For me, it began the summer of 1989. Having just finished my third-grade year, the family was moving from Columbus, Ohio to Bedford, Texas. Our mode of travel was a tan-ish Toyota Corolla Station Wagon.
During this impressionable period of my life, two key developmental traits sprang from the journey southward: My love of the open road and The Rolling Stones.
We’ll talk some other time about my fondness for being behind the wheel of an automobile on any of America’s highways and bi-ways, windows down in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, relying only on an actual map to get wherever we’re going. For now however, in light of the fifty-year anniversary of The Rolling Stones, it only seems proper to give respect where it’s due, and when.
Fifty-years ago on July 12 was the first time The Rolling Stones played live. Since that time, as the band’s own website will inform, or remind those who need it, the band has released “92 singles, 29 studio albums, 10 live albums and more songs than you can count.”
Back in 1989, as my brother and I shared the family’s walkman with a duel headphone jack, with the wheels of the cassette player turning and blasting The Rolling Stones into our child-sized ears, the full breadth and scope of who and/or of what The Rolling Stones are (and as I would later learn, have always been) was more than I could comprehend.
Since that time, to say I fully recognize and understand the impact that The Rolling Stones have had on the world, on the universe even, would be a stretch. Try as I might, The Rolling Stones posses more than any one man can rightfully appreciate.
The likes of them, arguably, will never be seen (or heard from) again. As true as it was in 1962, The Rolling Stones are the greatest rock and roll band of all time, and to date, they’ve been proving that for fifty-years.
While many maintain that The Beatles are the pinnacle of achievement, it’s worth noting that they quit. That they gave up. That they gave in to infighting, bickering and selfishness.
The Stones, however, have rolled through just about everything. The core of the band was born in and around World War II ravished London; members have come and gone – even died. They had Altamont, were effectively exiled from their homes in England, and though frustrations undoubtedly arose in-between and for each band member, The Rolling Stones channeled everything to the creative process of creating without question the quintessential blue-print for groundbreaking rock and roll, of what it means to be star.
We live in a time where we have to be told who is an “idol” and who can “dance.” Having said that, know this; no one has “moves like Jagger” other than Mick himself. As for a band who comes anywhere near the notion of an idol, or god worthy of being adorned in praise, The Rolling Stones are it. Remember, their last release was “A Bigger Bang.”
Clearly I have an affinity towards The Rolling Stones, and so should you. In the infinitely expanding universe, The Rolling Stones legacy will continue to expand. Their imprint on the present, all fifty-years of it (and its subsequent effect on everything around us), knows no equal. Not Mozart, not Bach and never Bieber.
For what it’s worth, and feel free to laugh along or believe me when I say that The Rolling Stones saved my life, made it better and far more tolerable – I know they’ll do the same for you. If you need a song suggestion, just let me know.
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