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The Rolling Stones

By the time the Rolling Stones began calling themselves “The World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band” in the late '60s, they had already staked out an impressive claim on the title.

As the self-consciously dangerous alternative to the bouncy Mersey beat of the Beatles in the British Invasion, the Stones had pioneered the gritty, hard-driving blues-based rock & roll that came to define hard rock. With assured front man Mick Jagger combining with the guitar talents of Keith Richards and Brian Jones, backed by the solid rhythm section of bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts, the Stones became the breakout band of the British blues scene, eclipsing many others.

The Stones had an impressive and prolific output of popular hits during the 1960’s with a string of songs which are considered classics and standards. The list would be too extensive to venture into, but is well acknowledged and needs no further documentation.

Over the course of their career, the Stones never really abandoned blues, but as soon as they reached mass popularity, they began experimenting musically. After a brief dalliance with psychedelia, the Stones re-emerged in the late '60s as a jaded, blues-soaked hard rock quintet. The Stones always flirted with the seedy side of rock & roll, and as the hippie dream began to break apart, they thrived in the new rock culture. It wasn't without difficulty, of course.

The band would go through some dramatic personnel changes that would alter their appearance as well as their sound. Shortly after leaving the group, Brian Jones died in July of 1969, to be replaced by guitarist Mick Taylor. Taylor contributed outstanding guitar work in the time he was with them (’69-’74) and those records are considered some of their best studio efforts. During this period they continued to add to their expanding repertoire of songs that would help define their legacy.

Taylor left the band in 1974, auditioning new guitarists,in 1976 they finally settled on Ron Wood.Original bassist Bill Wyman retired from the Stones in 1991; in 1994 bassist Daryl Jones was brought in as the bands new member.

The Rolling Stones continue to record and perform, and while their records aren’t always blockbusters, they are never less than the most visible band of their era — certainly, none of their peers continued to be as popular or productive as the Stones. And no active band since has proven to have such a broad fan base or far-reaching popularity, and it is impossible to hear any of the groups that followed them without detecting some sort of influence, whether it was musical or aesthetic.

With Time No Longer an Issue: The Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds and Foreign Tongues

by C. Michael Bailey
July 31, 2026

The standard critical frameworks used to evaluate late-career popular music--nostalgia, institutional legacy, and the search for one last masterpiece--have become increasingly inadequate for understanding the Rolling Stones' most recent work. Such approaches inevitably turn new recordings into epilogues to a completed career. The remarkable fact is not that musicians in their eighties remain productive. It is that Hackney Diamonds (Polydor/Geffen, 2023) and Foreign Tongues reveal the emergence of a genuinely new creative period in the band's history. That ...

Book Review

The Rolling Stones - The Biography

by Thomas Cole
June 21, 2026

The Rolling Stones, The Biography Bob Spitz 704 ISBN-10 : 0593489098 ISBN-13 : 978-0593489093Penguin2026 Anticipation mounts as the lights are turned down low and finally... the curtain rises and the announcement from the PA system bellows--"Please welcome the Greatest Rock 'N' Roll Band in the World--THE ROLLING STONES! That endorphin rush never fails to well up upon hearing those words accompanied by the unmistakable sound of the most dynamic, long-standing rock ...

Album Review

Rolling Stones: Black and Blue (2CD)

Read "Black and Blue (2CD)" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
November 14, 2025

Forgetting for the moment any revisionism applied to the Rolling Stones album Black & Blue (Rolling Stones Records, 1976), the iconic British band was in more than a little disarray when it repaired to a variety of studios for recording sessions beginning roughly two years prior to issue. Still, retrospect applied via the reissue(s) of the band's 13th studio album reveals it to be a patchwork of tracks far more cohesive than the sloppy collage of salacious images on the ...

Album Review

Rolling Stones: Hackney Diamonds

Read "Hackney Diamonds" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
March 2, 2024

The Rolling Stones have taken some risks of greater and lesser proportion over the course of their sixty-plus-year career, but perhaps no gamble is so great as the decision by the surviving members of the band to continue on after the passing of drummer Charlie Watts. With the blessing of their co-founder in place for the presence of musician/producer Steve Jordan at the kit, the self-appointed 'greatest rock and roll band in the world' carried on with its ...

Multiple Reviews

Rolling Stones And Grateful Dead: Stoking The Eternal Flame

by Doug Collette
February 26, 2023

Notwithstanding the almost clockwork regularity of archival releases (with and without bonus material), upon quick reflection, the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead would not appear to have much in common. But some concentrated contemplation reveals how many traits these bands actually share and that's even apart from their remarkable longevity. With sixty-plus years and counting for the Stones, and the Dead weathering three decades beyond titular leader Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, both bands have generated extensive and durable ...

Radio & Podcasts

Sisters from Another Jazz Mother? Part 1

by Ludovico Granvassu
August 16, 2022

Music geekery is at the heart of this week's edition. Over the years, time and time again I have come across songs that left me thinking... “Wait... there's a melody in this chorus or this solo that really reminds me of another song... but I can't quite put my finger on it... “ And every time I'd play that song the same question would pop in my head at that same chorus or solo!I'm sure you're all familiar ...

Film Review

The Rolling Stones: Licked Live In NYC

by Doug Collette
June 25, 2022

Rolling Stones Licked Live In NYC Mercury Studios 2022 It is no little poetic justice, but also a perfectly appropriate gesture of respect on its own terms that, when the Rolling Stones first appear on the Madison Square Garden stage in Licked Live In NYC, vocalist Mick Jagger is swinging his arm up and down, right in time with the massive thud coming from the drums behind him manned by the late Charlie ...

