The red tongue and lip design logo is already familiar in our eyes. Those pictures have been everywhere up until now: from bedrooms, on public transportation stickers, on t-shirts, on the walls of narrow alleys to the shopping complexes.
Mick Jagger.
The owner of that logo is now 60 years old, even older than the age of this republic. He is rich and he often changes wives, girlfriends and kind of narcotics. Sir Michael Philip ‘Mick’ Jagger is a rock musician from England who was born on July 26th 1943. He is known as a vocalist of The Rolling Stones which has been famous since the 60’s and still existed until now. In accordance with its name, The Rolling Stones, they have survived through several decades and who knows how long. The Rolling Stones was formed in London in January 1963. They didn’t only sell a tumultuous and sensational music, but also sold a lifestyle that made parents restless at that time, maybe even until now.
The recorded sensations of The Rolling Stones have become monumental like the rolling stones that hit the social order of normative society. The monumental events including the discovery of Brian Jones’s, the guitarist, body after drowned in the swimming pool after he had been swimming all night on 3rd of July 1969. Jones was drowned because of the alcohol and drugs influence. There was no day that this group got through without drugs and it involved all members. The jail and hundreds of dollar of fine didn’t make them wary either. They were famous for their rowdy and wild behavior.
Mick Jagger.
In October 1968, many radio stations in US refused to play their song, Street Fighting Man, because they thought the lyrics were subversive. On 6th of December 1975 a priest in Tallahassee even stated that their recording was sinful, after he had concluded the survey of a thousand unmarried mothers and had found that 984 of them had been pregnant because of the influence of rock music. Most of them like The Rolling Stones’s songs. There was another sensation. On 21st of November 1990, Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall got married in a Balinese ceremony consisting largely of Hindu ritual. Later, the legality of their marriage was questioned, because both of them were not Hindus.
In 1988, Ono Artist Promotion invited Mick Jagger to perform in Indonesia without The Rolling Stones. People’s enthusiasm, especially the young people, was very high in welcoming his arrival, because at that time Indonesia was being engulfed by Mick Jagger fever. However, that concert then ended in riot. People who couldn’t get and couldn’t buy the ticket tried to enter Senayan Main Stadium. This thing resulted in the clash between them and the security guards, and in the end various vehicle were burnt and public facilities were damaged.
When that concert was happening, I was in Elementary School in Jakarta. But my introduction to Mick Jagger had happened long before that. The songs like ‘Party Doll’, ‘Paint in Black’, ‘Angie’ and so on were already familiar in my little ear because my father had often played them. The interesting thing at that time was I had not known the real Mick Jagger yet, the white one. Who I knew was Untung Wb (my father’s younger brother) who lived in Surabaya. His figure at that time looked like Mick Jagger. When I saw Jagger’s picture on the album cover or his performance on television I even always shouted “That’s Uncle Untung singing!”
Untung Wb.
Untung Wb was one of Indonesian teenagers who were influenced by Jagger’s figure in their time. He admits that the first time he listened to The Rolling Stones was when he was in Kindergarten. When he was in Purwokerto, his brothers (one of them must be my father) often played As Tears Go Bye. Since he was in Junior and then in High School in Jakarta, he started to listen to and memorize The Rolling Stones’s songs and tried to become their duplicate since 1984 until early 90’s.
In 1988 in Surabaya, he formed a band called Illegal Snotes. Previously, this band was called Illegal Stone, but then it was punned by its fans into Snote, which meant ‘Senat-senut = Headache’, in Javanese. He admits that it was hard for us in Indonesia, which was called ‘the most respectful’ country, to really followed Mick Jagger’s ‘unconventional’ lifestyle, but at least the way he trained his bad vocal into something different and something that had particularity was a very valuable lesson for him and many people in Indonesia who were blind of vocal technique. His stage style had once made his friends in Surabaya called him “Javanese Jagger”. After this band broke up in 1991, he became a vocalist of HR Project. This band played 90’s hard rock songs from Whitesnake, Night Ranger, Bon Jovi, Winger, Poison and so on. It existed since 1989 until 1993. One of its guitarists, Koko, happened to be an older brother of Kaka Slank.
