Friday, June 05, 2020

blue suit beyond 1981

howdy pop pickers


a characteristic of gaining knowledge, or seeking information, is that it never really ends in any final sense, look you see. if one presses on, then generally it is so that more exists to learn of just about anything, even if you were under the impression that all resources had been exhausted. this is true, but certainly not exclusive to, the matter of Bill Wyman and the blue suit.

this may well be (as it is is) presumptuous of me, but had thought that i had already explored, and covered, every possible aspect of how Bill Wyman appeared to have just one suit (a blue one) in the year 1981. should you be of a mind to do so, well, clicking here and here will take you to the most ardent findings of my research (or investigations). as it turns out, there was much more to learn. i had, it would seem, been foolish in placing limitations on my studies. this is as true of having an exclusive focus on 1981 as it is of assuming, or presuming, it was only one suit of blue what he had.

seeking ways in which to fill the time as many of us spend hours "locked down" as an effort of contribution in the invisible war is going to, perhaps inevitably, lead to just about everyone in the world watching, likely once more, the celebrated Video Rewind tape off of The Rolling Stones. released in 1984, it sort of brings together some footage of the band live, as well as some specifically made promotional videos, all linked by abstract, unrelated quasi vignette segments off of the whoever in the band was either bothered to do so, or was contractually obliged to.



my turn to watch this video once more rotated around, and so it was that i happened to notice, some three years after i had concluded such was at a peak, that Bill Wyman was resplendent in a blue suit for his segments. whilst i am quite (or reasonably) confident that it is very much a blue suit he has on here, i am not convinced that it is the blue suit; the one off of 1981. please, i am quite happy to hear any and all speculation or opinions on this.

just what the strategy was here, however, remains unclear. i mean, i have no idea why at all he, Bill Wyman, would select to retain for use just the one blue suit, or pursue a path where he got different blue suits to wear. maybe, as (if we are completely honest here) the dullest and most boring member of The Rolling Stones he was trying to fashion some sort of "trademark" look, possibly hoping to get called 'Blue Suit Bill' or similar. other possibilities, or interpretations, include that he simply liked to get value for money out of investments of a wardrobe nature, or some sort of stylist guru had advised him that blue was totes the most effective "power colour" for him to embrace.

with regards to the latter possibility there, yes, certainly, it would not need to be just a stylish guru that advised Bill so. it could just as easily be some sort of spiritual, religious guru that he consulted. and let us not rule out that it could be any of those, but actually paid by either Mick or Keith to tell that to Bill, just "for a laugh".


no idea at all if some video of Bill Wyman wearing a blue suit is of any value to this conversation, or if you will investigation, but i have added it above anyway. indeed this is off of his segment from Video Rewind, and would be one of the few examples i am aware of which showcases Bill Wyman's acting talents. to judge the acting ability of anyone off just one example is a little harsh, but i feel compelled to comment that i very much doubt that someone saw that segment at the time and wondered if they should cast him in some film or tv show.

seeing as the subject has kind of come up, is Video Rewind by The Rolling Stones any good? yes, as it happens. rather generous, considering the tight control and "the basics shall do" approach they generally have. other that going to the trouble of filming segments for the video, one gets an hour or so of some of their more memorable filmed moments. it rather heavily relies on footage for which they would need to pay no royalties to other, but no one is in rock and roll for free.

a paradoxical moment (of sorts) exists on the tape, though. one is presented with the video for Too Much Blood, in which the band (or, from what i recall of the interviews around the time, Sir Mick) express sadness and dismay at the level of violent videos what people are watching at home, what with home vcr at this time coming into its own. and yet Video Rewind just happens to also feature the video for Undercover Of The Night, which is routinely regarded as one of the most shocking, violent and generally disturbing music videos ever made. hedging your bets, i believe some might say.



one other point of interest (although there are many) in Video Rewind is shown above. no, not the leopard skin jacket what Keith Richards has on, but rather the look fashioned by Ronnie Wood. he appears to have gone half blue suit, half jeans. i wonder if he borrowed the blue jacked off of Bill Wyman, or it was this moment which inspired 'Blue Suit Bill'. either way, as you can sort of see in the background, evidently Bill was not allowed to wear a jacket of any kind on instances where Ronnie Wood was doing so.

not as much as you might think is known of the specific intricacies of the relationship between Bill Wyman and Ronnie Wood. there is nothing to suggest anything untoward in such, but still. if we indulge the idea that maybe Bill Wyman was so keen on the blue suit because it was so that Mick and Keith only allocated him the budget for one, then you could totes understand him getting irked with Ronnie Wood. being completely honest about it, Ronnie Wood got drafted into the band just to do the dull guitar bits on songs which Keith could not be bothered to, or simply was not interested in. and yet the band shall routinely tour, or release a record, if it turns out that Ronnie Wood is not as smart as he thought at managing financial matters, or simply fancied another divorce free for all. you could imagine that Blue Suit Bill would be keen to query such a disparity.

for what reason do i consider a matter like this? other than having nothing in particular better to do, there's an interesting fan base out there who probably do not get much material to digest. i speak, of course, about those who first encountered Bill Wyman via his smart solo records, in particular Come Back Suzanne and the epic Je Suis Un Rockstar. they possibly had no idea that he was in a band as well as doing them songs, and cared for such even less. also, someone out there somewhere probably thinks that In Another Land was as good as it ever got for the Stones, and feels that the band lost out on the chance of true greatness by not having more Bill Wyman driven songs.

if any further information concerning (or relevant to) Bill Wyman and a blue suit come along, then yes, i shall certainly do what i can to share it here. but, if i do not, please refrain from assuming that this journey into knowledge has made any sort of final docking.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





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