Category Archives: Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

Overview
The Rolling Stones released their first album in 1964, and they were a part of the original British Invasion. Like the other bands of British invasion, The Rolling Stones arrived on the scene in America wearing suits and playing mainly pop covers with some original material mixed in, and like the other bands of the era, they quickly shed their uptight facade, and acclimated to the quickly changing rock and roll climate of the mid-1960′s. By the late 60′s, The Rolling Stones had established themselves as the rebels of rock and roll, and they really found their sound starting with their 1968 release Beggar’s Banquet. Beggar’s Banquet was the first of 4 records that many classic rock fans consider 4 of the greatest rock albums of all time. Beggar’s Banquet was followed by Let It Bleed in 1969, Sticky Fingers in 1971, and then Exile on Main Street in 1972. 1968-1972 was definitely The Rolling Stones golden era, but they continued to release relevant albums through the 70′s making them into on of the biggest rock acts in the world. Meanwhile, their peers from the original British invasion either broke up, or released far less relevant material. After the 70′s, many bands from the 60′s and 70′s struggled to transition into the changing music scene of the 80′s, but The Rolling moved into the 80’s by continuing to release albums and transforming their live shows into full blown sold out stadium tours. The Rolling Stones are still recording and touring today (2011). They released their most recent studio album “A Bigger Bang” in 2005, and it went platinum, clearly demonstrating that The Rolling Stones are still a relevant force in rock. In total, The Rolling Stones have released 29 studio albums and 12 live albums, and they have sold over 200 million albums worldwide.

Genres and Styles
Rock

Original Band Line-Up
Mick Jagger – lead and backing vocals, harmonica, percussion
Keith Richards – guitar, backing vocals
Brian Jones – guitar, harmonica, percussion, backing vocals
Charlie Watts – drums, percussion
Bill Wyman – bass guitar, backing vocals

Golden-Era Band Line-Up
Mick Jagger – lead vocals
Keith Richards – electric guitar, six & twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Mick Taylor – electric, acoustic and slide guitar
Charlie Watts – drums
Bill Wyman – bass guitar, electric piano

Current Band Line-Up
Mick Jagger –Lead vocals, guitars, harmonica, keyboards, bass guitar, percussion
Keith Richards – guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, bass guitar
Ronnie Wood – guitars
Charlie Watts – drums, percussion
Darryl Jones- Bass Guitar

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The Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet- 1968
RMR Album Rating- 10 (Perfect)

Although The Rolling Stones are a British band and one of the big-4 bands of the original British invasion (along with the Beatles, The Who, and The Kinks), Beggars Banquet sounds very American, and the style of the album sounds very rooted in southern American culture; it absolutely defines what traditional American rock and roll should sound like.

The record’s style combines elements of riff rock, bar rock, blues, classic country, and a myriad of other styles, including sleaze rock– a style that The Rolling Stones were in the process of inventing. Every instrument sounds very real and organic, and Jagger’s singing is very twangy and laid back, which also adds to the southern American feel of the album. As an example, I love the instrumentation and chorus of the song “Dear Doctor”:

“Oh help me, please doctor, I’m damaged/ There’s a pain where there once was a heart/ It’s sleepin’, it’s a beatin’/ Can’t ya please tear it out, and preserve it/ Right there in that jar?” (Click here to listen to Dear Doctor)

I’ll also highlight “Stray Cat Blues,” which is important because it shows the Stones testing the water to see what they could get away with in terms of suggestive material, and it really opened the door for the content on Let it Bleed and Sticky Fingers. Here’s a segment from “Stray Cat Blues.”

“I can see that you’re fifteen years old/ No I don’t want your I.D./ I can see you’re so far from home/ But it’s no hanging matter/ It’s no capital crime… /Oh yeah, you’re a strange stray cat/ Oh yeah, don’tcha scratch like that/ Oh yeah, you’re a strange stray cat/ Bet your mama don’t know you scream like that/ I bet your mother don’t know you can spit like that…/ You say you got a friend, that she’s wilder than you/Why don’t you bring her upstairs/ If she’s so wild then she can join in too” (Click here to listen to Stray Cat Blues)

Then there are the two signature songs from the album: “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Salt of the Earth.” The riffing, lyrics, and vocal delivery on these two tracks is absolutely flawless. I also love the lyrical content of “Sympathy for the Devil,” as it presents the devil as the evil in all of us. It’s not a groundbreaking concept, but they certainly pull it off well.

