UNDER MY THUMB

This clip is hilarious. You know that Al Franken--soon to be senator from Minnesota--has a crazy amount of talent and brains, but have you seen his impersonation of Mick Jagger? The transformation is uncanny. Watch this clip from the 1980s, when Franken and comedy partner Tom Davis performed as Mick and Keith of The Rolling Stones. You'll be amazed.

MEMO FROM TURNER

Here is a clip from "Performance" (1970), a strange film by Nicholas Roeg starring Mick Jagger and James Fox. Fox is a thug on the lam hiding out with a dissolute rock star named Turner, played by Mick in extremis. Identities shift in this X-shaped plot, and a drug-addled Fox loses his mind and starts to believe he's Turner, while Turner tries out the thug life. Here, a gangster of wealth and taste gives Fox the news. A memo from Turner.

A head trip in classic sixties style, with slide guitar played by Ry Cooder. Rent the movie.

RY COODER

Ry Cooder is an amazing guitar player. As a session man, Ry has played with everyone from Captain Beefheart to Taj Mahal, Randy Newman to Ali Farka Toure. He reassembled the Buena Vista Social Club and helped bring the talented Cubans to worldwide acclaim. Ry played guitar on "Let It Bleed" and "Sticky Fingers" with the Rolling Stones. (That crazy slide guitar on the bluesy "Memo from Turner" sung by Mick in the film "Performance" was all Ry) On top of that, he came up with some fantastic solo albums, such as "Bop Till You Drop," shown above. Blues, rock, soul, latin, African...you name, he's been there, done that.

The word on the street is that Ry is coming out with "I, Flathead," an album about offbeat Los Angeles in the 1950s. It's the third in a series of LA slices of life that includes "Chavez Ravine" and "My Name is Buddy."


The above clip is classic Ry Cooder, playing with The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces, an all-star lineup, from a film by Les Blank taped at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA on March 25'th 1987.

Band:
Ry Cooder: guitar, vox
Jim Keltner: drums
Van Dyke Parks: keys
Jorge Calderon: bass
Flaco Jimenez: accordion
Miguel Cruiz: percussion
Steve Douglas: sax
George Bohannon: trombone

Singers:
Bobby King: tenor
Terry Evans: baritone
Arnold McCuller: tenor
Willie Green Jr: bass

HELL'S ANGELS PLOT TO KILL MICK JAGGER

Oh, a storm is threat'ning
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away

According to a new BBC documentary, the Hells Angels planned to murder Mick Jagger in 1969. The motorcycle gang was furious over the Stones' infamous concert at Altamont, when Jagger hired them as security, resulting in the death of a young fan. The gang went so far as to attempt an attack on Jagger's home on Long Island, New York, by sea. Fortunately, en route, a storm capsized their boat.


"The Hells Angels were so angered by Jagger's treatment of them that they decided to kill him," said Tom Mangold, who is presenting the BBC documentary, in an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

"They planned the attack from the sea so they could enter his property from the garden and avoid security at the front. The boat was hit by a storm and all of the men were thrown overboard. All survived and there was not said to have been any further attempt on Jagger's life."

Stones at Altamont Speedway, 1969

More story here and here.

KEITH SAYS: LAY OFF THE DOPE

Rolling Stones guitar player Keith Richards advised young people "to lay off dope" in a recent interview in the British music magazine, UNCUT. Richards, famously known for abusing quite a few substances in his time, said "Give it up, it ain't really worth it. I know the fascination but it ain't worth it."

For years, Richards was the Rasputin of the rock world: seemingly unkillable. A former heroin addict, and heavily into booze and various other drugs, Richards bolstered the confidence of users everywhere, most of whom didn't have the wealth and resources of a Rolling Stone to pay for their habits. We're glad to see the old geezer finally straighten up and fly right.

In the interview, Richards also called Mick Jagger a power freak and "a vain bloke." Tell me something I don't know, Keith.