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Issue 110

From: Skippy, "A Rock-n-Roll Animal"
Subject: Sticky Fingers Stones Fest #2

(to the tune of Sweet Little Sixteen)

There were really rockin' in Boston
and Philadelphia, PA.
From the heart of Texas,
New York and Virgin-I-A.

It all started when Dr. Riff called a while back and said that he'd like to take me up on my invitation to visit Philly (Philadelphia). He said he, "hopes it snows when he comes up because he hadn't seen snow in 10 years. It hardly ever snows in Texas."

Misty had been planning to get together with Carol Rock for some time too. Carol only lives three or four hours away from Philly by car.

You may remember around Christmas time Dr. Riff announced his love for Carol during one of his Stones post right here on SFJ! Proclaimed it to the world. The next day Carol did the same. It's a regular SFJ soap opera! (featuring John Carr as Father Knows Best and Fruit Loops as the town comedian) I've heard of this internet love stuff, but not so close to home. Nice things happen right here on SFJ!

Misty checked the e-mail one day and we started a tongue twister:

Misty: "Carol Rock wrote." Skippy: "Did Dr. Riff write?" Misty: "Yeah, Riff wrote." Skippy: "What did Riff write?" Misty: "Dr. Riff wanted to know if he and Carol could visit us at the same time. I said sure, the more the merrier."

Dr. Riff picked the date and the announcements went out for the Sticky Fingers Stones Fest #2!

Riff flew to Virginia from Texas and drove up with Carol. I said to Riff, "Hey Doc, why don't you just fly into Philly? I only live fifteen minutes from the airport?" Riff said, well this way I can spend more time with the woman I love. I don't want her to have to drive all that way alone!

Riff and Rock showed up last friday afternoon just in time for Misty's home-made Turkey dinner.

After we feasted on a meal fit for a king, we sat back and had some laughs and watched rare videos. It was a long day for them so we all turned in early, we knew we had a couple of dozen people coming for a party the next day and a tour of Philly.

Mike Burke called on the telephone, "What can I bring? Is Dr. Riff there?" I put Dr. Riff on the phone, "Hey Doc," Mike said, "When I come down can I buy your autograph?" We had a good laugh over that!

We got up early and Misty had us a breakfast fit for a king just when a knock came on the door. It was Alexander and Meridith and they were just in time for breakfast! After the bacon, sausage, potatoes, coffee, eggs (any style - made to order from over easy to ham and cheese omelets) we took on Philadelphia!

Then it started to snow. "You jinxed us", I told Dr. Riff. As a matter of fact, Philadelphia weather forecasters predicted a light coating of snow late Friday into Saturday morning and then a warming trend. "You know you brought all of this snow with you", I told Riff! "I know it", he said, "The plane almost couldn't leave Texas, it was a good thing I left at 5:30 AM."

As the white stuff fell from the sky we traveled! "Where do you want to go to first?", I asked, "Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, record stores?" Everyone replied, "Record stores all at the same time!"

We went to the first store and I introduced everyone to the proprietor that I've known for twenty years, "These are some of my internet friends." This guys hears all about you SFJ people every time I see him. "This is Dr. Riff from Texas, Carol from Virginia, Alexander and Meridith from NY, ect..." He is sitting there with his extra long hair and baseball cap and grins and gives everyone a slow wave with his hand from right to left and says, "Welcome internet friends!", spoken like a true hippy! We all chuckled and thanked him for the warm greeting and I was just about to let everyone know which things were in which direction when I noticed the Alexander was already half way across the store on his hands and knees going through a pile of laser discs. Dr. Riff said with his Texas twang accent, "Wears the vinyl?" "Up stairs, this way", I replied. We raced up the steps like a couple of children racing to the ice cream truck! We found some cool stuff that wasn't on CD. "Yeah, the trip to Philly was paying off already!", I thought.

We all piled up an assortment of Rolling Stones stuff on the counter. I broke in my new Rolling Stones credit card to make my purchase. Alexander wanted to buy Stones stuff off of the wall which wasn't for sale.

