was stronger.

After the Faces crumbled under the weight of Rod Stewart’s solo popularity in America, Wood contributed some beautiful acoustic and slide guitar to Stewart’s great early records, highlighting songs like “Gasoline Alley” and “Every Picture Tells a Story.” And then he got the call.

There’s no talking about Ron Wood without talking about the Rolling Stones. After all, the band has been his musical home since 1976. Called into the band by close friend Keith Richards, Wood replaced the dazzlingly fluid Mick Taylor. Wood came in blazing, adding a much-needed dose of humor and enthusiasm to the band, which was in a dark period of addiction, infighting, and minimal output. From the tough swagger of “Hand of Fate” to the dirty Chuck Berry boogie of “Star Star” and the stomping “It’s Only Rock and Roll,” Wood gave the Stones the full Faces treatment. By the time of the fast and ragged Some Girls, Wood was showcasing his full range of talents, from the soul slink of “Beast of Burden” to the lap steel sweetness of “Far Away Eyes.”

The surest way to discover a musical ignoramus—besides some idiotic impression of Bob Dylan’s singing—is when someone dismisses Wood as a pale imitation of Keith Richards. Those are rock ’n’ roll fighting words. For the past three decades, Wood and Richards have honed what they call the ancient art of weaving. Lead and rhythm parts spiral in and out of each other, as the two guitarists swerve and slide through the songs—delicately connected, creating and releasing tension, gracefully sliding through the melody and dancing around the rhythm.

It doesn’t happen because they are so similar—it happens because they are so different, and they can meet on the shared ground of the music they love. Richards is all Chuck Berry stomp and Muddy Waters sparseness. When the open-G chords chime from his guitar, it is clear that Richards is going back to Robert Johnson, going deep into the blues and early rock ’n’ roll that he has championed his whole life. Ronnie comes in, swinging, from the other end of American music—with sweet, slippery Memphis soul doublestops that recall Steve Cropper, Cornell Dupree, and Bobby Womack. Together, they meet at their shared love of Studio One Jamaican rhythm and crying, honky tonk ballads. Then they steep it all in some of the most incredible rock ’n’ roll songs ever written. And while the Stones may never have realized, the way Rod Stewart seemed to, just what a treasure they have found with Wood, they wouldn’t be the Stones without him.

Ronnie has recently gotten a little glimmer of the spotlight with the release of the new two-disc compilation Ronnie Wood Anthology: The Essential Crossexion. Wood’s work is broken down in two sections. The first disc compiles the best songs from his loose, good-natured solo albums of the early 70s, and the second disc is a career retrospective of his work in some of the best bands ever. The set goes all the way back to Wood’s first band, the Birds, and up to his fiery guitar workouts on “Black Limousine” from Tattoo You. It is an endearing portrait of an incredible career, as Wood’s ragged-but-right guitar playing and scratchy, earnest vocals tell the whole rowdy, weary story of his never-ending party.

-Ari Surdoval

Ron Wood and Keith Richards performing "Sure the One You Need" in 1974, with Ian MacLagan on piano.

Forget Elvis, God bless him. It was Chuck Berry—with his motormouth tales of hot rods and romance, and his freight-train take on T-Bone Walker—who invented rock ’n’ roll, shaking country and blues until they shattered and clattered out of radios all over the world. To this day, Berry is the guitarist all good guitarists must pass though. There is no getting anywhere down the road of rock ’n’ roll without paying a toll to him. The slurring doublestops that honk from his big Gibson jazz boxes and semi-hollows like a whole horn section, the revved-up shuffles of his right hand, the shouts of go, go! It's about the best sound rock 'n' roll ever offered.

It is the poetry of history that Muddy Waters pointed Chuck Berry toward his first deal, with Chess Records. Berry, already a hit in the rowdy blues bars and nightclubs of St. Louis, had traveled to Chicago to see Waters perform, and after the show introduced himself to his idol. Waters told Berry to go see Leonard Chess over on Michigan Avenue.

