September 24, 2012
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The Daily News
1 So music, and a history of some Stones' tunes? Anybody down? I have it all right out of the mouth of Keith Richards. But first things first. Raiders beat Steelers? Niners lose to Vikings? Who woulda thunk?
2 The acquisition of Janikowski is turning out to look like a good move. The rising of Darrius Heyward-Bay's arm yesterday was a call to arms for the Raiders. It was good to see.
3 I listened to all the hype on the Niners all week, and like any other fan, I got caught up in it. Yesterday, however, it started to bother me. I drove up to my Dad's for the day, and when I got inside, the first thing I said was, "All of this hype about the invincibility of the Niners is cockeyed. They will have a game where they get blown away." I wasn't talking about the Vikiings, or doing some Nostradamus feat. It's just that it has happened to many "invincible" teams over the decades. And...do you think Jim Harbaugh was trying to humiliate referee Ken Roan yesterday? What was THAT about? He didn't know? Come now.
4 When the Giants clinched their division the other night, I was pretty happy. Interestingly, it wasn't nearly as fun as 2010, but it wasn't nearly as exhausting either.
5 Too many new issues. But I'm glad, at this point. They clearly ran the West. Bochy did some great things with the team. Did Buster Posey deserve the Willie Mac award? Damn straight. Does he deserve the MVP? I would have to say yes. Are the Giants invincible? Is anybody else? Questions.
6 Moving On, Part the First: I have been off the Earth since Thursday, dude. Last week was everything I expected: ridiculous, exhausting, and relentless.
7 We had one of the most negative staff meetings on Wednesday, filled with a lot of Dooooom and Glooooom. The meeting got so tense that some people shouted at the presenter while others walked out. That was pretty great for morale.
8 The only people who remained were the people who are positive and hopeful. I stayed anyway.
9 Thursday was Back-to-School Night, which is always exhausting but pretty energizing as well. I had two emails from parents thanking me for making them feel their kids were in competent hands. So I musta snowed 'em. <lmao> <lol> <jk>
10 Yeesh. What has happened to the world I used to know? By Friday I couldn't see straight. I saw two of everything. I walked into walls the entire day. We dropped the opening kick on Monday and got stomped on all week. It was a tough one.
11 This weekend I visited Dad two days in a row, but spent sixteen hours grading essays. I could grade essays, visit, watch football, and carry on perfectly normal conversations, but still, it does eventually numb the senses, especially after an unusually hectic and horrid week.
12 Last night I was able to get to sleep by 9:30 but awakened at 1:30 a.m. because that's sometimes what I do.
13 <sigh> Insomnia. Fortunately Insomnia sometimes reminds me of thing. It reminded me of my ride up to Dad's on Saturday, and what I was going to bring to today's DN.
14 Early Saturday morning, on the way to Dad's, I needed some sort of music on the drive up. I didn't know where my iPhone cord was, and had no CD's in the Ol' Timuh, my new ride.
15 I knew that if there was a Bee Gees song on or something, I'd probably go into a tree, or shoot people with rubber bands and pencil erasers. So I popped on the radio in hopes of a miracle.
16 I hit the jackpot. The Rolling Stones' classic "Sympathy for the Devil" was on. I went loud. The drums, the riffs, the "Woo Woo's!" Life has been hell, and this was by far THE greatest hell song ever written, and there have been many.
17 It was such a gift. It is one of the greatest songs ever written, and with hell burning around me all week, it was money. Up in flames money. I was on fire; I turned liquid. The song kept driving me to sanity. Just what the dear doctor ordered. Ladies and Gentlemen...
18 Ironically, I had been re-visiting Keith Richards' biography called Life earlier, right after I awakened.
19 I got to the backstory of the Rolling Stones' classic "Jumpin' Jack Flash," one of the greatest live tunes in history. I got a little "Satisfaction," "Street Fighting Man," and parts of "Gimme Shelter" as well. And then some.
20 Having worked in the sports/concert business for years, I have been a part of many Stones' tours. They put on the best shows, over the years. I remember opening the door to the stadium one time and the music being so loud that I likened it to a jet taking off at the airport. Keith says the same thing in his book.
21 Okay, so they're geezers now. They STILL are musically and visually amazing. They are real rockers, the same Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters were blues guys well into their older days.
22 I won't argue about the Stones being the best, because I have been at the financial end of their success, and they brought in more money than any other performers over the years, bar none. Maybe some pop stars are making more now, but I doubt it. Selling merch at a Stones' concert was always lucrative.
23 Devil's money.
24 They called themselves the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World, and they were right, at least when it came to making me some money. I never got rich working a Dead concert, for example, but I did get free pumpkin pie and veggie burritos from really nice hippy dudes. But I digress.
25 AnywayZ...
26 I read this passage about "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and how it all came about. I had planned on sharing it today, and so I think I will.
27 Keith talked about how much the small cassette had fascinated him, and how he recorded some great songs using rudimentary technology. The cassette tape had just come out, and he was like a kid. That's going back.