Click here to listen to Sympathy For The Devil
Click here to listen to Salt Of The Earth

Beggar’s Banquet is a completely timeless and classic album showing The Rolling Stones do American rock better than most American bands, and it is the start of their trilogy of sleaze rock albums that also contains Let it Bleed from 1969, Sticky Fingers from 1971.

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The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed- 1969
RMR Album Rating- 10

On Let it Bleed, The Rolling Stones created an album of songs built on the same foundation that they constructed on their previous album Beggars Banquet, but this time they include three signature songs rather than two, and they push the boundaries of sleaze rock even further.

All the songs here are unquestionably classics, but “Gimme Shelter,” “Let it Bleed,” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” rise above the rest and have become synonymous with true classic rock.

Click here to Listen to Gimme Shelter
Click here to listen to Let it Bleed
Click here to Listen to You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Let it Bleed also shows the Stones’ further cementing their signature sound and style: Sleaze Rock. For me, Sleaze Rock really has to have three critical elements, regardless of who is playing it. First, the music has to be very riff oriented, so the rhythm guitar tone usually creates the core of the sound. Second, the lyrics and vocals have to be a bit sleazy, and they are usually hedonistically suggestive. Third and lastly, the whole package has to be delivered with swagger and attitude.

Most of the songs on Let It Bleed have the sleaze rock sound and feel, but the best examples of the sound comes from the songs “Country Honk,” “Live with Me,” and “Let it Bleed,” which follow each other in sequence on the album. The riffs, lyrics, and attitude are really drenched in sleaziness. In terms of lyrics, The Rolling Stones tested the water of sexual suggestiveness on Beggars Banquet with songs like “Stray Cat Blues,” but they really take the suggestiveness a step further on “Let it Bleed” with these three songs. Here are some great lines from each of these sleaze rock classics.

Country Honk
“She blew my nose and then she blew my mind” (click here to listen to Country Honk)

Live With Me
“Whoa, the servants they’re so helpful, dear/ The cook she is a whore/ Yes, the butler has a place for her/ Behind the pantry door/ The maid, she’s french, she’s got no sense/ She’s wild for crazy horse/And when she strips, the chauffeur flips/ The footmans eyes get crossed/ Doncha think there’s a place for us/ Right across the street/ Doncha think there’s a place for you/ In between the sheets?” (Cick here to listen to Live With Me)

Let it Bleed
She said my breasts they will always be open/ Baby, you can rest your weary head on me/ And there will always be a space in my parking lot/ When you need a little coke and sympathy…/ Yeah, we all need someone we can cream on/ And if you want to, well you can cream on me” (Click here to listen to Let it Bleed)

All in all, the album is a complete winner, and it is the centerpiece album of The Stones’ golden trilogy of albums, which many people consider three of the greatest classic rock albums of all time.

Post Script:
There are two versions of the song “Country Honk”: “Country Honk” and “Honky Tonk Women.” “Country Honk” was written first, and it is the version of the song that is included on this album. Keith Richards said they included “Country Honk” rather than “Honky Tonk Women” “because that’s how the song was originally written, as a real Hank Williams/Jimmie Rodgers, ’30s Country song.” However, the “Honky Tonk Women” version has really become the most popular version. Richards has also said that Mick Taylor is the one responsible for the transformation of “Country Honk” into “Honky Tonk Women” by electrifying its sound and turning it into a rock song.  (Click here to listen to the live version from ‘Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!’ of Honky Tonk Women)

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The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers- 1971
RMR Album Rating- 10 (Perfect)

Everything The Rolling Stones did on 1968’s Beggars Banquet and 1969’s Let It Bleed to create their signature sleaze rock sound came to a perfect climax on their 1971 release Sticky Fingers.

Musically, this album follows the same pattern and style as Beggars Banquet and Let it Bleed. The sound is still a combination of riff rock, bar rock, blues, classic country, and most importantly sleaze rock, but the difference with Sticky Fingers compared to the previous two albums is that The Rolling Stones were now aware that this was their style and sound. They created it, so they could really capitalize on it. There’s also more diversity on this album than on their previous two albums— most notably in form of ballads: “I got the blues,” is a bluesy ballad, “Moonlight Mile,” is packed with emotional resonance, and “Wild Horses,” is arguable their most moving song and certainly their signature ballad.

It’s also important to point out their lyrical content shifted somewhat on Sticky Fingers. There are still plenty of overtly sexual themes laced throughout the album, but they also add several songs about drugs, but in most cases like on “Dead Flowers” and “Moonlight Mile” the references are subtle. “Sister Morphine,” on the other hand, is an exception to subtle suggestiveness, as it is clearly about drugs. But even with these overtly sexual and drug inspired lyrics, the Stones still somehow pull them off in a mostly non-offensive way. So after three albums of great sleaze rock music and lyrics, one thing is for sure: no one doubted that The Rolling Stones were the quintessential rebels of rock.

