THE Rolling Stones were the half-time entertainment at the Super Bowl, American
football’s championship, on Monday (Sunday in the United States ). Now I know
why the Stones are still a big hit after decades and decades, outlasting all
rock ‘n’ roll bands.

True to the expression, the Stones gather no moss. They just keep on rolling.

American football is the biggest spectator sport in the United States . While
baseball is that country’s pastime, football is its passion.

American football ain’t soccer. Soccer is the passion and poison of Europe,
Latin America and Africa . It attracts massive crowds on these continents. Its
fans are simply fanatical. And the reason I say it’s poison is because in some
parts of the world fans are so insanely passionate, games often end up in
violence. Fans against fans. Fans against players. Fans against referees. Deaths
have occurred among spectators in the past. The term “hooliganism” became a
household word because of the fanaticism and violence wrought by some fans.

American football, too, is violent. The players don’t wear fiberglass helmets
for nothing. But violence is confined mainly on the field. Isolated fights and
melees take place in the stands, but it’s not the norm. The game is violent
because the players hit each other on every play. Eleven players line up on each
side of the line of scrimmage with one team wanting to advance the football (by
running or throwing it) and the other team wanting to prevent that.

The physicality of the game is so brutal, one wonders there aren’t more injuries
as a consequence. Preceded by weeks of hype and hoopla, the Super Bowl is a
much-anticipated sports event. Television viewership shoots up during the Super
Bowl. Product commercials are expensive. A half-minute advertisement can cost
half-a-million dollars, maybe more now.

That background is to illustrate that American football is big in the United
States . The Super Bowl, the culmination of 16 games for each competing team, is
particularly popular. It’s an event in itself. And, with typical American
conceit, it’s called a “world” championship even though only American teams
play.

So it follows that because the Super Bowl is hugely popular, the organizers put
on performers who are also immensely popular. It follows that the Rolling Stones
are still big.

There they were on stage, the Stones. There was Mick Jagger, of course,
strutting his stuff, barking out “I can’t get no satisfaction" to the swaying
crowd.

And then, watching them, I realized why the Stones are still hip after all these
years. They haven’t gone fat at all! Unlike many of the individual performers
and groups that have come and gone, the Stones still draw crowds because,
despite their age, they still look like rock stars. They still look hungry and
rebellious and defiant. They still wear the same clothes and still have the same
look. And they don’t wear clothes that look like uniforms. In other words, they
don’t wear identical outfits, like other groups or bands from the past. I’ve
never seen the Stones wearing the same suits. Actually, I’ve never seen the
Stones wearing suits (except for drummer CharlieWatts).

That the Stones are still lean and defiant is what keeps them current. That is
what keeps them popular among rock ‘n’ roll fans of all ages, including today’s
young fans.

Filipino businessmen, executives and professionals who read the BusinessMirror
grew up on groups like the Stones. In the 1960s when British bands invaded the
United States and the global music scene, the Stones were already among them.
The Dave Clark Five, Peter and Gordon, Herman’s Hermits and several others. And
the Beatles, of course.

Even the legendary and prodigious Beatles became flabby and rich.

But the Beatles couldn’t stay as a unit. The Fab Four disbanded. And then John
Lennon was murdered, and people all over the world stopped “Imagining.” Ah, but
the Stones stayed around. Never the easiest group to like, the Stones just kept
on trucking, as the expression goes. We were all Beatles fans. We knew the
Rolling Stones were around but we paid them less attention. And the years and
the decades rolled on. America ‘s The
Beachboys are the only contemporary group that rivals the Stones’ longevity.
But The Beachboys today aren’t all the original Beachboys, one or two of them
have left or died.

The Rolling Stones are intact. Keith Richards on lead guitar, Ron Wood on
rhythm, Watts on drums and of course Jagger, the lead singer and leader. They’re
still around, lean, mean and defiant. What explains their durability? It can’t
be the profligate lifestyles, hard sex and even drugs that they’re said to
indulge in. It can’t be the long weeks and months of touring around the world.

It can’t be living out of a suitcase for weeks on end. Whatever explains the
Stones’ longevity, it really doesn’t matter.

What matters is they’re still around and giving no hint of slowing down or
retiring in a farm somewhere. What matters is that they’re still lean and mean.
(Among crooners from the age, Rod Stewart remains as the only legitimate star.
Why, he’s also lean and wiry!) Unlike the acts that have been coming in droves
to the Philippines lately. The Lettermen, The Cascades and now, the Zombies and
AndyWillliams. But Filipinos like to reminisce about their past, someone might
say.

Filipinos are big on nostalgia. Fine, no problem with that. But why spend a
couple of thousand pesos on fat singers who’ve lost their voices and have gained
poundage around the waist? Gosh, the retirement home is fast losing tenants
because we’ve been unretiring these blokes! Someone even brought over a group
that pretended to be Queen. But why patronize imitations? Are Filipinos so
starved of good entertainment they’d settle for ersatz performances? If I were
the people who go to the Araneta and other auditoriums to see geriatric
performers, I would just dust off these groups’ old tapes and listen to them
with a loved one and a bottle of good wine. That would be cheaper and more
enjoyable by a wide margin. Because the Stones still command a hefty fee,
chances are we will continue to have to settle for tired and flabby singers,
retired and forgotten by all except the
Filipinos.