The Rolling Stone interviews - Jann Wenner [42]
That was the one thing in it . . . But, you see, I wrote this thing about these kids in Fort Worth virtually realizing that they weren’t going to come back and that the big moment was over and the whole thing, and then they’re drifting out into this ghastly July heat, gradually fading away into these dark nights with a street lamp on every other street.
Andy: Well, who is like the number one person? How does it go down there? Is Mick really considered the whole thing?
Truman: Mm. Hmm.
Andy: He is?
Truman: Yes. Mick and Keith Richard. I mean, they are the Rolling Stones. . . .
Andy: But the other kids are really nice. I mean, Charlie Watts is really nice. . . .
Truman: Oh, he couldn’t be nicer, yes. But that’s not the point. When you get right down to it, the two people who really are running the show . . .
Andy: But then it goes back to your idea when you were saying that you felt sorry for the audience, because when the Stones left them, it was negative stuff. Well, the audience wants that.
Truman: The audience wants to hear the music. The audience wanted to keep on feeling good. The audience wanted to keep on dancing and huggin’, shakin’, rockin’, rollin’ . . .
Andy: But they did it themselves on stereo while they were gone.
Truman: But it’s ridiculous. I think Mick’s one of those people who has that peculiar androgynous quality, like Marlon or Garbo, transferred into a rock & roll thing, but it’s quite genuine. I mean, there’s nothing transvestite about it—it’s just an androgynous quality. And it has something that’s very sexy and amusing about it, and it appeals to both boys and girls in the audience, aside from just natural talent. It’s a very special sort of quality. Brando has it par excellence. And Garbo always had it—it was always the secret of her great success. And in his own strange way, I don’t know, Montgomery Clift had it. He just has it. There’s something totally asexual about it. But it doesn’t offend the boys in the audience or even excite them, to some degree, and it turns on the girls to a great degree, and it’s part of the whole unisex syndrome. Don’t you think?
Andy: Yes. Does it have morbidity?
Truman: Not for me. I just don’t know where it goes from here, because I don’t know where the Rolling Stones go from here. I don’t know if that particular group and the particular thing that they do can go on for more than a year or two. I think Mick’s whole career depends on whether he can do something else. I’m sure he’ll go on. I just don’t know in what area.
Andy: Why did you go on the tour in the first place?
Truman: I was talked into it . . . ohhh, I don’t know . . . Jann Wenner kept sending me these telegrams about it. And then I just sort of thought, “Oh, well . . .” And then I just got kind of caught up in it. And then about halfway through, I knew I wasn’t going to do it, and from that point on it was just sort of gradually phasing it out.
I think they have a fantastic drive and professionality that holds up in its way. I’ve always liked, basically, rock & roll per se, and of a certain kind of band, they’re the best. Now everybody says, “Oh, they’re over the hill,” and this and that, and I don’t agree with that. How much can you say? The Rolling Stones are first-rate. I personally prefer them on records to the performances. . . .
Andy: Jann wants to know, “What do you see as the predominant themes running through the recent albums?”
Truman: Well, I don’t see any themes running through their songs. It’s just like you—taking Polaroid photographs all night long, or . . . I think when they’re good, it’s really by accident, even though everything about them is rehearsed down to the last degree. The Beatles’ songs very often made some sense, but I can’t think