2023-09-08 00:09:30
Announced with great fanfare, this Wednesday finally, the Rolling Stones officially presented their new album ‘Hackney diamonds’. Presented by Jimmy Fallon and before more than 200 accredited international media and a million-dollar audience following him via streaming, they burst onto the stage like rock stars who continue to dazzle. “Here we are!” Mick Jagger was heard saying, energetically getting up from his seats at 80 years old. Next to him, Keith Richards, 79, and Ronnie Wood, 76.
It is a relaxed talk and one of the first anecdotes to come to light is, precisely, how what was their first press presentation of their first album contrasts with this massive event. “There were two journalists, one from ‘Enemy’ and another from ‘Melody’, and we bought them a pint of beer. We told them: ‘this is our album, listen to it!’ and they left, that’s how it was… There are no photos or anything,” the vocalist said, laughing. And we have bad news for Jagger, because searching through the archive we have found unique moments.
Those first appearances in which we see some very young musicians, with the faces of children, ready to take on the world. In one of those rescued audiovisual gems, we see Jagger and Watts hesitating in front of the microphones, with their pristine toupees. It was 1964, and from the United States, they criticized attempts to classify or compare them with other artists. “That can’t be like that,” said a very young Mick Jagger. A year later, after succeeding with their first international tour, from Copenhagen they received this question like a sharp knife: “Have you saved money to go back to the streets in case the new album doesn’t work?” To which Watts sarcastically replied: “Yes, we are prepared for that rainy day.”
Their scandals
That same year one of his biggest scandals would come. They had been guests on the Ed Sullivan Show. Such was the commotion that was organized in the stands, with dizziness and fainting included, that they had to stop the recording. The production company was forced to veto them although they returned three years later as established rock milestones, and in that performance we saw Brian Jones starring in an unusual sitting, lying on the stage, in that attempt to appear formal…
The year 1965 was key for the band. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction reached the top of sales charts around the world. Asked about that success, and about the possible fleeting nature of their career, it seems that they were clear about it and answered flatly that “something different is not done overnight.” In these more than 60 years of career, they have shown that it has been a long-term stardom and that they managed to revolutionize rock.
In the late 60s, the interviews wanted to delve into that ‘rock star’ myth with questions barely related to rock and many referring to sex and, above all, drugs. Some of the most surreal interviews happen after the musicians are released from prison for drug possession and consumption. In front of and behind the microphones, they laugh at the demonized image that is drawn of them and some time later they publish the album that crowned them as ‘their satanic majesties’, ‘Their satanic majesties request’.
This Thursday Mick Jagger once again cried out to break that stereotype that paints him as a demon and joked: “I go to church, it’s such a tall building…” and he even hummed a religious song. They also encountered the church at the presentation of their tour in Buenos Aires in 1998, when a journalist asked them the following question: “They are going to play with Bob Dylan and he has already played with the Pope, would their satanic majesties accept with the Pope? “, to which Richards responded with a loud fit of laughter that spread throughout the room and blurted out: “Kiss the ring!”
Another great moment was remembered by Jimmy Fallon, who said that when they came to his show, Richards lit a cigarette in the dressing room and the fire alarms went off. “I didn’t even know we had a fire manager,” he joked. To which the musician replied “after that, he stopped smoking.”
Irreverent and with their own style that has remained authentic over six decades, last night they lamented something that has changed, the loss of Charlie Watts. Excited, they explained that they miss him very much and that he “is there, with them,” pointing to the sky. They have explained that in the album they have rescued two of the tracks that they recorded with him as a tribute to the musician who died in 2020. We will have to wait until October 20 to see how his new work sounds. 18 years after their last album they release a first preview, the single ‘Angry’ with which they hope to continue adding successes and interviews with anecdotes like the ones they starred in in their beginnings.
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