|
10-11 New Rolling Stones Song
08-31 Rolling Stones Turn 50
12-03 Ron Wood Arrested
» Edit Band Information
» Edit Albums
» Add a Review
» Add an Album
» Add MP3
» Add News | The Rolling Stones
Rock, Blues |
By the time the Rolling Stones began calling themselves the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the late '60s, they had
already staked outan impressive claim on the title. As the self-consciously dangerous alternative to the bouncy Merseybeat
of the Beatles in the BritishInvasion, the Stones had pioneered the gritty, hard-driving blues-based rock & roll that came to
define hard rock. With his preeningmachismo and latent maliciousness, Mick Jagger became the prototypical rock frontman,
tempering his macho showmanship with adetached, campy irony while Keith Richards and Brian Jones wrote th ...read more
By the time the Rolling Stones began calling themselves the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the late '60s, they had
already staked outan impressive claim on the title. As the self-consciously dangerous alternative to the bouncy Merseybeat
of the Beatles in the BritishInvasion, the Stones had pioneered the gritty, hard-driving blues-based rock & roll that came to
define hard rock. With his preeningmachismo and latent maliciousness, Mick Jagger became the prototypical rock frontman,
tempering his macho showmanship with adetached, campy irony while Keith Richards and Brian Jones wrote the blueprint for
sinewy, interlocking rhythm guitars. Backed by thestrong yet subtly swinging rhythm section of bassist Bill Wyman and
drummer Charlie Watts, the Stones became the breakout band of theBritish blues scene, eclipsing such contemporaries as the
Animals and Them. Over the course of their career, the Stones never reallyabandoned blues, but as soon as they reached
popularity in the U.K., they began experimenting musically, incorporating the British pop ofcontemporaries like the Beatles,
Kinks, and Who into their sound. After a brief dalliance with psychedelia, the Stones re-emerged in the late'60s as a jaded,
blues-soaked hard rock quintet. The Stones always flirted with the seedy side of rock & roll, but as the hippie dream beganto
break apart, they exposed and reveled in the new rock culture. It wasn't without difficulty, of course. Shortly after he was
fired from thegroup, Jones was found dead in a swimming pool, while at a 1969 free concert at Altamont, a concertgoer was
brutally killed during theStones' show. But the Stones never stopped going. For the next 30 years, they continued to record
and perform, and while their recordsweren't always blockbusters, they were never less than the most visible band of their era
-- certainly, none of their British peers continuedto be as popular or productive as the Stones. And no band since has proven
to have such a broad fan base or far-reaching popularity, and itis impossible to hear any of the groups that followed them
without detecting some sort of influence, whether it was musical or aesthetic.
Throughout their career, Mick Jagger (vocals) and Keith Richards (guitar, vocals) remained at the core of the Rolling Stones.
The pairinitially met as children at Dartford Maypole County Primary School. They drifted apart over the next ten years,
eventually making eachother's acquaintance again in 1960, when they met through a mutual friend, Dick Taylor, who was
attending Sidcup Art School withRichards. At the time, Jagger was studying at the London School of Economics and playing
with Taylor in the blues band Little Boy Blue andthe Blue Boys. Shortly afterward, Richards joined the band. Within a year,
they had met Brian Jones (guitar, vocals), a Cheltenham nativewho had dropped out of school to play saxophone and
clarinet. By the time he became a fixture on the British blues scene, Jones had alreadyhad a wild life. He ran away to
Scandinavia when he was 16; by that time, he had already fathered two illegitimate children. He returned toCheltenham after
a few months, where he began playing with the Ramrods. Shortly afterward, he moved to London, where he played in
AlexisKorner's group, Blues Inc. Jones quickly decided he wanted to form his own group and advertised for members; among
those he recruitedwas the heavyset blues pianist Ian Stewart.
As he played with his group, Jones also moonlighted under the name Elmo Jones at the Ealing Blues Club. At the pub, he
becamereacquainted with Blues, Inc., which now featured drummer Charlie Watts, and, on occasion, cameos by Jagger and
Richards. Jones becamefriends with Jagger and Richards, and they soon began playing together with Taylor and Stewart;
during this time, Mick was elevated to thestatus of Blues, Inc.'s lead singer. With the assistance of drummer Tony Chapman,
the fledgling band recorded a demo tape. After the tapewas rejected by EMI, Taylor left the band to attend the Royal College
of Art; he would later form the Pretty Things. Before Taylor'sdeparture, the group named itself the Rolling Stones, borrowing
the moniker from a Muddy Waters song.
