This Tuesday, July 12, will mark 60 years since the Rolling Stones’ first performance, in London’s Marquee Club. I saw them in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on November 1, 1981 – ZZ Top and the Fabulous Thunderbirds were the opening acts.
BBC story here.
Unless the Rolling Stones was assembled on the day of their first public performance, they are older than 60.
pushes unfashionable glasses up towards a zitty forehead while making funny noises
Although the Rolling Stones have never been my favorite band, they have provided me with a wealth of enjoyable music since they first came on my radar in the mid 60’s with Satisfaction (I wore that track out on my Out of Our Heads album). The Stones have always been perceived as the bad-boy version of the Beatles and that perception served them well.
IMHO the Rolling Stones are the consummate rock & roll band and Mick Jagger is the consummate rock & roll front-man.
For me, when the Stones finally disband, that will be the day [rock & roll] music dies.
Mick Jagger has always been honest:
“Of course we’re doing it for the money. We’ve always done it for the money.”
— Mick Jagger
And ironic:
“I’d rather be dead than singing ‘Satisfaction’ when I’m forty-five.”
— Mick Jagger
I remember seeing them on the Voodoo Lounge tour and thinking that it could be their last. That was almost 30 years ago!
Which band has done more final tours? The Who or The Stones?
And folks were making “Steel Wheelchair” jokes about them five years before that. And general “old” jokes long before that.
Mick and Keith are fourteen years older than I am. So the way I choose to look at it, as long as they’re still going, I claim to have at least fourteen years ahead of me during which I’m not too old to crank up the rock ‘n’ roll. Carry on, boys. Carry on.
Just yesterday, I was commenting to my husband about how they’re close to 60 years in the spotlight - I was just making a guess as I never followed them that closely, but now I feel pschic! 
It is strange seeing that the performers of my youth are all geezers! Or dead…
And they haven’t done anything that interested me in 44 years. They really, really should have said “farewell” a long time ago.
The idea that they went back to touring so soon after Charlie died is sad.
I thought I remembered reading a quotation, a few years ago, from Keith where he said something to the effect that if anything happened to Charlie, the band would pack it in. Not sure now, but it might have been around the time when the story broke about Charlie having throat cancer. More recently, I spent a few minutes trying to dig it up, but I can’t figure out a Google search that finds it. Maybe it was just the article writer’s conjecture and I was misremembering. Or maybe my fevered brain was just fabricating it altogether.
Pete Townshend refers to Roger Daltrey and himself as a Who tribute band. Their farewell tour was decades ago.
You see this around, but I don’t know its origin - I don’t recall it from Life.
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is on record saying “There couldn’t be Rolling Stones without Charlie Watts.”
But you get to wear this t-shirt. Or this one.
Yeah, who would have thought the Rolling Stones would outlive all the jokes about them being too old to rock and roll?
I thought I remembered it as being something closer to what I paraphrased, but that might just be the quote.
Until the next one…
Ha! We were at the Cotton Bowl concert the night before. It was really, really, really wet, but a terrific show.
We’ve seen them twice since, both kind of meh.
The year is 2257.
The place - Babylon 5.
The event - Rolling Stones Farewell Concert
I wonder, if The Beatles hadn’t broken up, would they suck as much as the Stones*? 
(Similar: If James Dean hadn’t died young, would he have turned into another pathetic Fat Brando?)
* Hey! No Wings jokes!
I saw them last year for the first time. I didn’t have any expectations except “I want to see these guys while I still can”, but they blew the roof off the place. It was a surprisingly great show.
Unfortunately, between buying a ticket and seeing the show, Charlie Watts retired, and then died. 
But they had a good tribute to him at the concert. I think I was at the first ever Rolling Stones show without Charlie.
My Mom grew up in England and they used to have bands come relatively near them and the prices were surprisingly inexpensive. My Mom was able to see quite a few bands.
She saw the Rolling Stones fairly early in their careers.
As a kid, I remember asking my Mom, “Wow, did you see the Beatles?”
My mom said, “No, they came to town but I didn’t want to see them. I think they were as good.”
Now I look back, I realize I had a chance to see both Nirvana and Alice in Chains in my life and missed out both. Chains continued now, of course, but without Layne Staley. I wish I’d seen both.