At Chess Studios, Berry performed a high-octane story of a car chase called “Ida Red,” a name cribbed from an old Bob Wills tune. Texas swing and Chicago blues, performed fast and loud by a preacher’s son hoping to dodge a life of hairdressing and housepainting: If that isn’t the birth of rock ’n’ roll, what is? Chess liked the song, heard money in its weird country two-step, and renamed it “Maybelline,” cribbing the new title from the lipstick ad in the magazine on his desk because he thought the kids would like it better. They did—from Liverpool to London, from Hibbing, Minnesota to Memphis, Tennessee. It was 1955, and Chuck Berry was inventing electric Shakespeare for teenagers.

Berry followed up his debut single with one classic after another. “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Reelin’ and Rockin’,” “Around and Around,” “Carol,” “School Days,” and the anthem that NASA chose to send up with the Voyager space probe so Martians would know we were cool: “Johnny B. Goode.” If Chuck Berry had written just one of those songs, he would have earned a reputation as one of the greatest of all time. The fact that he wrote all of them—and dozens more—makes his contributions beyond measure.

In the fascinating 1987 documentary Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll director Taylor Hackford (Ray) offers a heartfelt, but unflinching portrait of Chuck Berry, the icon and the man. Chronicling the events leading up to Berry’s triumphant 60th birthday concert at the Fox Theater in St. Louis, where he fronted an all-star band led by musical director and diehard Berry fan Keith Richards, the film has now been released on DVD by Image Entertainment as a four-disc treasure trove.

In addition to the newly mastered original film, there are three discs of unbelievable outtakes: Never-before-seen rehearsals and interviews with Richards and Eric Clapton, footage of Berry reminiscing with Robbie Robertson as they flip through Berry’s personal scrapbook, and more than three hours of interviews with Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others. Throughout it all, Berry comes across as gifted, suspicious, tough, loving, difficult, determined, and brilliant. It is an amazing portrait of a musical genius as he looks back on the triumphs and tragedies, rewards and rip-offs that came with blazing a musical trail the whole world followed.

-Ari Surdoval

By the time Johnny Thunders had arrived, he was already gone. Just 19 when he transformed from John Anthony Genzale, Jr.—the skinny Italian kid from Queens, New York who loved chicks and baseball and rock and roll—and hit Manhattan as Johnny Thunders—the sneering New York Dolls guitarist with a mop of teased hair, platform go-go shoes, and low-strung TV yellow Les Paul Junior—he was already a full-blown junkie.

Like some sad cross between Al Pacino in The Panic in Needle Park and Exile-era Keith Richards, Thunders took the myth of rock’s excess and stripped away the fairy tale to reveal the abscesses, dope sickness, loneliness, and self-destruction at the poisoned heart of it all. And with every breath he managed, Thunders both undermined and strengthened the lie. Like all junkies, Thunders was in love with his own self-destruction and blurred where his addiction stopped and he started, probably because Thunders never stopped. From the lurid, street-life specifics of “Too Much Junkie Business” (Well you run down to the corner baby, see what you can cop / You buy some for your sister and you take yours off the top) to the heartbreaking lament “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory” (Even though they don’t show, the scars are so old … You can’t put your arms around a memory / Don’t try), Thunders was a walking sharkskin incarnation of his own songs.

But boy, could he play guitar. From the growling shuffle of the Dolls’ “Jet Boy” to the pummeling power chords of the Heartbreakers’ “All By Myself,” from the incredible Live at Max’s Kansas City, the sound of Johnny Thunders punishing his Les Paul Junior is one of the greatest noises in the history of rock and roll. With his sloppy Chuck Berry leads and howling feedback, Thunders careened through rock guitar’s hall of fame like a wrecking ball.

