#468: The Rolling Stones, 'Some Girls'
Rolling Stones, 1978
This album is really fun and all over the place. Definitely a good listen.
When Keith Richards was asked why the album is called, ‘Some Girls,’ he said it was because they couldn’t remember the names of any of the girls. They were just ‘some girls.’
I get that being a womanizer is super rock & roll but objectifying women is also super CEO and Oval Office. That common thread makes objectifying women less rock & roll and more wonder bread in suburbia.
And comments like Keith Richards’ made me think that I hadn’t made it yet as a woman until I was objectified by someone like this - until I was “some girl” immortalized for my sexual impact. My worth was not measured by my accomplishment but by the abuse of an accomplished man.
Being a misogynist is not rock and roll.
Internalized sexism is not rock & roll.
Rock & roll is falling in love
It’s walking in the median of a busy street while flirting your little head off with someone much taller than you.
It is being radically honest with yourself about who you are.
It is finally figuring out how you want to present yourself.
and doing it.
It is believing you can be different than your parents
than your neighborhood.
It is being accountable for yourself.
It is not being okay with the status quo
It is a big middle finger to misogyny
That is rock and roll
And heavy eyeliner — lots of heavy eyeliner.
It’s not erasing the unique identities of women deeming them trivial pornographic toys with glue for blood and plastic for skin and then gloating about that erasure.
The Rolling Stones are absolute legends. I loved listening to this album and remembering watching my friend sing Beast of Burden at karaoke at the local Chiles with my mouth agape at her 18-year-old courage.
But a spade is a spade is a spade.
It’s pretty rock and roll to be able to call this out and still say these songs rock. That is why life is messy and beautiful. Let’s all never be ‘some girl’ or ‘some boy’ or ‘some person.’ We deserve more than that.
We also deserve to listen to the Stones’ cover of “Just My Imagination” as many times as we want.
Top songs: Miss You, Just My Imagination, Some Girls, Before They Make Me Run, Beast of Burden