The Rolling Stones gave their first performance at the Marquee Club in London on July 12, 1962. At the time, the group
consisted of Jagger,Richards, Jones, pianist Ian Stewart, drummer Mick Avory, and Dick Taylor, who had briefly returned to
the fold. Weeks after the concert,Taylor left again and was replaced by Bill Wyman, formerly of the Cliftons. Avory also left
the group -- he would later join the Kinks -- andthe Stones hired Tony Chapman, who proved to be unsatisfactory. After a
few months of persuasion, the band recruited Charlie Watts, whohad quit Blues, Inc. to work at an advertising agency once
the group's schedule became too hectic. By 1963, the band's lineup had beenset, and the Stones began an eight-month
residency at the Crawdaddy Club, which proved to substantially increase their fan base. It alsoattracted the attention of
Andrew Loog Oldham, who became the Stones' manager, signing them from underneath Crawdaddy's GiorgioGomelsky.
Although Oldham didn't know much about music, he was gifted at promotion, and he latched upon the idea of fashioning
theStones as the bad-boy opposition to the clean-cut Beatles. At his insistence, the large yet meek Stewart was forced out
of the group, sincehis appearance contrasted with the rest of the group. Stewart didn't disappear from the Stones; he
became one of their key roadies andplayed on their albums and tours until his death in 1985.
With Oldham's help, the Rolling Stones signed with Decca Records, and that June, they released their debut single, a cover of
Chuck Berry's"Come On." The single became a minor hit, reaching number 21, and the group supported it with appearances on
festivals and packagetours. At the end of the year, they released a version of Lennon-McCartney's "I Wanna Be Your Man"
that soared into the Top 15. Early in1964, they released a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," which shot to number
three. "Not Fade Away" became their first Americanhit, reaching number 48 that spring. By that time, the Stones were
notorious in their homeland. Considerably rougher and sexier than theBeatles, the Stones were the subject of numerous
sensationalistic articles in the British press, culminating in a story about the bandurinating in public. All of these stories
cemented the Stones as a dangerous, rebellious band in the minds of the public, and had the effect ofbeginning a
manufactured rivalry between them and the Beatles, which helped the group rocket to popularity in the U.S. In the spring
of1964, the Stones released their eponymous debut album, which was followed by "It's All Over Now," their first U.K. number
one. Thatsummer, they toured America to riotous crowds, recording the Five by Five EP at Chess Records in Chicago in the
midst of the tour. By thetime it was over, they had another number one U.K. single with Howlin' Wolf's "Little Red Rooster."
Although the Stones had achievedmassive popularity, Oldham decided to push Jagger and Richards into composing their own
songs, since they -- and his publishing company-- would receive more money that away. In June of 1964, the group released
their first original single, "Tell Me (You're Coming Back),"which became their first American Top 40 hit. Shortly afterward, a
version of Irma Thomas' "Time Is on My Side" became their first U.S. TopTen. It was followed by "The Last Time" in early
1965, a number one U.K. and Top Ten U.S. hit that began a virtually uninterrupted string ofJagger-Richards hit singles. Still, it
wasn't until the group released "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in the summer of 1965 that they wereelevated to superstars.
Driven by a fuzz-guitar riff designed to replicate the sound of a horn section, "Satisfaction" signaled that Jagger andRichards
had come into their own as songwriters, breaking away from their blues roots and developing a signature style of big, bluesy
riffsand wry, sardonic lyrics. It stayed at number one for four weeks and began a string of Top Ten singles that ran for the
next two years,including such classics as "Get off My Cloud," "19th Nervous Breakdown," "As Tears Go By," and "Have You
Seen Your Mother, Baby,Standing in the Shadow?.
