Not even a month has passed since the death of the great guitarist Robbie Robertson shocked the world of rock. He was 80 years old. In 1978, Robertson had been in charge of announcing that The Band, his group, was ending its 16-year history of touring because its creativity had declined and because "we have realized the dangers of leading this life indefinitely."
45 years have passed and only one of the original members of The Band remains alive. Four have stayed by the wayside. Garth Hudson, at just 86 years old, will have been able to see the public appearance of the Rolling Stones in Hackney on the television of the South Stone Ridge residence where he is hospitalized. What must have gone through the mind of the multi-instrumentalist from The Band yesterday when he saw some of his contemporaries, also in their 80s, promoting their latest and catchy hit, Angry, with the illusion of twenty-somethings and with the same marketing strategies in social networks that Do you use Rosalía or Justin Bieber?
Genetics, chance, and some correction of bad habits in later life are probably the keys to Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood's longevity as individuals.
The reasons why a band as stormy as this one has survived 61 years –and counting– are more than documented. Of course, his extraordinary repertoire and his prodigious live shows are the key to the matter. But the importance of the internal management of the business is not less.
Jagger's biography written by Philip Norman, or the chronicle Traveling with the Rolling Stones, by Robert Greenfield (both in Anagrama) show us the singer as an elegant dictator who takes advantage of his economics studies and the self-destructive weaknesses of other members of the band to become the undisputed leader.
For this reason, the Rolling Stones have never succumbed to a conflict of egos like the ones that have destroyed most of the groups of their generation, starting with the Beatles. And that between them there have even been punches.
Particularly revealing is that scene described by Greenfield, in the middle of the 1972 American tour, when Jagger, minutes before going on stage to give his all in front of a maddening crowd (while Richards was doing his thing backstage), coldly negotiating the numbers of the concert with the promoter and the representative of the insurance company.
Richards himself recounts in his autobiographical Life (Timun Mas) that when, in his formative years, they visited big stars, such as James Brown, Jagger not only learned musical or dance concepts from them, but also the fundamentals of successfully practicing dance. boss role.
Undoubtedly, another element of cohesion that during all these decades has attenuated the tension between the two leaders of the gang has been the conciliatory role of the late Charlie Watts and, from 1975, that of the likeable Ronnie Wood.
By the way, Ron Wood, so fresh yesterday in Hockeny, participated 45 years ago in the tribute concert for The Band, the one that Martin Scorsese immortalized in his film The Last Waltz.
