It's Only Rock and Roll, But I Like It.

The Rolling Stones are the greatest rock and roll band of all time. There is no question about it. I have always been a huge admirer and fan of the band but it wasn't until recently that I actually sat down and listened to all of their studio albums. Unlike other bands of their generation, The Beatles, The Doors, The Beach Boys etc I wasn't as familiar with their albums. The Stones have an impressive greatest hits, at least fifty songs that every person on the planet knows, yet their albums and deep cuts, I feel, are less familiar to the masses. Recently I have immersed myself deep into their back catalogue, from the very beginning. This article seeks to make some sense of the breadth and diversity of the greatest rock and roll band’s discography and career.

The early Stones records (The Rolling Stones, No 2 and Out of Our Heads) are blues records, plain and simple. A band fascinated and in love with the blues and the history of American music, each album a series of covers from the greats. It’s fascinating that all music can be traced back to the American blues, yet it was the British bands of the 1960's, particularly the Beatles and the Stones that gave back to America that which it already had. The roots of American blues music would re-emerge and define an entire generation and with it, incidentally, create an entirely new animal, Rock and Roll. Those early records are vital in the Stones discography as they capture their passion and raucous love affair with American roots music, the hysteria that followed the band almost from day one can be felt in the energy captured in those early recordings. Everything that would emerge in later years is established from the very beginning, Jagger’s charisma and wild sex appeal, the great rhythm section of Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman, and that iconic guitar style that would define Keith Richards for a lifetime to come was based solely on the old blues players from Robert Johnson to Howlin’ Wolf, B.B King, Muddy Waters, the list goes on. Those early records of '64 and early '65 captured a mania that would catapult the band into the stratosphere. All they had to do now was write their own songs.

By 1965 the band had capitalised on their own popularity and the ever present invasion of British bands making it in America, and in the shadow of Beatlemania, the Stones - or better yet Jagger and Richards - began writing their own songs. Starting with ‘The Last Time’ and ‘Satisfaction’ the Stones became one of the biggest bands on the planet, and the Jagger/Richards writing partnership was established. Despite a string of enormous hit singles and a popularity that would not slow down, the period between 1965-1967 was a curious one for the Stones in regards to their studio albums. Despite their superstardom, some could argue the albums suffered. The frenetic passion of the blues present in those early recordings all but disappeared as the 60's took on a life of its own, and celebrities and rock stars, actors and pop stars would define a decade by how they dressed, what they did, and who they were seen with.

There is a notable difference between the early records and what would become ‘Aftermath’, ‘Between the Buttons’ and ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’. Those first records were recorded by five working class guys from London, yet by 1965 those working class guys were rock stars, and the most famous people on the planet. The DNA of the 60's, undeniable, from London to New York, had seeped its way into the lives of the Stones and they were no longer in control of their image or their musical output. They were merely bobbing along an endless river of cultural fads, fame, money, women and a lifestyle completely specific to time and place. Those records don’t necessarily exhibit the personalities of the artists, but more the personality of the 60's. The influence of The Beatles and their dominion over popular culture is present in every melody, every jangle and every song. Bob Dylan and artists like The Beach Boys again have somehow seeped into the minds of the artists and influenced their music, creating fascinating artefacts of a time, but to the detriment of the Stones true artistic voice.

Apart from ‘Paint it Black’ and ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’ the Stones barely created a memorable, defining song during this period. It’s as if fame and celebrity and the plasticity of the times had eclipsed their creative spirit and individuality. This is present most plainly on the - lets face it - dreadful ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’. Released in 1967, a blatant attempt at recreating the success of the Beatles ‘Sgt. Peppers’, the album was a product of the hippie generation and absolutely devoid of artistry, the culmination of fame and the love generation, which thankfully was short lived. This was the only foray into psychedelia the Stones ever made, and thank God. This period documents the Stones lofty heights of fame and success, but their greatest music wouldn't emerge until their egos came down from the clouds.