By 1966, the Stones had decided to respond to the Beatles' increasingly complex albums with their first album of all-original
material,Aftermath. Due to Brian Jones' increasingly exotic musical tastes, the record boasted a wide range of influences,
from the sitar-drenched"Paint It, Black" to the Eastern drones of "I'm Going Home." These eclectic influences continued to
blossom on Between the Buttons(1967), the most pop-oriented album the group ever made. Ironically, the album's release
was bookended by two of the most notoriousincidents in the band's history. Before the record was released, the Stones
performed the suggestive "Let's Spend the Night Together," theB-side to the medieval ballad "Ruby Tuesday," on The Ed
Sullivan Show, which forced Jagger to alter the song's title to an incomprehensiblemumble, or else face being banned. In
February of 1967, Jagger and Richards were arrested for drug possession, and within three months,Jones was arrested on the
same charge. All three were given suspended jail sentences, and the group backed away from the spotlight as thesummer of
love kicked into gear in 1967. Jagger, along with his then-girlfriend Marianne Faithfull, went with the Beatles to meet
theMaharishi Mahesh Yogi; they were also prominent in the international broadcast of the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love."
Appropriately, theStones' next single, "Dandelion"/"We Love You," was a psychedelic pop effort, and it was followed by their
response to Sgt. Pepper, TheirSatanic Majesties Request, which was greeted with lukewarm reviews.
The Stones' infatuation with psychedelia was brief. By early 1968, they had fired Andrew Loog Oldham and hired Allen Klein as
theirmanager. The move coincided with their return to driving rock & roll, which happened to coincide with Richards' discovery
of open tunings, amove that gave the Stones their distinctively fat, powerful sound. The revitalized Stones were showcased
on the malevolent single "Jumpin'Jack Flash," which climbed to number three in May 1968. Their next album, Beggar's Banquet,
was finally released in the fall, after beingdelayed for five months due its controversial cover art of a dirty, graffiti-laden
restroom. An edgy record filled with detours into straightblues and campy country, Beggar's Banquet was hailed as a
masterpiece among the fledgling rock press. Although it was seen as a return toform, few realized that while it opened a new
chapter of the Stones' history, it also was the closing of their time with Brian Jones. Throughoutthe recording of Beggar's
Banquet, Jones was on the sidelines due to his deepening drug addiction and his resentment of the dominance ofJagger and
Richards. Jones left the band on June 9, 1969, claiming to be suffering from artistic differences between himself and the rest
ofthe band. On July 3, 1969 -- less than a month after his departure -- Jones was found dead in his swimming pool. The
coroner ruled that itwas "death by misadventure," yet his passing was the subject of countless rumors over the next two
years.
By the time of his death, the Stones had already replaced Brian Jones with Mick Taylor, a former guitarist for John Mayall's
Bluesbreakers.He wasn't featured on "Honky Tonk Women," a number one single released days after Jones' funeral, and he
contributed only a handful ofleads on their next album, Let It Bleed. Released in the fall of 1969, Let It Bleed was comprised
of sessions with Jones and Taylor, yet itcontinued the direction of Beggar's Banquet, signaling that a new era in the Stones'
career had begun, one marked by ragged music and anincreasingly wasted sensibility. Following Jagger's filming of Ned Kelly in
Australia during the first part of 1969, the group launched its firstAmerican tour in three years. Throughout the tour -- the
first where they were billed as the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band -- the groupbroke attendance records, but it was given
a sour note when the group staged a free concert at Altamont Speedway. On the advice of theGrateful Dead, the Stones
hired Hell's Angels as security, but that plan backfired tragically. The entire show was unorganized and inshambles, yet it
turned tragic when the Angels killed a young black man, Meredith Hunter, during the Stones' performance. In the wake ofthe
public outcry, the Stones again retreated from the spotlight and dropped "Sympathy for the Devil," which some critics
ignorantly claimedincited the violence, from their set.
As the group entered hiatus, they released the live Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! in the fall of 1970. It was their last album for
Decca/London, andthey formed Rolling Stones Records, which became a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. During 1970, Jagger
starred in Nicolas Roeg's cult filmPerformance and married Nicaraguan model Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, and the couple
quickly entered high society. As Jagger wasjet-setting, Richards was slumming, hanging out with country-rock pioneer Gram
Parsons. Keith wound up having more musical influence on1971's Sticky Fingers, the first album the Stones released though
their new label. Following its release, the band retreated to France on taxexile, where they shared a house and recorded a
double album, Exile on Main St. Upon its May 1972 release, Exile on Main St. was widelypanned, but over time it came to be
considered one of the group's defining moments.
