The Rolling Stones

Rolling Stones is a British group of Rock “roll created in the Années 1960. The name of the group comes from a song of Muddy Waters, Rollin' Stone . The Blues was always the source of principal inspiration of Stones, which was one of the main actors of the return of this music on the front of the scene, through the British Blues Boom.

Members of the group

The original group was made of:

Ian Stewart will be drawn aside by their first manager Andrew Loog Oldham before even their individual first . There will remain nevertheless the pianist - nonexclusive - on the discs, and will be until its death the “ road to manage ” group and “sixth Stone”.

History of the group

Creation and beginnings

In October 1960, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, two friends of childhood - they attended the same school from their nursery school -, which had been lost sight of the fact a little, are found on the station platform of Dartford. Mick has discs with him, of which the Best off Muddy Waters , which encourages Keith to come to speak to him. Mick will invite Keith to join it in its group very right being born, Little Boy Blue & The Blues Servant boys . Keith will come with his/her friend Dick Taylor. Brian Jones, large amateur of blues, plays already with the pianist Ian Stewart. Both attend assiduously the Ealing Club , a club of Jazz of the western suburbs of London, in which Mick, in addition to its small group, also sings there in the Blues Incorporated of Alexis Korner, which have as a beater some Charlie Watts. Brian will be the craftsman of their meeting; the blues and the r' B will not be the foundations.

After one difficult winter for Mick, Keith and Brian, spent in collocation with a certain James Phelge with from now on celebrate 102 Edith Grove with London, with like ultimate resources the thin seals in some small concerts, Stones are finally ready to become pro.

The first concert of Stones occurs to the Marquee to London, on July 12th 1962. The group is then composed of Brian, Mick, Keith, Ian Stewart with the piano, Dick Taylor with low and Mike Ivory with the battery. Taylor will then leave to form the Pretty Things. The station of beater is always random, oscillating between Tony Chapman and Mick Ivory. Stones seek a bass player. In December 1962, Tony Chapman their present Bill Wyman, with the Red Lion Club which they like immediately, can be thanks to its amplifiers, rare food product at the time, but also thanks to its capacities: it is 7 years old than Mick and Keith, and already plays since many years in its group Cliftons , with Tony, while being amateur. The beaters of Stones being too unstable, Charlie Watts, which knew Mick well to have played with him, will join them definitively in January 1963, leaving its place within the Blues Incorporated with Ginger Baker. In March of the same year, they record with IBC Studio of Portland cement Places, with London, a demonstration , with as sound engineer the mythical future Glyn Johns, made up of resumptions of r' B. Stones will play Ealing Club regularly, then with Crawdaddy, club which has just opened Giorgio Gomelsky. From a few tens of spectators, the audience passes quickly to several hundreds, exceeding the capacities of the room.

Andrew Loog Oldham, young 19 year old advertizing executive, who already worked with Brian Epstein, Bob Dylan and Little Richard, associated to the manager Eric Easton, only dreams to meet and to manage “its” Beatles, which has just left Love me C . Its course of the clubs of London, it enters one day in Crawdaddy, and sees Stones. It is the revelation, it will be their manager.

With their new manager, their career takes off. In 1963, the recording company Decca and its artistic Director ( A&R ) Dick Row, famous to have refused Beatles, their fact of recording their first individual, with, on the face has, a resumption of Chuck Berry, Like one , and, on the face B, I want to Be loved of Willie Dixon. This first disc enables them to enter discreetly the British charts , and to be pointed out by the press. An individual second leaves with, opposite has, a title composed by John Lennon and Paul Mac Cartney, I Wanna Be Your Man , and opposite B instrumental: Stoned .

They make their first appearance TV in the emission Thank you lucky star of Pete Murray. Their look, however so conventional nowadays, appears outrageous. Their long hair makes scandal; this original look and their attitude sometimes scorning will give ideas to Andrew L.Oldham.

In order to a little earlier dissociate Beatles appeared and whose popularity is exceptional, the young person manager of the Stones creates to them an image of “bad lots”. In opposition to the paces of “nice sons-in-law” of the Fab Furnace , Jagger and its band cultivate their difference, refusing very quickly the costume-tie, insistent on their hair, and défraient the chronicle by their escapades.

