By John Ammirati
The first and last piece of music
journalism I ever wrote was for my high school newspaper back in 1997: a review
of the then-new Rolling Stones album Bridges to Babylon. At fifteen, I
was an uncritical Stones obsessive, and in my article I gushed over
their 'latest masterpiece', hailed the record 'an instant classic', kissed the
band's Royal Ass like only a teenage fan or Mojo can.
That
was half my life ago . . .
The
Stones have only released one studio album since then, 2005's A Bigger Bang,
and now in 2012 we're celebrating/ deriding their existence as a band for fifty
long, long years.
But
as far as the World is concerned (World = the general public who like the odd
Stones single and probably have a scratched copy of Forty Licks
collecting dust in their parents' attic), the Stones haven't had a “hit” since
1981's Microsoft jam, 'Start Me Up'.
Even
most Fans (those of us with the Stones embedded in our DNA, who see the
world through a tongue-and-lips-shaped
veil) gag at the thought of Reagan-era Stones, and feel underwhelmed by the
band's meagre output since.
So
out of those fifty years, it's really only the first ten (for Die-Hard Golden
Era Fans) to twenty (for Less Tight-Ass Fans, music doesn't end with Exile
on Main St.) years that are worth commemorating.
Let's get personal: Yes, the Stones are some Corporate Sell-Out Motherfuckers to a degree that would shame Moby.
Yes,
they've been endorsed by both Bill Clinton and Queen Elizabeth, and Yes,
they really did release the song 'Might As Well Get Juiced' without
apology.
However.
In
their defence I would like to spotlight seven hot rocks from the past
thirty-odd years that whip the hell out of 'Ruby Tuesday' and heaps of their
other Sacred Output:
All About You (Emotional Rescue, 1980)
Heaven (Tattoo You, 1981)
She Was Hot (Undercover, 1983)
Slipping Away (Steel Wheels, 1989)
Jump On Top of Me (B-Side from Voodoo Lounge, 1993)
How Can I Stop (Bridges To Babylon, 1997)
Rain Fall Down (A Bigger Bang, 2005)
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