By 1968 it appeared the Stones were growing tired of fame and celebrity, and the hippie thing was almost dying out. The albums that followed are defined as the ‘Golden Age’ of the Stones and rightly so. Once again drawing heavily on their roots as a blues band and using the roots of American music to form their sound, from country to gospel, rock and roll to bluegrass, the band released the immortal ‘Beggars Banquet’ (1968) and ‘Let it Bleed’ (1969). It is apparent on these recordings the disillusionment of Brian Jones, his soul clearly remained somewhere in 1967, never to return. It was at this point that it is clear that Keith Richards took creative control of the bands sound, and produced the sound that would define the bands legacy forever. From ‘Gimme Shelter’ to ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’, from ‘Honky Tonk Women’ to ‘Street Fighting Man’ the Stones re-emerged, more muscular, more physical, a sound rooted in blues and rock and roll. It is at this point that The Rolling Stones become the greatest rock and roll band of all time.

After the death of Bryan Jones and with it the 1960's and the love generation, the 70's ushered in a more visceral experience for everybody alive, and the music continued in a similar fashion. The Stones 9^th album ‘Sticky Fingers’ (1971) and the seminal masterwork ‘Exile on Main Street’ (1972), brought a close to a tumultuous decade of relentless touring and writing, that ended a chapter that will always be their greatest. By 1972 the Stones along with most of their peers, had created their best work and the artistry and immediacy that defined the previous ten years would soon be replaced by garish pop music, disco, funk, prog rock and of course punk rock. The Stones from 1962-1972 were fundamentally at their absolute greatest and they would never return to such status thereafter.

Despite their career continuing for more than another 40 years after ‘Exile on Main Street’ - the Stones are still touring to this day - the greatness they reached in the 60's would go onto become a parody of itself. As pop and rock music in the late 70's and 80's became pantomime and the rock bands became ‘stadium rock bands’, the artistry of the 60's - furthered by a cultural tension like an atomic bomb daring to go off any second - killed off almost all of the art from rock music, leaving in its wake the glare of lights, glitter and spandex. By the 80's the Stones could effortlessly play a greatest hits set to a million people for the rest of their lives. There was no longer any urgency to create vital music that could change the world. The world had changed, for the worse.

The only exception to this in the Stones discography is 1978’s ‘Some Girls’, their last hurrah. Released in the wake of punk rock and the height of disco and glam, ‘Some Girls’ was the Stones last stab at being relevant in a rapidly changing musical landscape. One that would leave all artists of the 60's as relics of a time that had little bearing on the reinvigoration of a late 70's youth who just wanted to dance. ‘Some Girls’ is a fantastic record, and not forgetting, The Stones most commercially successful album selling over 8 million records. After Exile and the relative flops that were ‘Goats Head Soup’ (1973), ‘It’s Only Rock and Roll’ (1974) and ‘Black and Blue’ (1976), the Stones desperately needed a hit album that would re-launch them back into the public consciousness and solidify their legacy as the greatest. ‘Some Girls’ was that album. The influence of glam and the spirit of punk rock is all over the record, in their absence from popularity the airwaves had been dominated by this new sound. The likes of David Bowie, Lou Reed and T Rex have laid down a blueprint to a type of music that is ultra sexual and far groovier than the blues. This gender bending identity that defined Bowie’s seminal work, as well Lou Reed’s is present throughout ‘Some Girls’. That New York influence is straight out of 1972, from the New York Dolls and Lou Reed’s ‘Transformer’. Listen to ‘Shattered’ and then listen to ‘Vicious’ by Lou Reed. It’s uncanny. Yet songs like ‘Lies’ and ‘Respectable’ draw on the visceral nature of punk and the carnage it craved.

‘Some Girls’ was a success. It rebranded the Stones, repackaged them, and made them relevant and astronomically successful in a decade that didn't represent them. But ‘Some Girls’ was to be their last hurrah. It is undeniably the last record they made with the fire in their guts to remain a young and hungry, vital band before they forever became synonymous with legendary status. Relics of the 60's, which the 80's and beyond would define them as, allowing them immortality and the freedom to sell out stadiums all over the world in the blink of an eye. The Rolling Stones are the greatest rock and roll band of all time. It is undeniable. But the Rolling Stones that changed the world existed for a much shorter time. Sometime around 1978, when the punk movement died, music stopped changing the world, and had to settle for just changing lives.