Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 111

Glad Sing? Yes, Talk? Very Little By Wayne Robins Mick Jagger didn't have much fun at the interview. "He said it was reallv awful," a source who didn't want to be identified said. "You were supposed to onlv ask him about the album." In retrospect, there wouldn't have been that much to talk about. "Black and Blue," the first release of new material from the Rolling Stones in nearlv two vears, has some fine moments, but more than its share of pedestrian ones that don't stand up under repeated listening. Given the opportunitv to deal face-to-face with the performer who had done more to affect the way I felt about both music and mvself over the last dozen vears than anvone except perhaps Bob Dvlan.

the possiblilitv of discussing cut 2, side 2, just wasn't as enticing as trving to explore what makes Mick Jagger so effective an artist. You wouldn't know it from watching him perform in front of 20.000 enthralled rock and roll fans, but Jagger is an accomplished doodler. Throughout the interview he kept his head down, occasionallv peering up through bloodshot eves. All the while, he scribbled on a pad of paper. At the end of the interview, he showed off the piece of paper.

Along with kev words or notations about subjects that had been discussed -politics. image. songwriting, acting. Queen and Aerosmith. taxes- -there were the words "death again." He wouldn't give up the paper.

Mavbe he thought somebodv would want to sell it. What would vou pav for a 4-bv-6 sheet of paper with original Mick Jagger doodles? Or would giving up the paper be the literary equivalent of an encore, which the Stones rarelv offer. Some notions of Jagger garnered from watching him perform half a dozen times over the past 10 vears can be wiped out bv the person offstage. First of all, he is shorter than vou think, but his face is huge. I can tell he is short; he is about my height, which means that he's more than 5 feet.

and less reflected junior high school level humor. he seemed The Stones' more formal reggae exercise, Eric quite serious when asked whether he felt like a Donaldson's "Cherry Oh Babv," is one of too many man without a countrv. throwaway numbers on the album. "Cherry" is "Whv do vou need a countrv?" Jagger said. "I mere caricature and adds nothing to the form.

It is don't think vou need a countrv. It's not necessarv at the same stage of assimilation as the Stones' -if it ever was. I suppose it was at one early version of the Drifters "Under the Boardtime. I think that people that plav music don't walk" was. When Jagger shouts "Ire!" the need a country at all.

Nor do physicists. either. Rastafarian power chant, it sounds as out of place Whatever skills they have. thev perform that as the Osmond Brothers shouting "Right on." service anvwhere." Also marginal: Two of the three hard -rock Homelessness doesn't keep the Rolling Stones numbers. "Hey Negrita" is just a rhvthm track, from working.

Thev're touring the European sounding like an outtake from "Exile On Main continent this spring. giving their first perform- Street." And "Crazy Mama" is vacuous. What's ances ever in, places like Spain and Yugoslavia. missing. perhaps.

is the fullness and drive that Thev'll be doing a brief tour of the United States producer Jimmy Miller gave to albums like "Exile this summer, though it's possible thev'll plav no on Main Street." This is the second time the closer to this area than Philadelphia. "Glimmer Twins," Mick and Keith Richard, have "Black and Blue" was recorded in Germanv. taken full production responsibilitv (1974's "It's Holland and Switzerland. over a period stretching Only Rock and Roll" was the first). The studio is from December, 1974, to April, 1975.

The time and an instrument Mick and Keith still haven't than 6 feet tall. 01 Onstage, he appears to dwarf Dr. space stretching mav not hurt, but it doesn't help mastered. J. Mavbe it's the wav Jagger jumps.

either. Since politics is a kind of nirvana for control There "Black and "Hand of Fate." the rocker that works. is in the are some strong cuts on junkies. it's not surprising that Jagger can become Blue." but the album whole lacks cohesion early Stones traditions of sympathy for the outlaw as a loquacious when he is asked whether the Rolling and direction. The Stones continue to dabble in and is delivered with punch and stvle.

"I killed a -who once sustained the counterculture at various of man," Jagger sings. but that's not the worst of it: the barricades with "Street Fighting Man' and them, but this pop "I watched him die." The Stones aren't an outlaw sectors the spectrum that intrigue at point seem committed to none. obliquelv asked for justice for Angela Davis in band anymore, of course. Thev're Jet Set. On the "Sweet Black Angel" -would consider following The album begins with a catch of fire.

"Hot 1972 tour, Truman Capote, Lee Radziwill and the trend of other major rock bands in supporting Stuff." on the surface. is merelv Rolling Stones riff ot hers of that crowd found some kind of enhanced presidential candidates this vear. music simplified for the disco masses. But the stature associating with people the probably once "Yeah, if I stood for President." Jagger band here is an orchestra of percussion, conducted considered (and mav st ill consider) seedv lowlifes. said.

"Then I would do a lot of for myself. of drummer Charlie In the interview, Jagger had this to sav about it: bv the lithe, flexible rhvthm support Watts, who continues to sound fresh. (Watts. it And I would rallv around evervbody I could. But as can be argued.

invented modern rock "I don't wanna talk about it." I can't run for President. I don't see mvself gettin' on the "Between drumming the Buttons" album in 1966. "Why not?" involved in it. I can't vote. Am I entitled to raise Since then his technical sophistication has inmonev? Am I morally entitled to?" he asked creased, though fortunatelv the "No.

it's sillv. Long time ago. I can't remember rhetoricallv. not at cost of his what visceral happened four vears ago," Jagger said. instincts.) The fact that Jagger pavs enough in U.S.

taxes The also There's a point to be made that Jagger's job is to support a minor war in a place like Panama song features Jagger's most lubricated not to give revealing interviews as much as it is to vocal improvisations since "Goin' Home." The gave us one of our few shared moments of disco orientation of the first half of the be a great rock and roll singer. It is that singing. amusement when he launched into a discussion of cut more confident. That less -imitative than it has been becomes a reggae is, the reggae taxation without representation. Quite appropriate form in which disc jockevs talk the rhvthm in vears, that carries the softer songs that give for the Bicentennial.

vou know. over "Black track of a record, practiced bv like and Blue" some of its unexpected dignitv. as people Big But Jagger's mockery was not without a bit of Youth and Rov. Jagger, alwavs a brilliant "Melodv" is a sleeper here, though the substance. Jagger, at this moment.

couldn't run mimic, gets a piercing. if barelv, comprehensible. "inspired by Billv Preston" (the kevboard plaver for office anvwhere in the world that required word flow working: who frequently sits in with the Stones) designation citizenship, since the native Englishman is one of "All the people in New York know vou're is almost reason to ignore it. But this is a verv the their many homeland pop stars because who of have the all tax but bite there. abandoned So going I in know the vou're know vou're in sleek colorful vehicle enough to indeed.

have been swaving. from the swooning sound track and Part while Jagger said that his presidential ambitions -Continued on Page 22.