The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 74

4 Through The Past Darkly. i Jagger and Richard are the symbols of anco Jagger (and the Joggers' marital problems) and New York City. But this is not Rumours, the Fleetwood Mac log of jealousy and failed relationships. The songs run the gamut from the disco-like Miss You, the very best of the Stones' recent songs, to Far Away Eyes, a country-styled song which borders on parody, to When The Whip Comes Down, a good rocker. The Stones have come a long way since 1964 when they as well as many other British bands were picking up on the blacks' blues sound.

But unlike other English groups who anesthetized the songs, the Stones chose to play the blues with grit and feeling. On the first three albums, the Stones played pretty much straight cops from soul, blues and rhythm and blues, performing standards like Not Fade Away, Route 66, Now I've Got A Witness as no whites had done before them. They confined singing songs by Chuck Berry and others on 1 2 5 and added some country influences on The Rolling Stones Now. Finally, in mid-1965, came Out of Our Heads with the first classic Jagger-Richard composition, Satisfaction. Although the duo had written tunes for previous albums, Out of Our Heads was a turning point for the group because of its original material while retaining songs like Hitch Hike, Mercy Mercy and Good Times.

The most Jagger-Richard compositions thus far appeared on December's Children in November 1965 including Get Off of My Cloud and As Tears Go By. After the greatest hits package, High Tide and Green Grass, the Stones moved on to Aftermath, the first album to include all original material by Jagger-Richard. Following Got Live If You Want It, the Stones discovered drugs, or at least made it public that they had on Between The Buttons. The near five-minute Something Happened to Me Yesterday details a first drug experience. Between the Buttons was put out in January 1 967, and by November of that year, their drug fantasies had absorbed them, leading to the psychedelic Their Santanic Majesties Request, a counterpoint to the Beatles' Sgt, Pepper.

But that album didn't do all that well and the Stones changed again, playing straight-ahead, few-frills rock 'n' roll. In the period following Satanic Majesties, the Stones released Jumping Jack Flash and Street Fighting Man as singles, the latter included on Beggar's Banquet in November of 1 968 which also included still another classic rock 'n' roll song, Sympathy for the Devil. The Stones then entered what some consider their best period, straight ahead rock 'n' roll, a live Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, It's Only Rock 'n' Roll and the overlong Exile on Main Street. The songs from those albums, Happy, It's Only Rock Roll and Tumblin' Dice, showed the band at its most proficient, not doing copies of black bluesmen, but Jagger's black intonations coupled with the now-familiar rock 'n' roll chords. But time waits for no one, and the Stones are nothing if not adaptable.

They added horns and punched up the songs on Sticky Fingers, the album with the Andy Warhol cover, and then moved toward disco with Black and Blue. On that album. Hot Stuff is the logical precede to the latest LP's Miss You. From Page 7 ish invasion of the early '60s. They continue to produce fresh music to maintain the hard-core fans and to at least make a bid for younger ones who think Aerosmith and Kiss are great rock 'n' roil bands.

The Stones still have undisputed claim to the title of "The World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band" and it looks like the only thing to stop these Dorian Grays of rock will be boredom. When it's too much trouble to hit the road again, when there ore better ways to spend time than jamming all night in a recording studio, that's when they'll call it quits. But even though there are rumors this might be the last tour a standard hype for Stones' concert swings, much like the "retirement" announcemnts of Muham-med Ali it doesn't look like that time has come. They seem to enjoy it too much. These guys still can jam all night, and if veteran musicians like these care enough to spend their off hours making music, they can't be the dinosaurs some younger critics have claimed.

They have changed personnel only twice during their existence, a remarkable continuity in the rock trade. Mick Taylor replaced Brian Jones, and when he left, he was replaced by Ronnie Wood, formerly of the Faces but only after an extensive name-dropping campaign which included Eric Clapton. Mick Jagger, nearing 40, is a pioneer of the school of stage presence. He clamors, DEMANDS the audience's attention with his dancing, spinning and jumping like an organ grinder's monkey, one writer said while Keith Richard and Ronnie Wood play gritty guitar the Stones, just as McCartney and Lennon fronted the Beatles. The Beatles were light and innocence.

