14 Dec 2012
All That Glitters
By Marilou Regan
A strict Catholic-school upbringing did not bode well with the anarchy of the Rolling Stones, especially with an Italian mother who thought her eldest daughter of seven children was her personal Cinderella, as did the siblings. Living under that harsh matriarchal-dominated roof, I had to abide — but my head did not, especially when headphones were wrapped around my ears and plugged into my stereo.
So when I was finally allowed to go to see the Stones in Philadelphia in 1972, it was a watershed event. I could finally really live after hearing them live in concert! I completely changed my internal and external persona with a more confident, cooler, vibe, hipper, blonder hair, and sexier clothes.
When the Stones toured again in 1975, I was ready to up my experience to six concerts and needed to represent my band with the appropriate hot rocker-chick look. I had drooled over the sparkly tongue-logo tees that Charlie Watts and Mick Taylor wore in 1972, and that was definitely a look to adapt for a rocker chick.
But no cool items like that were for sale anywhere. So I took my inspiration and presented it to my mother, who had amazing seamstress skills and whom I had bridged my gap with back then (I took her to the Philly show where she was a bit shocked to see Mick riding the blow-up penis.)
After tracing the logo from the inner sleeve of the Sticky Fingers album, my mom made a pattern and then hand sewed thousands of tiny sequins on it in red, black and white. The result was dazzling, what a variation on a Stones creation!
Our den floor was covered in those shiny discs for days and we’d find random sequins in odd places for months. And each one that I found would remind me how my mother spent weeks lovingly making that masterpiece. I wore that tongue for every tour thereafter; it reincarnated as the jeweled centerpiece on new articles of rocker-chick clothing, including a shawl, a vest, a top and a dress.
Through the years it’s lost some of its “bling” and a few of its sequins, so my sparkly Rolling Stones tongue is retired now except for special occasions. It will forever remain my most iconic accessory and remind me of my mum getting her fingers sticked, sewing me all that Stones love.