Music Industry

That Time Keith Richards Discovered Muddy Waters Painting The Ceiling Of Chess Studios

Source: HypeBot
August 17, 2019

Host to countless legendary artists, Chess Records has become an iconic fixture of reverence in the music industry, so it should come as no surprise that some of music's biggest icons would cross paths in unexpected ways there, as in this peculiar interior decorating incident involving Muddy Waters and The Rolling Stones. Guest post by Dan Reifsnyder of Soundfly's Flypaper To simply call Chess Records “legendary” would be a gross understatement. Founded in Chicago in 1950, it was the label home to ...
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Festival

Rolling Stones, Who, McCartney, Dylan, Young, Waters To Headline Coachella Desert Trip Festival

Source: HypeBot
May 5, 2016

If you've already got an expensive concert site set up for a two weekend indie rock fest and a multi-day country festival, you might as well use it for something. Right? The answer is yes, and the creative programming choice is a 3 day festival of the same acts that have been filling arenas for decades. It's to be called Desert Trip. A three-day concert event will take place in Indio, California and it is not Coachella. October 7, 8 ...
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Recording

The Rolling Stones: "Beast of Burden" Clip from Some Girls

Source: JamBase
December 10, 2011

SOME GIRLS REISSUES AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE NOW The Rolling Stones recently revealed a clip of “Beast of Burden" from their Some Girls Super Deluxe Box Set. The classic performance of “Beast of Burden" can be seen below. Universal Music Group released the deluxe and super deluxe reissue of the Rolling Stones' 1978 album, Some Girls, on November 21. Widely regarded as one of the band's greatest albums, the super deluxe version features 2 CD's, 1 DVD, a hardback book, Helmut Newton ...
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Event

The Music of the Rolling Stones at Carnegie Hall

Source: JamBase
November 23, 2011

ROSANNE CASH, GLEN HANSARD, STEVE EARLE, RICH ROBINSON AND MORE ALREADY CONFIRMED Michael Dorf announced the first artists confirmed to play a special March 13 tribute concert at Carnegie Hall, celebrating the music of The Rolling Stones and the 40th Anniversary of the release of their iconic collection Hot Rocks 1964-1971. The initial, star-studded lineup includes Rosanne Cash, Steve Earle, Glen Hansard, Rich Robinson (Black Crowes), Carolina Chocolate Drops and The Mountain Goats, with more to be announced soon. The ...
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107

Video / DVD

The Rolling Stones - Some Girls: Live in Texas '78 DVD (2011)

Source: Something Else!
November 20, 2011

Early on, Mick Jagger told an interviewer: “We were blues purists who liked ever-so-commercial things but never did them onstage because we were so horrible and so aware of being blues purists, you know what I mean?" With Some Girls, the Rolling Stones embraced those mainstream undercurrents, moving as far as they yet had from the earthen rhythm and blues that provided a bed-rock inspiration for the band's sound. After a few years of unfocused meanderings following the druggy somnambulism ...
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Recording

The Rolling Stones: "No Spare Parts"

Source: JamBase
October 22, 2011

FIRST TASTE OF SOME GIRLS REISSUE OUT NOV. 21 As previously announced, The Rolling Stones will release a deluxe reissue of their classic 1978 album Some Girls on November 21. Now, fans can get their first taste of the reissue via the previously unreleased track “No Spare Parts." Listen to it below, and check out the tracklisting for the re-mastered, expanded, Super-Deluxe, Deluxe and Digital editions of Some Girls. Disc 1

Miss YouWhen The Whip Comes DownJust My Imagination (Running ...
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Recording

The Rolling Stones Announce Deluxe Reissue of Some Girls

Source: JamBase
September 16, 2011

CLASSIC STONES ALBUM TO GET THE REISSUE TREATMENT THIS NOVEMBER The Rolling Stones are pleased to announce the release on November 21, 2011 of the re-mastered, expanded, Super-Deluxe, Deluxe and Digital editions of Some Girls, the groundbreaking album which introduced the music of the Rolling Stones to a whole new generation of fans. Justly considered one of the finest works by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman and Ronnie Wood, Some Girls topped the US charts over three ...
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199

Music Industry

Did the Rolling Stones' Music Go Downhill After the Beatles Broke Up?

Source: Michael Ricci
May 26, 2010

Reader Neil McCarthy responded to my recent interview with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards about the expanded reissue of the Rolling Stones 1972 album Exile on Main St. with an intriguing theory thats been voiced by others over the years.

In short, McCarthy thinks the Stones music started on a downhill slide around 1970, when the Beatles broke up and he suggests that was no coincidence.

“I've never felt Exile was anything but a sloppy attempt to match the Beatles ...
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102

TV / Film

Re-Issue of Stones Album Spawns Cannes Documentary

Source: All About Jazz
May 16, 2010

The intoxicating blend of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll never spoils, particularly if it's of an early '70s vintage. And it never hurts to use film and TV to sell it, particularly if the film makes its debut at Cannes.

“Exile on Main Street," the Rolling Stones' down-and-dirty double album that was reviled upon its 1972 release -- then later hailed as a masterpiece -- appears to grow ever more complex with age. Event-scaled activity is swirling around the ...
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226

Music Industry

The Rolling Stones Shine a Light on 'Exile on Main St.' Reissue

Source: Michael Ricci
May 15, 2010

Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and recent producer Don Was discuss the band's 1972 album and the rerelease's previously unheard material.

Keith Richards remembers the period in the early 1970s when the Rolling Stones were working on “Exile on Main St." as a fairly down time. The parts he remembers at all, that is. That's partly due to the fact that the recording sessions took place as the Stones guitarist and songwriter's heroin habit took hold in a big way, a ...
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