That question depends on who you are and your opinion on it, as does everything. Few would disagree that the third film was something of a letdown and a sign that the series had run its course, that any more would be a wasted effort and a sad attempt at clinging onto the former glory. The fourth film, however, rectified that and firmly set the Pirates ship back on the right course. What we learnt from the fourth film is that there’s very little pirates wouldn’t and couldn’t get involved in, and with the Black Pearl, a dead crew and mermaids, Pirates of the Caribbean has always had a foot in the obscure and sublime, its tongue firmly planted in its cheek. When writers are prepared to stray from the confines of the real world and take a stroll into the realms of fantasy, the scope opens further and the boundaries disappear to a world of infinite possibilities.

It’s precisely that fact that lends to the longevity of Pirates of the Caribbean: the films can continue to be made without becoming a parody of themselves or stepping onto ground already covered. In short, they can continue to be made without repeating themselves. A Pirates of the Caribbean 5 could have any number of storylines – will Jack Sparrow find love? Will Keith Richards, no stranger to real-life violence, get in on the pillaging and fighting alongside his son who finds himself in scrapes like metal finds itself attached to a magnet? Will Jack ever get to captain a boat that actually remains in his possession?

Above all else, one thing is for sure: film fans love Pirates of the Caribbean, and box office sales for the fourth film indicate that Pirates of the Caribbean 5 will be a similar success.

The real question is not should there be a Pirates of the Caribbean 5, but will the movie leave the doors open for a sixth?

Today it may still be misunderstood, though in the opinion of the blogger, it is more probably simply overlooked. Other musical genres have overtaken its popularity. Rhythm and blues is rarely cited by today’s musicians as any kind of influence on their music.

In the early days of rock, most guitar players would mention rhythm and blues as an important guide in their playing. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles and most any prominent guitar player up until…I am not sure when the designation disappeared from the discourse, but it did. 

Nowadays, most guitar players might be citing rock music as their influence and not make any mention of any rhythm and blues musicians; that’s progress I guess, or is it? Even if they do not know about the history of rock music or of the players thereof, rhythm and blues music; whether they choose not to, or neglect to mention it, is indeed one of their influences.

We can forgive either offense, the days of its ascendency may well have waned but its influence will continue to ring throughout popular music, for, well, a very long time to come. Rhythm and blues; as opposed to simply the blues, differs, as the name implies in the accelerated tempo of the beat, with more energetic drumming driving the sound to a danceable meter, while the blues, usually is a much slower tempo with perhaps a less cheerful subject matter.

Rhythm and blues musicians, by whatever moniker, will continue to thrive.

Everyone is anxiously awaiting the year 2012.

It’s the end of the Mayan Calendar and many suspect that the world will end on Dec.12.

I predict that we’ll still be here and if we are, we’ll certainly be in for one hell of a party. The Rolling Stones will celebrate their 50th year as the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band. No one knows what Mick, Keith Ronnie and Charlie have planned but I’m sure they’ll mark their 50 years together with a bigger bang (no pun intended).

No one knows what the future holds but let’s take a look back at their long, illustrious and sometimes tumultous past. Here is a breakdown of some of the group’s best works and what’s remarkable is that Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts have been on this nutty ride for a long, long time. Otherwise, there have been a few changes. Guitarist Brian Jones died. He was replaced by Mick Taylor, who departed in 1978. Bassist Bill Wyman left in 1990.

Mick, Keith and Charlie are still rocking deep into their 60’s and Wood has been an admirable replacement for Taylor.

Here’s a look of some of the Stones’ most underrated songs.

#10 — “Happy” — Keith takes the lead on this song. It perhaps exhibits his vocal talents at their best. Let’s face it, Keith doesn’t have Mick’s voice. But he’s got swagger. This tune from 1972 shows just how important Richards is to the band.

#9 — “Sweet Virginia” — Also from 1972, this is a raunchy country song where “you’ve got to scrape the shit right off your shoes.”

#8 — ”My Seet Neo-Con” —From 2007, this song exposes the hypocrisy of religion and right-wing politics.

#7 — “Some Girls” — The title cut from the 1978 LP, it is raunchy, but its satrical lyrics could have been written on a night after trolling the bar scene anywhere in the world.

#6 — “Far Away Eyes”— Mick cites George Jones as one of his musical influences. That is evident here. This is a fun country song about a truck driver with an arragement to meet a girl (but he was kinda late). Much to Jagger’s surprise she was there waiting. The character in this tune was “driving home early Sunday morning through Bakersfield, listening to gospel music on a colored radio station… And the preacher said ‘you always have the Lord on your side and I was so pleased to be informed of this, that I ran 20 red lights in his honor.”

