So Mick Jagger‘s heart-valve operation won’t involve a scalpel cutting into his chest and the doctors prying open his rib cage. It’ll be a non-invasive procedure called transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR. The procedure “wedges a replacement valve into the aortic valve’s place” through a small tube without having to remove the old valve, according to the American Heart Association…the tube can be inserted into an artery in the groin or via a small incision in the chest…patients typically stay in the hospital for only a couple of days.”

Oh, for the pre-Aftermath days when Jagger wasn’t doing his standard rooster-on-acid and was more or less holding his ground, just standing there and focusing on the lyrics while executing subtle little moves.

The greatest Rolling Stones concert I ever attended was in summer ’75 at Madison Square Garden. It was the tour with the movable star-shaped stage, and which began with the opening bars of Aaron Copland‘s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” Granted, the Stones had a vague common-man aura when they were mainly performing covers of classic blues numbers, but after they came into their own with Beggar’s Banquet (’68) they began to project a classic rock-splendor image –elite, highly perverse rock ‘n’ roll gods living lives of grand debauch. Associating their brand with Copland’s anthem in ’75 was some kind of chortling in-joke.

The second best Stones concert I attended was at the Pavillon De Paris (Les Abattoirs) on 6.6.76. Les Rolling Stones aux Abattoir! The show was due to start around 9 pm — they didn’t take the stage until well after 11 pm.