28 We now have the iPhone 5, so it is funny to think of the cassette as something that was a breakthrough in rock, but at the time, to Keith, it was. He had heard stories of how old blues artists would get creative with cheap sounds. He loved the entire concept. Open tuning, washtubs, washboards, etc. They were very clean. Keep that sort of thing in mind as the story behind "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and others comes at you this morning.
29 So here goes, some rock history for you to chew on here on Monday morning. These are Keith's words:
In the studio, I plugged the cassette into a little extension speaker and put a microphone in front of the extension speaker so it had a bit more breadth and depth, and put that on tape. That was the basic track. There are no electric instruments on "Street Fighting Man at all, apart from the bass, which I overdubbed later. All acoustic guitars. "Jumpin'Jack Flash" the same. I wish I could still do that, but they don't build machines like that anymore. They put a limiter on it soon after that so you couldn't overload it. Just as you're getting off on something, they put a lock on it. The band all thought I was mad, and they sort of indulged me. But I heard a sound that I could get out of there. And Jimmy [Jimmy Miller, their newest and best producer] was onto it immediately. "Street Fighting Man," "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and half of "Gimme Shelter" were all made just like that. I used to layer guitar on guitar. Sometimes there are eight guitars on those tracks. You just mash 'em up. Chalie Watt's drums on "Street Fighting Man" are from this little 1930's practice drummer's kit, in a little suitcase you popped up, one tiny cymbal, a half-size tambourine that served as a snare, and that's really what it was made on, made on rubbish, made in hotel rooms with our little toys.
That was a magic discovery, but so were those riffs. These crucial, wonderful riffs that just came, I don't know where from. I'm blessed with them and I can never get to the bottom of them. When you get a riff like "Flash" you get a great feeling of elation, a wicked glee. Of course, then comes the other thing of persuading people that it is as great as you actually know it is. You have to go through pooh-pooh. "Flash" is basically "Satisfaction" in reverse. Nearly all of these riffs are closely related. But if someone said, "You can play only one of your riffs ever again," I'd say, "OK, give me 'Flash.' " I love "Satisfaction" dearly and everything, but those chords are pretty much a derigueur course as far as songwriting goes. But "Flash" is particularly interesting. "It's allllll right now." It's almost Arabic, or very old, archaic, classical, the chord setups you could only hear on Gregorian chants or something like that. And it's that weird mixture of your actual rock and roll and at the same time this weird echo of very, very ancient music that you don't even know. It's much older than I am, and that's unbelievable! It's like a recall of something, and I don't know where it came from.
But I know where the lyrics came from. They came from a gray dawn at Redlands. Mick and I had been up all night, it was raining outside and there was the sound of heavy stomping rubber boots near the window, belonging to my gardener, Jack Dyer, a real country man from Sussex. It woke Mick up. He said, "What's that?" I said, "Oh, that's Jack. That's Jumpin' Jack." I started to work around the phrase on the guitar, which was in open tuning, singing the phrase "Jumpin' Jack." Mick said, "Flash," and suddenly we had the phrase with a great rhythm and ring to it. So we got to work on it and wrote it.
I can hear the whole band take off behind me every time I play "Flash"--there's this sort of extra turbo overdrive. You jump on the riff and it plays you. We have ignition? OK, let's go. Darryl Jones will be right next to me, on bass. "What are we on now, 'Flash?' OK, let's go, one two three..." And then you don't look at each other again, because you know you're in for a ride now. It'll always make you play it different, depending upon what tempo you're in.
Levitation is probably the closest analogy to what I feel--whether it's "Jumpin' Jack" or "Satisfaction" or "All Down the Line"--when I realize I've hit the right tempo and the band's behind me. It's like taking off in a Lear jet. I have no sense that my feet are touching the ground. I'm elevated to this other space. People say, "Why don't you give it up?" I can't retire until I croak. I don't think they quite understand what I get out of this. I'm not doing it for the money or for you. I'm doing it for me.
30 I can relate.
31 Any musician can relate. Any person who loves what they do can relate.
32 I'm not really a musician. I play around with a guitar, and love playing it, but I'm really not that good.
33 But I have performed that song with several bands, and Keith is eerily accurate on the levitation thing. A good jam with friends can do that.
34 I also did "Sympathy" in a huge jam on a Talent Show rehearsal years ago at YB. We had ex-Santana cats, rappers, choir people, and rockers all jamming "Sympathy" in one of the greatest jams ever. It just boomed. I played my twelve-string through a microphone. I'm guessing there are people out there reading this right now who remember that night. I sure do.
35 And Jumpin' Jack Flash? It always works best with about a five- second delay before the opening riff.
36 "I was born in a crossfire hurricahyne, and I howled at my ma in the drivin' rain. But it's allllll rhatttt now in fact it's a gas...",
37 Music as soul food.
38 Amen brothers.
39 Okay we are again into the 3 a.m. fully, so I'm gonna back off this jive and wish you a good Monday.
40 Fly low, yo.
41 Hope you enjoyed the history lesson. I sure did.
42 Peaceout.
~H~
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