I like to think I'm good at staying up to date with noteworthy Rolling Stones videos, but somehow I missed this ADORABLE video of Mick and Keith talking about their shared flat in London:
https://youtu.be/wNRKTFCA7c0
I would love more than anything to just listen to them talk about mundane things like carpets and laundry. Horrrrrrendous.
Last time I was back home I packed up a box of Beatles and Stones books from the archives so I could clear out some space in my parents' garage (Alex and I have a house now, so I can finally fill my place of residence with as many books as I want, muahaha). One of them was Nankering with the Rolling Stones by James Phelge, described as "a hilariously disgusting memoir of living with Mick, Keith, and Brian in a squalid Chelsea flat in 1963." I almost put it in the donate pile, but figured it might be worth a re-read. And now, inspired by the above video, I've had an amusing time flipping through it again. If anyone's looking for stories from the Edith Grove days, this book is a solid gold mine.
A couple of days later we came home together and found all the pots and pans, as well as the cutlery, neatly arranged on the small kitchen table. They looked gleaming and clean, almost like new.
A few minutes later Judy from downstairs came up and entered the kitchen. "I picked up all your pans and cleaned 'em for you," she said. "What did you throw them all in the garden for?"
"Because they were dirty," replied Keith.
"Keith," she said. "You can't just throw them out the window if they're dirty. You have to wash them."
"We thought it was gonna rain and that would clean them," I told her.
She pulled a face that told us she thought we were hopeless. We just stared at her and smiled.
Of course, after all this, I turned to YouTube and went down a rabbit hole of early Stones videos. In particular, the early TV performances when they were basically a cover band, like this gem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIJ_flTdEvo
Look at those bebes!! Mick is such an effortlessly sexy frontman, ughhh. And lol at Ed Sullivan trying to mimic Mick's pointing at the end.
Also tucked away somewhere in my parents' garage is a VHS tape I got from Spin Records with all of the Stones' Ed Sullivan performances on it. I was obsessed with that VHS for a while. There are some memorable shows in that collection, like when they were forced to change "let's spent the night together" to "let's spend some time together," in which I count at least five eye rolls, and the many examples of Brian Jones playing non-standard instruments in pop songs (no comment on the sitar and mallet technique). Anyway, I'm getting a little carried away but all of this is to say, I've been on an early-Stones kick and it's been very fun.
Now before I go listen to some 1970s Stones (the best era, although honestly they're all excellent), here's some bonus 2021 Jagger content: Mick and his cat Nero 😍