The Rolling Stones\u2019 resilience is hard to get one\u2019s head around. In a world of fleeting cultural phenomena, they just keep going\u2026 and going\u2026 and going. Earlier this month, under the pseudonym \u2018The Cockroaches\u2019, the band released 1,000 copies of a vinyl-only single (their 124th in their 65th year of rocking) ahead of a new studio album which will come out this summer. The combined age of the three surviving principals Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood is 242. The band are so venerable that even jokes about their age are getting old: their \u2018Steel Wheels\u2019 tour was dubbed \u2018Steel Wheelchairs\u2019 back in\u2026 1989.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Full disclosure: I\u2019m hardly a Rolling Stones fan. My dad forced me to listen to his treasured copy of \u2018Rolled Gold\u2019 when I was about eight and promised it would be mine if I liked it. But, as the final bars of \u2018Jumpin\u2019 Jack Flash\u2019 faded away, to his stupefaction, I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. \u2018It\u2019s all right,\u2019 I think I said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s pretty much my opinion now, almost 50 years later. But, even so, I have always been fascinated by the Stones\u2019 longevity \u2013 not just for their ability to endure but to do so with a reassuring sense that, like the royal family, they will always be with us. So how have they done it? What has kept the Stones rocking and rolling for all these years while so many of their rivals have either expired, gone pipe and slippers or been consigned to the \u2018where are they now\u2019 file?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with the music. Since their first eponymous studio album in 1964, the Stones, have cannily blended American blues with conventional rock \u2018n\u2019 roll in a way that has considerably extended their shelf life. The distinctively earthy \u2018Stones\u2019 sound with its Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry influence is as resilient as a somewhat unattractive but undeniably hardy perennial. The blues has no use-by date and improves with age, so even early Stones hits such as \u2018Little Red Rooster\u2019 and \u2018High and Dry\u2019 can be listened to without much embarrassment.<\/p>\n
The band has also been smart in keeping new material down to a trickle (this summer\u2019s mooted studio album will be only their third in 20 years). But when you have as awesome a back catalogue as the Stones, \u2018new stuff\u2019 is not only unnecessary but potentially damaging. By keeping supply to a bare minimum, the band can keep the hope alive that they might just produce one last classic album \u2013 without the stress and inconvenience of actually doing so.<\/p>\n
I have always been fascinated by the Stones\u2019 longevity \u2013 not just for their ability to endure but to do so with a reassuring sense that, like the royal family, they will always be with us <\/p>\n
Then there is their collective failure, despite repeated attempts, to diversify. Mick gave acting a go \u2013 including in the 1970 film Performance \u2013 but critics are largely divided over whether his thespian skills are atrocious or just bad. As solo recording artists, both Mick and Keith released discs that sold respectably. The late drummer Charlie Watts made a couple of well-received jazz albums before his death in 2021 and Ronnie also dabbles in art. But let\u2019s put it this way: even non-fans could probably list at least half a dozen Stones hits. But can anyone \u2013 anyone at all \u2013 name even one of Mick\u2019s 25 or Keith\u2019s 12 solo efforts?<\/p>\n
Women have also played a part in the band\u2019s survival\u2026 by not playing a part. Despite multiple marriages and no end of escapades with the likes of Marianne Faithfull and Jerry Hall, their tours were strictly girlfriend-free zones. No Yoko Onos, Linda McCartneys or Jeanine Pettibones here. The Stones remain a men-only establishment, like Boodle\u2019s or White\u2019s. The closest the band came to a femme fatale was probably the Italian-German model Anita Pallenberg who seduced the band\u2019s original guitarist Brian Jones in 1965 and later Keith with whom she remained for 13 years until 1980. If the band could survive her\u2026<\/p>\n
The band is still remarkably sprightly, too. Mick remains exceptionally fit for an 82-year-old with an aortic valve replacement, training up to six days a week via running, kickboxing and even ballet. Ronnie, 78, does yoga and Pilates and claims that the \u2018natural high\u2019 of appearing on stage keeps him going. And if 82-year-old Keith is not in quite the same shape (he suffers from arthritis), he is holding out pretty well for a former heroin and cocaine user and seriously heavy drinker (\u2018nuclear waste\u2019 was his name for his favourite tipple) who required cranial surgery after falling out of a palm tree in Fiji 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
Finally, we have to mention money, for which the Stones have a very healthy appetite. The band has amassed a net worth of close to $1 billion and remains a golden goose of staggering fecundity. They grossed $10 million a night for their 2017 \u2018No Filter\u2019 tour. And, if their upcoming studio album is anything to go by, they still seem hungry for more. \u2018They\u2019re market price \u2013 like fish,\u2019 was supposedly Mick Jagger\u2019s justification for eye-watering ticket prices back in 2005. Presumably he was referencing line-caught bluefin tuna \u2013 and the band\u2019s certainly still swimming in gold now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But perhaps the real explanation for and the most inspiring element of the Stones\u2019 long life is that, though their fans may be thinking about it, the band\u2019s frontmen are offering no sense of an ending, no hint of retirement, no contemplation of a last hurrah. Want to forestall the end? Then don\u2019t talk about it. Don\u2019t acknowledge it. Don\u2019t even think about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rolling Stones\u2019 resilience is hard to get one\u2019s head around. In a world of fleeting cultural phenomena,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,25721,25722,128,51803,80988,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-554938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-keith-richards","tag-mick-jagger","tag-music","tag-rolling-stones","tag-ronnie-wood","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}