British Invasion & The Stones

I was totally immersed in the British Invasion. Including the Dave Clark Five – yes, the Dave Clark Five – I even went to see them live when I was 15. They were on the bill with Them featuring Van Morrison singing ‘Gloria’. It was those first Rolling Stones lps that turned me on to the blues and led me down the path to explore Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Rufus Thomas and the rest. The music was an awakening from the pop rock of the 50’s, the end of the surf guitar, the release from the sweet harmonies. It was a kick in the ass that said, “boy, you’ve got rock n’ roll to play, to get down & dirty”.

I was listening to Hot Rocks 1964-1971 recently – so many great songs. What struck me was the diversity of the instrumentation on their hits – harpsichord, funky organ, sitar, Brian Jones harp, Mick Jagger’s tambourine, the acoustic guitar front and center on so much of their early stuff. I think that Brian Jones had an influence that, when he died, evaporated and caused their sound to change pretty quickly. Hmmm, I’ll have to research that. I’m in the process of downloading all the albums that eMusic made available, so I’m listening from the beginning. They only released the 14 ABKCO albums – before the Stones switched to Virgin for Sticky Fingers in 1971.

I didn’t see the Stones live (that I can remember) until the Bridges To Bablyon tour in 1996 in Belgium at an outdoor festival. It was fun to see people from 7 to 70 enjoying the music. Some groups are timeless in their appeal. I think that this big digital release of their old stuff is timed to the movie release of Shine A Light. I guess we won’t see another tour for awhile since they just wrapped up an 18 month tour towards the end of last year. They’ve got enough cash in the bank not to have to worry – ever.