Having lived through what I consider the best times for Rock/Pop music it is hard to ignore the work and contribution of the Rolling Stones.

What can one add about the Rolling Stones that has not already been said?

Although I have a few posts about the Beatles this is my first post about Sir Mick and the rest of the group. The writer, below, has listed his favourites, and I am going to add “Start Me Up” as I love the opening riffs!

Of course there are many other favourite Stones’ songs but I can’t mention all of them.

Fifty years is quite a range of songs to go through and decide. Almost impossible!

In an earlier post I mentioned the connection between Keith Richards and Gram Parsons – another favourite of mine. Gram has been gone for a long time, sadly, but he still had a degree of influence over the Stones.

I also would like to mention the artistic ability of Ronny Woods.

I was most fortunate to see an exhibition of his works in San Francisco several years ago and I was very impressed!

I could not afford any of them, and no photos were allowed or even available in a catalogue. However there are some here.

No doubt you can find your own favourites.

If the Rolling Stones decide to retire I think they deserve it! Their music will live on.

Update: The band has celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first gig at a bash in London and despite being well over retirement age, the Stones have no plans to quit.

Read it at the link below.

With thanks to The Australian.

[....]

“ Music critic John Aizlewood said the Stones' contribution to rock 'n' roll is “immeasurable.”
“They are a founding father of rock music as we know it,” he said. “Other bands have tried and not pulled off that amount of sexiness, allied to a kind of street-fighting menace.” end quote.
[....]

From Iain Shedden in the Australian

With many thanks.

IT'S not a question many performers get to ask themselves: should we stop after 50 years or plough on until we are no longer capable?

That's what has been floating around the Rolling Stones camp of late as the band prepares to celebrate a half-century of rock 'n' roll. That celebration was to be accompanied by yet another Stones global extravaganza, their first world tour since the two-year, multi-million-dollar-grossing Bigger Bang tour of 2005-07.
However, plans for such a high-level undertaking have been shelved and it could be that the Bigger Bang experience in Australia, which was well-received and reviewed in 2006, will turn out to be the group's live farewell to Aussie audiences.

Rumours persist that the Stones will bow out next year with a handful of shows culminating in a headline slot at the closing night of England's Glastonbury Festival, rather than undertake a lengthy international farewell.
Core members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts have a combined age of 272, so it's easy to see why the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world might want to swap lifestyle for more leisurely pursuits.
Drummer Watts, the oldest at 71, has said for years that he doesn't enjoy life on the road.

There have been questions also about Richards's health and whether, after a lifetime of indulgence, his 68-year-old frame is up to another two years of touring.
While the world awaits an answer to the tour question, there is plenty of Stones activity centred on the 50th anniversary of the band's first show, on July 12, 1962

To get things rolling, as it were, the band commissioned US graphic designer and illustrator Shepard Fairey to update its classic Tongue and Lips logo, which first appeared in 1971 as part of the marketing campaign for the album Sticky Fingers.

Fairey famously designed the Hope poster used by president Barack Obama in his 2008 election campaign.
Chief among the marketing enterprises is a new book, called, appropriately, The Rolling Stones 50, in which the four present members contribute their memories of events stretching from the last tour all the way back to the 1960s, or in Wood's case to 1975, when he joined the band to replace Mick Taylor.

Accompanying the personal reflections are hundreds of photographs, many never published before, culled from the musos' personal archives or from newspaper files. The book, published next week, is to be followed in September by a documentary film that also traces the band's complete and extraordinary history, from swinging 60s pin-up boys through the sex 'n' drugs 'n' rock-roll phase of the 70s and the stadium rock experiences that became the centre of their business from the 80s onwards.

The band recruited film director Brett Morgen, whose films include The Kid Stays in the Picture, to take charge of the project.

Like the book, it includes a wealth of archive material that has never, or rarely, been seen.
Jagger described these archives recently as being like "opening a family scrapbook".

