Metlife Stadium , East Rutherford , NJ June 13, 2019
"CAN'T WAIT"
"I Listen to STONES MUSIC Everyday."
"Doesn't EVERYBODY" ???
Keith Richards is on the phone talking about one of his favorite subjects.
“The rhythm section … I love rhythm sections, it all starts there,” says the Rolling Stones guitarist as if describing the Book of Genesis. At his most eloquent, as in the passages from his 2010 memoir, “Life,” when he reminisced about the days when he’d press his ear to a phonograph speaker to better hear the interplay of the Jimmy Reed or Muddy Waters band, the back-line figured mightily in his understanding of how music moved the soul.
Now he was thinking about his Stones compatriot, drummer Charlie Watts, possibly for a number of reasons. There’s no doubt that the ebb-and-flow between Watts and Richards gives the best Stones music its eternal elasticity, and puts some jump in the band’s hits-dominated stadium tours. But in an interview earlier this year with the Guardian, Watts cast some doubt on his desire to keep the road show rolling. “It wouldn’t bother me if the Rolling Stones said that’s it ... enough,” the 77-year-old drummer said.
The comment was made several months before the Stones announced a 2019 tour of America, including concerts on June 21 and 25 at Soldier Field (tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday). Richards wanted to make it clear that one of the biggest reasons the Stones aren’t calling it a career just yet is because of their drummer’s ability to keep swinging..
As a 50th-anniversary souvenir, theSTONES have assembled a three-disc, 50-track compilation that is the best and most comprehensive collection of the band’s high points available. “Doom and Gloom,” one of two new songs here, is the Stones at their best – nasty, funny, sexy and rocking hard. As for the rest, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of these songs. The Stones’ obsession with American blues and R&B (“Time Is on My Side,” “Little Red Rooster”) transforms into a sexually charged class critique (“19th Nervous Breakdown”). Finally, the indelible guitar statements, from “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” to “Start Me Up,” are inextricable from the very idea of rock & roll. The third disc skims great moments like “Mixed Emotions” from the top of the band’s underrated post-1989 material. Is GRRR ! perfect? No. But as the band once said: You get what you need.
