Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

I have absolutely no idea why Donald Trump would use the Rolling Stones song, You Can't Always Get What You Want as the closing of his epically long acceptance speech last night. He has used it other times, I gather, but it doesn't make sense. At least to me.

Might it be thumbing his nose at the Cruz people?

Nyah, nyah- you didn't get what you want

Might it be to pick up on anger the way only the Rolling Stones could? Here's one of the verses that might explain that:

But I went down to the demonstration
To get your fair share of abuse
Singing, "We're gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we're gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse"

It might just be because he is of the generation that would have rocked to that song in 1969 when he was 23.

It has a good beat. I can dance to it. I'll give it an 80.

Or, and this is a little more subtle, which speaks against it, but he may be saying:

You think you want something else, but if you vote for me you will find that I am what you need.

That fits the chorus sung over and over with a magical and hypnotic beat.

You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you just might find
You get what you need

It may just be the hypnotic beat that will put us all to sleep so he can give us a post-hypnotic suggestion, subliminal ideas, to make sure we go vote for him.

I am at a loss to figure it out.

All I know is that for someone who preaches law and order, his continual use of songs without permission is a good example of his belief that he can do whatever he wants.

Scary!

So I present another song for consideration by The Who:

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

And the famous last line:

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

A 50-Year Memory: Video for June

As June began, I was no longer a high school student. A summer of freedom was ahead. I was working as a cashier at the local swimming pool, learning to swim in private lessons with one of the lifeguards, and probably getting nervous about heading off to college in the fall.

On the radio as I graduated and moved into June:

Two weeks in May/June at #1:
When A Man Loves A Woman- Percy Sledge

Trivia: this was the first number 1 hit recorded in Muscle Shoals. It is also one of seven number 1 hits to debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 100.

Then the Stones came roaring into town:

Two weeks in June at #1:
Paint It, Black- The Rolling Stones

Trivia: the third number one hit single for he Stones in the US and sixth in the UK. Since its initial release, the song has remained influential as the first number one hit featuring a sitar.


I'll save these guys until next month. They took top spot on the last week of June.
One week in June at #1:
Paperback Writer- The Beatles

A 50-year Memory: Video for March

Mixed emotions about posting this month's # song from 1966. For the four weeks of March and the first week of April one song dominated the pop charts, "The Ballad of the Green Berets," by SSG Barry Sadler. I will write on that later today.

For this post, though, here's the song that later in the month dislodged Nancy Sinatra's walkin' boots from #2.

(Plus you get a look at American Bandstand!)

A 50-year Memory: Two Videos for November

For four weeks in October 1965 The Beatles held the top spot in pop music. So, technically on November 1, 1965, this was still the #1 song.

But the first official Hot 100 for November came out on November 6, 1965. Away went the Beatles. In came The Rolling Stones.

A Video for July and a 50-Year Memory

The summer before my senior year. 1965. Exploding onto the scene, this song took over the month of July- number one for virutally the whole month. It IS one of the great rock and roll songs. Looking at it today, I don't remember Jagger being that young- but did he know how to play to the camera. The power exudes even in the old black and white. No wonder our parents were afraid.

50 years later, it's still very real and still an almost perfect summer song!

Video of the Month: May 2014

Released on this date in 1971.

Rock on!

What Stamina

They range in age from 64 to 72.

They have been a significant part of the soundtrack for the last half century!

They still move around that stage like they did 50 years ago.

I'm talking about the Rolling Stones whose concert I am watching on Showtime right now.

It's Just a Shout Away to Jumping Jack Flash, they haven't lost a bit of what made makes them great. They managed to survive what most people thought would kill them. They still look the part of the "bad boys of rock and roll." I don't think it's nostalgia that drives it. No more than in jazz people of all ages flock to see the great masters who are still around as much as the newer generation. In bluegrass Ralph Stanley draws as big a crowd as ever- maybe bigger. With Rock and Roll we weren't supposed to still be enjoying that music today. It was for the rebellious young.

(Wow- Keith Richards can really smile!)

Or maybe it's just damn great music for all generations.

Even if Sympathy for the Devil has come a very long way from Altamont, it's raw power is still there with a different underlying beat that pushes the song forward with a force no one else can bring.

At the same time I am caused to reflect on that other British band from the same era that never made it out of the 60s intact. Half of the Beatles are gone. Their music frozen in time with only Sir Paul and Ringo to make any new contributions. Their music is just as timeless and rings just as true today, but we will never hear the changes and evolution of the music as we do with the Stones.

This is not a back-to-the-60s tour like you get with so many other groups today.

Well, enough. I hope I can be in as good a shape at 70 as they are.

If so- it'll

"Be a gas!"