Ok, we were back in the vehicle grooving to "Static in the Attic" and headed into the city by way of West Philly. The tour started with, "This neighbor hood is where the militant group "Move" lived, you know Ramona Africa, Delbert Africa and them." Not everyone knew the story of how our ex-mayor had a bomb dropped on their roof and burned down a whole city block. And how Ramona Africa and a child were the only two survivors as the rest burned to death in 1985. And how this old man loved Jazz and collected Jazz all of his life. He had a huge collection the melted and burned. I felt so sorry for this old man that the story stays with me to this day. I shed a tear for this life-time collector as I watched him cry in pain on CNN.

A few months later I cried a river for this guy when I saw him on CNN again, I told everyone. The CNN story was carried around the world. This time the man was not looking sad and blue, but crying for joy! People saw his plight on CNN and out of the goodness of their hearts they mailed this cat some of the rarest albums ever. He had stuff he only heard about. Stuff legends are made of. He was crying saying, "How can I ever thank these people?" The records came from around the world many with no return address. I can still picture that old black man looking up at the camera surrounded by the rarest jazz records in the world. This has stayed with me too. "well it's true", he said, "every cloud does have a silver lining. God bless everyone." I cried for this guy like a baby. (Ramona Africa sued philadelphia after she got out of prison and was awarded millions of dollars.) Talk about a bittersweet story that us collectors can identify with! We didn't have much time. Alexander said, "Lets go to some record stores, you know that street that's like the (Greenwich) Village (New York City). OK, I said we'll do a drive by on some famous sites along the way. We stopped at The Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.

We went to another record store which had nothing, but we chatted with the dude there who gave everyone a warm welcome to Philadelphia.

I said, "It's snowing pretty hard now, if you want to go to a record store that isn't real close, but they have some cool stuff, we'd better go now. It's not real close and we'd have to take I-95, a major dangerous highway." "Do they have boots?" someone asked. "Yeah, they got all kinds of stuff." "Do they have vinyl?", someone else asked. "Yeah, they have vinyl." Everyone said lets go then!

"OK", I replied. "I know the coolest place in Philadelphia. It's a really cool church and it has a dead body in it, it's a saint, Saint John Neumann. His body is in the alter encased in glass. You can see it right in the front of the church", I said. "It's not a real dead body is it?" Alexander asked. "Yeah it's real!", I replied. "This place is really special", I said, "It's so cool!" "Let's go", someone said and we went.

Didn't you ever see Saint John Neumann on the TV show "Unsolved Mysteries"? You know the episode where the kid is in the coma and another kid was found in his hospital room several times after hours and the nurse wants to know who this 10-year-old was and how he kept getting in after hours? The kid woke and said, "Mommy where's my friend Johnny?" The mother responded, "Johnnie, who's Johnny?" The kid replied, "My friend Johnny, he came to see me every night." The mother wonder since the nurses and doctor asked the mother about this boy. too. But how could the child know about the boy while he was in a coma?

They took the boy down to the Saint John Neumann Shrine at 5th & Girard in Philadelphia to thank Saint John Neumann for curing the child from his deathbed. The boy saw a picture of Saint John Neumann when he was 10-years-old and excitedly exclaimed, "Mommy, Mommy, there's my friend Johnny."

Alexander looked at the body asked, "Is that his real face?" "No", I replied, "It's a death mask, they often made a cast from dead bodies to make a mask in the 1800's just like they took portraits of dead bodies like on "Voodoo Stew".

We were back in the car and off to the next farther-away record shop. They had some cool Stones picture disc, boots, magazines and 45's. "Do you have Handsome Girls?", everyone asked, "Did you hear the Pig went belly-up?" "Swingin' Pig?", the guy responded. "Yeah Swingin' Pig, it's big news on the net", was that response. The record store guy said, "The pig went belly up twice before and somebody's brother or somethin' or someone opened up shop twice before. They'll be back when they refigure things."

"Are these all of the boots you have, no Handsome Girls?", my friend asked. I jumped in, "Handsome Girls never made it to Philly. Bootlegs are a little scarce around here."

We found some cool old vinyl here too!