It is at that time that Brian Jones starts to miss some concerts for health reasons, and to lose itself in its female conquests and their consequences; it has already two children…

Their career takes finally a final turning. The concerts become daily, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts leave their employment to integrate Stones full-time, Mick drops its studies, the apartment with Edit Grove given up, Keith, Mick and Andrew lives together in a new housing. This last fact will be the starting point of a new collaboration: Andrew will oblige Mick and Keith to be worked together, with the image of McCartney and Lennon, with the writing of title for Stones.

The take-off of 1965

However the opposition of style between the two groups is the result of a marketing of differentiation whereas their musical course is parallel: common influences of the Rock' roll and the r' B; Mick Jagger & Keith Richards takes off finally as type-setters, first of all with The Last Time , then (I Can' T Get No) Satisfaction , followed by As Tears Goes By , Get Off Off My Cloud & 19th Nervous Breakdown . Rolling Stones introduce starting from their 1st masterpiece Aftermath (in particular under the impulse of Brian Jones) of the psychedelic influences and the Indian music (one can in particular recall the Sitar Paint It, Black , the dulcimer on Lady Jane or the Marimbas of Under My Thumb ). The album Between the Short props continuous on the same impetus with the mélodieuse flute of Brian on Ruby Tuesday but contains also pieces of rock'n'roll like Let' S spend the night together and Connection and of the " influences; music-hall". Besides the album Satanic Majesties Request leaves in December 1967 and carries largely the “leg” of Brian Jones. It will have however at the time only one mitigated success, disconcerting by its side “planing” some fans of the pure and hard blues, nevertheless two titles emergent, She' S Like has Rainbow and 2000 Light Years From Home .

1966 will be the year of the last rounds before large a station-wagon : they had turned in an uninterrupted way since their beginnings, giving between 250 and 300 concerts per annum. After their 5th US rounds and the 8th U.K., all 2 in 66, Stones agree rest. Mick will make a film, Bill will make production, Brian will compose a BO of film, etc

1967 see the first arrest of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for drug possession. Quickly released, it will not make a prison, if not the few days of waiting of their appearance. The daily newspaper The Times will come besides to their help with a superb leading article in their favor, prémice of the change of company in progress.

1968 mark their great return and the beginning of the end for Brian Jones which is inserted more and more in dangerous addictions and the Paranoïa, after the commercial failure of Satanic , Rolling Stones return to the roots of the blues and the rock'n'roll, initially with individual the Jumping Jack Flash , then with the album Beggars Banquet. The album gives Rolling Stones in saddle with pieces like Sympathy for the Devil (song) and Street Fightin' Man which will sit their reputation of the most violent group of the history of the rock'n'roll and “ greatest band off rock'n'roll & roll in the world ”.

The turning of 1969

The exclusion of Brian Jones and it (Re) discovered open agreement

Brian Jones, although leader right from the start, is excluded from the group in 1969. Like one of the sequences of documentary of Jean-Luc Godard realized in 1968 shows it, Sympathy for the Devil, it has evil to concentrate and play in studio, the technicians of his energy until letting it interpret a piece all while cutting its microphone to him so as not to record on the track of wrong notes. Moreover, its problems of Drogue S did not enable him any more to follow the group in round, and its sudden overweight to which still some photographs testify to the time did not make it any more correspond to the sexy image of Stones. He dies on July 3rd, 1969, drowned in his swimming pool. Brian Jones took part still a little in the album Let It Bleed , as “violent one” as the preceding album with titles such as Gimme Shelter , You Can' T Always Get What You Want and especially Midnight Rambler (which evokes Albert DeSalvo, the throttle valve of Boston), which will become traditional on scene.

Dice 1968, Keith Richards discovers a way of agreeing (the open tuning) which will mark the new sound of Rolling stones. Indeed, this tuning which is used by the bluesmen makes it possible Rolling stones to change their way of composing. Some will be able to consider it regrettable that this one impoverishes the melody aspect their songs, others will greet the innumerable songs which will be the fruit of the open tuning ( Jumpin' Jack Flash , Street Fighting Man , You Can' T Always Get What You Want , Honky Tonk Woman , Gimme Shelter , Happy , Start Me Up to quote only some of them)

The return to the scene

The “great return” to the scene has gone back to July 1969, at the time of the free concert with Hyde Park, the first for two years and half, for the establishment of the new guitarist Mick Taylor, who comes from to John Mayall, and, fact not envisaged, to pay earlier a homage to Brian Jones, deceased 2 days. Mick Jagger will read on this occasion a poem of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mick Taylor will contribute to reinforce the roots blues of Rolling Stones and its participation in the albums Exile one Hand Street and Sticky Fingers will mark the return to more purified compositions and productions.

