rock themes: rolling stone  

by hardrockchick [about 2 years, 10 months ago.]

I’m a researcher by trade. This means that I’m always trying to connect things together, to find meaning in the connection. I’ve always found it interesting when an idea pops up several times in a short period of time- for instance, there were two movies about the Zodiac killer recently released, and also two historic magician movies- The Prestige and The Illusionist. Are there just not enough ideas floating around or is there something going on in society that is causing this theme to pop up? This is the basis for this new column, rock themes.

I’ve always wondered how this happened: in the 60’s, three major things popped up involving a rolling stone.

The Rolling Stones, 1962
‘Like a Rolling Stone’ by Bob Dylan, 1965
Rolling Stone magazine, 1967

The Rolling Stones names themselves after the Muddy Waters’ song ‘Rollin’ Stone’. ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ is supposedly about the alienation Dylan felt from moving away from his core Folk audience. And, well, Rolling Stone magazine named ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ as the best song of all time, and ‘Satisfaction’ by The Rolling Stones is number two. So, unable to find a definitive answer on where the name of the mag came from, I guessing it was fan-based.

Back of the consciousness source: the proverb ‘a rolling stone gathers no moss’. It means that a person who never stays in one place long will not encounter responsibilities. Hey, that’s pretty rock ‘n roll to me. A different city every night, a different girl perhaps. Was this proverb the mantra of the sixties counterculture?

Who knows. Maybe I should name my kid Rolling Stone- because what I do know is that that name is synonymous with success.

Genre(s): Musings

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