We got back and the madness started. It was show-and-tell time. We had many Stones items to play with. Fred said that we were like a bunch of kids on Christmas with new toys. The trouble was which did we play with first? We fought nicely over what to play with first!

We had two CD players and a VCR playing all at once.

We put on a Swedish 1982 concert and listened to the Stones doing "Chantilly Lace". Is this "Chantilly Lace" we wondered? It sounded more like "Johnny B. Goode"! Then the chorus came in and it was "Chantilly Lace". "Let Me Go" had more lead guitar work than the "Still Life" version.

We didn't hear that long when it was preempted for a mystery disc that turned out to be a 1973 concert. I knew it wasn't Brussels, Wembley or New Castle. The quality was quite good sound-wise and the performance was incredible. At first glance everyone was saying, "This is better than Brussels!" Maybe it is, maybe it isn't and any rate it was great and different than Brussels. Dr. Riff announced, "This is Munich '73, I have this tape." Dr. Riff locked his sights on "where can I buy a tape around here!" That's all that seemed to suddenly matter!

Next up someone brought the "Nicaraguan Benefit Concert" from Inglewood California 1973. We had this on CD which featured Mick Taylor's incredible playing, but we could hardly hear Keith! It didn't matter, we were blown away by Taylor especially on "You Can't Always Get What You Want" not to mention the rare live recording of Taylor here playing on "No Expectations", "Route 66" and "It's All Over Now"! This day was rockin' like none other!

It got even better when someone pulled out a vinyl copy of the same "Nicaraguan Benefit Concert"show and it was remarkably better sound! We could hear Keith too! We were even more blown away!

Next we heard San Diego 1981, a very good audience tape! Another great find that was over shadowed by the other recordings!

We then play with Keith's "Stoned Stone" and Ron Wood's "Live In Austin", both remarkable!

We played Mick Jagger "Live At Webster Hall NY" which was another awesome recording! I said, "Misty, pinch me. Did I pass on to my great reward. Is this day real!" So much great Stones that I've never seen or heard. This party was rockin' - big time!

I shouted, "This is Rolling Stones overload." Fred shouted, "Never!"

Dr. Riff said, "Play Have You Seen Your Mother (Webster Hall) first!" We did, it was great! Many of the tracks I like better on "Webster Hall" than I do on Wandering Spirit, such as "Mother of a Man". The live feel and harder rocking edge makes many of these tracks really rock! Jagger and his band were very hot this night! The live versions seem more real that the series of overdubs on the studio album. The sound quality is excellent. I love this disc.

Then came the newest San Diego '69. We were amazed at the sound it is phenomenal! This is an audience tape that rivals many soundboards!

People found it hard to believe that this is an audience tape! I was amazed to hear it is the same audience tape. I just stood there with my mouth open!

We saw some very rare videos and some not so rare too! The funniest was the '94 Halloween show in Oakland with Ronnie in the devil costume. His red horns were a great touch and good for a laugh!

I didn't bother to get the desert that Misty wanted (Riff's birthday cake), so we had to go back out in the snow storm to find the cake. I had a list of phone numbers for some out-of-town SFJer's that we had planed to call. Alexander was paying for the calls. I must be nice to be rich and live in a house that has four bathrooms (inside joke)!

My only regret for the whole weekend is that we didn't have the local people's phone numbers handy since we had planned on the locals coming to the party. Sorry people that we didn't call all of you. But hey, next time we'll call anyone anywhere, just send me your phone number!

We called Steve Popwichak in Canada. "Hey Steve-o", Dr. Riff said when Steve answered the phone. We talked about one Stones thing after another and settled the Hyde Park question once and for all! We passed the phone around and chatted about nothing but Rolling Stones!

Steve-o just couldn't get over Fred telling him how great Vinyl Gang's San Deigo is.

If you ever come to one of these Stones Fest and sit back and listen you'll hear several enthusiastic Stones conversations at once and several Stones recordings at once!

David "Eck" comes in with his friend Billy and was chatting with everyone and said, "You guys are crazy, I never saw so many gown-ups having so much fun." I replied, "You got it, bro!"

