Mick Jagger at the West Theater in Duluth

OK, that's not EXACTLY the story. The real story is that The Burnt Orange Heresy is here for a limited run at the West Theater in West Duluth.

One of the saddest stories of the Covid-19 pandemic is the negative impact on small businesses, especially restaurants and theaters. Bob Boone put heart and soul into renovating this historic West Duluth treasure--the West Theater--only to have the pandemic jackboot squash this year's cashflow.

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT WAS IN MY INBOX a couple days ago, so I apologize for this late notice, but The Burnt Orange Heresy will be playing here through Wednesday.  You can see it tonight at 7 p.m. or one of the two showings tomorrow, at 2 and 7.

Here's the email I received from Christina Woods, Duluth Art Institute director:

Did you hear the news? The Duluth Art Institute was name dropped in the new movie "The Burnt Orange Heresy." If you’re ready to venture out to a movie — with strict social distancing — we highly recommend a real art film, in which Mick Jagger plays a collector who heaps praise on the Duluth Art Institute.

We’re not making this up — and along with the DAI, Duluth itself is a star of the show (and so is a nearby town, but enough of plot spoilers!) 

Starring Jagger, Claes Bang, Elizabeth Debicki and Donald Sutherland, “The Burnt Orange Heresy” is an edge-of-your-seat art thriller that briefly premiered in March — just as Covid-19 lockdowns hit — and never made it to Duluth. Now, it’s at The West Theatre for a limited run Friday, Oct. 9, through Wednesday, Oct. 14.

The West Theatre has reopened under strict social distancing guidelines, including closing every other row of seats, and at least two “buffer seats” on either side of your party. Temperature checks will be conducted and masks required except while eating or drinking in your seat. All customer contact surfaces are disinfected before and after the start of each show.

If “The Burnt Orange Heresy” isn’t enough of a local connection, The West is also showing Prince’s Minnesota classic, “Purple Rain.”

And what does Jagger’s character say about the DAI’s Toulouse-Lautrec? Sorry — we said, no more spoilers!

More on the film: https://thewesttheatre.com/showtimes/?id=ST00000134

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Well this isn't Mick Jagger's first gig on the silver screen. I was a freshman in college when Performance made the rounds, Jagger enjoying the role of playing a role. Rolling Stones tracks have appeared in 645 films and TV shows these past five decades. They are certainly woven into the culture.

FWIW: Bob Dylan has 825 soundtrack credits at this point in time. 

IF YOU GO, I would be interested in hearing what you thought.

A Few Anecdotes About Charlie Watts Including the Time He Punched Mick in the Face

I don't like drum solos, to be honest with you, but if anybody ever told me he didn't like Buddy Rich I'd right away say go and see him, at least the once. ~ Charlie Watts

I was a Rolling Stones fan very early on, in part a over-reaction against those moptops so idolized by the girls in my junior high school (i.e John, Paul, George and Ringo). At one time I had all their albums from 12 x 5 through Goats Head Soup. I remember the impact 12 x 5 had on me, especially the opening cuts on each side, "Around and Around" and "2120 South Michigan Street", an instrumental jam set in motion by a Bill Wyman bass riff. The title of the song is drawn from the address of Chess Records where their favorite blues music was recorded.

The frontmen for the group were such that many people may have underestimated drummer Charlie Watts. Unlike the insane antics of drummers like Keith Moon, Watts was simply smooth.

Charlie Watts isn't someone I really knew much about, though 25 years ago I discovered he was more than just a drummer for a major rock band. In the library I found a CD featuring the Charlie Watts Orchestra, Live at Fulham Town Hall. Though the one customer review on Amazon gave it two stars, I personally enjoyed the album quite a bit.

This summer while reading Keith Richards' autobiography Life I relished hearing a few anecdotes about the Stones' drummer that I hadn't known before.

The manner in which Mick and Keith discovered each other is the stuff of legend, each being unaware that anyone else besides themselves was as intensely into the Chicago blues as much as they were. When they teamed up to form the seminal band, they entire lives were devoted to listening to and learning the music. Dating girls was off limits in the beginning. The only thing that mattered was the music.

In the beginning they had no gigs and to get a gig they needed a drummer. They had so little money they shoplifted food so they, along with bass player Dick Taylor, could spend their time practicing and not having to get jobs. The drummer they wanted was Charlie Watts, but Watts had paying gigs with two bands and wasn't about to give up his income to join these newbies. Richards knew Watts was the guy they wanted. He was the real deal and they achieved their aims, acquiring Watts and assembling the core of one of the great rock and roll bands of all time. (Yes, Brian Jones was abducted into the band around this time as well.)

Stories about the Stones are legion, from the massive drug use to their exile from England to the Jagger-Richards separation in the 80s. Charlie Watts as a professional drummer kept himself out of the maelstrom, living apart from the band as they were recording Exile on Main Street in the south of France. Like many musicians it's a night owl life. On one occasion, according to Richards, Mick was in the mood to do some recording -- at five in the morning -- so he called Watts on the phone and said, "Where's my drummer?" Says Richards, these were the days when Mick's ego had gotten onto everyone's nerves, that it seemed all was about him.

Watts got into his car and 20 minutes later arrived at the place. When Keith opened the door Watts walked right past him, went over to Mick, picked him up by the lapel and slugged him in the face. "Never call me your drummer again." Here's an excerpt from Life with Johnny Depp narrating how Keith remembered it.

Whether this happened the way Richards described it in his book may or may not be entirely accurate. In fact, the way I remember reading it this summer may also be suspect. Bill German, who produced a Stones fanzine called Beggar's Banquet, wrote that it happened like this.

