The Rolling Stones and Philosophy_ It's Just a Thought Away - Luke Dick [42]
7
Zen and the Art of Being a Stones Fan
PHILIP MERKLINGER
I’m a serious man with serious lusts.
—“Summer Romance,” Emotional Rescue
Recent reports say that The Rolling Stones are planning once again to go on tour. News like that automatically evokes in me memories of Stones concerts past, and a serious lust for Stones concerts future.
For me, The Stones truly shine live! I would even argue that on their worst days, their live concerts are far better than those of any other band. I have so enjoyed Stones concerts that I divide my life into periods: the Tour of The Americas (1975) signifies my movement from high school and being a teenager into my early twenties; the Some Girls Tour (1978) signifies my movement from ordinary undergraduate university student into passionate lover of philosophy; the Keith Richards Concert for the Blind (1979) signifies only itself, a moment of sheer ecstasy.
This is familiar terrain for most people. We always use concerts, weddings, graduations and so on to mark time. But mapping out my life by Stones concerts prompts me to remember not only what I was doing at various times in my life but also what it felt like ‘from the inside’ doing those things. ‘From the inside’? The subjective ‘feel’ or, ‘feeling-tone’, of what it was like being me. From the inside, the songs of the Rolling Stones are a soundtrack to my life.
If you’ve seen The Stones in concert, you know that going to a Stones concert has it own set of concerns, such as:
Anxiety over tickets
Getting good tickets is usually the least of my concerns. Invariably I have to be concerned about getting tickets, period. Fortunately, I am fanatical enough to feel blessed just to be able to be in the building.
I remember getting tickets for the Voodoo Lounge Tour concert in Toronto. Since I live a couple of thousand miles from Toronto, my father, at the time seventy-six years old, drove to Toronto and stood in line for six hours in order to purchase them for me. Not surprisingly, others in line were very curious about Dad. He said that he responded: “Oh, because Keith is my favorite.” This response is tremendously funny if you knew my Dad. He is straight (in all ways possible), conservative, and deeply religious. He would never dream of smoking a cigarette let alone smoking a joint, but he always supported my love of music. I played The Stones (and other favourite bands)—loud—while he read the paper.
Exponentially growing anticipation
Waiting for the day of the concert to arrive seems to never end. Time stretches out for infinity and as each new pre-concert day arrives. I feel that I simply cannot take it. It has to happen now! So, I immerse myself in live recordings of The Stones. That eases the pain somewhat. Then, concert day arrives, and suddenly I don’t yet feel ready for it. But off I go, my normal life completely disrupted, caught up in the frenetic swirl of getting to the concert on time.
Opening notes of the concert
This is the moment that makes the expense, the anxiety, and the disruption worth it. Any Stones fan will know the mystical magic of the opening notes. Usually it’s Keith’s guitar sounding those notes (although on the Voodoo Lounge Tour it was Charlie’s drums, kick-starting all of us in the audience, to rise up as if one and ascending into sonic heaven, laughing, dancing, singing, weeping, yelping, and in general giving thanks all at the same time. Sheer ecstasy! Then we know that once again our gods are defying divine protocol so that we can be graced by their presence. In the words of Sam Cutler, circa 1969:
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Greatest Rock’n’Roll Band in the World, … The Rolling Stones!
It there a more holy invocation of the divine than this?
The concert itself
Once it starts, it goes quickly, so I try to imprint every moment on my memory banks, as well as