Following Exile, the Stones began to splinter in two, as Jagger concentrated on being a celebrity and Richards sank into drug
addiction. Theband remained popular throughout the '70s, but their critical support waned. Goats Head Soup, released in
1973, reached number one, asdid 1974's It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, but neither record was particularly well received. Taylor left
the band after It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, and thegroup recorded their next album as they auditioned new lead guitarists, including
Jeff Beck. They finally settled on Ron Wood, former leadguitarist for the Faces and Rod Stewart, in 1976, the same year they
released Black n' Blue, which only featured Wood on a handful of cuts.During the mid- and late '70s, all the Stones pursued
side projects, with both Wyman and Wood releasing solo albums with regularity.Richards was arrested in Canada in 1977 with
his common-law wife Anita Pallenberg for heroin possession. After his arrest, he cleaned upand was given a suspended
sentence the following year. The band reconvened in 1978 to record Some Girls, an energetic response to punk,new wave,
and disco. The record and its first single, the thumping disco-rocker "Miss You," both reached number one, and the
albumrestored the group's image. However, the group squandered that goodwill with the follow-up, Emotional Rescue, a
number one record thatnevertheless received lukewarm reviews upon its 1980 release. Tattoo You, released the following
year, fared better both critically andcommercially, as the singles "Start Me Up" and "Waiting on a Friend" helped the album
spend nine weeks at number one. The Stonessupported Tattoo You with an extensive stadium tour captured in Hal Ashby's
movie Let's Spend the Night Together and the 1982 livealbum Still Life.
Tattoo You proved to be the last time the Stones completely dominated the charts and the stadiums. Although the group
continued to sellout concerts in the '80s and '90s, their records didn't sell as well as previous efforts, partially because the
albums suffered due to Jaggerand Richards' notorious mid-'80s feud. Starting with 1983's Undercover, the duo conflicted
about which way the band should go, with Jaggerwanting the Stones to follow contemporary trends and Richards wanting
them to stay true to their rock roots. As a result, Undercover was amean-spirited, unfocused record that received relatively
weak sales and mixed reviews. Released in 1986, Dirty Work suffered a worse fate,since Jagger was preoccupied with his
fledgling solo career. Once Jagger decided that the Stones would not support Dirty Work with a tour,Richards decided to
make his own solo record with 1988's Talk Is Cheap. Appearing a year after Jagger's failed second solo album, Talk IsCheap
received good reviews and went gold, prompting Jagger and Richards to reunite late in 1988. The following year, the Stones
releasedSteel Wheels, which was received with good reviews, but the record was overshadowed by its supporting tour, which
grossed over 140million dollars and broke many box office records. In 1991, the live album Flashpoint, which was culled from
the Steel Wheels shows, wasreleased.
Following the release of Flashpoint, Bill Wyman left the band; he published a memoir, Stone Alone, within a few years of
leaving. The Stonesdidn't immediately replace Wyman, since they were all working on solo projects; this time, there was none
of the animosity surrounding theirmid-'80s projects. The group reconvened in 1994 with bassist Darryl Jones, who had
previously played with Miles Davis and Sting, torecord and release the Don Was-produced Voodoo Lounge. The album
received the band's strongest reviews in years, and its accompanyingtour was even more successful than the Steel Wheels
tour. On top of being more successful than its predecessor, Voodoo Lounge also wonthe Stones their first Grammy for Best
Rock Album. Upon the completion of the Voodoo Lounge tour, the Stones released the live,"unplugged" album Stripped in the
fall of 1995. Similarly, after wrapping up their tour in support of 1997's Bridges to Babylon, the groupissued yet another live
set, No Security, the following year. A high-profile greatest-hits tour in 2002 was launched despite the lack of astudio album
to support, and its album document Live Licks appeared in 2004. A year later, the group issued A Bigger Bang, their thirdeffort
with producer Don Was. « hide |
Similar Bands: The Who, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Yardbirds, Aerosmith
Contributors: Brendan352, rockandmetaljunkie, Nagrarok, randomisrachel, Skyler, Ehar, JKennedy87, Wish, Disconnected, Dave de Sylvia, tom79, morrissey, Jacaranda, Kingadamx, Voivod, christeph, Nagrarok, BornDeadBuriedAlive, Disconnected, wakeupdead, Iai, Skyler,
|