Now that The Rolling Stones have been around for almost 50-years, they have a truckload of signature songs (songs that everyone knows as classic rock staples), and many of these songs came from Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, and Sticky Fingers, and on Sticky Fingers, 5 out of the 10 songs are what I consider signature songs. That’s not to say that the other songs aren’t excellent as well, but “Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses,” “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” “Dead Flowers,” and “Moonlight Mile” are absolutely signature classics. My personal favorite song on the album is “Dead Flowers,” for it has all the great elements of Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, and Sticky Fingers all put into one package. Here are the signature songs from Sticky Fingers.

Click here to listen to Brown Sugar
Click here to listen to Wild Horses
Click here to listen to Can’t You Hear Me Knocking
Click here to listen to Dead Flowers
Click here to listen to Moonlight Mile

Sticky Fingers is absolutely one of the greatest rock records every recorded, and it is the pinnacle of the Stones’ sleaze rock period, for on the Stones’ next release, Exile on Main Street, they start to slightly move away from the genre, but sleaze rock would be picked up again by Aerosmith on their early albums, and then again in the 80’s by Guns N’ Roses on their first record– Appetite for Destruction. Aerosmith’s and Guns’ brand of sleaze rock is much heavier than the Stones’ original incarnation of the style, but The Rolling Stones undoubtedly created the genre, and Sticky Fingers is undoubtedly my favorite Stones’ sleaze rock record.

Post Script:
Lastly, I have to mention “Brown Sugar” again, which absolutely pushes the limits of sexual sleaze rock lyrics to the limit. Here’s a section from “Brown Sugar”:

“Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields/ Sold in a market down in New Orleans/ Scarred old slaver knows he’s doing alright/ Hear him with the women just around midnight/ Brown sugar/ how come you taste so good?/ Brown sugar/ just like a young girl should…/ Ah, get along, brown sugar/ how come you taste so good, baby?/ Ah, got me feelin’ now/ brown sugar/ just like a black girl should”

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The Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street- 1972
RMR Album Rating- 10 (Perfect)

After releasing three consecutive cornerstone records of classic rock (Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, and Sticky Fingers) and also inventing sleaze rock in the process, The Rolling Stones then recorded their 4^th straight masterwork– Exile on Main Street.

Exile On Main Street maintains much of the sound and style that the Stones perfected on their preceding three albums, but it strips the music down to its bones. Plus, the previous three albums contained certain tracks that were centerpieces of their respective albums. Conversely, there aren’t any signature centerpiece songs on Exile on Main Street, but the album doesn’t suffer as a result. Instead, there is an assault of stripped down songs that are simple, raw, and rough. In fact, many of the songs sound like they were written on the spot, and I absolutely love the mood this creates.

All 18 songs are winners, but there are some standouts. “Torn and Frayed” is my personal favorite and one of my top Stones songs from any album. I love the lyrics and Jagger’s vocal delivery on the song. Here’s a segment from “Torn and Frayed”:

On stage the band has got problems/ They’re a bag of nerves on first nights/ He ain’t tied down to no home town/ Yeah, and he thought he was reckless/ You think he’s bad, he thinks you’re mad/ Yeah, and the guitar player gets restless (Click here to listen to Torn and Frayed).

Of the other songs, take your pick. In addition to “Torn and Frayed,” there’s “Rocks Off,” “Tumbling Dice,” “Sweet Virginia,” and “Loving Cup.” Then on the second half of the record, there’s “Happy,” “All Down the Line,” “Shine a Light,” and “Soul Survivor.” The whole album sounds like the Stones were all just hanging out, having a great time, and writing some of the best music ever laid down to tape.

Click here to listen to Rocks Off
Click here to listen to Tumbling Dice
Click here to listen to All Down the Line

All in all, Exile On Main Street is amazing. The record was originally recorded as a double album; therefore, it sometimes gets accused of being loaded with filler, but I disagree. The record’s 18 songs all have something to offer, and they are a testament to how proficient and prolific The Rolling Stones were in 1972.

Post Script:
There’s a picture in the album’s inner sleeve of Jagger and Taylor signing into one microphone, each with a liquor drink and cigarette in hand. It looks like they were having blast, and you can hear it on every song on the album. Simply put, the whole album looks, feels, and sounds like true (real) rock and roll.

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