We called Ken in Illinois and surprised him. We were telling him about all of the stuff we did and listened to and caught up on how the families were doing.

He said, "I feel like I'm there." "You are I told him. You know it's funny, I know people from their e-mail and talking with them on the phone and I picture what they look like and they don't look anything like I picture in my mind!" Ken said, "My picture is on the net." "We'll look it up later I told him."

We called Paul and talked to him for a while. Everyone enjoyed talking to him too. We were going off about how great Handsome Girls is!

Later we called Bob and I talked to him for the first time. We heard he was having a Stones fest of his own up near Boston. We just missed Jon and them by minutes. We talked so long that everyone left and went downstairs until they pryed me off of the phone. It is very cool to talk with all of these cool people that have similar interest and swap information. It's exciting and fun!

We called Jaimie in Australia all day and couldn't get him but we didn't give up!

Dante' stopped by and poured himself a screwdriver and said, "Hey you guys! Do you want to go see the Beef Band? They play all Stones and it's only around the corner?" We stayed on the phone and kept changing videos and records and CD's that we never got a decent listening to any of them and it got past midnight before actually starting to head to the bar to hear the Beef Band.

Dante said, "I'll meet you over there."

We started getting ready to go and everyone was tired and started acting like they didn't want to go. I said, "Why don't we go. We told Dante' we'd meet him there. We'll just stay for fifteen minutes and leave if you want too?" It wasn't far and we could walk there through the snow and some of us did.

We were glad we went. Carol wrote that it was a highlight of the weekend for her. We got there in time for the last set. Dante' introduced Dr. Riff to the band as being from Sticky Fingers Magazine. The guitar player Dave said something like, "You're one of the editors of Sticky Fingers Magazine! I love Sticky Fingers Magazine!" We felt like celebrities. Riff smiled from ear to ear!

Dino the other guitar player talked to us. He is a great warm hearted guy. I said to Dino, "did you play that "Under My Thumb/I'm Free" medley yet, I loved that last time or how about "Beat of Burden", I love all of that lead that you play on "Beast of Burden". "Thanks for the compliments", he said. "We did Under My Thumb, but we'll do Beast in the next set.

"You're great man", I said. He appreciated the kind words and told me that people tell him he sounds just like Keith Richards, but he said, "I like Mick Taylor the best." Carol Rock liked hearing that one!

Dino looked up at my blue Rolling Stones baseball cap with the red tongue and said, "I got that baseball cap from QVC (American Home Shopping cable TV station) and they said this won't be available at the concert." He had his doubts about this QVC claim and bought it from them anyway. I said, "This was the best baseball cap and I didn't see it at any of the concerts."

The band started out with "Miss You", but got the dance floor packed with "Gimme Shelter". Dino was a Mick Taylor Fan all right! A fan of some live boot recordings too it seemed!

I rose out of my seat and had to dance, kissed Misty's hand and we started to dance. I put my baseball cap backwards on her as it fell off during a spin. She looked so cute with it on.

I know you heard the story of how I dance on the table. How do you think I got the nick name "Rock-n-Roll Animal"? I really wasn't drunk!

We got back to the house and it was three AM, there was too much noise and people wanted to go to bed and Alexander says, "Lets look up Ken Cheek's picture on the net!" So we did! There he was smiling at us and I held up a beer and said we had to make a toast to Ken! I never pictured him as a biker-looking dude!

We finally got a hold of Jaimie in Austrailia. Riff and Jaimie were buzzing away about all of the latest Japanese boots. Everyone enjoyed talking to Jaimie with his cool Austraialian accent.

Carol was tired. I think she said, "Where are we?" Dr. Riff said in a Keith Richards voice, "We're at the corner of walk and don't walk." I didn't catch it at first and later thought about that quote from Stew or Brew and pictured Keith and Ronnie on a corner and Ronnie asking, where are we and Keith looking up at the pedestrian traffic control and saying, "We're at the corner of walk and don't walk" and just started laughing! Oh, we had some fun. Carol replied, "I'm at the corner of pass out and don't pass out."