According to my uncle, Mick Jagger without Keith Richards and The Rolling Stones might have been the same with any musician or vocalist. He becomes special when he is with The Rolling Stones. So, Mick Jagger = Rolling Stones. And the most important thing is Mick Jagger and his Rolling Stones have made Blues and Rock ‘n Roll easy to understand by all kinds of society. Of dozens of The Rolling Stones’s albums his favorite album is Sticky Fingers. He admits that he likes all songs on that album, meanwhile his favorite other songs are Sittin’ on a Fence, Love in Vain, Let it Bleed and Sympathy for the Devil. Now he works as a private employee, becoming an event organizer consultant and producer in a label company. He has two sons who also play in band.
Deddy Stanzah.
I like an Indonesian famous rock musician from Bandung so much who was influenced by Mick Jagger. He was Deddy Stanzah, who was still consistent with rock music until he died in 2001. His prestige increased suddenly when he formed The Rollies in 1967. Some said that The Rollies stood for ‘The Rolling Stones and The Hollies’, but Deddy Stanzah gave the name The Rollies because two of the members had curly hair (roll) and the other two had straight hair (lurus), hence The Rollies. Because of his drug dependence, The Rollies had to make an extreme decision to fire Deddy Stanzah in 1974. After leaving The Rollies, Deddy Stanzah formed Superkid but finally he went solo.
In Malang in the 70’s, since the appearance of Bentoel Rock Band, it also appeared names like Mickey Jaguar, Ian Antono and Teddy Sujaya. While musicians in capital city was still in fever of pop music and singing songs from The Beatles and Everly Brothers, Bentoel Rock Band with its top vocalists Mickey Jaguar and Silvia Sartje had already shouted hard rock songs from The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple with more ferocious sound.
Rico Korompis.
Apparently there are many people with faces like Jagger in Indonesia. One of them is Rico Korompis who formed Acid Speed Band in Jakarta in July 1982. He admitted that the first time he knew about The Rolling Stones was through his friend Vedi Hadiz when he was still a Junior High student in New York City in 1972. At that time, he was still a fan of pop groups, then his friend, Vedi, said, “Listen to this group, The Rolling Stones, they are awesome!” And it turned out that he was right. After performing in a birthday commemoration of The Rolling Stones gig at Ismail Marzuki Park on 5th of December 1982, the image of The Rolling Stones stuck firmly on Acid Speed Band.
Boy and Holdun, and other musicians in Bandung.
Even when they performed their own songs several times, the audience asked them to play The Rolling Stones’s songs instead. The audience only wanted to see Acid Speed Band as local version of The Rolling Stones. In the mid 80’s and 90’s, Acid Speed Band’s schedule was very full.
In almost the same era, Cikini Stones Complex was also known as a band that identical to The Rolling Stones, but its drummer, Bimbim, disbanded this group and ultimately changed its name to Slank. There was no doubt that many Slank’s songs were influenced by The Rolling Stones. The most similar one was Bimbim Jangan Menangis (Bimbim Don’t Cry) which copied Fool to Cry.
The earlier formation of Slank.
According to Rico Korompis, “Mick Jagger is a professional. He can achieve this popularity because of his effort and hard work. He is also a genius writer and rock performer, and he has been consistent with his vision from the beginning until now.”
He admitted that Mick Jagger had been having a major influence in his life since Junior High School until now. First influence was from his music. Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones could reflect his emotional feeling when he was in the teen age. Their kind of music and lyric had such connection with the teenager whose soul was still full of emotion and rebellion. But according to him, nowadays, Stones’s music was more like a ‘medicine’ for staying young. We would never get old when we were listening to Rolling Stones’s music. For his stage act, Rico learned completely about the tricks of Mick Jagger’s stage act, although he had not been able to learn all yet. “For fashion, from the beginning Mick Jagger has been a trendsetter. He always looks chic. Unfortunately, I couldn’t follow his other lifestyle, because it was too expensive, haha… But there were other sides of his life that I didn’t want to copy, hehe…” he said in an interview on Facebook.
ACid Speed Band in HAI Magazine, Ed. 21-27 March, 1989, Vol. xiii. No.12
I’ve ever watched Sersan Prambors’s movie, Anunya Kamu. In that movie that was produced in 1986, there was a scene when Sys Ns invited Culture Club and The Rolling Stones to perform in a party. I was fooled for a moment, I thought that was the real Mick Jagger, it turned out to be Rico Korompis in Mick Jagger’s style.
