Older readers (oh, all right, very old readers) may have had the odd feeling of déjà vu when they heard about the suicide of L’Wren Scott,
the fashion designer and stylist who had been Mick Jagger’s girlfriend for a decade or more.
Indian Stones’ fans will remember her as the very tall woman (Jagger likes them tall and American apparently, judging by Scott and Jerry Hall) who accompanied the Stones when they played in Bombay and Bangalore many years ago and then came here nearly every year with Mick Jagger, a frequent visitor to India.
But the déjà vu comes not from her height but from the circumstances of her suicide. Four decades ago, when Jagger was in Australia (he was filming the flop Ned Kelly ), his then-girlfriend, actress Marianne Faithfull, tried to kill herself. She was found, just in time, survived and apparently said to Jagger when she finally opened her eyes, “Wild horses wouldn’t drag me away.” (Years later, when she left him, he told her he’d written the song Wild Horses about her.)
This time too, Jagger was in Australia, about to embark on a tour with the Stones when the news of Scott’s suicide (in faraway New York) reached him. And this time too, there was no clarity over the reasons for that suicidal impulse. Faithfull has never explained why she tried to kill herself. Apart from offering such explanations (to Jagger’s Seventies biographer Tony Scaduto) that, when she looked in the bathroom mirror, she saw Brian Jones’s face staring back at her and as Jones had recently died (he was probably murdered), she felt she should join him (yes, she was on drugs.) Similarly, we have read speculation about Scott’s business debts but given that she was the long-standing partner of Mick Jagger, a multi-millionaire who can still earn many more millions simply by going on the road, this does not sound like reason enough.
By some coincidence, shortly after I heard about Scott’s death, I saw a DVD of Crossfire Hurricane, a documentary that the Stones had commissioned for their 50th anniversary. Faithfull finds no mention in the film but it does ask the central question of the Stones’ continued existence: how did a band that set out to be the bad boys of rock end up becoming a much-loved part of the establishment? Jagger now has a knighthood and even Keith Richards, that unrepentant junkie hero, is treated as a global treasure and has just published a children’s book (would you want your child to grow up on stories written by Keith Richards? Hmm. Not sure I would.)
| "But how do you make the transition from being bad boys to becoming ‘off-limits’ elder statesmen without having written a good song in 30 years? Ask Mick Jagger and Keith Richards: only they seem to know how!" |
The two incidents involving Jagger’s women seemed to me to exemplify the progression. When Faithfull tried to kill herself, the paparazzi and the tabloid press went crazy. There was speculation about the couple’s lifestyle and dark rumours about the reason for the suicide attempt. This time around, however, the story lingered in the papers only for a few days, quickly sliding off the front page and Scott was granted dignity in death even by social media, which did not focus unduly on her passing.
It wasn’t as though the Stones were out of the news. The band was on the verge of starting an Australian tour and concerts had to be cancelled as Jagger made it clear he was in no condition to perform. He issued a sentimental statement mourning her and did not leave his hotel to face the world for days afterwards.
So, here’s the mystery: in an age when the media are more intrusive than ever before and when the cult of celebrity rages, why does Mick Jagger get to maintain his privacy in a way that he was not allowed to over four decades ago, long before the media became so glamour-obsessed?
My theory is that the answer comes back to the issues raised in Crossfire Hurricane — or perhaps it even goes beyond those issues. In the Sixties and for much of the Seventies, the Stones got a thorough kicking from the establishment. But because they survived the abuse, the jail terms, the drug busts, the sudden deaths and such fiascos as Altamont, we have come to acquire a certain respect for them. We don’t see them as (in Keith Richards’ phrases) “the guys in the black hats”. Rather we see them as weather-beaten (and I don’t just mean Keith’s face) survivors who have taken everything the establishment can throw at them; in rock and roll parlance, they’ve paid their dues.
It helps also that they are so much older than us. And yet we still want to hear them play. I was in Australia last month and the hysteria surrounding the imminent tour was palpable: tickets for all the shows had sold out in minutes. (“I’m going to see them perform in Adelaide,” my guide told me before adding sardonically, “If they manage to stay alive till then!”)
So I guess they are the closest thing that the generation that runs the media has to elder statesmen. We no longer speculate about their sex lives (even Jagger’s — though from all accounts, he hasn't put it away yet) because it would be a little like trying to work out if your grandparents’ friends were into threesomes (Jagger is on the verge of becoming a great grandfather).
But how do you make the transition from being bad boys to becoming ‘off-limits’ elder statesmen without having written a good song in 30 years? Ask Mick Jagger and Keith Richards: only they seem to know how!
Name:
Please enter name
E-mail:
Your email id will not be published.
Please enter email
Please enter a valid email address eg. xyz@abc.com !
Friend's Name:
Please enter friend name
Friend's E-mail:
Your email id will not be published.
Please enter friend email
Please enter a valid email address eg. xyz@abc.com !
Additional Text:
Security code:
Other Articles
-
Only five years ago I would have been stuck with Akasaka in Def Col. or Moti Mahal Deluxe in South Ex. Now I have amazing options to choose from.
-
In the pursuit of vegetarianism and vegetarian guests lies the future. And great profit.
-
I think that Indians have less desire to ‘belong’ than Brits do. We don’t need social approval. And this is a good thing.
-
And ask yourself: have I really been enjoying the taste of vodka all these years or just enjoyed the alcoholic kick it gives my cocktails?
-
There is a growing curiosity about modern Asian food, more young people are baking and the principles of European cuisine are finally being understood
See All