Altamont

At the conclusion of their American round of 1969 which marks their great return to the United States, they decide to give a free concert to San Francisco. The concert will take place finally with Altamont (California), but will have it wild of Stones and the bad organization in the concert will show the murder of a black spectator, Meredith Hunter, by Hells Angels. This festival will mark the end of the Utopia Hippie (see the film Gimme Shelter ). The American round of 1969 nevertheless will be immortalisée by the album in public Get yer ya ya' S out , where the fronts of Keith Richards and the solos of Mick Taylor are of a frightening effectiveness.

The apogee

In 1971, Rolling Stones leave the album Sticky Fingers with the famous small pocket, drawn by Andy Warhol. The references to the sex and drug are explicit, the compositions are excellent ( Brown sugar , Wild horses , Bitch , Sister Morphine , Dead Flowers ). The arrival of Mick Taylor gives a new breath to the group which starts the same year a round of good-bye in the United Kingdom. It is indeed in tax exile on the Riviera that the group records and leaves in 1972 its first double album Exile one Hand Street , that will follow a triumphal round to North America (STP: Stones Touring Party). Rolling Stones are then with their zenith. The album is excellent even if it does not contain really a hit. The song Sweet Black Angel , is a homage to Angela Davis, and the blues is omnipresent there. The film Cocksucker Blues turned by Robert Frank during the American northern round will not leave, because it presented a too raw vision of the group (drugs, groupies, destruction of hotel rooms, scenes of orgies on an aircraft). In 1973, the inspiration of the group starts to bend, because of the increasingly alarming addiction with the heroin of Keith Richards. These problems of narcotics having marked the French authorities, the guitarist is declared persona non grata in the hexagon, depriving the group there of any concert during several years. The album which leaves the same year, Goat' S Head Soup is definitely lower than the precedents. Despite everything it becomes a business success thanks to the song Angie . The European round which promotes the album remains one of best of their career. In order to satisfy the French spectators in spite of their legal contentions, Rolling Stones and radio RTL charter a special train bound for an exceptional concert given to Brussels: the Bootleg Brussels Affairs reflects the excellent sound of this round, Stones are with the zenith of their scenic services, the services of Mick Taylor are absolutely fantastic.

The period sinks

Departure of Mick Taylor - Arrival of Ron Wood

In 1974 the album It' S Only Rock' N Roll leaves, is the first album produced under the term of " Glimmer Twins" , nickname of the duet Jagger-Richards. The album opens on the title If You Can' T Rock Me with Keith Richards with low, followed Ain' T Too Proud To Beg , taken again Temptations. One will note the piece Time Waits For No One , with a solo of Mick Taylor very inspired and especially the drunk piece Fingerprint File which refers to the exactions of FBI and of the American southern dictatorships. Mick Taylor will leave Stones after the album It' S Only Rock' roll in 1974. It will be replaced by Ron Wood, resulting from the Faces and having worked with Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck (as a bass player). Although musician less achieved, it corresponds better to the remainder of the group by his look and his spirit (very “ sex, drugs & rock' roll ”). More than thirty years after its arrival, it however continues to be regarded as “the small new one”.

Years 75-85

The following years, until the semione, will be one turbid period. Keith Richards is in its addictions, the prison and prohibitions of stays, the death of close relations, doubts musical, unequal albums, arrived of the disco music in their music, makes that there are arguments between Mick Jagger and Keith richards

Separation of Stones?

The arrest of Keith with Toronto in 1977, which risks seven years of prison, puts the group in danger and throws the doubt about the perenniality of the presence of the guitarist within Stones. The top of the disorders is reached in 1986 with the album Dirty Work , on which Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts play readily the absent ones. The title of the album is a wink with the fans, who know the difficulties of the group. This period will be that of the interrogation around Stones, of the albums solo of Jagger and Richards, but also of Wood and Watts.

