Ambivalence is a quality that is regarded in general as a gutless affectation of those with money who cannot muster a concerned moan or a sigh about the plight and fate of those less well endowed. Sometimes, though, it is a tale that must be told at times by poets, novelists, playwrights. The undecided experience is an experience none the less. There are those, of course, in this class who at least have what they consider the decency to feign a concern, the very subject of "Salt of the Earth" by the Rolling Stones from their 1968 Beggars Banquet album. An amazing song; Jagger's lyrics does not the very neat and difficult trick of commenting on its own expression with a verse, late in the song, we have the admission
"...when I look in the faceless crowd /A swirling mass of grays and Black and white /They don't look real to me/Or don't they look so strange..."
From the Rolling Stones original, however, we have a profound and rare admission from 60s pop-star that the causes and the suffering outside their privileged bubble were alien, "other", and that dealing with them was another pose to strike for the cameras. The Stones were always ambivalent when it came to the politics of the period, but I do admire the way they never shied away from their inability to pick a side.
Bravo for pointing out the subtleties of Jagger and Richard’s rather dicey relationship with the great unwashed ranks of mankind. The Stones always offered a variegated platter of forbidden delights to their listeners and right up there with sex, drugs and violence was an unfashionable discomfort with the lumpiest portions of the proletariat. Of course, “Salt of the Earth” became one of many well-known rock tunes that could be twisted, tweaked and flat-out misunderstood by the consumer, anticipating the transformation of Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” into a patriotic battle cry and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” into a simple expression of religious piety. Millions drank to the Salt of the Earth and didn't consider the sour aftertaste. Mick Jagger – the arrogant decadent dandy of the Whiteboy Blues – looked down from his tower of fame at the dull mooing herd of the Normals and confessed his alienation in public to those who cared to listen. Did the Queen think about THAT when she knighted him?
ReplyDelete