"Mick Jagger" by Keith Adagio

What comes to everyone's minds when they hear the name Mick Jagger? Some will say its the skinny man who prances,twitches his lips and pouts all the time as he sings maybe a danceable or perhaps a rocking tune.

Its been almost 50 years since the Rolling Stones first rocked the world.And the pouting and prancing Sir Mick Jagger is still on the top of rock n'roll mainstream,right alongside fellow knighthoods Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John.

Mick's awesome style and charisma has gone down through generations and his influences can be seen on younger rockers such as Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes.

It may sound biased but as a writer myself I gotta tell you guys on how I've been influenced by the Stones that I'll never say any bad words against them nor Mick Jagger's,though Mick once scared my daughter Heather in which Im gonna tell you guys later on.

My avid fascination with the Rolling Stones can be traced back to my childhood,I was in grade school and every saturday my dad and I would listen to all these classic rock songs pumping on the radio and he would tell me each band on who sang this and who sang that plus a little trivia about the band and so forth.The Rolling Stones along witht the Beatles got my attention and not only because I hear my dad was listening to it,but because they're really good--theres something about their songs ,I dont know,it seems like its coming from an unknown part of the universe infinitely cooler than our own.At a very young age of 11 I found myself buying all the Beatles albums(I have them all) and then I started having albums by the Rolling Stones as well,and then there was all these other great bands during my teens:Guns N' Roses,the Black Crowes and I remember saving up from my allowance to buy their respective albums..anyway,GN'R was another band and I think we shouldn't go into that.

Anyway,back to the Rolling Stones,I didn't have all the Stones albums like I had with the Beatles in which I have all their great CD albums,but Im pretty sure I have all the best Stones compilation albums and songs that were,should I say,one of the greatest music ever recorded.While Brian Jones was the leader and founder of the Rolling Stones,Mick Jagger is somewhat the spokesman/the lead singer and main writer together with childhood buddy,fellow Stone and guitarist Keith Richards.One would argue and say "Satisfaction" was the best Stones song,though I personally prefer "Under My Thumb" as the strongest and indeed was my favorite song from the band.

Mick,like any other artist from the influential sixties has endured decades and their songs outgrew the newer ones and as Linda McCartney had said on one of her interviews "the main reason the sixties keep coming back is that theres nothing better in the interim".The styles had already been set,and the standard rules for a modern rock band has been written and sealed by the Beatles-who after all,lead the British Invasion of the United States.

Mick with the Stones is a strong force that came along with that of the Beatles'.My,what a life he had,the superstar status,the drug problems and the booze and most of all the women in his life.

We all know that Mick Jagger had several wives and like any other rock star,entertained hordes of groupies.He was once tried and sentenced to prison in 1967 along with fellow Stone Keith Richards after a bust in Richards' house wherein he allowed people to smoke hashish in his country home,two other rock stars avoided the said raid:George Harrison and Brian Jones who would later have a bust of their own.Mick reportedly bursts into tears when he got a three month sentence inside the slammer.Other trials in life came to him such as the 1969 Altamont tragedy,in which he dismissed later on.He was  living a rock star's life and he went through it all,unphased and without any regrets.He was a rock star after all,living up all the royalties.

One funny moment I had was when my daughter Heather, who was then one year old and saw Mick singing "Shattered" on youtube,perhaps Mick's prancing and epileptic-like dance plus the pouting and twitching scared her and made her cry.She's even scared of looking at my Ned Kelly DVD wherein Mick was on the cover[This was Mick's first starring role in a film]. But not for long,a year later,we were dancing around to the music when I saw her grabbing my Forty Licks CD and asked me to play it,she started loving "Start Me Up" soon after that and wanted me to play that song over and over again.Whenever she wanted to hear some music I would ask her what CD would I play and she will smile and say "Rolling Stones!" And I thought,"Sir Mick! You gotta be hearing this,your music has just passed to another generation--my 2 1/2 year old daughter!"

 Ah,the beautiful music that came from the Rolling Stones and other bands,so hard to figure out on how and why they had so much appeal plus on how their songs endured decades and appealed to newer generations of fans most of whom were not even born yet when the songs were first released.

Rock stars like Sir Mick,Sir Paul and the other guys from the sixties will surely continue to appeal to future generations ahead of us.But one things for sure,there will never ever be another MICK JAGGER.

Photo:The Rolling Stones 1967