Some things never change. The Rolling Stones stage a massive free concert in Rio and delight a million poor fans. Meanwhile, William Safire can’t take his mind off the band’s poor grammar. From Sunday’s NYTimes Magazine:
During halftime at Super Bowl XL, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones performed “Satisfaction,” their 1965 hit. He pointed out in his introduction to the song that it could have been sung at Super Bowl I, adding, “Everything comes to he who waits.” That was a verbal malfunction more shocking than a previous Janet Jackson halftime. Because he is the subjective case of the third-person male pronoun, it cannot be the object of the preposition to. The pronoun must be the objective case him.
Oh shit, Mick you got SERVED.
Meanwhile, a Stereogum reader needs your help:
Hello Mr. Stereogum,
I’m a reader from Mexico. The Rolling Stones are playing next Sunday over here and I’m trying to get some tickets by answering this mexican mag trivia. There is just one question I don’t know, so hopefully you, being the music oracle that you are, have the answer: What movie director has The Rolling Stones as a fetish?
If you’re going to help Antontio out, please for the love of god note your pronoun usage.
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Scorsese, non?
imdb.com might help. Or wikipedia.
Scorsese is a great guess.
Wow, Safire. I thought you retired, but I guess you’re still doing the word thing. Listen, Mick was really out of breath and that’s why his grammar was all messed up so just give him a gosh darn break
Oh, big deal. Replace ‘he’ with ‘the person who’ and you’ll see that his criticism isn’t really justified at all.
Werner Herzog
I’m surprised Safire is still alive. He’s gotta be in his ’90s by now.
Definitely Scorsese. Every film he shoots that takes place in the 60s or later uses the Stones. He’s been quoted as saying they’re the perfect soundtrack band.
It’s Woody Allen. I’m glad I was able to get you in to the show! Enjoy the concert!
Scorsese.
Last I checked, the Stones were a dirtbag rock band, not a bunch of Rhodes scholars. The freaking song goes “I can’t get no satisfaction,” fer chrissakes.
Gotta be Scorcese.
Wes Anderson? There seems to be a Stones song in all his movies (not sure about the Life Aquatic though).
Wes Anderson is my guess as well. Scorsese only uses the Stones in a few places. Granted, so does Anderson but I’m fairly sure he’s on record somewhere identifying it as one of his motifs
Kenneth Anger.
Jean-Luc Godard?
I hope that’s a direct quote from the article, in which case there’s a massive copy error where he uses the improper form of “too”, where instead he uses “to.” Come-uppance is a bitch.
Are you referring to this sentence:
“Because he is the subjective case of the third-person male pronoun, it cannot be the object of the preposition to.”
If so, it’s used correctly. He’s referring to the preposition “to”, he’s not saying also.
I think.
You are absolutely right: some things never change, including stupid stereotypes.
I am Brazilian and was one of the 1,5 million people at last saturday’s concert. I am neither poor or illiterate. I just happen to like the Rolling Stones.
I thought that was one of the points of rock’n roll, its strength to reach out to as many people as possible, rich or poor, pretty or ugly, english-speaking or not.
Ok, there were many people there who didn’t even know how to pronouce their name, but there were also lots of groups that flew in from Argentina, Chile, Europe and even the US (I met them at the concert) only to see them play.
It wasn’t only a concert, but a moment in rock history that will be remembered in the future.
I used to love this blog, but now I’m not so sure.
Don’t take it personally Flavia, I’m pretty sure Scott was being facetious
Flavia, did you live in London during the autumn/beginning of winter of 2004?
Did not mean to offend; I realize people flew of all nations and social strata flew in for the concert. I just wanted to use the word ‘poor’ twice ’cause I’m a lazy writer. Rolling Stones tickets are usually $200 anyway; they make us all feel poor.
I also think it’s Kenneth Anger.
On a related note, the rolling stones, while their early stuff was decent/good (fresh off being taught how to play their instruments by the beatles), they quickly earned the unfair status of being “bad boys” and being the best rock n’ roll bands (something they really seemed to relegate into the minds of pop-boomers). I highly doubt it is wes anderson as he seems to have a more refined 60′s taste in that he knows what was good and what was hype (Exhibit velvet underground, Nico Unit 4+2, and (early) the who.
William Safire needs to watch the Rolling Stones Rock N Roll Circus. Then he’d see that the real controversy is not that Mick Jagger uses poor grammar…. it’s Mick’s poor vocal performances of late, as exemplified on the Super Bowl. Does Mick just not give a damn about delivering a good vocal performance, or does he realize it’s not worth the effort because an American audience is more interested in his celebrity than his vocal talent? Hell, William Safire could have done a better job. I could see it now… as Keith accompanies him on acoustic guitar, the conservative pundit softly croons “Don’t play with me ’cause you’re playing with Safire!”.
By the way, bad grammar or good grammar, Mick Jagger can buy and sell William Safire’s sorry reactionary ass. That is, if he offers a high enough price to the Republicans that own it. Let’s see… Mick Jagger = Rock Icon. William Safire = GOP Shill. I think I’ll side with the Stones on this one.
I was there and it was just amazing, and then i went to São Paulo to watch the U2 concert that was the best ever and now i’m going to Salvador for Carnaval.
I guess before you die you must do at least one of those things. I think this the best year of my life!
The best thing about being Brazilian is that every day is spring break, and everybody can get together and party the rich and the poor.
are fuckin’ kidding me? correcting mick jagger’s grammer? what a total wanker? is this journalism? oh, by the way, the correct answer is: ding ding ding . . . martin scorcese! thanks for playing.
oh, shit. i spelled grammar wrong.