You Don't Want My Trousers To Fall Down, Now Do You?

Last night, on the way home from seeing Shine A Light with Pete, I put Their Satanic Majesties Request on the stereo and I started remembering..... TSMR was my first Rolling Stones album that I owned. I lived across the street from some hippies that worked in lawn maintenance when I was about 9 or 10 or so. They used to smoke pot and drink in front of me but I don't remember them ever asking me if I wanted to do those things. They were really cool to me. And very generous for people who didn't have much. I remember them rolling joints in the spine of Hot Rocks. Matter of factly, most copies of Hot Rocks i've owned have smelled like pot.

Anyway, at Christmas time they chipped in and bought me TSMR and I was blown out. By this time, I had a lot of records that were bought or inherited but this was a genuine act of kindness! I used to listen to it quite alot until later when a friend who was a Stones fanatic convinced me that it was a piece of shit (which seemed to be the consensus for a while there amongst Stones fans/critics). I guess I wanted to appear cool in his eyes so I slid it to the back of the pile and I forgot about it for a few years. I eventually revisited it and have loved it ever since. What happened to the hippies? My Mom made me stop hanging out with them which was probably the right thing to do but I hated her for it. They eventually moved out of the neighborhood and wherever they are....Thanks!

There is so much to love about TSMR. My favorite things are the compressed guitars and out-of-tune jams and weird instruments like the dulcimer. The next important memory I have concerning the Stones happened probably the next year. Every other year or so, I used to go to NY for the summer to get out of my mother's hair and to understand the generational gap with my Italian Grandparents. This particular year ('78? '79...the year of Son Of Sam...I remember that much), I was quite Stones mad and I remember looking at the Some Girls record and noticing the record company address was in NYC. How convenient! I have no idea how I talked my Grandmother and sisters into going into the city on a whim to find...I didn't know what we'd find. Anyway, we looked up the address and headed over there. I'm sure my Grandmother probably made those people be nice to us. "We schlepped all the way here from the Bronx and you're not gonna give my Grandson anything to take home to FLAAAARRIDDAAAA"? I'm sure it wasn't that bad...I don't remember...coulda blocked it out.

Anyway, I was starstruck being in the Rolling Stones Records office and we didn't stay very long but I peeked down a hallway and saw a door with Mick Jagger's name on it. The receptionist gave me several copies of their current promo pictures and I was in heaven. I really wish I remember what happened to them. One more and i'll stop. Somewhere in the late 80's-early 90's, Ron Wood had a club in Miami called Woody's and the band I was in (name withheld) got to play there. We were sub-nobodies but were treated with respect and professionalism. Ron had a gallery of paintings and one of the staff let me looksee. I also noticed on the phone in the dressing room speed dial buttons with each of the Stones' names on it. Oh, the temptation. I have seen them a bunch of times and they've been great everytime. It's late so i'll save my review for next post.