After quitting the Dolls’ in mid-tour down in Florida because they were unable to get heroin, Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan—his partner-in-crime for the rest of his life—returned to New York and formed the Heartbreakers. The band released one album, 1977’s L.A.M.F. (”Like a Motherfucker”), and dedicated it to the drug dealers on the Lower East Side’s Norfolk Street.

Thunders sound and style with the Dolls and the Heartbreakers had a profound influence on the nascent English punk scene. Sex Pistols’ guitarist Steve Jones has professed embarrassment at how much he patterned himself after Thunders, and Joe Strummer name-checks Thunders on the Clash’s “City of the Dead.” But unfortunately, Thunders influence was more than musical. He is infamously credited with introducing heroin to the London scene on the chaotic 1977 Anarchy Tour that featured the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned, and the Heartbreakers.

In 1978, Thunders released So Alone, his one great solo album, featuring “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory” and cameos by Phil Lynott, Steve Marriott, and Chrissie Hynde. Soon after, the quality and quantity of his output became erratic. Throughout the 1980s he stumbled from band to band, struggling with his drug habit, on and off methadone maintenance. He was besieged by sycophants and copycats, dealers, and hangers-on, in the ugly twilight world of addiction and semi-stardom. He was never without his moments of greatness, though, and even late in his life he could summon up the power of his Junior with more charisma than most performers. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, Thunders died alone, in a New Orleans motel room in 1991, possibly of an overdose, possibly murdered for his supply of methadone. All by himself.

-Ari Surdoval

-London, England (AIP)

While the faces of Bob Dylan, Steven Tyler, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards have melted off, according to various sources, Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant still looks pretty decent.

The 59-year-old self-proclaimed "golden god" maintains a reasonable amount of tautness in his face and, unlike some of his contemporaries, has yet to frighten off any small children.

In an event that has long been expected by many, the face of rock legend Bob Dylan has finally melted off.

The Nobel Prize-nominated Rock and Roll Hall of Famer joins the company of other illustrious musicians—such as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Steven Tyler—whose faces have also melted off.

The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday

Como datos importantes: en la versión de estudio participa Jack Nitzche al piano y también hay que destacar las versiones de Rod Stewart (especialmente buena) y la del italiano Franco Battiato (que debido a su admiración por la canción no cambió nada, dejándola en una versión demasiado simple para él).

Franco Battiato - Ruby Tuesday

Rod Stewart - Ruby Tuesday

Birth

1950. Andy Ellison (John's Children) born in Leatherhead, Surrey.

On Tour

1966. President Ferdinand Marcos of The Philipines makes an official statement expressing regret at the treatment received by The Beatles when they left Manila earlier today. The moptops were shoved, kicked, spat at and told to "go to Hell" by Philipinos incensed at the group's treatment of their president's wife. They had been expected to visit the Presidential Palace between concerts but were unaware of any arrangements. At the airport, they were given no assistance with their luggage and escalators were turned off. Their flight was then delayed by 45 minutes while Brian Epstein was forced to settle a £ 6,600 tax bill for the two concerts. All this shortly after he had been knocked to the ground and kicked in a scuffle.

In Custody

1975. Keith Richards and Ron Wood are arrested along with aide Fred Sessler by the Arkansas Highway Patrol. Keith is questioned about carrying a concealed weapon, his swiss-army knife. He and Ron (who's done nothing) are released on bail of $ 162. Sessler, unfortunately, is found to be in possession of a quantity of cocaine. He is released on bail of $ 5,000.

In Hospital

1980. Bad Manners' gig at the Electric Ballroom in London's Camden turns nasty. At one point a member of the audience jumps onstage and tries to stab Douglas Trendle (a.k.a. Buster Bloodvessel). Before he has a chance to strike, Louis "Alphonso" Cook kicks him off the stage. Unfortunately, before the gig is over, a member of the audience is stabbed in the kidneys.

