Rose Petals and Revolution

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"It goes on for ten minutes, with Jagger removing his belt and whipping the stage. Then Jagger cries out, 'Let's get a look at ya!' and the house lights go up. They play Little Queenie, and the audience stands, shakes, rocks with new collective spirit. 'Shake your behinds,' calls Jagger. 'I want you to dance with me.' The crowd surges toward the stage. Finally, Jagger dedicates Street Fighting Man to Chicago, 'because of what you all did here . . . you know when I mean . . .' The crowd is delighted. The other Stones play on. Jagger is gyrating. Jagger throws rose petals out at the audience. The Rolling Stones are gone. No encore. They have happened."

Sex and Violence. Scenes like this will earn the Stones some $2,000,000 by the time their three-week tour winds up at the Miami Pop Festival this weekend. Clearly, the group has not yet been infected by the new mood of nostalgia and disengagement that is beginning to pervade the rock scene. Once adventurous groups are returning to vintage 1950s rock 'n' roll. Old stars like Chuck Berry and Little Richard are being dusted off for a reprise. Musically, the Stones' original revolutionary slash seems to be settling into reflexive middle age. Their new album, Let It Bleed, has plenty of the Stones' old power and ominous tension. But despite its professionalism and preoccupation with sex and violence, the LP has a retrospective quality. The Stones, in fact, seem to have become the last thing they ever wanted—an institution.

Jagger particularly seems weary of the old games—one reason, perhaps, why he has been branching into other fields, most notably, playing two major dramatic roles in forthcoming films. "Sometimes I wish I wasn't me," he admits. "I don't mean the real me—I'm quite happy with that—but the person they all swear at. But every time someone curses me, I think, 'Remember, remember, that's what makes me very rich.' "