The Edge Of Madness

[tabs]

This is a cautionary tale of Rock N Roll. Once upon a time 5 lads from Britain formed a Rock N Roll band and hit the road. Before you knew it they became rich and famous as the Bad Boys of Rock N Roll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiAev19rcy4&feature=related

After awhile all that fame and fortune began to take its toll on the band. With all their sex, drugs, arrests and far away places they began to believe that they were the Baddest Boys around. It was about this time that one of the lads began having a hard time maintaining and this added further fuel to the whirlwind of madness surrounding the band. These lads now felt they were the REAL DEAL Rock N Roll Bad A$$es. So they decided to put on a Rock N Roll Circus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-WSu3QyRU4#

It was about this time that the lad who was having a hard time couldn't keep up with the band anymore, so he was dropped like a rock and soon died. The band with their new replacment decided to take the show on the road to America. They were so successfull that they soon became known as the Greatest Rock N Roll Band ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOBFQHhWqVg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1VZWnwP8A4&feature=related

As the Greatest Rock N Roll tour ever was winding down the gratefull band decided to put on a free show at Altamont Raceway in California. Being the Baddest Boys around they decided that they would hire another group of Bad Boy Bikers known as the Hells Angels to provide security. It was a match made in heaven they felt. However this is where Reality hit the pavment and the ***** hit the fan. It was here the band found out first hand that they were not the Bad A$$es they thought they were cause the band found out the Hells Angels were the REAL Bad Men.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZviRY8RqqMs&feature=related

It was here that the Hells Angel killed someone in the audience, right in front of the band. This shook the band into realizing that they weren't Bad A$$es after all but just a bunch of show business entertainers who were playing at being Bad Boys. Never again would they play with such ferocity or meaning. From now on end they would only be going through the motions...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr8Sfd822Ys&feature=related

[tabs]

From being for real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waVudFEGX9o

To this in one simple step...Altamont

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C8ICKbCFZY

What the "lttle Twerp" really turned out to be is an English Tart.

[tabs]

Not one comment?

[RANDY P]

boo!

[dd74]

Originally Posted by tabs

Not one comment?

Did you say something?

[nostatic]

I'm having my 19th nervous breakdown. care to join me?

[Dottore]

Genius Tabs! Absolutely friggin genius.
Many thanks for your efforts.

[sammyg2]

You forgot the one where the little english tart got really, really old but kept trying to sing, until all he could do was run around and yell into the microphone in a loud monotone voice.
And the sheep still worshipped him.

[RANDY P]

Tabby is full of this historical stuff... I especially like the story about the song "coc$ucker blues"..

rjp

[911Rob]

Never again would they play with such ferocity or meaning. From now on end they would only be going through the motions...

That's one heck of a 30 year "going through the motions" stint they've had!

As for Bad A$$es, yeah, the Angels are up there. I wouldn't mess with them or the Italians. Then of course, there's the Jews that really run the whole show.

[tabs]

When Brian Jones was deteroiating the Rolling Stones were on the absolute edge. It became their most creative period. Keith Richards said he wrote the song "Gimme Shelter" when Jagger was off making the movie Performance with Keiths GF Anita Pallenberg, who was previousily Brian Jones GF. Richards was afraid that Jagger was screwing her. It was also during this time that Richards began taking Heroin.

Its as if Jagger/Richards need a catalyst of a Talent like Brian Jones to feed off of. Jones gave them a descent into madness. You can hear it in many of the songs on Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed. In paticular Jumping Jack Flash, Sympathy For the Devil, Gimme Shelter and culiminating in Midnight Rambler. In Midnight Rambler Jagger switches from first person to third person narrative. Jagger always has been a control freak and during this time was full of himself, which you can see in the vids I posted. It took the direct confrontation of what real madness is at Altamont to burst his bubble. That can clearly be seen in the vid of Under My Thumb. What is telling is that it was 6 years before they played Sympathy For the Devil live again during the 1975 tour of the Americas.

Never again did the Stones creat anything with the intensity of Beggars and Let it Bleed. Some people might point to Sticky Fingers and Exiles as the pinacles of the Rolling Stones creative success. However much of the material allready existed in one form or another before those albums were recorded. Sticky Fingers reflected Richards growing dependence on Heroin and Exiles was straight ahead good ole timey RNR without much social or personal content. After that all the Stones gave us was Dancin With Mr D and Star Star.

By 1975 the Rolling Stones had largely become a Old But Goodies Show. They might as well have been the Beach Boys

There is something that I wasn't able to show in the U Tube vids and that was the Stones Free Concert in Hyde Park in July of 69. At that concert the Hells Angels UK Chapter were on the scene. If you looked at them you would think what a joke a bunch of English Poofs parading around in Leather and German Helmets. That must have given Jagger the idea that the Hells Angels SF Chapter were not much different and could be controled . After all the Gratefull Dead and Jefferson Airplane had a working relationship with them. I think it was a bit of a shock to Jagger when he realized that the Hells Angels SF were nothing like their UK breathren.

[nota]

there were 6 guys in the band
stu [ ian stewart] the piano player
was too fat to fit the immage
so was banned from the stage
but played on all the 60's hits
and was paid as a full member of the band

the leadership and older members of the SF angels were not there at Altamont
they were off at a pre-planed meeting with other chapter leaders
the whole Altamont deal was a last minite deal
after the planned free gig in golden gate park was banned by the city of SF
so a bunch of new members and prospects ran amouck
at an event that was thrown together allmost unplanned

[tabs]

Originally Posted by nota

there were 6 guys in the band
stu [ ian stewart] the piano player
was too fat to fit the immage
so was banned from the stage
but played on all the 60's hits
and was paid as a full member of the band

the leadership and older members of the SF angels were not there at Altamont
they were off at a pre-planed meeting with other chapter leaders
the whole Altamont deal was a last minite deal
after the planned free gig in golden gate park was banned by the city of SF
so a bunch of new members and prospects ran amouck
at an event that was thrown together allmost unplanned

Isn't that Sonny Barger standing on stage next to the Angel that is self emoting?

Your history is correct. However, how does that change the tale I have told about the RS.

No matter how you want to cut it, the RS were never the same afer Altamont.

[the]

Cool little stroll down memory lane, nicely done.

I could smell those filthy hippies through my monitor.

I think it is almost impossible for a huge band to keep its edge. Youth, and the emotional rollercoaster that is part of that, and hunger are driving forces behind rock and roll.

It seems impossible for middle aged multi millionaires to maintain that. They just aren't the same people they were in their glorious, artistic, passionate past. They are just old trained monkeys going through the motion.

Nothing sadder than seeing Daltry sing "Hope I die before I get old," . . . at age 60!