I forget how important the Rolling Stones have been in my life.
I’ve always been a huge fan of music, but there were a few bands I connected with radically in my early years. Van Halen was the first in high school, David Lee Roth left and it sort of fell to the wayside. Led Zeppelin was next in the early years of college. The Song Remains the Same became this mystical trait I buried deep inside my psyche. For years, I always dreamed of a reunion between the remaining members- and still I do. The last cataclysmic band was the Stones, who I STILL love, and have never really left.
Many bands out there today don’t have longevity. They group together make that big hit and after a few years fizzle out. No one REALLY attempts to keep together… they go off on their own, make their own thing and make money independently. Of the truly GREAT bands I can only think of U2, but the Stones- they’ve been there from the beginning.
I haven’t listened to them for years. The man I met on Best Bar Wednesday- Steve One- was a dancer. It prompted me to think of the great song by the Rolling Stones - “If I was a Dancer”. I found some clips on youtube this morning and currently I’m listening to “Where the boys all go”- not the songs everyone knows, but the vault stuff. There are sooooo many songs they’ve put out through the decades, it’s easy to get lost in it.
When I first became a fan of the Stones, I lived in London. I stayed with 3 other creative students- a writer, a painter, and a theater major in a small flat. I lived in a tiny room- enough to fit a bed and have a fold down table from the wall. There was about 2 feet from the end of the bed to the wall and maybe about 4 feet from the side to the wall. It was heated by a small nichrome heater mounted high on the wall, I could pull a cord to heat the room. The water heater to the flat was about half the size of a regular propane tank used to heat a BBQ grill. We used to drizzle water out for one hour into a bath in order to splash it over us- all the while heating 3 pots of water on the stove to expedite the process. There was no shower.
On cold nights I’d huddle down under my blanket, put on Beggars Banquet or Goats Head Soup. Songs like “No Expectations” and “Winter” became immediate hits in Steve’s jukebox of life.
The connections we make with music often refer to a particular time in our lives- a memory. It could be good, it could be bad, but if you open yourself up to it years after the occurrence, it could open the floodgates as if it was yesterday.
The Rolling Stones are the catalyst to these long lost memories. A place to revisit. So Steve One- if you read this- thank you. There is a purpose for every person we meet- even if it’s a chance meeting at a bar. The wheels spin from one person to another and for every inspiration there is spark. You were this spark.
All the best!