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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us November 10, 2005 Commentary Sympathy, and respect, for the devil Rob Asghar ANAHEIM, Calif. — It is quite right to have sympathy for these old devils. It would even be appropriate to shower these Rolling Stones with respect. They have made themselves one of the most powerful of all icons that bridge the 20th and 21st centuries. And they have achieved a gravitas that pop culture usually never allows. Mick Jagger and his fellow Rolling Stones held 55,000 Angels Stadium fans in the palms of their hand on a recent Friday night, rousing them with anthems that were crafted while many attendees were unborn or in diapers. A longtime Stones skeptic who dismissed the band as overblown and overrated, I must at last give the devils their due. We must pay tribute to anyone who can endure as more than a 15-minute flash in the pan of pop culture. We must call extraordinary anyone who can last 15 years. We must consider divine anyone who can stay on top of the pop and rock world for four decades. J.S. Bach in his own day was dismissed as “turgid and confused” by some experts who favored hipper contemporaries. The Stones have had such critics, myself included, but they have won over or outlived them. They are rock dinosaurs who have laughed off incoming meteorites, ice ages and furry mammals. In a newsmagazine review of a 1978 Stones show, one critic — no doubt a proponent of trendy punk bands — dismissed a Stones stadium show as outdated and uninspiring. I wonder if he is still around. Again, give the devils their due: Three years ago, Fortune magazine noted that, in the Stones’ “modern era,” conservatively marked at 1989 (I would place the date closer to 1982), the band has generated $1.5 billion in gross revenues and sold some 40 million albums. That number is already being ratcheted upward on the strength of the new tour. This economic machine isn’t driven by the popularity of their modern albums, but by their ability to remain viable symbols of their classic songs. You can’t say the same for some of their contemporaries. Jagger remains the engine of the band’s live show and of its enduring appeal. You have to imagine that, if middle age and old age ravaged him the way that they ravaged fellow rock rooster Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, the Stones would be drawing the smallish crowds that have bothered flocking to Plant’s shows in recent months. Plant has also become irrelevant because he vainly insists that his new music has great merit and ignores most of his classic oeuvre. By contrast, the Stones are willing to put out a new album here and there, but know that their contribution to culture is to proudly show they can still rock to their early hits. Beyond the victory of geezers, the Stones’ continued success illustrates two more welcome trends. First, their music has bridged generations. It was a remarkable sight to see a 47-year-old friend and her 21-year-old niece, both hipsters within their respective generations, dancing exuberantly on Friday to the pulsing rhythm of “Jumping Jack Flash.” Such generational bonding is not news in many cultures, but it has been rare in America. Here, baby boomers and Generation X and Y have contrived ever stranger forms of rebellion, usually through increased mutilation of bodies and of musical styles. Second, it is refreshing to see that American culture is no longer so snobbish in trendsmanship. In the early 1980s, style mavens dismissed many types of music or fashion by sniffing, “Oh, that’s so ‘60s,” or, “That’s so ‘70s.” And yet those same fashions and music are newly popular — especially among the younger set. Have you noticed no one ridicules the ‘60s or ‘70s — or frankly any other era — lately? It is a welcome sign, not of nostalgia, but of a willingness to embrace the best of the past without apology or embarrassment. Who knows? Perhaps people of all generations will in the year 2015 be listening both to the “turgid” Bach and to “Roll Over Beethoven.” And to Mick Jagger, who will be touring the United States as a 72-year-old dinosaur who proves that pop culture need not be ephemeral. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams