December 24, 2023 — Very slowly, I’m going through old photos and trinkets with the goal of putting them into books. I know, it’s all the rage now to digitize everything, but I don’t want a digitized version of a ribbon from a barrel racing win at a playday in 1976, or another ribbon from twirling camp, circa 1979, or a crumbling article from a Canadian newspaper of the moon landing when I was a little girl. Plus there’s magic in the handful of photos I have. Some of the photos are so beautiful; many I never realized I had. I’m super grateful for the few I’ve found of my mother and her mother, very in character shots, probably because I’m a terrible photographer and just took pictures, however they turned out. It made me appreciate my film camera, even though it’s antiquated and they don’t make film for it anymore. This project made me nostalgic, and honestly there’s only so much of that I can take at once because I’m not one for looking backwards. Normally.

The thing is, ever since that new Rolling Stones song Angry, the YouTube Matrix has been suggesting at least one Rolling Stones video every day. And there must be million Rolling Stones videos. I’m loving them, especially the old ones.

There are colorized concerts from about ’64 or ’65, both actually. There are videos from 1969. That was a good year; I like the 1969 concert videos. I like a video from 1995. The crazy part is the energy. The band has a grittiness to them. In the 1964 video I like, the band just walks on stage and plugs in. That seems super authentic sound-wise, just sound from an amp, here we are, we’re a band, listen to us. Little did those people know, the band would last the lifetime of a girl just learning to walk in that year, not that I knew the Stones then, but I’m sure if I had, I would have liked them.

I’ve always liked the Stones, at least from the time the little girl became a bigger girl, you know, old enough to race barrels or twirl baton in camps. I have many, many Stones records in my relatively paltry record collection. Percentage-wise, they rank really high. I even learned Stones songs on the guitar; their songs are quite approachable for a medium-level player (meaning I don’t have to be a shredder, even though that would be cool if I were). I think it’s my guitar ability (paltry as that is too) that makes me appreciate the Stones They have such a complete sound. Oh, and they have ridiculously cool style, especially Mick Jagger. I like watching his attire change through the years. For that matter, it’s fun to watch the attire of the audience change throughout the years. Speaking of years, this is damn near my entire life that the time-frame of the Stones videos span, from little girl learning to walk to now … going for a walk to try to stay young. Right now, I like the early Rolling Stones videos, a lot. So I’m giving you a sample.

The first one, Mick dancing a bit like Elvis in his much more formal clothes. The second one, 1969, I love how that girl goes super crazy on stage (about 0:54), and notice the outfits are really different by this time.

Love the styles. Love this era.

And really, the mix – talk about a great sound mix. Live, and so balanced. A fun song to play; I can do this one, not like that, but I can play it.

Now, to figure out some more songs. And hair. Mick’s hair has the very best layers in the early ’70s, I’m thinking. I wonder? Did that influence my own recent personal decision to get my own hair layered? Perhaps. But I’ll never tell.