Rolling Stones

I missed out on the "Rolling Stones".
I knew they were around, but I never really went out of my way to pay much attention to them at the time.  They seemed so noisy.  Little did we know back in 1970 that they would become icons.
Keith Richards has written a book about his life with the Rolling Stones, and it's getting very good reviews.

"You can't imagine that this book could be any better than it is...Keith holds nothing back. It's funny, gossipy, profane and moving and by the time you finish it you feel like you're friends with Keith Richards." (Will Dana, Rolling Stone )

"Entertaining...a slurry romp through the life of a man who knew every pleasure, denied himself nothing, and never paid the price." (David Remnick, The New Yorker )

Surely the most amazing thing about them is their longevity.  Is there really any other music group that has toured as much, written so much music, been in the news so much?  They have truly "lived large" to the Nth degree, held nothing back, refused to be cowed or put into a category.  Fearless.
The Beatles and the Rolling Stones started the same year.  Isn't that awesome?  Could 2 more famous musical groups be more different?  If you go back and watch them let's say in 1970 - they are very very different.  The Beatles with their sedate sort of banjo type presentation of that time, and the Rolling Stones who loved to put on a show big time.  Mick Jagger right from the start was one of the most confident human beings we have ever seen on a stage. An eclectic and absorbing, and inventive musical force.
It must be awesome to be so famous that almost everyone in the world knows about you.  I heard a piece on radio the other day about "famousness".  Famous people have no freedom to just put on their jeans and go for a walk, park at the Mall and go shopping.  Famous people can't go to their favorite park and throw a frisbee with the dog.  They pay a price for notoriety.

I went to Wiki and learned a lot:.
In the early 1950s Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were boyhood friends and classmates at primary school in England, and then their families moved apart.  In 1960 Richards was at a train station - on his way to class at College. Jagger was on his way to class at the London School of Economics. (can you imagine a Mick Jaggers at the London School of Economics?)  And they met at the train station !!!.  And Jaggers invited Richards to the first rehearsal of this as-yet-unnamed band . The band became the "Rolling Stones" when a band member phoned Jazz News to place an advertisement. When asked what the band's name was, he glanced at a Muddy Waters LP lying on the floor. One of the tracks was "Rollin' Stone".  
So we've learned something else about them.  Keith Richards is a writer kind of guy.  Mick Jaggers will likely never be interested in writing his memoirs.  I would love to be a spot on the wall, and hear his comments as he leafs his way through Keith's book.
Final thought.  I wonder if the others grumbled the odd time about Mich Jaggers getting all the attention on the stage.
Entertainers.  What would we do without them.