And Then Depression Set In

For a long time Stripes was one of my favorite movies. At the very start of the movie Bill Murray's character loses his job as a cab driver, watches as his car is repossessed, drops a box with a pizza in it on the ground, and has his girlfriend walk out on him at which point he utters the title of this post.

That line came to my mind last night. A friend sent me Shine A Light, the Rolling Stones concert movie made by Martin Scorcese. I always have the same thought when I see someone, a relative, a friend, or a celebrity (particularly musicians) that I haven't seen in a long time and that is, My G-d, how old I have gotten. Not them, me. This was one rare case where I was astounded by how someone else has aged. The Rolling Stones have aged. It was actually painful to see old they look in the movie. I am really thankful that I did not see it in either IMAX or High Definition. These guys were my contemporaries. Jagger and Richards are a year or two older than I am. They have lines on their faces that are almost indescribable. I have never seen such lines. That didn't really upset me, but that all the members of the band still have a full head of hair made me crazy. And skinny? It was painful to see how skinny they were. To describe them as thin is to miss the point. You have to use the word skinny. Rafael, the factory owner's son, Carlos is painfully skinny. It hurts to look at him. Mick and Keith make Carlos look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Mick has no ass and Keith shows the signs of a hard, drugged life. Through it all, though, there they are still truckin' along. And they still rock.
I was lucky enough to see the Stones live many times. The announcer always brought them out with, "Ladies and Gentleman, the greatest Rock and Roll band in the world, The Rolling Stones." And they always were the greatest Rock and Roll band. I remember one album, Let It Bleed, that on the liner notes had a bold faced notice: This record should be played loud. Everything they ever recorded should be played loud. They were great. Apparently they still are great. Being away from the US music scene for a long time, I have lost touch with most of the releases of the past 10 years, so there were several songs with which I was not familiar. I enjoyed those, and loved almost all the songs that I knew, with the exception of one or two that made me cringe. I noticed that Bill Wyman was not with them anymore. I figured that he had died, but no, he had just left to do his own thing. I go back to the time before Ron Woods was a Stone. Charlie Watts looks exactly the same as always.

Is there something disturbing about 65+ year old men jumping around the stage or is there something more disturbing about one of their contemporaries enjoying the shit out of them jumping around making such great music. I couldn't decide. While I have always realized that these guys can put over guitar driven R and R unlike any other group, I never realized or maybe just didn't remember, until the credits, that virtually every song they have ever recorded was written by Jagger/Richards. Amazing. Thanks Anthony.