#5 — “Jigsaw Puzzle” — A little-known tune from Beggars Banquet, this song proves that Mick and Keith can write lyrics as well as Bob Dylan. It’s about a “family man,” who is a preacher and an outlaw.

#4 — “As Tears Go By” — An early Stones tune about a man who sits and watches daybreak and the children play while he pines for the return of a lost love.

#3 — “Brand New Car” — From 1994, it chronicles Mick’s love affair with a car. It’s a rocker that re-kindles memories of the old days.

#2 — “Factory Girl” — From Beggars Banquet, this diddy is about a man who waits for his not-so-pretty girl to get off work so they get party and get into fights. Mick loves his girl even though “her knees are much too fat.”

#1 — “Salt of the Earth” — From Beggars Banquet, this tune is a bitter-sweet ode to the blue-collar man. It was first performed live in 1989 with Axl Rose and Izzy Stadlin in New York at the final show of the last tour that featured Wyman on bass.

Keith met Mick Jagger at junior school then didn’t see him again for a few years. By the time they met again as teenagers at Art School they were both R&B addicts, obsessed with the sound of Fats and Muddy. The pair were desperate to create their own versions of black music - even though they were marooned in middle class, exceptionally white suburbia at the time.

An unlikely dream you might think but they did manage to get an R&B group together and local kids queued round the block to see them.

At this point the traditional Svengali manager, Andrew Oldham, appears. The length of the queue gave him the first clue that something was happening. He put Mick and Keith together in a rough flat with no money and instructions to write hits. These were Richards’s alleged hard times but they did produce the hits. Along the way Philip Michael Jagger became Mick and Keith morphed into Keef the guitar hero. The two Stones were a team, enjoying Satisfaction in every physical and chemical way.

The way Keef tells it the music was always the hook for him while Mick relished the celebrity lifestyle of a rock star with available women wherever he looked.

Apparently Keef’s mother thought he was a shy boy and incredibly that’s probably true. Watching him in one of his rare interviews, the body language gives it away. So how did he transform into the outrageous rebel with the wild ways and manic act? The short answer is drugs. And more drugs. They were available from the beginning and helped him to hide. In his own eyes he was unseen by the screaming fans.

A 40 year career as a rock star rebel is one that’s past its sell by date. Keef doesn’t see it that way. He watches black R&B stars performing into their eighties and that’s the way he’d like to be. The spirit is willing but the flesh has already lived two lifetimes.

There have been big arguments between Richards and Jagger and in his book Keef can’t resist claiming that Mick has a small penis. A point disputed by Jerry Hall who was married to Jagger for over twenty years.   

So Keef the billionaire rebel lives on in tax exile, hidden away again. While Mick is the conservative establishment figure he secretly always was.  Hard times? Not really. A Life, certainly.

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His concert fans used to throw live animals such as cats, frogs, chickens, snakes, etc. on the stage. During his “Bark At The Moon Tour” a bat was tossed on the stage and he grabbed it and bit the head off. He had to get two weeks of rabies shots after that.

Marilyn Manson

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During one of his concerts he degraded a security guard by grabbing the man’s head and pressing it against his gyrating hips. He was charged with criminal misconduct, of course, but that didn’t stop him from repeating it at another concert. Maybe he just had a bad itch?

Madonna

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In 1992 she published Sex, a book of photographs consisting of sexually explicit images. One photo shows her kneeling on the ground with a dog underneath her lying on its back, creating the impression that she is being intimate with the dog–in an unnatural way.

Flea

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Long-time bassist of rock group Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael Balzary, more popularly known as Flea, often performs on stage wearing nothing but a tube sock; no shirts, no pants, no underpants, just a tube sock–and it’s not for his feet.

Keith Richards

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Two years ago Richards revealed that the strangest thing he ever snorted was his cremated father, saying his father wouldn’t have mind. A music channel immediately reported afterwards that Richards was only kidding.  Five months later, however, Richards confirmed that he had, in fact, snorted his father’s ashes.  He even went into detail describing how he opened his father’s box, laid a little bit of his father’s ashes on the dining room table, and snorted it up with no cocaine mixed in.

Perhaps snorting human ashes provides a totally different kind of high.

Music artists. Peculiar bunch, aren’t they?