The Rolling Stones’ resilience is hard to get one’s head around. In a world of fleeting cultural phenomena, they just keep going… and going… and going. Earlier this month, under the pseudonym ‘The Cockroaches’, the band released 1,000 copies of a vinyl-only single (their 124th in their 65th year of rocking) ahead of a new studio album which will come out this summer. The combined age of the three surviving principals Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood is 242. The band are so venerable that even jokes about their age are getting old: their ‘Steel Wheels’ tour was dubbed ‘Steel Wheelchairs’ back in… 1989.
Full disclosure: I’m hardly a Rolling Stones fan. My dad forced me to listen to his treasured copy of ‘Rolled Gold’ when I was about eight and promised it would be mine if I liked it. But, as the final bars of ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ faded away, to his stupefaction, I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. ‘It’s all right,’ I think I said.
That’s pretty much my opinion now, almost 50 years later. But, even so, I have always been fascinated by the Stones’ longevity – not just for their ability to endure but to do so with a reassuring sense that, like the royal family, they will always be with us. So how have they done it? What has kept the Stones rocking and rolling for all these years while so many of their rivals have either expired, gone pipe and slippers or been consigned to the ‘where are they now’ file?
Let’s start with the music. Since their first eponymous studio album in 1964, the Stones, have cannily blended American blues with conventional rock ‘n’ roll in a way that has considerably extended their shelf life. The distinctively earthy ‘Stones’ sound with its Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry influence is as resilient as a somewhat unattractive but undeniably hardy perennial. The blues has no use-by date and improves with age, so even early Stones hits such as ‘Little Red Rooster’ and ‘High and Dry’ can be listened to without much embarrassment.
The band has also been smart in keeping new material down to a trickle (this summer’s mooted studio album will be only their third in 20 years). But when you have as awesome a back catalogue as the Stones, ‘new stuff’ is not only unnecessary but potentially damaging. By keeping supply to a bare minimum, the band can keep the hope alive that they might just produce one last classic album – without the stress and inconvenience of actually doing so.
I have always been fascinated by the Stones’ longevity – not just for their ability to endure but to do so with a reassuring sense that, like the royal family, they will always be with us
Then there is their collective failure, despite repeated attempts, to diversify. Mick gave acting a go – including in the 1970 film Performance – but critics are largely divided over whether his thespian skills are atrocious or just bad. As solo recording artists, both Mick and Keith released discs that sold respectably. The late drummer Charlie Watts made a couple of well-received jazz albums before his death in 2021 and Ronnie also dabbles in art. But let’s put it this way: even non-fans could probably list at least half a dozen Stones hits. But can anyone – anyone at all – name even one of Mick’s 25 or Keith’s 12 solo efforts?
Women have also played a part in the band’s survival… by not playing a part. Despite multiple marriages and no end of escapades with the likes of Marianne Faithfull and Jerry Hall, their tours were strictly girlfriend-free zones. No Yoko Onos, Linda McCartneys or Jeanine Pettibones here. The Stones remain a men-only establishment, like Boodle’s or White’s. The closest the band came to a femme fatale was probably the Italian-German model Anita Pallenberg who seduced the band’s original guitarist Brian Jones in 1965 and later Keith with whom she remained for 13 years until 1980. If the band could survive her…
The band is still remarkably sprightly, too. Mick remains exceptionally fit for an 82-year-old with an aortic valve replacement, training up to six days a week via running, kickboxing and even ballet. Ronnie, 78, does yoga and Pilates and claims that the ‘natural high’ of appearing on stage keeps him going. And if 82-year-old Keith is not in quite the same shape (he suffers from arthritis), he is holding out pretty well for a former heroin and cocaine user and seriously heavy drinker (‘nuclear waste’ was his name for his favourite tipple) who required cranial surgery after falling out of a palm tree in Fiji 20 years ago.
Finally, we have to mention money, for which the Stones have a very healthy appetite. The band has amassed a net worth of close to $1 billion and remains a golden goose of staggering fecundity. They grossed $10 million a night for their 2017 ‘No Filter’ tour. And, if their upcoming studio album is anything to go by, they still seem hungry for more. ‘They’re market price – like fish,’ was supposedly Mick Jagger’s justification for eye-watering ticket prices back in 2005. Presumably he was referencing line-caught bluefin tuna – and the band’s certainly still swimming in gold now.
But perhaps the real explanation for and the most inspiring element of the Stones’ long life is that, though their fans may be thinking about it, the band’s frontmen are offering no sense of an ending, no hint of retirement, no contemplation of a last hurrah. Want to forestall the end? Then don’t talk about it. Don’t acknowledge it. Don’t even think about it.
Comments