"For anyone who wants to experience the band, this is the film that will defy convention and create a sonic tapestry to transport viewers into the world of the Rolling Stones," Morgen says on the band's official website.
"The film will deliver the original, bold, sexy and dangerous flavour of the iconic rock band."

It was on July 12, 1962, that the Rollin' Stones, as they called themselves for the occasion, performed for the first time. The line-up at London's jazz and blues club The Marquee, a landmark in England's rock history, featured singer Jagger, guitarists Richards and Brian Jones, Ian Stewart on piano and rhythm section Dick Taylor and Tony Chapman. Bill Wyman arrived to replace Taylor in December and Watts to replace Chapman a month later.

Since 1963 the Stones have been high in the public consciousness. And while in the past three decades they haven't had hits or sold albums in the quantities they did in their heyday, the Stones have maintained their position as one of the world's foremost live attractions.
In Australia, the Stones have left their mark. They have toured here six times, the first time in 1965, relatively fresh-faced and keen to play down their rough and trumble image.

"We use more deodorant than the Beatles and we all wash regularly," was how Richards chose to introduce the band when it arrived at Sydney Airport.

Harry M. Miller, who brought the band to Australia in 1965 and 1966, recalled in a 1995 interview with The Australian that each band member was well-behaved.
"They were always first downstairs (from the hotel) waiting for the bus," Miller recalled.
"They were never late for a show. They were never short of girls but that was their business and I thought they handled it with great discretion."

It remains to be seen if we'll see the Stones back on Australian soil. Richards, who published his memoirs, Life, to much acclaim in 2010, told Rolling Stone in March that the band wasn't ready for a world tour, but suggested next year was "more realistic".
That was before talk of Glastonbury came up.

In the meantime each of the four Stones has been occupying themselves with side gigs.

Richards has joined Eric Clapton, among others, on stage and is working on his next solo album. Jagger performed for President Obama at the White House in February, while Watts has pursued his jazz interests.
On Wednesday night in London Wood played a concert in tribute to the blues and R&B label Chess Records, backed by a band that featured original Stones bassist Wyman and their 1970s guitarist Taylor.

As Richards told The Australian during the band's visit in 2003, it's the diversions from the main game that keep it alive.

"All of us, including Ronnie (Wood) and Charlie (Watts), did interesting things outside of the band and I think that helped. I learned a lot about what it's like to be the frontman from Mick's perspective. It takes more than just having the best players in the world around you. We all came back to the Stones having learned something."

So will there be a last time for the Stones? Regardless, for every Rolling Stones fan, next Thursday is a day worthy of celebration.

Iain Shedden's Rolling Stones Top 5

1. Brown Sugar (1971) - a song, penned mostly by Mick Jagger, where all of the great components of the Stones come together in one magnificent swagger, topped by the singer's cocksure delivery and ``I said yeah, yeah, yeah ...woooo'' sign-off.

2.The Last Time (1965) - A hint of the psychedelia that was to come and one of the best examples of the Brian Jones/Keith Richards guitar spoils, with Jones on the distinctive riff and Richards on rhythm and (fairly primitive) solo. Killer chorus too, especially the harmony.

3. You Can't Always Get What You Want (1969) - the epic closer to the album Let It Bleed. The choral backdrop lends a glorious, celebratory air to a song documenting the malaise at the heart of 60s culture. Producer Jimmy Miller played drums instead of Charlie Watts.

4. Rocks Off (1972) - The opening four and half minutes of Exile on Main Street oozes rock `n roll from every pore - albeit with a pschedelic breakdown in the middle. Bobby Keys particularly cool on the brass outro. Charlie on fire throughout.

5. She's a Rainbow (1967) - just because it was so weird when I first heard it as a child. The piano and ``ooh la la'' bit still gives me the creeps, but in a good way.

Further update: Even better than they were thirty years ago!

The Rolling Stones back with a bang at intimate Paris warm-up gig.

Story, pictures and videos at this link.

Classic Stones - 1990 - Paint It Black!

This post now dedicated to my sister who passed away recently.
She was a huge fan of The Rolling Stones.These pictures are from her collection.