Monday

Anyone Know any Non-Passé Rolling Stones Metaphors? Me Neither.

All over the web today, folks are reporting how the Rolling Stones “sold out” by agreeing to change provocative lyrics to a song in the Super Bowl XL halftime show. Of course, “provocative” is fairly subjective, since the line “you make a dead man come” was acceptable for AM radio in 1967…but that’s neither here nor there.

Unfortunately, this non-controversy has overshadowed the real story: Mick and the boys’ blatant racism. Did you see them try to hide that black guy in the shadows? I had to cruise dozens of
fan sites just to learn the guy’s name (Darryl Jones). Though he has played on all the band’s albums (except one) since Bill Wyman quit, Jones is “not, however, an official member of the band.” Seriously, I may not be a Stones fan, but I can’t remember ONE image of the band in the last 15 years that included the guy.

"Pay no attention to the Negro behind the curtain."

The songs may be ancient, Mick, but the attitude doesn’t have to be Jim Crow. I hope the news doesn’t reach Atlanta – Coretta Scott King may roll right out of her casket and down the steps of the Georgia State Capitol.

On the plus side, I do have to applaud the Stones’ work as historical advisors for FedEx’s
brilliant first quarter commercial. I know that watching your dad get crushed by a brontosaurus can be a traumatic event in a young lad’s life, but Keith Richards was able find inspiration and make something of himself. Talk about turning pre-historic lemons into lemonade.

1 comment:

Matthew Smith said...

A quick post script to yesterday’s story: the Rolling Stones have come out adamantly protesting any claim of Super Bowl censorship. Of course, the free speech suppression in the reports is even more ridiculous than the original alleged censorship.

In "Start Me Up," the show's editors silenced one word close to the song's end, a reference to a woman so sexy she could arouse a dead man. (The song hit No. 2 in 1981, has been played on radio for 25 years, and the lyric is almost never cut.) The lyrics for "Rough Justice" included a synonym for rooster that was removed.

Thank God common sense prevailed before someone made an irreversible injustice: "The Stones also performed '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction,' but the lyric 'I can't get no girlie action' made it through unscathed."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/07/superbowl.stones.ap/