Not to be the dispenser of Reality checks, but this concert from the Rolling Stones 1966 tour took place 52 years ago. And no doubt, the woman in the photo above, flinging herself on Mick and being promptly hauled away is, in all likelihood, someone’s Grandmother right now.
I’m not bringing this up to make those of you who remember this tour feel old – but I am bringing this up to remind you that Music has always been the thing that got people excited – and that what drives people crazy now would draw perplexed stares today – and vice-versa.
The deal is – it’s always been this way and it always will be – as long as there are hormones left to rage and as long as we are communicated to on a primal level – it will never go away. Of course, fans now are more sedate in many ways. I do get worried about sold-out crowds all holding up cel-phones, recording the event rather than participating in it. But that’s just me. It’s the age-old thing about not appearing cool and catching yourself unguarded that makes people step back from the joyful insanity and be the detached voyeur. But we all enjoy things in our own ways – and one persons expression of over-heated hysteria is another persons upturned grin. Just as long as you get out there and see something live and be with people who feel the same way you do, everything will be fine. You can embellish it all later and it can be a touchstone in your journey.
So this was 1966 – coming to the tip-end of the British Invasion and heading into the second tier of social change. The screaming would eventually subside and the quasi-somnambulance brought on by pounds of marijuana, acid and a whole host of “party-favors” would sweep over the concert going audience. The cool kids won out and we got into erratic tribal dancing as a show of appreciation and gazing skyward as a sign of ecstasy.
But we still have The Rolling Stones – well, three of them, and they are still touring and we occasionally get embarrassed by perfectly grown men, jumping around the stage as if it really was 1966. And maybe it’s that determination not to lose the spirit or its the fear of feeling the parade has gone by. Whatever it is, we have reminders and it fuels those age-old argument that “music today sucks” as it always has, every decade or so. Truth is; it never really sucks and never really has – it’s just different and it hits a different set of nerves for different stages of nostalgia. What’s important is that you still enjoy it, even if you are too cool to show it.
So as a reminder of what we were all about 52 years ago, here is a Rolling Stones concert, as it was broadcast by the Hawaiian Radio Station KPOI in Honolulu on July 28, 1966. 29 minutes – but that was how long a lot of concerts were those days.
You can play it loud or put on headphones so no one will notice – enjoy it either way.
