Ever heard the expression, don’t trust anyone over 30?
How about 70?
Best I can tell the phrase was first uttered by a free speech movement dude in 1965 at a time free speech was a somewhat rare commodity. And during the time period when that line was in vogue, a cat named Mick Jagger sang, “What a drag it is getting old” and reportedly claimed, “he would rather be dead than be up on stage when he got old”.
That of course was then.
“I have a very different attitude now…” Jagger told Rolling Stone magazine in 1995. “(Rock ‘n roll’s) capable of change and novelty. But it’s not as exciting for me. It’s not a perfect medium for someone my age, given the rebelliousness of the whole thing, the angst and youth of it. In some ways it’s foolish to try and re-create that.”
Yet 20 years later, at age 71, Jagger’s still up there a prancing and a dancing.
But to what end?
The Rolling Stones today is “a band that can’t even play ‘The Last Time’ as well as you did in middle school,” music pundit Bob Lefsetz. said two years ago about a Stones show in LA’s Staples Center.
“There’s no energy,” he continued. “The crowd looks like a parody of the 70s. The band is so thin they make (opening act) Gwen Stefani look fat, and she looks like she stepped onto the set of “Cocoon,” and she sucks besides…Why didn’t the band get someone their own age?”
Lefsetz money quote: “If anybody who was at this show says it was great, they’re lying.”
There’s more.
“The Stones shouldn’t have gone out at all,” Lefsetz added. “They’re a laughingstock. Video may have killed the radio star, but social media and the Internet put a stake in the heart of the Rolling Stones, who should have quit while they were ahead, kept their money and stayed home. They’re an insult to history. They rehearsed? Paul McCartney is better in his SLEEP!”
Andrew Romano of the Daily Beast was far kinder in calling for Jagger’s retirement.
“What I mean is that Jagger should retire the Mick Jagger costume he has worn for the last 35 years or so—the hollow showbiz persona he has cultivated and merchandised since the late 1970s—and find a more sustainable version of himself to inhabit,” Romano explained. “Because pretty soon he’s going to be too old for this shit. The rock stars of the 1960s never gave a moment’s thought to the art of aging gracefully. They never thought they would have to…
“Seriously: who among us can imagine an emaciated 85-year-old English knight shouting ‘Brown sugar, how come you taste so good’ as he prances around an arena? Who among us would even want to?
“That’s why Jagger ought to retire the whole strutting, prancing, glittery-jacket-and-stretchy-pants-wearing ‘Mick Jagger’ act before it’s too late.”
Oh, and a word to the wise for those contemplating succumbing to the full page ads in the Kansas City Star for the Stones show at Arrowhead Stadium June 27th:
With nosebleed seats starting at $65 and going up to$346, it’s not exactly a cheap thrill.
In fact, if you want the “Diamond VIP Package” – which includes a VIP laminate (seriously?), tour poster and program – the ducats will set you back $1,749 each.
But not so fast…
According to Lefsetz sources, the Stones unloaded thousands of the unsold $600 seats in LA at $85 each to try and save face. It’s called papering the arena, so the band isn’t embarrassed by all the up close empty seats.
My advice if you want to go: keep it in your pants for another three months.
Arrowhead, KC, Soldier’s Field, Chicago and Olympic Stadium, Berlin.
Yeap, seen’em three times. Sorry AEG but that’s enough for me, AMEX card or not……
The only time I’ve seen the Stones and they haven’t sucked was 72 in Chicago with Stevie Wonder opening.
77? meh. 81? ugh 89? please.
At least you know what you’re getting as opposed to Van Halen, who destroyed any credibility David Lee Roth had (less than zero) with Jimmy Kimmell the other night.
Either do it like McCartney or don’t do it at all.
Funny thing, I saw that 1972 Rolling Stones / Stevie Wonder tour at Municipal Auditorium in downtown KC…
Pretty good show as I recall, but it wasn’t really life changing.
Speaking of which, I saw any number of other, “lesser” bands in concert that did have a life changing sort of effect on me…or so it seemed at the time.
