Song 407: This week the playlist comes around to Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When The Stones showed up as part of the British Invasion that followed The Beatles debut, I liked what I heard from them, just as I did The Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, etc., and they had a few 45s that really lit up the airwaves in that era. At the turn of the 1970s, I began my album collection, having flown from the family coop, and I added a number of older RS LPs, but I found their current ones a bit disappointing, so I generally didn’t go for their newer releases. This single did get my attention, though, when it blasted out of the radio speakers in the summer of 1981, and I heartily agreed with the reviewer my Oakland housemate Doug quoted who said it proved The Rolling Stones could still get it up. During a trip back East that summer, I remember hearing it while riding the bus near the Chicago area, which was where I had lived only a few years earlier, before moving to CA, and it fit that moment perfectly. Having become an East Bay dweller, I did not wish to linger in the Windy City, and if someone had to start me up, I would gladly Ride like the wind at double speed and never stop, never stop until I got back to the West Coast, running hot, even if I had to blow my top, because getting stranded in Chi-Town would have truly made a grown man cry.
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