The Stones...I Love the Stones...I Can't Get Enough of the Stones-Fred and Barney

I am admittedly not the biggest Rolling Stones fan.

Some might call this a form of heresy but I don't really get into them the way most people do. I've seen a lot of concerts, a lot of classic rock bands, but never them. Not that I would turn down tickets, but I also wouldn't go out of my way to get them. And I've certainly had my chances. To be brutally honest, if a Stones song comes on the radio, I'll check around to see what else is on before I decide if I want to settle back on it.

So yesterday, when WCSX was doing blocks of Stones tunes in honor of the Mick's 60th birthday, you might understand that I wasn't super enthused. The next time I hear "Satisfaction" will be the 1013th time too many. For "Start Me Up," it will be about 982.

So as I drove out to pick up dinner, the block came on, and I got ready to check to see what else was on the radio. But no one was more surprised than me to hear what came out.

"Little T&A."

That's right, the 4th track on "Tattoo You," which virtually never gets played on the radio. I was never more happy to hear a Stones tune on the radio. Listening to the Keith Richards vocal leering about...well, you could probably guess from the title...totally took me back to 1981 when I hungrily gnawed through my older brother's LP collection. I still remember that song being in heavy rotation at the time on AOR radio, then just disappearing over the mists of time.

I could not believe the station actually pulled this one out of the vaults. I guess they just had to. Since they were playing 7 song Stones blocks all day, they certainly would need more than the same seven they always play. And I don't know that anyone else out there appreciated it more than me. So I decided to leave it on for the duration of my car ride.

It paid off, because the next song was "She's So Cold." Now maybe they do play this one a lot, but I don't ever seem to hear it. And this is definitely my all time favorite Stones song...ever. It just rocks, not to mention becoming a much referenced "theme song" during my unsuccessful adolescent/teenage attempts to woo girls.

I wanted to see what else they were going to play in this block, but the car ride was done and I had to get dinner in the house before it got cold. I think then that I realized why it was that I claim "not to like" the Stones. It's because I seem to like an era that doesn't get respected nearly as much as the 60's and early 70's with it's "Paint It Black"s, "Street Fighting Man"s, "Sympathy For The Devil"s and "Gimme Shelter"s. I happen to really groove on late 70's to early 80's Stones. I like the trio of "Some Girls," "Emotional Rescue," and "Tattoo You" (minus "Start Me Up"), and these songs appear to be "lost classics" that never seem to get played that often.

And it occurred to me then just how an artist's career can be so made or broken by what the corporations play on the radio. I was so throughly convinced that I wasn't a big Stones fan for so long, but now, I realize that it had a lot to do with hearing the same songs whenever I listened to the radio.

I wonder how much of this material they do live?

"I will be your knight in shining armor
Coming to your emotional rescue...."