For example, I saw a couple of killer Who shows. I saw Janis Joplin with one of my older sisters who graduated from Wellesley in Hillary Clinton’s class. But that was just a good show as well, not a great one.
The most boring concert I went to back in those heady days was the first go round of Credence Clearwater Revival. The band stood in place, almost motionless and devoid of any sign of detectible passion and choked out their early hits.
When it comes to live concerts, you never really know who’s going to deliver the goods, but when they reach the age of one million, a bit of healthy skepticism is in order, I think.
” I saw any number of other, “lesser” bands in concert that did have a life changing sort of effect on me…or so it seemd at the time.”
I’m confident that Procol Harum concert back in the 60’s was one of those events.
And I’m equally confident Stomps that the Procol Harum show you are referring to took place in the 1970s
I saw that same show in LA with Stevie not bad. I think it was at the Paladium..I was at ASU. Its sad to see our heros age, its worse to see ourselves age,hah..rock has died and that’s very sad.
Rock fans are sadists sometimes.
glaze bring on old comics who suck.
tv reruns old bands and comics who suck.
Ibet 50,000 people will pay the money to see the stones….any takers..
because there is no band like them that can at their age do the show
they do.
Saw mick in Miami..the guy sings and puts on a great show.
Who are you leftsedt and hearne
with your readers ship of 50…who are you to tell the public that
they shouldn’t pay hard money to see the stones.
You advertise roger the plumberwho charges more than a stone ticket
to fixa toilet…or the bottleneck with their never to be seen again acts…how aout fitnessthat sells 2000 dollar treadmills that end up being clothes hangers for
most of thir buyers. or the travel dude who sells overpriced trips that
could be had for half the price on the internet and the travelers don’t
have to suffer the virus.
Take the 50K and under bet hearne and loser buys a dinner at your buddys
hererford house if they don’t burn it down first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rock on mick….we look forward to seeing you at arrowheard AGAIN AND AGAIN
AND AGAIN!@@@@
yOU just had a story about frank Sinatra. Maybe he’ll be the opening act…oh forgot..
he hard trouble selling 10,000 tix at kemper in his 60’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Frank was 69 when he played Kemper in March of 1985…
And like the Stones did in LA, he had to paper the arena – give away thousands of free tickets at the last minute – to keep from being embarrassed.
They’ll be firstling tickets for the show at Arrowhead – quietly, of course – mark my words.
The difference in venue size being, they are a lot more Baby Boomers still alive than there were World War I and II survivors back when Frank was choking out his last hurrahs back then.
And remember, people are living much longer now than they were then.
You go out there and sway with the has beens though, Harley. We always knew you were a cutting edge guy and this pretty much confirms it.
Well fake Harley not true guys like Bobcat Goldthwait don’t suck, he’s still outstanding, so are most of the old comics, Lewis Black,Winslow, Paula Poundstone even Tommy Chong has entertaining shows…hey people grew up with these folks and still love them…the new guys are sometimes harder to sell cause the media is so fractured and its harder to be famous today…the younger comics have lots of credits but unlike the Chongs and Dave Couliers they don’t have that show or film ‘everyone’ saw.
glaze fake hair man…same for the music industry.
the new acts get no publicity and their songs don’t last.
the stones may hae to paper arrowhead or the block off the
upper deck.
makes no difference…
you could put all the olver the hill comics glazes “features”
at his shop…and you’d maybe get 10,,000 tickets sold.
comedy is dying boys…if not right now for kevin hart
the rest are has beens.
In music…even kansascan draw 8-10k/Fleetwood mac
50 years old drew 16-17K.
run all your old same jokes/old hat/old tv stars/ in joco and
maybe sell 3000 tix.
journey/who/…they still draw thousands….
and as far as old geezers hearne and glaze…you’re both
much older than me and evne if you can get some hot
ho’s glaze….your money doesn’t buy class!!!!!!!!
lets see…lewis black..now that stewarts gone so is black..
he couldn’t fill up midland last time.
paula poundstone….she couldn’t fill up uptown.
bobcat…yougive awayfree tix to your place…
and the former tv star…dave…how did you paper your
place with that guy….where can he play…sell the first
row at sprint maybe!