On Television

1975. Disco (ZDF, West Germany) 55. George Baker Selection - Paloma blanca; Demis Roussos - Schön wie Mona Lisa; Peter, Sue + Marc - In den Straßen von Belfast; Costa Cordalis - Es stieg ein Eingel vom Olymp; David Cassidy - Get it up for love; Marianne Rosenberg - Er gehört zu mir; Kenny - Fancy pants - and here they are!

Death

1998. Folk singer and broadcaster Danny Kyle dies in hospital in Paisley, Scotland aged 58.

Go to Rockmine's main site here.

© Copyright 1995 - 2008 Rockmine Archives. Use of this content is prohibited unless licensed by Rockmine Archives.

Anyway, I suppose I ought to advertise my 'so called friends' blogs so here we go: http://boredstudent.wordpress.com for Neil and http://jonespwns.wordpress.com for the loveable sheep-shagger Sam.

Anyway, onto more important matters, which are about the Rolling Stones, as they appear to have started playing on my iTunes. The Rollings Stones are a British Rock Band, started in the 60's and have released such hits as (I cant get no) Satisfaction, Gimmie Shelter, Brown Sugar and many more, and I reckon are awsome.  Listen to them and tell me when they are touring next because I need to go see them live. Well I dont suppose im in a hurry, if Keith Richards is still alive after all this,  then he must be immortal, so im ok.

I dont care what Neil says, the Rolling Stones are awsome.

Birth

1946. Tim Lynch (The Flamin' Groovies) born in San Francisco, California.

On Tour

1972. The Rolling Stones arrive in Boston but after a scuffle at the airport, Mick Jagger, Marshall Chess and film-maker Robert Frank are charged with obstructing police officers and Keith Richards is charged with assaulting a photographer and a journalist. With the band playing Boston's Garden Theater tonight, the city's mayor, Kevin White, bails them out of jail. The band hits the stage two hours late but no-one seems to care. The mayor is given a standing ovation by the audience.

In Politics

1972. Frank Sinatra appears before the U.S. House Crime Select Committee in Washington, D.C. and accuses it of irresponsibly letting a convicted felon "bandy his name about". He told the packed hearing that it was "character assassination" and said they should have immediately refuted claims, made during the testimony of Joseph "The Baron" Barboza, that the singer was a front-man for the Mafia in the Fontainbleau and Sands hotels in Miami and Las Vegas. Joseph Phillips, counsel for the committee, said that Barboza made the allegations when he was being asked about unrelated matters, without any prompting.

In Court

1966. William Oliver Smedley, 54, an accountant and former vice-president of the Liberal Party, appears in court at Saffron Walden, Essex, charged with the murder of Reginald Calvert, 37, head of the Radio City pop radio station. Smedley is reported to have sparked the incident on the night of 19th June, when he and a boarding party visited the old wartime fort at Shivering Sands, where the radio station is based. They immobilized the transmitter and left some men to guard it. It's thought the action was taken to stop the sale of the radio station to an American company. As a result, Calvert had visited Smedley at home on June 21st. Smedley said he feared for his life and admitted to police that he shot Calvert. Mr. Peter Palmes, prosecuting, said that the only weapon Calvert carried was a small tear gas pen. The hearing continues tomorrow.

On Television

1975. The Midnight Special (NBC, U.S.A.) 125. Host: Helen Reddy. Guests: Mac Davis; Minnie Riperton; Waylon Jennings; Steve Martin; Joe Simon. Here's Minnie Riperton with "Lovin' You".

Death

1966. Bobby Fuller's body is found in his parked car in Los Angeles. He had been badly beaten and had been forced to swallow gasoline which killed him. Strangely, the police put the 22 year old's death down to suicide and a coroner's report, which ignored the bruising, agreed. It was only later after an investigation that details of the true circumstances were revealed. Rumours circulating at the time suggested that he'd been having an affair with the wife of a mafia gangster.

Go to Rockmine's main site here.

© Copyright 1995 - 2008 Rockmine Archives. Use of this content is prohibited unless licensed by Rockmine Archives.