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Rock Hall Celebrating Rolling Stones This Week

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland pay tribute this week to the 50-year career of the Rolling Stones. David C. Barnett of member station WCPN in Cleveland reports.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were 22 years old when they wrote a song about an aging mother trying to handle a stress-filled life

MUSIC: “What a drag it is getting old...” UP & UNDER

The opening line from the Rolling Stones’ 1966 hit “Mother’s Little Helper” is also the title of a lecture that music journalist Alan Light will give, this Thursday, examining the triumphs and the challenges of the band’s longevity.

ALAN LIGHT:  Somewhere in the ‘80s it became clear that the Stones were doing something that there was no blueprint for --- nobody had kept a band on-going as an active working machine for 20 years, 30 years, and now we’re at 50 years. 

That half-century of the Rolling Stones will be explored this week through lectures, films and an all-star performance featuring musicians who have played with the Stones over the years --- everyone from saxophonist Bobby Keys to singer Merry Clayton, whose signature voice haunts the classic “Gimme Shelter”. 

MUSIC: Gimme Shelter UP & UNDER

Writer Alan Light argues that, while the band’s more recent music may be marginal, the enduring quality of their early output sets a bar that few others have ever reached.

ALAN LIGHT: There still is a vitality and excitement around it, and all you can say is that it’s testament to just how damned good those records are.

Jim has been with WCBE since 1996. Before that he worked as a reporter at another Columbus radio station, and for three newspapers in Southwest Florida.
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