BEFORE: Since I dropped "Gimme Shelter", I've got an open slot, so I'm going to drop in this sequel to last night's film (which only showed two songs from the Havana concert). I probably should get in a FULL Stones concert before I move on to other acts - I've also got "Let Spend the Night Together" but I'm fairly sure I've seen that before, and I don't want to pay to rent "Shine a Light", but I'll consider watching that one in the future if it airs on premium cable again. Or if they run it on PBS during pledge week, which is how I caught The Beatles film "Eight Days a Week".
Mick Jagger & Co. carry over from last night's film, which had WAY too much punctuation in the title (like, an exclamation point right before a colon? What is that, some weird emoticon?) to tonight's film with NO punctuation, not even a colon to separate the name of the band from the name of the concert.
Charlie Watts said something in last night's film about how his drumbeat is usually a fraction of a second behind the rest of the band, which sounds like a very weird thing for a drummer to say. Isn't the main job of the band's drummer to be ON the beat? Didn't Chicago fire their drummer for exactly that, because the horn section couldn't tell where "1" was? I field-tested some Stones songs this afternoon, and sure enough, in songs like "Sweet Virginia", and "Let it Bleed" I could hear it now, either the drummer is behind, or Mick's ahead on just about every beat. Now I can't NOT hear it - so I'm going to be listening for that tonight, as this concert works its way through the Stones' catalog.
THE PLOT: For the first time in their 50-year long career, the Rolling Stones play in Havana, Cuba, showing how music can work as a tool of social improvement.
AFTER: In a sense, this is double-dipping of the highest order - the overlap between last night's material and tonight's is evident, the two films come from the same director so the question then becomes, is this second film even necessary? Couldn't the two films have been combined into one, with the travelogue section first, followed by the full Havana concert? Well, no, because then the film would be three hours long, or they'd have to cut out the performances seen Argentina, Colombia, etc. because those songs would be duplicated in the Havana set list. Already I've heard "Midnight Rambler" three times this weekend, and now I'm itching to move on to songs by other bands.
I haven't always had the best relationship with Rolling Stones songs, and I think a lot has to do with the lyrics - Jagger's accent doesn't allow for the best enunciation, and then when they play the songs at an even faster tempo in concert than on their albums, it makes many of the lyrics hard to understand. My favorite Stones song is "Sympathy for the Devil", but it took a long time for me to understand all the words, especially the line "Anastasia screamed in vain." Back in my day, we didn't have the internet to look up song lyrics instantly, so if a band didn't print the lyrics on the record sleeve or inside the CD booklet, you had to take your best guess. "Use all your well-earned politesse?" Jeez, I always thought he said "politics". "As heads is tails, just call me Lucifer" - I never caught that "heads is tails" bit until just now. I always thought he sang "hesitates" or something. It's a tough song, with words like "Blitzkrieg" and "troubadours" and I wonder if anyone ever thought he was singing about a pilot (or even a pirate) instead of "Pilate".
Another song that tripped me up for a long while was "Honky Tonk Women". Even that opening line about a "gin-soaked barroom queen in Memphis" - well, you don't hear the word "gin-soaked" a lot, so that gave me some trouble. Then in the second verse he "laid a divorcée in New York City" - I guess when I was younger I didn't know what a "divorcée" was - it sounded to me like something was "for sale" in New York City - maybe a "dick for sale" in New York City? I'm sure there have been plenty of those, especially in the 1970's, but that misheard lyric makes for a very different song. Then there's the chorus, which goes "It's the honky tonk women / Gimme, gimme gimme the honky tonk blues". As a sentence, this just doesn't work - but in last night's "Country Honk", the Hank Williams-style version of the same song, Mick slipped the word "that" into the sentence, and I finally got it. The whole chorus should be "It's the honky tonk women THAT give me, give me, give me the honky tonk blues" only the "THAT" is usually silent.
My worst offense, though, is probably the Stones cover of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", which is an old Temptations song that used to go "Ain't Too Proud to Beg / and you know it" only the Stones changed this to "Ain't Too Proud to Beg / Sweet Darling" and not knowing the Temptations song, when I first heard it I thought Mick sang "Aunt Jemima Babe, Sweet Darling" and for many years I wondered why he was so keen on Aunt Jemima, like did he really like pancakes and syrup, or what? Even later in the chorus when it changed to "Ain't too Proud to Plead / Baby Baby" that just sounded like "Aunt Jemima Please / Baby Baby". But eventually I heard the Temptations version and put two and two together. Mick, you've got to work on enunciating your consonant sounds.
A little research tells me I'm not the only one affected by this phenomenon - some people have thought that when Mick sang "I'll never be your beast of burden" it was really "I'll never leave your pizza burnin'" or in "Gimme Shelter", instead of "War, children, it's just a shot away" he was singing "Whoa, children, this is the shadow way". "You Can't Always Get What You Want" also caused listeners some trouble, instead of "I saw her today at the reception" some people heard "I sold punch today at the reception" - makes sense, because you drink punch at a reception, right? (And if you try some limes, you might find you get what you need...). And somebody else thought that "Here comes your 19th Nervous Breakdown" was really "Here comes your nasty service station." Of course, the most famous mis-heard Stones lyric comes from "Jumpin' Jack Flash" when Jagger really sings "I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag" and in some people's ears this was heard as "I was raised by two lesbians in drag". (Jumpin' Jack Flash, it's a guess, guess, guess...). So I'd say I'm in some good company, people with inventive brains that fill in the gaps when the lead singer is hard to understand.
Anyway, this concert film proved that the Stones' drummer is almost always just a bit behind the rest of the band, so really, I don't see why they need him at all. Many of the Stones songs start with guitar anyway, like "Paint It Black" or "Start Me Up", then the drums come in later. The beat is kept perfectly by both Mick's singing and Keith's guitar, of course they've been playing these same songs for decades, so they all know how fast they should go. They have re-worked a few over the years, and I assume this is done because playing the songs EXACTLY the same way as on the record for 40 or 50 years would probably drive THEM bonkers, so they've got to change it up a little so they stay interested in their own music.
Nice to see Darryl Jones appearing on camera, though he's still not listed as an official member of the Stones, just a "current touring member" but jeez, he's been with the band since 1993, why not make him an official member of the band? Bill Wyman's just not coming back, and what are they going to do, not have a bassist? I hope he gets paid well for touring because anyone outside the "Core Four" of Jagger, Richards, Wood and Watts just isn't getting the recognition they deserve. What, you have to be a white guy in your 70's to be an official member of the club? That seems both ageist and racist. I love that this guy's name and band rhyme - Darryl Jones of the Rolling Stones. Come on, Mick and Keith, put a ring on it already.
There were two songs in the Havana concert I didn't know, "Out of Control" and "You Got the Silver". The first I guess is from the 1998 album "Bridges to Babylon" (snore) and the other one is from "Let It Bleed", it was the first Stones song Keith Richards sang lead on. I guess you've got to let Keith sing one in every concert, because Jagger needs a short break, he's 75 years old! I know the temptation is to end the concert with the encore section of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "I Can't Get No Satisfaction", but if it were up to me, I'd play "Satisfaction" first and then end with "You Can't Always Get What You Want", because then it seems more like a question-response based on the two titles, and plus then you don't have to worry about clearing the gospel chorus off the stage to do the closing number. Just saying.
Also starring Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, Darryl Jones, Chuck Leavell, Bernard Fowler, Matt Clifford, Tim Ries, Karl Denson, Sasha Allen (all carrying over from "Olé, Olé, Olé!")
RATING: 5 out of 10 costume changes
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