jagger & wish /dream/mythologizing (delillo's "underworld"?)

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

flaherty, answering david morris' suggestion:

> I don't agree that Mick Jager fits here, he was far from 
> universally admired by men for the virtues P lists--big and
> Bad.  Having or sharing some of the qualities expands the
> Badass beyond P's definition. If we do this, we might as
> well toss the Badass out. What has Mick Jagger really got to
> do with wish and dream and mythologizing an imaginative
> response to overwhelming power? 


  mick jagger, "one of the most inscrutable major characters in rock" ("the 
  illustrated new musical express encoclopedia of rock", 1977, p. 199), has     
  certainly (alone for his multiform media presence) a lot "to do wish and dream 
  and mythologizing an imaginative response to overwhelming power". at least for 
  lots of teeangers and twenty-somethings during the 60s, 70s, and even - know  
  this from myself - early 80s. [in a way i was more with keith richards, 
  must have read that bio by barbara charone (?) three times or so]. well, today 
  we perhaps see jagger more (but is it fair?) as a kind of embodiment of the   
  "overwhelming power" itself. yet, whatever the individual mick jagger might be 
  like (which probably nobody on this list knows), back in the days he surely 
  "represented" some kinda "dissidence" ... somewhere between performance, 
  sister morphine, voodoo, & street fighting man ...  

  between 1968 ("beggar's banquet") and 1972 ("exile on main street") the 
  rolling stones were among the best rock'n'roll bands in the world. 

  (yet slothrop's record to play on is of course --- "aftermath").


  writing about mick jagger i remember now that there's something on a rolling 
  stones concert (with backstage-scenes) in don delillo's "underworld". bought a 
  second-hand hardcover copy for ten deutschmarks recently, & on my subway back 
  i was skimming through the pages, and this particular episode was among the 
  ones i read in a little ... heard and saw delillo reading here in hamburg in 
  the "literaturhaus" at the alster, it was during his "mao 2"-tour (does one 
  say "tour" or is it "reading journey"?) ... he makes a likeable impression and 
  he knows (unlike, for instance, benn) how to read out his texts effectfully.  
  still remember the first sentence: "there they came into american sunlight   
  ..." anyway, i'm not sure whether to read "underworld" soon or not.


kfl