They’re dead and dying acts. And hearne you sw stones
in 72…I was just a baby then. How old are you hearne?
65 on ss .
Then theres tommy chong…another ticket hawking
has been. His act is as old as his rap sheet.
So don’t bag on the stones. No matter how old they are..
they’ll outlast both of you.
No way glaze could keep up with mick.
No way hearne could keep up with micks grandma (and she’s
dead).
Stop it with these has beens…
make the bet…I say 50K …take the over or under…
because the stones usually take 90% of the gate. Its an
honor for promoters to promote their shows. Ask fritz!!!!!!!
So don’t shoot your mouth off when you’re showcasing
either some local artist with no talent…a local washed
up not even funny comedian….promoting ANOTHER phony
reality show….or thinking that your list of lineup comedians
are anything but old/washed up/$5.00 a ticket with
free ribs.
Luv ya glaze but there’s no one like the stones.
See wwhat their last tour grossed then come back and
tell Harley he’s wrong.
I’m sure dave from full house couldn’t sell 10 tikets
in brazil or outside the few houses he plays besides
stanfords.
Again…Harley knows…don’t doubt Harley….
good luck with “what’s his name” this weekend…the
cartoon dude.
your fiend Harley.
ever been to stone show hearne or leftsetz (the lonely guy on kcc)…they
rocked out the stadium.
hope when you get that age neither of you are either in a wheel chair
or 5 feet under dirt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111
Thanks for your kind thought, H Man
Hearne, as earlier admonished; don’t touch the poop.
you moved to kck Wilson. you’ll be the hottest
house around there with that above ground pool
and you floating like a duck in the rainwater!
Ygotta let hearne show us one pic of you in your
speedos as the wlls cave in your pool.
should be on Funniest Home videos. HAHAHAHAH!
also platypus…you read everthing I write…
I OWN YOU! WHEN’S YOUR NEXT ARTICLE?
“HowI found a dragon innertube in Topeka”
If I must watch zombies perform this summer, I think I’d prefer to take in an episode of the new “Walking Dead” spinoff series. That way, I can be thoroughly disgusted by old ghouls for free.
Got to admit…you continue to innovate! Recycling Lefsetz from two years ago is a new wrinkle here.
And a timely one as well, Mysterious…
The flip side of which, you can always be counted on to play the same tired tune over and over and over. You must find it quite amusing!
The Stones probably should have called it quits 30 years ago, right before that disaster with David Bowie. Embarrassing.
Hey its hard to walk away… for anyone look at Ali, Bret Favre and so many famous stars in their field who stay til the end. Clint and Harrison Ford..people still love them. People still love the Stones it of course reminds them of their youth and maybe easier happier times.
What gets me is why people are willing to part with hundreds of dollars for nosebleed seats – almost every seat in Arrowhead is nosebleed by concert (not football or soccer) standards.
They have to drag ass all the way out there, pay a fortune for parking, food and drinks, to essentially watch the show on the stadium television screens or whatever the band provides.
And that doesn’t even address the has been quality of the show.
Oh I get it, alright.
Oldsters want to tweak their memories of better times when they were young, but you really can’t go back. And you probably stand a better chance of trying to by listening to an album or watching a concert DVD.
And younger folks who grew up maybe listening to their parents music look at it as an opportunity to capture a slice of history.
Just like the slice I captured of Sinatra, forgetting lyrics and his voice a shadow of what it had been.
Guess it’s the human condition.
why do they do all that?
pretty simple…they love the stones.
Its afree market hearne…no one puts a gun to their
head to pay 300 for seats to see the greatest rock
band in history…
sorry, maybe you can watch the repeats
of Lawrence Welk on tvland!
The very fact that you seem to know that there even are Lawrence Welk reruns, says it all, H man
checked google…Lawrence welk is on pbs
for all you kcc seniors.
Not my kind of music…
but pbs does have some great programming
on.
You probably like the old movies with no
voice…subtitles only. Brings back some
memories of your younger days.