Here's The Charlie Watts Quintet on Dennis Miller's show in 1994 and here's an interesting Boogie Woogie in Barcelona:

 And so it goes.

Photo credit:Poiseon Bild & Text (press photo by a photographer of the consulting company Poiseon AG in St. Gallen, Switzerland)) - Flickr: The ABC & D of Boogie Woogie (Herisau, 13. Januar 2010)

No Ordinary Life: Keith Richards' Autobiography Gives Rare Inside Account of the Stones and More

There's a reason Robin Leach's show was popular in the late eighties and nineties. He took people where they'd never been, and gave them a glimpse of a life they would never experience themselves. And this is exactly what Keith Richards' autobiography delivers, a life like no other, told straight up by a guy who epitomized the "sex, drugs and rock and roll" ethic. The book is called Life.

I am listening to the audio version of the book, co-authored by Richards and James Fox, read by Johnny Depp (first quarter) and Brit Joe Hurley.  Here are a few of the things that stood out for me or especially interested me, in no particular order.

1. The inside story of how Keith and Mick met and those early days of commitment to the Chicago blues are truly fascinating for rock historians. Keith, Mick and a fellow named Stu were so totally into learning the music their entire waking life was listening to music and practicing. They considered it a violation of their commitment to even go see girls. The shoplifted food in order to survive because they had no money and no gigs. Their biggest initial problem was how to acquire Charlie Watts as their drummer. He played real gigs that paid him and they couldn't pay him anything. This presented a serious problem, a problem they eventually resolved. And the rest, as they say, is history.

2. How Keith and Mick came to be songwriters was exceptionally interesting to me. For some reason I'd never taken the Jagger-Richards team seriously as writers. In reading Keith's account I came to appreciate far more deeply how serious he was about the craft of writing, and how the two worked together bring lyrics and riffs together.

Keith describes the process all writers go through in which they begin to see things from a more detached view, seeing every experience as an opportunity to translate life into a story or poem or, in his case, a song. Sometimes they wrote songs that didn't fit the image the Stones were crafting, and they gave those to others, such as As Tears Go By, which was initially recorded by Marianne Faithful.

3. The role Brian Jones played with the Stones was different from what I thought I knew. Initially he was added value for the boys, but when LSD washed over the scene in 1966 along with fame, Jones began a three year meltdown, never fully recovering his center. Though remarkably talented he became a liability to the group.

A year ago I picked up a copy of Anthony Scaduto's book on Mick Jagger, Everybody's Lucifer, which painted the darkest possible picture of the manner in which Jagger contributed to Brian Jones' death. Scaduto, a former crime reporter, gives the impression that Mick killed Brian Jones. Keith Richard's account of the events surrounding Brian's drowning may indeed have involved an accidental manslaughter, but nothing to do with Mick.

4.  The story of how Decca came to sign the Stones is quite hilarious. It's one of the great stories of rock history how Decca Records turned down the Beatles because, "The guitar is on the way out." By the time Andrew Loog Oldham brought the Stones to Decca, the Beatles were already a phenomenon and Decca was a laughingstock. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, these suits signed them up, no matter how much they hated what they stood for or disliked them.

5. Richard's perspective on Altamont makes the film Gimme Shelter complete.

6. How Exile on Main Street came to be is a lengthy part of the book. The British tax structure is what make them exiles. Some of the income was taxed at the 82% rate and another kind of income was being filched at a 98% tax rate. George Harrison wrote about this on Revolver: "There's one for you nineteen for me." I didn't realize Harrison wasn't kidding.

There's a lesson here. Critics of the rich want to force them to hand over their wealth through taxation. Why wouldn't they do what the Stones did? "Hey, this is bull--" That's a conundrum that will require creative thinking on the part of better minds than I.

7. Keith Richards has had more cold turkey experiences than any living human that I know of. He speaks graphically about many of these, and we understand that Dante's descriptions of hell may not have been far off. Richards experienced a life with many highs, but some pretty ugly rugged places along the way.

8. Details about drugs and women feature prominently in his life story. Of the former he says straight up, "Don't try this at home."

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Much more can be said, and you can read it all -- or hear it -- here.

The Publishers Weekly review at Amazon states:
Johnny Depp and Joe Hurley capture Richards's rock 'n' roll spirit in a wise, charming, and textured narration of the famed guitarist's memoir. Tracing Richards's trajectory from boyhood in England through the formation of the Stones to the band's rise to world domination, this audiobook is chock-full of frank revelations and enlightening stories behind the music. The three readers do superb turns—but the seemingly arbitrary switches between them can be jarring and confusing. Depp's narration is steady, well-paced, clear, and grounded. He produces a delicious range of voices for dialogue (most notably a drunk judge in Arkansas), and Richards himself sounds a bit like an elderly, bluesy Jack Sparrow. Hurley captures the voice of Richards throughout, narrating in a gritty, growl that is spot-on. And sections read by Richards are a real treat; his raspy voice is unmistakable and haunting. A Little, Brown hardcover. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

One of the other reviewers wrote this:
This memoir, written with the help of writer James Fox, is an intricately detailed account of Keith Richards life, both in and out of music-but mostly in. All the stories are here-the funny, the touching, the horrendous, and the amazing. Some are well known, some weren't even known to Richards-he only hears later, from others who were with him, what went on. And he's put it all in this book. Included are 32 pages of b&w and color photographs (including one of the band, with Jagger driving, in a vintage red convertible, across the Brooklyn Bridge) in two groups, plus photos throughout the book itself chronicling Richards' life. Also of interest is an early diary that Richards kept detailing the bands early gigs and impressions of the music the band played.

The book is called Life. There's nothing quite like it.