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Satanic Majesty
Requesting The Rolling Stones
There’s a lot of loose talk going around these days about kings and petty tyrants. Much of that loose talk emanates from the one who wants to be a petty king himself. He’s a petty thing for certain, and I am proud to say that I never used to love him.
I can say the same about The Rolling Stones. I never used to love them, but I do now. It’s not over either, this band of the mid-60s who has defied death and other details. I don’t love that Hackney Diamonds won the Grammy this year (I think Fontaines DC’s Romance should have won), but I also don’t get hot and bothered about awards shows. My best hope is to see some incredible performances and to realize that artists as anti-king as PJ Harvey have been nominated in the past. So, we may travel through that past lightly and understand that awards are only part of the story of longevity and rock.
In my youth and young manhood, people used to spend too much time asking questions like which band do you prefer: The Beatles or the Stones? Is that like asking if you prefer tangelos or oranges, crunchy peanut butter or creamy?
In those days, I would have answered The Beatles” quickly, readily. Why? Because they were everywhere, even on Saturday morning cartoons, and I have never heard of Stonesmania. I think I knew almost every Beatles song there was to…
