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Will the Rolling Stones survive? Does anyone really care?
Well, the newspapers care. Throughout the Stones' biannual American tour, the continent was buried under a sea of newspaper articles that all reported to answer the tired question. The answers, incidentally, were always the same: perhaps the Stones will survive but they may not.
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The Stones have existed for a bit more than 15 years. For at least ten of those years, papers have been speculating that the group was at the end of the road. |
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The current question centres on the fate of guitarist Keith Richard at the hands of Canadian justice. Richard was arrested on drug charges while the group was recording in Toronto last year. The case is still being considered by Canadian courts and a conviction would unquestionably cramp Richard's style. (The band did not appear in Canada on the current tour, apparently to avoid annoying Canadian authorities.
It is difficult to imagine Richard being convicted. Canada has no reason to wish to jail Richard - guilty or not. It costs money to keep prisoners in jail; it would make much more sense to drop the charges and suggest that Richard not return to this country. Richard, along with Mick Jagger, is the heart of the group, however, and his conviction - which would limit his ability to travel in many countries, even if he is not jailed here - would certainly mean an end to the Rolling Stones as they are currently known.
It doesn't take inside knowledge to realize that the group won't be packing it in voluntarily, though. Their current American tour will gross at least $10 million, and leave about $5 million for the musicians after expenses. That's not small change in anyone's language and the Stones, especially Jagger, who trained as an economist before finding his niche in rock and roll aren't dumb enough to throw it all away.
So the future lies in the hands of the courts.
But does anyone really care? After all, the Stones have always been (along with the Beach Boys) one of the world's truly dreadful live bands. They play loud and jump around a lot - but they certainly don't play well. As for their records, the Stones have been handing us dogs for years.
Let's face it: the Stones are over the hill. The courts may be doing us all a favour if they force the Stones to roll to ahalt.
The Stones aren't the only old band around, of course. The tragic aspect of today's music scene, in fact, is the failure to develop new super acts. The same old faces keep coming back, year after year, to haunt us. Among this summer's touring aged were: Bob DyIan. The man who revolutionized rock music almost 15 years ago hasn't contributed anything of consequence in more than a decade. Yet he still has his following, despite one album rip off after another. In England, Dylan, along with a supporting cast that included Eric Clapton, drew an estimated 200,000 semi-sane people to a single concert. 199,000 couldn't comment on the sound or visual quality in as much as they couldn't see or hear.
The Eagles. Another hangover from the last decade, the Eagles hit several Canadian cities during the summer. And they hit hard. The group, which built its reputation on the basis of lilting ballads, now prefers to attack its audiences with high-powered amps and BIG speakers. In Edmonton, residents across town from the show complained about being able to hear the music in their homes. Loud.
The Beach Boys. Always about the worst live act of modern times, the Beach Boys spent the summer doing what they do best - singing out of key and collecting big money. Though it's embarrassing to watch the waterlogged aging surfers going through their paces without the slightest emotion or the slightest musical discipline, it's even sadder to witness tens of thousands of concert-goers laying out good money for this sort of travesty. Incidentally, when will the Beach Boys acquire a decent sound system?
The Moody Blues. They had their first hit back in 1965, then turned on the entire world with a brilliant 1968 album titled In Search of the Lost Chord. They've been searching ever since for whatever inspiration they lost after that album. After breaking up in 1974, the band reformed this year.
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Fleetwood Mac. Formed in 1967, the band didn't break big until 1976. But it's still a veteran group and it's one of the biggest concert draws in North America. |
The BeeGees. At least as good as the Beatles in 1967, the Bee Gees came back strong in 1975. Of all the big acts with veteran standing, these are still the youngest musicians, however. Twins Robin and Maurice are only 29; Barry just turned 31. They didn't tour this summer but a major tour is in the works.
So what does that leave for our generation? Unfortunately, not very much. We have not developed many major stars ourselves. Aside from Shaun Cassidy and Boston, what new acts can compare in terms of drawing power with a Fleetwood Mac or a Beach Boys? None - and that doesn't seem quite right. Could it be that radio programmers have failed to move forward and expose new talent?
Randy Bachman is hard at work on a new rock-and-roll album, following the commercial failure of his Survivors recording, his first solo work since leaving B.T.O. Among the friends helping out with the session - Steve Miller and Burton Cummings.
We asked Randy if there was any truth to rumours that he and Burton -former partners in the original Guess Who - would be getting together more regularly. Randy wouldn't deny the rumours. In fact, he suggested that "things have been working out between us better than we expected."
And what's happened to B.T.O.?
Garfield's third album, due in the stores soon after you read this, is expected to be nothing short of brilliant. Recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and Nashville, the record took more than three months to complete, not counting the time spent writing songs. "It was a totally new experience," Garfield French, the group's leader, told us. "In the past, we had to worry about budget during recording. This time, we were told to bring out the best possible album regardless of cost.
How soon we forget. Remember Leo Sayer, the pint-sized singer with three consecutive million-sellers, including "How Much Love", only last year? If you can't, it seems you aren't alone. Booked into Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens (capacity: 18,000 plus), Leo drew fewer than 3,000 warm bodies (some sources claim the total was actually less than 2,000).
Chevy Chase, former star of Saturday Night Live, now co-starring with Goldie Hawn in Foul Play, was asked whether movie making was different from working as a stand-up comic. "They forgot to tell me that I'd have to act!" Chevy moaned. In truth, Chevy doesn't do a bad job.
©1999 TG Magazine/Le Magazine TG
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