The eternal return

A form of rebirth will come with the album Steel Wheels , which will see Stones, again welded, to find the inspiration and the desire for playing together. If the rounds are done in great stages and become a true industrial business, Keith will insist to always be able to play in small rooms, more or less officially, using sometimes of pseudonym for the group, in order to remain close to its fans. As example, the album Stripped is recorded partly with the Olympia of Paris, and partly with the Paradiso Club of Amsterdam.

Obviously wearied not to be credited for its contributions, and can be also ceaseless rounds in the stages or also by its advance in age on the others, Bill Wyman leaves the group in 1993 to take its retirement. It forms the Rhythms Kings , group including/understanding of the sharks of studios, all of his friends, like Peter Frampton, Albert Lee or Gary Brooker, and records several albums with the consonances blues and jazz. It will have satisfaction to be the member of Stones to have sold the most albums in solo.

A new album in 1994, Voodoo Lounge , even more “roots” that Steel Wheels , gives the impression once more that Stones are of return. New world tour, and new success.

Stones leave a new album in 1997 ( Bridges to Babylon ), marked by the will to fit in the air of time (production of the Dust Brothers, low of Me' Shell Ndegéocello, cosignature by amicable agreement of the first individual one with K.d. Lang) while keeping the traditional sound. This album, rather average altogether, gives the opportunity of a new world tour, which will last of September 1997 in September 1998, to take again January in June 1999.

To celebrate their forty years of career, Rolling Stones set out again in world tour in 2002-2003. Perhaps this round called Licks Tour sees Stones with best of their form since 1972, at least 1978! They do not have an album to promote this time, if not a vague compilation which comprises four new titles (of which the very beautiful Losing my touch sung by Keith), but they will nevertheless surprise their world while repeating more than eighty songs drawn from the unit from their repertory (!) and in particular of the songs ever played on scene like emblematic the Can' T you hear me knockin' . They will also benefit from it to foam a great number of small rooms, of which again Olympia in Paris. The round, noticed for its strength, the pleasure that they have to play together, the sound and energy, will be the occasion of the first DVD of Rolling Stones, Four Flicks , which gives three concerts (New York: Madison Square Garden, Paris: Olympia and Twickenham) and more than forty songs, played very well, filmed very well.

The album has Bigger Bang seems with certain a new resurrection. It is indeed recorded “with old”, in the French castle of Mick Jagger, with many blues and titles very “roots”, and the “leg” of Keith. But somewhat paining to renew itself with this album moreover, they do not make illusion near part of criticism and fans.

Their last world tour " In Bigger Bang" on August 21st, 2005 in Boston (the USA) started. After the American stages (North and South), Asian and in Oceania, a very mediatized accident of Keith Richards (fallen head the first from a coconut) has constrained the group to differ the opening from the European round, upsetting many dates and cancelling some. In France, two concerts initially envisaged at the Stade de France, were molten in only one evening on July 28th, 2006, one their best services in the hexagon according to many opinions. Rolling Stones will be also in Nice on August 8th, joining again for one evening with the Palate Nikaïa (stage Charles Ehrmann) with their years " Riviera". Also a return of the round is confirmed to the United States, envisaged as of September for several months.

This round " Bigger Bang" became most lucrative right now of the history of the music, with since autumn 2005 of the receipts of 437 million $US and an audience of 3,5 million people for 110 spectacles. The group also attracted two million people at the time of the free concert of Rio de Janeiro, on the beach of Copacabana, last February.

Thus from the exit of Voodoo Lounge in 1994, Rolling Stones spent more seven years on scene, with an obvious pleasure which, even if it is not stripped commercial operations and colossal profits, shows, if were still needed it, that the group represents the only testimony of the golden age of the rock' roll, and the proof that their music is timeless.

Stones are considered, with Beatles, Who, Led Zep and some others, like inventors of the popular Musique modern. They made a point of categorizing as of the origins their music like Rhythm and Blues (according to Ray Charles, it was the name given formerly to the Rock-and-roll before it becomes with the mode), and on several occasions claimed filiation of large the bluesmen . Legendary, they continue to attract crowd, and appear at the time of great events, as of the superbowl. The stones hold since their apogee the title of the greatest group of rock'n'roll of the world and will always remain it.

