Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 19, 1994 TAG: 9408190062
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Things are different today, I hear every mother say ...
That's for sure.
Now even politicians show up at Rolling Stones concerts - as one of Virginia's Senate candidates did earlier this month, at RFK Stadium in Washington.
But which one? That was the question we posed to readers last week.
Our readers may know it's only rock 'n' roll - but turns out they don't know their Senate candidates very well. Most guessed wrong.
Almost half (well, 48 percent, accordingly to our highly scientific call-in InfoLine poll) figured it was incumbent Charles Robb who ducked out of the health-care reform debate in the Senate to rock with Mick and the boys.
Granted, Robb has acquired a certain, umm, reputation. "The first thing that comes to my mind with Robb is his party affiliation, and I don't mean Democrat or Republican," says Mark Rozell, a much-quoted political analyst from Mary Washington College.
That reputation was apparently what swayed our rock 'n' roll readers - who voted in a landslide that the Stones song most applicable to Robb would be "Let's Spend the Night Together." (Rozell, opting for a more academic approach, preferred the more obscure "Some Girls.")
They're both wrong, though. Robb not only wasn't at the concert, but his staff isn't sure he even likes the Stones. "We'll get back to you on that," they say. We're still waiting.
We're also still waiting for some way to explain this: More than one-third (35 percent) of our rock 'n' roll readers guessed that Oliver North was the candidate at the show.
Oliver North? Do that many people really think North is campaigning for the restoration of family values one minute and shouting out "Honky Tonk Women" the next?
This is a development that baffles even the best political analysts in the state. "I'll never understand that one," says the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato. And we thought he understood everything.
Guess all the political writers had it wrong. When North said Virginians were sick and tired of a nation run by "twentysomething kids with an earring and an ax to grind," we thought he meant smart-aleck policy wonks in the Clinton White House.
Maybe he was really talking about all those new alternative guitar bands like Green Day?
Perhaps he thinks fiftysomething guys with an earring and an ax to grind - say, a
Fender - are OK?
Hey, Keith, love that riff to 'Undercover of the Night.' We used to crank that one up all the time down in the basement of the White House back when we were staying up late to work out those covert arms deals with Iran.
Not hardly.
We asked North about the Stones during a recent campaign stop. "They're not on my list of favorites," he declared. So who is? "The Statler Brothers," he said.
This is hard to figure out, too: Only 2 percent of our rockers thought Doug Wilder was the Stones fan.
You'd think a hip guy like Wilder - hangs out with celebrities like Bill Cosby, often spotted in owner Jack Kent Cooke's box at Washington Redskins games - would have attracted more speculation.
Talk about a jet-setter. We know all about Wilder and helicopters.
"If you sit down and think about it, the one you would expect to be there is Wilder," Sabato says.
But nope. The candidate out there in the ninth row - talk about your perks, and he isn't even in office yet - was Marshall Coleman. Only 15 percent of our readers got it right.
Why so few? Sabato reads deep meaning into this (hey, that's his job):
"This is a reminder of the belief people have that they don't know the real Marshall Coleman. Going to see the Rolling Stones is not consonant with his image. It's part of the Coleman contradiction. He's always tried to project a conservative image but people never quite bought it, and here's proof."
Indeed, Coleman turns out to be remarkably conversant on the Stones' repertoire.
His favorite songs are drawn mostly from the 1970s: "Beast of Burden," "Tumblin' Dice," "Miss You," although he's always been partial to the '60s-era "Ruby Tuesday," too.
"I'm a passive appreciator of all music, it could be by Wynonna Judd or Billy Joel, even some classical music," Coleman says. But he says he's always had a special admiration for the Stones.
Why? "The thing I admire about the Stones is they've been so adaptable. When disco was popular, they came out with a disco album. Now with 'Voodoo Lounge,' they're still totally rock 'n' roll but very contemporary."
Wow, hold onto your wild horses. Adaptable? Coleman likes the Stones because they're adaptable?
"That's a parable for Coleman over the years," Sabato says.
But enough of politics. What about the show?
Coleman says it was a gas, gas, gas - the best concert he's seen, even better than the Paul McCartney show he caught at RFK Stadium a few years back.
"They were fabulous," he says of the Stones. "I think Mick Jagger has got as much energy as any 20-year-old. You really got a performance."
Call him cynical, but Sabato remains unconvinced that Coleman is really a rocker at heart. "Remember who Marshall's target group is this year: It's aging baby boomers living in the suburbs. Does Marshall do anything during a campaign that isn't a political calculation?"
Hey, Coleman says, even Senate candidates are entitled to a night off. But he adds: "I've got some Perot voters, some Rolling Stones fans, some disillusioned Republicans. I think that's got the makings of a majority."
by CNB