The Stones were darkness and decay. They didn't want to hold your hand, they wanted Satisfaction, and they wanted it NOW. The Stones were gritty and coarse, ill-mannered and rude. Probably the lowest point for the Stones came when a man was killed by members of the Hell's Angels at the Altamonte rock festival in December 1 969. Jagger, who can entice, cajole, seduce and repel thousands, pleaded pathetically for people to stop fighting, but young Meredith Hunter was knifed and beaten to death in front of the stage while Jagger sang Under My Thumb.

But even considering that and the death was more a result of mixing the Angels with too much alcohol and speed than violence triggered by the Stones' image the band many consider demonic isn't truly evil. Jagger may have enjoyed the theater of embodying the Devil in flowing red robes and singing about the rapist in Midnight Rambler. But if they weren't Alice Cooper, singing about dead babies and then playing golf with Bob Hope, neither were they hostile, prone-to-violence toughs. It was theater, and good theater at that. And for all the bravado of the punk rockers who say Jagger should have quit in '65, there's the solid evidence of a band which can still muster the energy and drive of good rock 'n' roll.

Most recently, that has been exhibited on the new Stones LP, Some Girls, a record apparently inspired haunted by Bi Only Rock N' Roll From Page 1 Georgia football game or the postseason Gator Bowl classic could boast such attendance figures. And at $10 a ticket that made for quite a payday. It was Aug. 2, 1 975, and hours before the 1 p.m. concert began, lines of traffic snaked across Jacksonville's bridges to the stadium as the temperatures began to rise into the 90s.

Masses of people engulfed the Gator Bowl complex many were youngsters who had hear the Stones only on radio and records. Many more were "older folks" in their mid-to-late 20s who had lived through the British invasion of the early '60s when Mick Jagger and company were making their mark on music. Once inside, people stood, lounged and wandered about in all types of garb from the casually dressed good oP boys in cutoffs and 1 0-gallon hats to the more el egantly dressed, neatly coiffed and often mascaraed gentlement who looked like they had just come from an area disco. Shortly after 1 p.m.,. the Atlanta Rhythm Section arrived on stage to kick off seven hours of music.

They were followed by Rufus and the J. Geils Band definitely not lightweights in the business. But it was the Rolling Stones the people were there to see. The weather was hot and humid, a typical Florida summer afternoon skies blue as South American turquois. Nearly 600 people would be treated that day for various ailments from drug overdoses to heat prostration.

But the Rain God was merciful. Minutes before the Stones came on stage one black cloud hovered over the stadium and dumped relief on the sunburned, burned-out crowd just in time to give them that extra bit of energy they needed. The timing couldn't have been better for the Stones to make their entrance. Jagger raced across the stage, prancing about like a ballet dancer wearing flared striped pants tied to his ankles above red shoes, a matching blouse open to the navel and a swirling purple cape which soon went sailing into the wings. His eyes were heavy with makeup and his wasp-stung lips matched his red shoes.

Keith Richard's guitar blasted out the opening chords to Brown Sugar and the action the multitudes were awaiting was underway. The crowd pressed forward toward the U-shaped stage at the north end zone, pushing, elbowing, pelvis to pelvis, sweat-soaked body to body, clapping, cheering, rocking and rolling. Midnight Rambler, All Down The Line, It's Only Rock and Roll and the crowd loved it. Jagger was at his finest. Bumping, grinding, swaying, dancing with the microphone stand, back and forth, up and down, sensually Mick Jagger enticing the crowd.

He sat, he stood, he crouched like a panther ready to pounce. He skipped about the stage ducking the clothing flying on stage from female fans. As one writer described the concert, "This is a mass gathering of pilgrims, come to worship, come to hear the high priests of rock roll." Amen. THE TAMPA TRIBUNE, Friday, June 9, 1978.