Mick Jagger

When the essence of an institution, individual or ideology can be distilled into a single dashed-off image, one has arrived: the American flag, the Elvis sneer, the hammer and sickle, Mick Jagger's lips. Whether first drawn by Andy Warhol, as popularly assumed, or Ruby Mazur, those lips and tongue are Jagger and the Stones then, now and forever and conjure up a contradictory mess of personal qualities and talents that refuse to give up center stage. Educated at the London School of Economics, elegant in the "you can never be too thin or too ric"' vein and energetic in the how-does-he-keep-up-with-himself mode, Jagger has been frontman for the Stones and star on his own for forty plus years and has no intention of fading away. In fact, "fade" does not appear in his vocabulary since each of his live appearances is a sweat-soaking, five senses pushed to the limit [especially hearing] workout for Jagger and the audience. The original Rolling Stones were the perfect foil for the Beatles, and Jagger has proved that the message and perhaps the man are ageless.