My mild obsession with the Rolling Stones, I mean.
Since I finished reading Keith Richards' autobiography, Life, my love for him and all things Rolling Stones has only grown. I'm still working on building my collection of Stones albums, and I'm trying to do that slowly so that I can spend some time with individual albums as I get them, and really feel them out and establish them in their proper place in my head, as if that makes sense to anyone but me. I think Exile on Main Street might be my favorite favorite album of all time, now that I've spent a good deal of time with it. I don't mean just that it's my favorite Stones album, but it's like, my favorite album ever. And I don't really believe in favorites, but there's something about that album that's just mind-blowing. I think part of it is the whole tax exile - living in a mansion in southern France - recording with a driveable studio, with wires snaking all over that shady basement - everyone's in a different room, suited to make their instrument or voice sound the best - it's hot as fuck - there's no air moving around - everyone's high, and most of them are also half naked - they're recording all night long - or whenever the mood suits - it sounds dirty and gritty and just fucking brilliant. This is a whole post to itself. I'm serious, it's already mostly written, I'm just working out the kinks and waiting for the right time to drop it. It'll be another thesis.
In addition to acquiring all of the albums though, J is harassing me endlessly right now about the DVDs. I admit that I'm obsessed, and I try not to push it on him or anyone else. That's what this blog is for, right? I asked for Shine a Light, the recent Scorsese concert film, for Christmas, sight unseen. But just after asking for it, one Friday or Saturday night that we were spending at home cooking recently, it was on VH1 and I caught it from the beginning. So good. If you like the Stones, this makes for amazing background while you're cooking or doing whatever it is you do at home. It's worth owning, for sure. In addition to that, I've recently watched Stones in Exile a couple of times, as well as Gimme Shelter and Sympathy for the Devil. Since Exile is probably my favorite album ever, I also can't get enough of watching the documentary about the making of it. Like I said, I think that whole story really adds to how much I love the album as a whole. Lucky for me it's currently available On Demand from Netflix, so I can watch it whenever I want. But again, this all goes with that other thesis of a post . . .
Gimme Shelter was excellent. The whole section about Altamont was really why I wanted to see it in the first place, and it lived up to the hype as far as all that is concerned. Yup, a Hell's Angels "security guard" totally just stabbed that dude. Wow. And it's all on film. Sure the dude had a gun, but there wasn't a better way than multiple stab wounds in the back? He was later let off by a jury, finding it to be self-defense because the victim had a gun. No doubt, he was probably planning to use that gun for no good purpose, but still. How society has changed, huh? Not that people don't still get stabbed, and they get stabbed or shot at concerts still, that hasn't changed, but I just mean that no one would ever even think about attempting to put on a show like that nowadays, I don't think. You'd be crazy to try, and it would be SO expensive to pull off. Free? With a couple of the biggest bands in the world? For 300,000 people? With the Hell's Angels working security and getting paid in beer? Sure! Why not, what could possibly go wrong? Zoinks. The Dead pulled out and decided not to play because it was all getting too violent for them. Good for them. Even aside from that, though, it was a good movie. Again, great background, like any music film is bound to be.
I just watched Sympathy for the Devil, though, and that was a whole different kind of movie. I picked it up because about half of it chronicles the recording sessions for the song of the same name, and follows it from its beginnings as a slow, folky tune through various incarnations and phases as it worked its way into the groovy, fun dance tune that we all know and love. For that, I was in awe. Being the way that I am and obsessing the way that I do about certain bands, songs, etc., it was very cool to me to be able to watch a song that I love so much grow and change and get written. It really captured the feeling in the studio, and in that way, at least for me, it's absolutely a film worth watching. However. However. The other half of the film (and it's not like the first half and second half, it cuts back and forth) is a big clusterfuck of a French "statement" of some sort. I'm still not sure what sort of statement it's meant to be, though. Frankly, I started fastforwarding through the French film stuff as the recording stuff started to feel like the song was really coming together. There's the beginnings of a few other songs on there too - just in the form of the band getting in the studio to jam and see what comes out. I don't know, there's just something about watching music being made that really impresses me.
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