"JUMPIN' JACK FLASH" THE ROLLING STONES (1968)

April 16, 2022

After spending an entire month looking back at the 80’s, I realized one thing. I need more. Luckily, a couple of fellow music fans on Twitter came up with the brilliant idea to highlight #30DaysOf80sMovieSongs during the month of April. I couldn’t resist at the opportunity to keep going, to keep listening, and to keep celebrating the decade that has meant more to me than any other from a musical standpoint. Each day I’m playing a different soundtrack favorite on the Mental Jukebox.

Movie: Jumpin’ Jack Flash

The Rolling Stones found their sweet spot somewhere halfway between the blues and rock ‘n roll. Other acts had their own success ushering blues into other genres, including Zeppelin, Cream and The Dead. But The Stones did it in a way that made them the perfect band to hear on a bar stool or on the stadium floor. There was something epic about the way the strung together Jagger’s vocals and moves with the dual guitar attack of Richards and Wood.

I probably can’t count the number of times this song lifted me up. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” is a song of redemption. It’s the reset button. It’s about getting knocked on your ass and getting back up again. It’s uttered in Jagger’s snarl. And it’s flowing in those sweet guitar riffs from Richards. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” is a caffeinated jolt to your head. The kind of song that can help you get over a bad week or even a very bad year.

“I was schooled with a strap right across my back. But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas.”

"PAINT IT BLACK" THE ROLLING STONES (1966)

January 12, 2022

For the month of January, I’m selecting some of the most memorable and influential songs of the 60’s. While they all hail from the same decade, these are some of my favorite songs of any era. They remind me that the 60’s were so much more than just Woodstock and psychedelic rock. It was a flourishing period for blues, folk, progressive and straight-ahead rock. #31DaysOf60sSongs

There are music fans that swear by the Rolling Stones, calling them the greatest band of all time. For reasons I don’t fully understand, there was always something preventing me from fully exploring their music. One thing that has certainly brought on this indifference is the prevalence of too much straight-ahead rock on their biggest hits. The songs were catchy, but too expected, and I quickly became too bored of them with no interest in going deeper into the band’s catalog. But there’s one song that was always an anomaly for me: “Paint It Black”.

It didn’t sound like anything else that I’ve heard before. It almost didn’t sound like rock were it not for Jagger’s vocals in the chorus. “Paint It Black” is a song with various influences, including Indian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European dispositions. Jagger and Richards wrote the song, but Brian Jones has the most significant impact on the track with his sitar riff. The song pulled the curtain wide open to musical expressions that were new to me. It left an impression that has stayed with me since the very first day I heard it, which was likely as part of some movie soundtrack.