The Rolling Stones and Philosophy_ It's Just a Thought Away - Luke Dick [43]
Unfortunately, this news of an upcoming Stones tour also carries a touch of grey, that this is a farewell tour! They have got to be kidding. After all these years of The Stones denying that this is ‘the last time’ they are now saying ‘yes’? Unbelievable.
Of course, we diehard Stones fans refuse to believe such nonsense. We always wait for the official announcement from The Rolling Stones office. (This is an unspoken Stones-fan maxim: do not believe any media reports which has not been officially confirmed.) We believe deep down inside that they have to play until they ‘drop’ (dead), perhaps even on stage. Their blues idols—Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Howling Wolf, and the others—didn’t retire. Well, we diehard Stones fans know that at least Keith Richards will not give up so easily. Keith has said right from the beginning that “it is not about the money, it’s about the music.” So I can only conclude that it’s not about the money and that it is not ‘all over now.’ The true fans will get both what we need and what we want.
For sure, gossip and rumors can distract us from what we seek. I imagine that most Stones fans, like me, cringe at hearing the well-worn clichés being regurgitated once again in the recent farewell tour reports. For example, from the original report of the 2011 tour in The Sun (a British daily tabloid): “The Stones have sold more than 200 million albums and recorded a string of classic hits including Satisfaction, Paint It Black and Brown Sugar.” This reads as if it was borrowed from the paper’s obituary file. It displays no signs of life—its own or anyone else’s. Close runners-up in the well-worn cliché department : “Time is no longer on their side,” or “Taking it easy. Stone me, it’s Mick Flagger. SIR Mick Jagger is having to pace himself and take breaks during live shows now he’s sixty-six, etc.” These lame, ‘age-ist’ word-plays and puns make me cringe. They trivialize The Stones and their fifty-year achievement when their longevity is no joke. I can’t think of any other musical unit, regardless of genre, that has lasted so long. Yet the media gossip machine gives us nothing more than celebrity profiling.
Hey Paparazzi, Get Off of My Cloud
This is a term I invented. As we all know, ‘racial profiling’ is the practice of stereotyping persons according to their ethnic or racial background—alone. It has been used since 9/11 by American police and security forces to help them determine whether a person is likely to be involved in criminal or terrorist activity. This type of profiling, must of us would agree, is totally unacceptable. Racial profiling sacrifices real security for the apparent security of fighting the war against crime or terrorism merely by hassling people because of their race or ethnicity. This doesn’t help stop either crime or terrorism. In fact, it may inspire crime or terrorism that grows out of the sheer frustation of being so unfairly labeled.
Celebrity profiling is equally unacceptable. It describes famous people according to stereotypical categories of contemporary vices (sex, drugs, alcohol, gambler) in order to entice the public to buy various products, such as magazines, newspapers or TV channel subscriptions. It takes some aspect of a celebrity’s life, such as Keith Richards’s drug use, and exaggerates it to the point of utter stupidity. Nobody could live the life of drug taking that the media says that Richards has lived. Keith himself has noted this.
Nevertheless, stereotypes of The Stones are plentiful. You know them:
‘Indestructible Keith’, the ‘heart or soul of