I was doing on Wednesday night what I often do while serving the sentence of being stuck inside during these days of isolation, and that was surfing on YouTubeTV for something to watch that would bring a dose of joy into my evening and not darkness. So not the news.
While unsuccessful in a search for “Hired Gun,” which apparently isn’t what the title implies, I stumbled across a documentary on the Rolling Stones titled “Olé, Olé, Olé! A Trip Across Latin America” that is from 2016, when the iconic band performed in 10 cities across South America, with an historic first-ever rock concert before 1.2 million people in Havana, Cuba, as the big finish.
The concert was significant because rock ‘n roll music isn’t roundly applauded across that continent, and in fact had been banned in some countries, including Cuba. That led to a comment from Keith Richards that inspired today’s column, but we will save it for later.
The Rolling Stones were an integral part of the music revolution that was unleashed during the 1960s and 1970s and bestowed upon those of us who were youthful at the time the gift of the greatest generation of music ever. I don’t remember everything well from that time, but I do this and vividly, giving the Stones’ 1969 album titled “Let it Bleed” a spin while I pranced around the pool table at my childhood home on Rowland Avenue playing my air guitar. Thank God phones didn’t have the ability to record video at that time.
I was particularly enamored with “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” both the tune and its message, which the passage of a half-century has proven to be prophetic.
I know, it’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it, like it, yes I do.
Since then I have been an unabashed fan of the Stones, and anyone who counts themselves among that club who hasn’t seen the documentary, needs to. There are gems throughout, but my favorite was when Mick Jagger and Richards discuss how the song “Honky Tonk Woman” came about, during which Richards reveals the identity of the female inspiration for the song and sheepishly shares that she was “a friend of the whole band.”
Here is what else Richards said in the documentary in reference to government censorship across South America that solved my problem of what to write about today: “In several of these countries rock ‘n roll was banned you know. The moment you ban something you are going to create a movement around it you know. Anything that smacks of rebellion … they are going to take to heart.”
A sobering thought from someone not necessarily renowned for sobriety. For fun, it’s nice to note that Richards has abandoned the whisky and vodka for an occasional glass of wine or a beer.
His comment struck a chord with me because more and more we hear talk about bans, especially as it relates to speech, and the cancel culture, an attempt to sanitize the past. As I always point out when this is the topic, I recognize that there is a difference between Facebook, Twitter and Instagram making the decision on what we can and cannot consume and the government doing so. I know that it’s not OK to shout fire in a crowded theater as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously argued in a free-speech case before the Supreme Court 102 years ago.
After the Stones documentary, I saw that Instagram had banned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — the son of the man with the same name who was assassinated in 1968 while on the verge of becoming the Democratic nominee for president, and the nephew of slain president John F. Kennedy — because of his controversial views on vaccines. I don’t share his views and will get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as I am allowed, but I am also not fearful of his views, trusting we the people to make informed decisions.
The problem with silencing dissenting voices is and always will be: Who is the arbiter? I don’t like social media minions making that call, but that is exactly what is happening in this nation today, and at the risk of hyperbole, I see it as a growing threat to our nation’s democracy — especially since so many who should be bothered by it instead either endorse it explicitly or with their silence.
Some may claim the metaphor is strained, that Kennedy’s position is potentially deadly, while the Stones were only trying to introduce a continent to a new form of expression. I think they miss the point.
Benjamin Franklin, not surprisingly, said it much better than I ever could: “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
Donnie Douglas is the former editor of The Robesonian in Lumberton.
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