The name of the group comes, indeed, of a title of Muddy Waters, but which is " Rolling Stone Blues" and not " Like has rolling stone" of Bob Dylan taken again by Stones themselves during the round " Voodoo Lounge" from 1995.

Clips

An important aspect of Rolling Stones is the quality of their video clips. Truculent as She Was Hot (it was hot), touching like Harlem Shuffle , simple as Waiting There is Friend , allusions to the exactions of the death squads in Central America like Undercover , and resorting for some to techniques like the synthesized image, video handling, even the “visual portamento” (“Like has rolling stone”), they constitute works with whole share.

Discography

As for the majority of the artists of the time, the discography of Rolling Stones is problematic. Indeed, before 1967, of the different albums are appeared on the one hand with the the United Kingdom (and for the Europe) and on the other hand with the the United States. Then, the very first songs of the group were published at one period or the format 33 turns was not democratized yet, and much of faces B of 45 turns are not always reproduced on any album. Moreover, their not-official discography, the Bootleg, are, at least in the first 20 years of career, as even much more as their official discs, the Rolling Stones being on the podium of the most pirated groups time, at the sides of Led Zep and Aerosmith.

Original albums

British editions (before 1967)

American editions (before 1967)

International editions (since 1967)

Albums in concert

Compilations and albums of collection

Some bootlegs

List nonexhaustive, because even more problematic to realize than for the official discs; the Bootleg of Stones dividing themselves into 3 subcategories. The Live pirates, the pirates studios, and interviews.

For a list much more complete, to see the following site

  • http://www.sympathyforthedevils.com/bootlegs_cadre.htm

Videotex

Extracts of interviews

Some pearls of the Stones ! (nonexhaustive list)

1969

Q: Are you more satisfied today after success with (I Can' T Get No) Satisfaction ?

  • R: " Sexually satisfied, financially not satisfied and philosophically with the test ( Mick Jagger )

1987

Q: You must have zone everywhere in 25 years of work with the Stones .

  • R: " Yes, zone 20 and worked 5" ( Charlie Watts )

1996

Q: Daryll Jones (successor of Bill Wyman with low) one will be T day considered as full member of the Stones ?

  • R: " Yes, all people who play of the songs of the Rolling Stones with me are Rolling Stones" ( Keith Richards )
  • R: " Not, the group is too vieux" ( Mick Jagger )

199?

Q: Which is your feeling in connection with the decision of the queen of England, concerning your ennoblement? (Mick Jagger became Lord)

  • R: " I am very glad to be rewarded for 30 years for bad conduite" ( Mick Jagger )

  • R: Eh the guy, do not try to age with elegance, that would not suit you! (Pete Townshend during a speech of establishment of the Stones to the " Rock'n'roll “roll Hall off Fame").

Q: Does you know why celebrate it mark of American cigarettes, with a cow-boy on the package red and white, has white filter tips in the USA and yellows in Europe?

  • R: " It is to allow Keith Richards of knowing on which continent it is, because if not… "

See too

External documentation

Bibliography :
  • Stanley Booth : The True Adventures off the Rolling Stones , 2000.
  • François Bon: Rolling Stones, a biography , 2002.
  • Philipp Norman : The Stones , Penguin.
  • Bill Wyman : Stone Alone , 1996.
  • Bill Wyman : Rolling with the Stones , 2003.
  • Rolling Stones: According to Rolling Stones , Beech, 2003.
  • James Phelge: Nankering With the Rolling Stones , 2000.
  • Rock'n'roll & Folk: number 466 of June 2006
  • Jukebox Magazine: number 231 of June 2006
  • Several books of photographs of art (+ books of Wyman and Wood) at Genesis Publications
  • François Jouffa and Jacques Barsamian: Stones 40 years of rock'n'roll & roll , Ramsay, 2003.
  • Robert Greenfield STP: With Journey Trough America with the Rolling Stones, 2002.
  • Gered Mankowitz : The Rolling Stones - Out off Their Heads . Photographs 1965-67 and 1982 .
  • Andrew Loog Oldham : Rolling Stoned , Flammarion, 2006.

External bonds

  • Official site of Rolling Stones

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