creating click bait, commenting without having clicked
There are headlines in which I have to decide if I care to dip into the details, and where the details will provide some nuance on what I think of this headline, which not knowing gives the advantage of leaving the story in the abstract so I can stick to considering the abstract values — or splitting the differences in parallel stories. Or, if I knew there is a strong possibility there just isn’t a story.
So, I do not know what is up with The Rolling Stones dropping “Brown Sugar” from their playlist. As a matter of course I approve. As a matter of course I would approve if they left it in their concerts. By now we all know that The Rolling Stones have amassed a large collection of songs to draw from, and the disappearance of any one can hardly be thought of as maybe even noticeable. Go ahead — you can listen to “Brown Sugar” right this instant if need be — I and no one else is stopping you! But therein lay the problem, and splintered realities. How did this come to light? If it were a press release, delivered I would go ahead and blast Mic Jagger and company (this “Blues Cover Band”, and there Paul McCartney is just amusing himself in good natured ribbing of a rival band he never really had truck with in the first place) as engaging in “virtue signaling”. And maybe there are worse things in the world, bigger faults, then deciphering an audience and playing to it — probably badly as I can not imagine Generation Zoomers rolling into a Rolling Stones concert checking off a list of objectionable materials in song lyrics, or of the famous ” woke mob” detouring from a Dave Chapelle protest to concern themselves with a Legacy Rock Act playing their old time music.
. The matter might get a little more wearisome if this were an answer to an interview, and there I would have to look and see what it is the aging rock star says — and to what question… And if the questions were the focus point for any interviewing. Like, if the media outlet called up the PR flacks for a “we want to interview your opinion on ‘cancel culture’ and shifting cultural awareness”, and Jagger said “yes, my thoughts are that is exactly what is needed!” — I guess I would a little less of Jagger.
And why do I not look into this? If I knew the matter would be settled, and it will likely show up as not in any way interesting.
On a cliche as far back as 1988 (though, in his shirtlessness “Grandpa Randy” more resembles Iggy Pop than the usually shirted Rolling Stones.) Archie generally lagging — so this motif could probably be set by the late 1970s. (Worth noting, the latest edition of ‘Betty and Veronica Jumbo Digest’ includes a reprint from 1960 where Betty “introduces” the term “frenemy”, apparently a use which prompted an Internet comics site q and a column A year back — Cold War terminology in the 1950s put it in print, or an upper class snob constellation of Socialites bandied about in the 1940s so, I guess, it could peter down to the lower class pieces at the end of century — sure, but that does not answer the question — was it midwifed here in 1960 by the hands of Frank Doyle? Nay. I do gather there is probably a direct correlation between this online column and Archie Comics reprinting it, claim partial ownership of interest.)