Everyone was getting ready for bed when Alexander started waving around a pair of Daffy Duck bikini briefs. I said, "Are they yours?" He looked at me and said, "NO THEY'RE NOT MINE!" Just then the owner of those Daffy underwear came into the room and busted him. We had a good laugh then.

I went to my room and was getting changed when Misty opened the bedroom door and Carol and Steve almost saw me in my undies. Misty quickly closed the door and I said, "Why did you open the door while I was getting changed?" Misty replied, "I told you I was opening the door!" "I didn't think you were going to do it", I said.

Misty goes out of the bedroom to go to the bathroom and caught Alexander getting his sweat pants on. The quick change artist wasn't quick enough. What goes around, comes around. Alexander had showed off Daffy Duck and then got a taste of his own medicine. Misty came back and told me and we laughed so hard. I said to her, "What is this the underwear hour or what?"

The next morning was the usual made to order breakfast with Beagles, bacon, sausage, orange juice and all of the fixings.

After breakfast we broke out the Karoake! The night before at 3 AM Dr. Riff wanted to do Karoake to Dead Flowers! So after breakfast and after the beer wore off he wasn't as ambitious to sing and strut his stuff. Riff being a great sport did a duet of "Dead Flowers" and "Emotional Rescue" with me. We all laughed some more!

We traveled to Delaware to a record collectors show. We shopped the place! As soon as we walked in, Tom from Very English and Rolling Stone greeted us warmly. There were many Mick Taylor items for Carol Rock to play with including the Coastin' Home box with the Coastin' Home guitar pick and a 45 of Leather Jacket.

Very English had a mint "Get Your YaYa's" Poster. He asked about John R from Virginia. I told him John is one of our colleagues from SFJ and quite a collector. He knew. He asked about John Carr as Alexander scurried through the mountains of memorabilia and records. He even found the Stones tongue "She Was Hot" vinyl (w/girl on candle) that wouldn't sell him off of the wall at the first record shop.

I turned to show Alexander a picture French 12" picture disc that we saw elsewhere for more money and he was gone as usual!

I did find a great copy of Mick Jagger's "Ned Kelly" soundtrack and got a laugh when I sang a line from it, "Shame, shame on the name, blame it on the Kelly's. When your daughter comes home plump in the belly, blame it on the Kelly's."

Alexander said at the record show, "Do you know what Dr. Riff liked the best all weekend? Not the Chile '95 video you gave him, not the San Deigo '69 CD from Vinyl Gang, not Webster Hall or Handsome Girls, but the blank tapes you gave him so he could record Munich 73." I said, "Yeah, you're right!" Alexander said he was, he was, he was..." and we both said, "ECSTATIC!", at the exact same time and we all laughed again. Oh, we had many laughs!

I found a Japanese 1982 Official Stones release of "Rolling Tickets -Live Back-" which features studio and live material on London Records in Mono.

I also picked up Mick Taylor's "Shadow Man" and was most interested to see that he plays "Shattered" on the disc. One thing about "Shattered" it isn't the Rolling Stones song "Shattered".

After shopping the show to death, I tried again to call John Carr and he answered the phone. We talked for an hour or so. Tom from Very English and Rolling Stone walked by and I said, "Tom, John Carr is on the phone, say hello." They chatted for a few minutes and I told Tom that I saw his ad in SFM (Sticky Fingers Magazine).

It was sad when everyone finally went home, but it really didn't end there. Alexander called when he got home to ask about some of the CD's he borrowed.

Doc and Carol had to go catch Steve's flight back to Texas! The next morning at 9 AM the phone rings and it's Dr. Riff thanking me for a wonderful time. I said, "I'm glad you made it home OK." "Home?", he said, "I decided to stay in Virginia. The airline let me change my ticket to today!" "Yeah, right", I said. He hands the phone to Carol and I hear, "Hi Skippy".

The party still wasn't over and it may not yet be! The Sticky Fingers Stones Fest #2 rolls on! As I write this I look down at a video tape that is titled "Stones Weekend #3". Oh boy, I read in SFJ that the next one is in Canada! Cool!

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