I don't know. I think they were confused because of disco, the after-effects (and current effects) of too many drugs, and perhaps some sort of hang-over from the Bowie-Jagger affair.
More seriously, I think Mick Jagger's determination to always stay on top of current trends had something to do with it. Up through the early 1970s the Stones didn't have to work at being anything other than what they were to stay at the front of pop culture - they were of the times. But they had to work out what turning thirty meant in a culture that said "Never trust anyone over thirty". The culture started shifting from underneath them in all kinds of weird ways - glam & disco & metal and so forth.
And yes, it was just as weird for a bunch of middle class white kids in England to start listening to a bunch of black American bluesmen in post-WWII England, but whatever. When you're really young you have no idea how strange the world really is, in particular the stuff you do every day.
Trying to keep up with all that stuff seems to have really taken it out of Jagger in particular.
I don't really know how it ended. I actually don't even care. I got sucked into the vortex of it a few weeks ago when the story was out again (for some reason which I forget) and the thing that struck me was that it seemed like Jagger was involved just so he could stay hip to the scene.
But then I was just a boy in the Seventies (born in 1968) so a lot of that stuff has always seemed -off- to me. I get the idea of wanting to ease up on sexual mores (every man has been a teenage boy, and we ALL wanted the mores eased up on in those years!), but the Sixties and Seventies? It seems like people just lost their flipping minds about everything sexual.
I do believe this was the cheesiest Stones single ever, although not their worst.
ReplyDeleteIt's silly. I'm sure they meant for it to be.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I think they were confused because of disco, the after-effects (and current effects) of too many drugs, and perhaps some sort of hang-over from the Bowie-Jagger affair.
ReplyDeleteHow can the musicians who made "Can You Hear Me Knocking" go that far astray unintentionally?
ReplyDeleteUm, see above regarding drugs?
ReplyDeleteMore seriously, I think Mick Jagger's determination to always stay on top of current trends had something to do with it. Up through the early 1970s the Stones didn't have to work at being anything other than what they were to stay at the front of pop culture - they were of the times. But they had to work out what turning thirty meant in a culture that said "Never trust anyone over thirty". The culture started shifting from underneath them in all kinds of weird ways - glam & disco & metal and so forth.
And yes, it was just as weird for a bunch of middle class white kids in England to start listening to a bunch of black American bluesmen in post-WWII England, but whatever. When you're really young you have no idea how strange the world really is, in particular the stuff you do every day.
Trying to keep up with all that stuff seems to have really taken it out of Jagger in particular.
What do you know about the denouement of his relationship with Bowie? Could that have been a factor? A spoof?
ReplyDeleteI don't really know how it ended. I actually don't even care. I got sucked into the vortex of it a few weeks ago when the story was out again (for some reason which I forget) and the thing that struck me was that it seemed like Jagger was involved just so he could stay hip to the scene.
ReplyDeleteBut then I was just a boy in the Seventies (born in 1968) so a lot of that stuff has always seemed -off- to me. I get the idea of wanting to ease up on sexual mores (every man has been a teenage boy, and we ALL wanted the mores eased up on in those years!), but the Sixties and Seventies? It seems like people just lost their flipping minds about everything sexual.
Bowie was a star, too. They shared charisma, no doubt, among other things.
ReplyDelete