Kevin McGeogh

                                                                                                            April 03, 2003

                                                                                                            Com 290-01

                                                                                                           

 

The Rolling Stones: A Biography

 

           

By the time the Rolling Stones began calling themselves the World’s Greatest Rock Band in the late ’60’s, they already had an impressive claim on the title.  As an alternative to the bouncy Mersey beat of the Beatles in the British invasion, the Stones pioneered the gritty, hard-driving, blues-based rock and roll that came to define hard rock.  Mick Jagger became the prototypical rock front man while Keith Richards and Brian Jones wrote the blueprint for interlocking rhythm guitars.  Backed by the strong rhythm section of bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts, the Stones became the breakout blues band of the British blues scene.  Over the course of their career the Stones never really abandoned blues, but as soon as they reached popularity in the U.K. began experimenting musically, incorporating the British pop of the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Who.  After a short experimental stint with psychedelic drugs, the Stones re-emerged in the late ’60’s as a blues-soaked hard rock quintet, exposing a new rock culture.  It wasn’t without difficulty though.  Shortly after Jones was fired from the group he was found dead in a swimming pool, and in 1969 a concertgoer was brutally killed during the Stones show at Altamont.  Regardless of all of this, the Stones never stopped going.  For the next thirty years they continued to record and perform, and while their records weren’t always blockbusters, they were always the most visible band of that era.  No band since has proven to have such a broad fan base or far-reaching popularity.  Throughout their career Mick Jagger and Keith Richards remained at the core of the Rolling Stones.  They initially met as children in primary school, drifted apart for ten years, and then were reacquainted in 1960 by a mutual friend named Dick Taylor.  At the time Jagger was studying at the London School of Economics and playing with Taylor in a blues band Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys.  Shortly afterward, Richards joined the band and within a year had met guitarist Brian Jones.  They added drummer Charlie Watts and recorded a demo.  After the demo was rejected by EMI Records, Taylor left the band to attend the Royal College of Art.  Before his departure, the group named themselves the Rolling Stones after a famous Muddy Waters song.  The Rolling Stones gave their first performance at the Marquee Club in London on July 12, 1962.  The group now consisted of Jagger, Richards, Jones, Watts, pianist Ian Stewart, and Bill Wyman who replaced Dick Taylor.  Once their lineup was set, they began an eight-month stint at the Crawdaddy Club and attracted the attention of Andrew Loog Oldham who became their manager.  He came up with the idea of promoting the Stones as the bad boy opposition to the clean-cut Beatles.  With Oldham’s help the Stones signed with Decca Records and released their first single, a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Come On”.  The highest it reached was #21.  At the end of the year they released a cover of the Beatles “I Wanna Be Your Man” which reached #15, and Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” which shot to #3.  By then the Stones were notorious in England and were portrayed as the sexual rival of the Beatles.  In 1964 they released their first album followed by their first #1 “It’s All Over Now”.  Although they were massively popular, Oldham pushed Jagger and Richards to compose their own songs.  In 1965 the group released “Satisfaction” which stayed #1 for four weeks and began a string of Top Ten hits that lasted two years.  A year later they responded to the Beatles complex albums by releasing, Aftermath.  In 1967 they performed “Let’s Spend the Night Together” on the Ed Sullivan Show, which forced Jagger to mumble the title or face being banned.  Jagger, Richards, and Jones were all arrested the same year for drug possession.  After backing away from this heavy drug use, they fired Andrew Oldham and hired Allen Klein as manager.  They released their next album Beggar’s Banquet after a five month delay over a controversial cover of a dirty restroom.  In 1969, Jones left the band and was found dead in his swimming pool one month later.  They replaced Jones with Mick Taylor and at the advice of the Grateful Dead hired Hell’s Angels for security.  The plan back-fired though when the Angels killed a young black man at the Stones show.  During the ’70’s the Stones split into two.  Jagger into celebrity and Richards into drug addiction.  They released albums such as Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St., Goat’s Head Soup, It’s Only Rock and Roll, and Tattoo You.  Although the group continued to sell out concert stadiums everywhere, their albums suffered in the ’80’s and ’90’s due to Jagger and Richards’s feud.  In the ’80’s they released Undercover, Dirty Work, and Steel Wheels.  Steel Wheels was the only one well received, but was overshadowed by its tour that grossed over $140 million.  In 1994 they released their last #1 album Voodoo Lounge that won them their first Grammy for Best Album.  The Stones have been and continue to portray the forefront of true rock and roll, and though they have had their troubles are a symbol of true longevity.

 

 

 

 

 

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