Another part of it is that some people have nothing else to do..or at least they “think” they have nothing else to do.
The most exciting concert I ever went to was Def Leppard at Municipal auditorium back in Mar/April 1983. Heck it was my very first concert! They opened for Billy Squier when it really should have been the other way around, which is really pithy if you think about it.
Anyway, my point is yes, Def Leppard was the greatest concert I ever saw and today, right now, right this minute if you gave me tickets to a Def Leppard concert I’d say thanks but suggest you give them to your kids or somebody else.
Well said, Furioso…
By the way – almost hate to admit it but – I was kinda into Billy Squire for a bit in the early 1980s.
Was there at the Akron Rubber Bowl, August 1972. Stevie Wonder said, ‘if you don’t stop fighting, the Stones will not come out.” There were shielded cops swarming the floor swinging night sticks like they were swatting flies. I have been told, that was one of the seminal Stones concerts EVER! I remember half of it. It was a trip. Read the book, CockSucker Blues, or see the movie, bootlegged. Ain’t gonna be there at $370 a ticket for side seats this time.
You couldn’t pay me to go to Arrowhead for this “Night of the Living Dead” tour. I am also wary that I may join these un-dead fossils like the near death event the last time I attended an Arrowhead Summer Jam concert circa 1979. Somewhere between Santana and REO I experienced an out of body experience that I would no longer be able to snap back from today.
One other comment concerning your blurb of the lack of a free speech movement in 1965. At least there was something back then. There is no free speech today. The comment about old people by Jagger would put in motion the outrage movement from the AARP. The trigger warning for each protected class of victims today completely wipes out any real expression of true thoughts.
I guess running a blog with anonymous commentators is the only free speech that can be condoned.
Well, remember how certain songs were either not played on radio or bleeped out?
How about when the Stones were made to sing, “Let’s spend some time together” on the Ed Sullivan show. Instead of, “Let’s spend the night together.”
How about the artists that use the words that will not be spoken today? Hell, how about changing Huck Finn because of the word that may not be spoken, only represented by a capital letter and asterisks?
Don’t see anything changing for the better.
you old guys better catch these acts when they come to town.
the grim reaper might be right around the corner.
And as far as seeing the greatest acts from vegas to red rocks to msg to
staples to kemper or arrowhead other venues in kc…
no ones sseen moregreat artists and met them than Harley.
cousins were brokers in l.a….our family ran vegas/famil friend owend
cowtown….knew the fey family in Denver (god bless barry)….cousins in
contemporary…..and knew AEG.
Hey…hearne….the platters are playing down at the GEM…that’s your style HAHAHAH
fyi…stones 2007: 2nd largest tour gross;;;;;get this
$600,000,000.00. Depending on dates….I think they’ve got 4 nites in Chicago…
probably do 400,000,000 in gatethis time……..avg. 35,000 per show….
I would hardly call them dinosaurs…….and again…Harley is right again…
doesn’t that getb old hearing Harley is right again hearne/
STONES LOVE TO TRAVEL….AND THE FUNNIEST PART IS HOW MANY
PEOPLE KEITH RICHARDS HAS OUTLASTED!!!!!!!!!!!!
the layovers gotten here couldn’t leave with 2 grand in their pocket and a
free dinner……….
Harley is right again. Harley is right again. Harley is right again. I love it when oldsters demand that other oldsters sit down and grow old gracefully with them. No thanks.
excellent post Gladys. All these old guys are so full of anger
and hate that it takes over their life.
Have fun…enjoy it while you can…because time doesn’t
stand still.
Theworld is changing. Go for a walk at the shopping center.
Don’t read the star because it gets you all unwound. Drink
some prune juice each morning soyou feel better.
But you old guys need an attitude adjustment.
Life is fleeting …enjoy it.
Maybe go to glazes place for some laughs.
Stop being so grouchy!
I sure do miss Jardine’s!!
maybe Wilson can get someinvestors toether and reopen it.
But you gotta have Lonnie on a regular basis.
a true kc star who should have made the big time a long long time ago!!!