Because Rico Korompis has been too busy with his work as a staff in an oil company, so in 2005, after an audition was held, the vocalist of Acid Speed Band was replaced by Boy. Even though it was with a different formation, Acid Speed has still been playing The Rolling Stones’s songs from one entertainment venue to another, until now.
The Rolling Stones has been continuing to go through several decades, and so has its influence. I have a close friend. He is a vocalist of a band called ‘Rumput Ijo’ (Green Grass). Although his voice is high and shrilly and different from Jagger’s unique voice, his appearance is very similar to Jagger. His name is Ayeng Darwis. His band often plays Led Zeppelin’s songs. Since it was formed, Rumput Ijo has already released a mini album called Rumah Kayu (Wooden House). This album contains 7 singles. In the near future, they plan to release the next album called Ga Bisa Ditawar (Can’t Be Bargained). His favorite Stones’s song is Sister Morphine, because when he was in High School and liked to get drunk, that was when he knew The Rolling Stones. “Listening to Stones while high made you fly, you know, the song was so perfect for drinking. That time was the most memorable time!” he explained. But now he admits that he has already stopped consuming alcohol and drugs. Besides raising Rumput Ijo, he now works as a crew of Slank. His position is as Kaka Slank’s assistant.
Ayeng Darwis.
At the end of 1999 when I was in High School, my friend asked me to go with him to his campus, IKJ (Jakarta Institute of the Arts), to enjoy a music show. At that time it was already late night. After many bands had already performed, the intro of Jumpin Jack Flash was heard from the stage. That band was called Horny Horny and its Jagger’s name was Oscar. The first time he knew about Jagger was when he was 9 years old. His father often played The Stones too. He was born and raised in Senayan, in Senopati Dalam to be exact. Now that village has no longer existed because of the eviction in 1991. He said, “At that time, young people who liked to hang out at Senopati Gang, Senayan Administrative Village, were very high everyday and they liked to play Stones.” According the man who is now busy to work at an office, Jagger is a magical and miraculous figure. “His influence has totally changed my perspective of life that I live. In fashion, he is fashionable, sexy inside and outside…and wild…”
At IKJ, there is another Jagger figure. His name is Jafar Shadiq, but his friends usually call him Japra. He is a guitarist of Different Class and a vocalist of Rajawali. He admitted that he was not too extreme in following Mick Jagger’s fashion style, according to him, “Mick Jagger is like a chameleon, he always adapts with time, that’s why he’s awesome!” Since he was in Junior High, around 1996, he has already been in a band playing the repertoire of The Rolling Stones. “I forgot who introduced me, because people in my housing complex all listened to Stones. From generation to generation. Haa..haa,” he revealed.
Jafar Shadiq.
Rajawali is his band which was formed spontaneously in 2006 when there was a gig at IKJ. “I didn’t know who started, but suddenly Kubil Idris, Alfi Chaniago (The Upstairs), Pepeng, Jun (Karon n’ Roll) and I went on stage and played Sympathy for the Devil, Jumpin Jack Flash, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction, and Honky Tonk Woman without any practice,” he said in a short interview.
Over time, Rajawali was often asked to perform on stage. Because of the activities of the other members, Japra replaced all the members. Meanwhile, Different Class was formed in 2003 and he was recruited in 2007 as a guitarist. Different Class is influenced by Britpop music which was booming in the 90’s. Japra admitted that only the spirit and soul in working and playing music that reflected ‘the ideology’ he followed from The Rolling Stones.
That’s Mick Jagger and his influence on the young people’s lifestyle in Indonesia from various eras. They actualize themselves with ‘Jagger’. But nowadays the idol concept has shifted a little. I don’t know if it’s positive or negative, but we can see everywhere the present young people do not only adopt the foreign style, now many young people are in a style of their local present idol, like, for example, Jimi Multhazam (The Upstairs’s vocalist) or many teenage girls are in Sari’s (the vocalist of Whiteshoes & The Couples Company) style. But if I am asked whether I want to be like the idol? Then I will answer it just like Slank’s lyrics: Kecil disuka, muda terkenal, mati masuk surga (Little was liked, young was famous, die will go to heaven!)
nice one!