Then they said we could stay and watch them rehearse. Next thing we know, the Stones are performing, and we are getting a private concert. Between songs Mick Jagger would walk over to us to see how we were doing. "Can I get you anything? A glass of water?" he said, not jesting. It was amazing.

On the walls, they had a list of every song they had ever recorded, and between songs they would refer to it and pick one to try out. Then they would play a CD of the song to remind themselves of how it went. They sounded amazing because they were not trying to look good or be visual. They focused only on the music. I know this sounds hard to believe, but the song that kicked the most ass was "Undercover of the Night."

My brother was traveling through Toronto airport last week, and was running a little late. But he was also hungry, so he stopped to get a sandwich. The guy in front of him in the queue took a very long time to order. He began counting out his change very slowly. He asked things like “Is this a quarter?” My brother, increasingly impatient and not in a charitable mood, thought maybe it’s the guy’s first time in Canada, or maybe he’s just an idiot. The guy had an odd bag at his feet that was a mixture of leather panels and silver-lined parachute material. He wore an Irish flat-peaked farmer’s cap of the sort which, when seen on someone under the age of sixty, is guaranteed to annoy Irish people everywhere. These facts lent support to the second theory. Finally, the guy finished counting out his money, slowly gathered his food and his silly bag and turned around to leave.

It was Michael Stipe. My brother said hello. Stipe said hello. Off he went. My brother said the only other thing that it occurred to him to say at the time was “Hey, how’s Thom Yorke? When’s the next Radiohead album coming out?” But he felt this might not have been an appropriate question.

- posted by Don Porges @ 9/29/2005 04:22:00 PM |