The World’s Youngest Rolling Stones Fan

Welcome to the 50 Licks website, a place where over the next few months I hope to share stories from the book, 50 LICKS: MYTHS AND STORIES FROM HALF A CENTURY OF THE ROLLING STONES by Pete Fornatale, plus a few outtakes, and whatever thoughts come to mind about the band, working with my dad, WFUV, the old days at WNEW-FM, and the pleasures of listening to scratchy, old vinyl. You can buy the book here, here, or better yet, at your local, independent bookstore.

You’ll be hearing from me as well as other contributors. The making of the book was quite a process. While the voice was very much my dad’s, and I’m thrilled to say he was able to complete the first draft of the book before his untimely passing, on the whole it was really a team effort. Without the contributions of people like Matt Blankman, Dave Herman, Jeremy Rainer, Chris Wertz, and especially my other co-author Bernie Corbett, the book would have still happened, but it wouldn’t be nearly as good. Hopefully the blog will be a place for all of the above to share their thoughts as well.

As for today’s post, I want to write a little bit about the world’s youngest Rolling Stones fan, and one of the dedicatees of 50 Licks, my daughter, Perrin. I’ve been meaning to write a bit about her either here or over on my other blog. Simply put, she’s the best.  It’s bittersweet of course, since my dad never got to meet her. But I know he would have loved her. And while it’s sad that he never got to experience being a grandfather, I’m thrilled that she’s here and happy to report she’s already shown some interest in carrying on her Papa’s legacy.

What do I mean by that, you might ask? How can a 10 week old connect with a legend of progressive radio and a noted rock and roll scholar? Consider the facts: Perrin shares a birthday with the Human Riff himself, Mr. Keith Richards. Listening to WFUV is part of her everyday routine. She’s already been spotted on the streets of Park Slope sporting both Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead t-shirts. Her favorite spot in the apartment seems to be in her cradle, placed directly between the two speakers at optimum ear level. She doesn’t know any words per se, but I can already tell she likes to talk, cooing entire conversations to the sounds of my dad’s three thousand disk vinyl collection. An early sign, I’m sure, that she’ll be a great interviewer. She loves music and her taste is eclectic, a real mixed bag to be sure. She’s shown an appreciation of everything from the Beach Boys to Captian Beefheart to Mott the Hoople, and I’m proud to say she cried the one time she heard One Direction.

She hasn’t read the book yet, and given some of the subject matter, maybe we better wait a while on that. But someday she will and the circle will be complete.