Give a geezer hope this holiday
By Eddie Whitlock
It’s almost the Holiday Season. You may have a geezer on your list and no idea what to get him. I’m here to remedy that. (For purposes of this article, I am considering a geezer to be an old man. An old woman is “a wise crone” and will be discussed in someone else’s column.)
As a geezer, there is one thing I need that I rarely get and that is hope. Yes, I know, hope is an ethereal thing, so you can’t give it. You can only give a physical thing that inspires hope.
That thing is the CD “Foreign Tongues,” released earlier this year by the Rolling Stones. As a geezer, I can assure you it brings hope.
You see, the members of the Rolling Stones – except for one – are hitting their mid-80s. The one exception is drummer Charlie Watts, who died a couple of years ago. Still, through the miracle of recording, he’s featured on drums on the song “Hit Me in the Head,” which was recorded in 2021.
“Hit Me in the Head” would be classified as punk rock, but the Stones know how to play their instruments. So, it’s a rock song and a really good one.
The CD opens with “Rough and Twisted Road,” which Mick Jagger says was written about the lies a woman told him. Oh, Sir Mick. Don’t even go there. Still, it’s a good song. It has the movie soundtrack feel to it, like you can imagine a classic car traveling that rough and twisted road. (Are you reading this, Rob Zombie? My idea has potential and I’ll do the script for a very, very low fee.)
Speaking of Mick and women, I stumbled across a great article on a satirical news site called The Hard Times. The headline read “Mick Jagger Assures Concerned Fans He’s Still Super Horny at 83.” Look it up for a laugh.
One of the songs on the CD is titled “In the Stars.” It includes the line, “Do you wanna dance till the roof caves in?” As a geezer, I have changed my singalong lyrics to “Do you wanna dance when your meds kick in?”
Sir Paul McCartney plays bass on “Covered in You.” That song is the most pop song in the collection. If the year were 1986, I could imagine a great MTV video with Mick mugging into the camera and a smiling Paul bobbing his head in the background.
There are two covers on “Foreign Tongues.” “Beautiful Delilah” was written by Chuch Berry, who was born in the 1920s. The other is “You Know I’m No Good,” written by Amy Winehouse, who was born in the 1980s. That’s range of recognition right there, imho.
One song that isn’t a cover is “Jealous Lover.” It’s not a cover, but it could be. It has the feel of a 70s R&B tune with some awesome background vocals. I can imagine the O’Jays pulling off a version that would top the charts. It’s just a perfect mix of old style and new beats.
The Keef song – and there’s one on almost every release by the Stones – is “Some of Us.” It’s the best thing Keith Richards has sung lead on since “Before They Make Me Run.” It’s haunting.
If there’s a sad song here, it’s “Ringing Hollow,” a song about the United States. The Stones lament our fall from the days we were admired by other nations. Now, they say, we took away the welcome mat and that “Lady Liberty don’t look so good when she’s wearing a scowl.” Sad. True and sad.
Remember “Sympathy for the Devil”? Mick is still the Devil – to an extent – but he has his priorities in better order with the song “Call Me Mr. Charm.” It’s the one song in this collection that references aging:
Now I’m older, I would like to ask you if tonight
We could stay at home, you see, I’m really quite polite
I could make you cocktails, pour you wine, you’re obviously so erudite.
Okay. I’ve made you suffer through my fangirl review of “Foreign Tongues.” Let me tell you why it’s the perfect gift for the geezer on your list.
We still have CD players. I have at least two. One is in the car. One is in my workroom. I may have a third one; I don’t know where it is.
Sure, we stream music. But we like to own it, too. We like the And we’re that way about books, too. We don’t have to own all the books and CDs that we like, but we do want to own some of them.
The other thing is the matter of “hope.”
I am sixty-eight. My days of work are generally behind me, and I’m fine with that. But. I still want to do stuff. I want to create. I want to use my imagination. I want to make art. It doesn’t have to be good. It doesn’t have to be appreciated by anyone else. I just want to make it and enjoy the creative process.
Can I do that at this ripe old age?
Here’s the hope: The Rolling Stones are in their mid-80s and are still making good music. The “Foreign Tongues” CD is the best thing they’ve done since “Some Girls” back in 1978.
If they can do it, I can do it. If I can do it, the geezer you love can do it. Give him this CD. Give him hope.
Eddie Whitlock is a Georgia native, graduate of UGA, and wannabe writer. He retired in 2021 from the Athens-Clarke County Library, where he worked as coordinator of volunteers, community service supervisor, and vending machine scapegoat.
