Lip Service

Only rock 'n' roll?

Comments (0) By Niki D'Andrea Thursday, Nov 16 2006

When the band busts into "Honky Tonk Women," an obnoxiously drunk woman who looks to be in her 60s shoves a cigar-size joint into her husband's mouth, screaming, "Here, suck on that, honey!"

Pretty soon, everyone around me is buried in a cloud of pot smoke, singing along to "Midnight Rambler," and nobody's commenting on how old the Stones look anymore. The people in the audience are too busy dancing to the songs they love, whether they're songs they grew up with, or songs their parents grew up with. For the 50-plus generation, the Rolling Stones are the soundtrack to their childhoods and teenage years. For the younger crowd that grew up listening to their parents brag about how great rock usedto be, the Stones are aging icons we must see before they retire or die (but I'm betting the latter happens first).

Mike Gorman

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True, the Rolling Stones are getting up there in years, but "Under My Thumb," "Paint It Black," "Gimme Shelter," "Get Off My Cloud," "19th Nervous Breakdown," "Mother's Little Helper," and "Satisfaction" sound just as fresh and original today as I bet they did 40 years ago.

Some things have changed over time, of course — audiences have gone from holding up lighters to holding up illuminated cell phones, and ticket and tee shirt prices have more than tripled — but the Stones are still the biggest band around today, and they still put on a high-energy show that most people half their age can't pull off. And their fans — no matter how old themselves — still know how to party.

So suck on that, honey.