  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Rolling Stones in the Sixties | |
The Rolling Stones group was born when Mick and Keith teamed up with a friend
Dick Taylor , who was later to form a group of his own name The Pretty Things
. The three of them rehearsed at Mick Jagger's home, Mick singing and playing
the harmonica while the other two played guitars. All they needed was money
to buy better instruments. Mick's parents decided to lent the money for brand-new
instruments. Mick was studying at the London School of Economics.
Later they met Brian Jones
in pub called the Bricklayer's Arms in London's Soho, there was nothing special
about the pub, except that it was Mick and Keith 'local'. In that pub Brian Jones
first met and talked with his future partners.
Sometimes later Mick Jagger
sent Alexis Korner some tapes of the music he'd been producing with Keith and
Dick Taylor. Alexis Korner was the king of rhythm-and-blues music in London.
He liked the music and agreed to meet the future Rolling Stones. Out of that
meeting came the agreement that Mick and Keith would sit in with Korner on some
dates. Brian Jones was also at the meeting and he become very interested in
the activities of Keith and Mick. They in their turn became very interested
in the drummer of the Alexis Korner band, his name was Charlie Watts.
Mick, Keith, Brian, Dick
and Ian Stewart (later Stones road manager) played in the Bricklayer's Arms.
People were beginning to wonder if this group might really have a big change
of becoming succesful. In the summer of 1962 came the break, the Rolling Stones
had the good fortune of deputizing for Alexis Korner in the Marquee Club. The
group got regular work in the Club. Charlie left the Alexis Korner band and
joined the Stones. Dick Taylor had left the band because he wanted to concentrad
on his studies. Bill Wyman went to see the band playing at the Wetherby Arms
in Chelsea, after rehearsing he decided to join the band. Ian Stewart too was
still with the group, playing the piano and organ.
They decided to start a band of their own and they found a flat in Chelsea.
The best name for a band was 'the Rolling Stones' taken from a track from a
Muddy Waters album they owned.
The second Stones single,
I Wanna Be Your Man was written by Lennon and McCarthy and was produced by Eric
Easton. Before this single was released the group went on the first tour of
the United Kingdom, but not at the top of the bill, Bo Diddley and the Everly
Brothers were billed higher. This first Rolling Stones tour gave thousands of
people a change to see just how great they are. The tour was a great success.
At a rehearsel for 'Thank you Lucky stars' they met Gene Pitney. Jagger and
Richards told him they'd written a song which they thought would suit his singing
style. The song was 'That Girl Belongs To Yesterday' and became a big hit in
America and the UK. Not only a success for Gene Pitney but also for Jagger/Richards
as a songwriting duo. I wanna be your man was released in November in the UK
(flip side in the UK was Stoned). In France an EP was released with Money, Bye
bye Johnny and You better move on.
The Rolling Stones started
1964 with an EP (Extended Play) with the same songs as in France except I wanna
be your man was replaced by Poison Ivy . After this EP came Not Fade Away a
huge success in the UK, the single also entered the US Top 100, beginning to
make a break in the United States.
During that session in
Chicago which was supervised by Andrew Oldham, the Stones were very impressed
by three guests who came to see them, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon.
The tour's highlight was at New York's Carnegy Hall. On 28th June their fourth
single was released: It's all over now and on the B-side: Good times, Bad times
; a number one in the UK. Andrew Oldham wanted to give up his co-management
of the Rolling Stones, he needed more time for discovering and recording new
artists. One of them was Marianne Faithfull , a 17 year old girl, who recorded
As tears go by , another Jagger/Richards composition. Later the Stones themselves
were to record this beautiful song.
In August '64 the Rolling
Stones' second EP, titled ' Five by Five ', was released in Britain. Sales of
EP were huge. In September they went on their fourth tour of the United Kingdom,
visiting thirty-seven cities and towns in as many days. After a short tour through
Europe they flew out of London airport, bound for New York and their second
Stateside tour. A new album '12 By 5' was now in the American record stores.
The tracks on that album were: Around and Around, Confessin' The Blues, Empty
heart, Time Is On My Side, Good Times, It's All Over Now, 2120 South Michigan
Avenue, Under The Boardwalk, Congratulations, Grown Up Wrong, If You Need Me
and Susie-Q. While the Stones were on the West Coast of the USA they recorded
many tracks for a future LP, with the possibility of a couple of the songs were
being released as singles.
November 1964 their fifth
single was released: Little Red Rooster and Off the Hook, it entered the New
Musical Express chart straight into number one. 1964 had been a very succesfull
year for the Stones; it was almost nothing compared to what was to come in 1965.
Concert
impression
In 1964 they gave
their first concert in the Netherlands in Scheveningen (near The Hague).
This concert however lasted not even half an hour, because severe riots
broke out and the police had to intervene and stop the concert. The building
(Kurhaus) was demolished, chairs were flying around. Girls underwear,
as Keith said, was hanging in the chandleleers. It was really a night
to remember.
In 1998 they were
be back in The Hague in September for a very rainy show at the Malieveld.
The year 1965 started
for`the Stones with a success, but not a big success as might have been expected.
At the beginning of January a new single was released in the USA: Heart of Stone
with What A Shame on the flip side. It's highest position in de US Top 100 was
15, not quite as big a success as had been hoped.
After recording a couple
of songs in Los Angeles, they boared a jet to Sydney Australia where they gave
three concerts in the Auditorium, wildly successfull. They also went to New
Zealand and Singapore. On 25th February their next single was released: The
Last Time and Play With Fire.
During their fifth UK tour,
Andrew Oldham had arranged to have recordings in London, Manchester and Liverpool.
In May they recorded in Chicago songs like: 1965 had been a tremendous
year for the Rolling Stones. They had made two sell out tours of the United
Kingdom, two of the USA and two of Scandinavia. Australia and New Zealand had
been conquered. The Stones' first tour in Germany had been wildly successfull,
and riots of enthousiasm had marked thier progress all over Europe. Five of
their singles had been million sellers and so were their albums. 1965 had been
a year in which the Rolling Stones had made a sensational impact all over the
world. 1966 was going to be equally succesfull and even wilder.
On the 4th of Febrary
1966 their ninth single was released in Great Britain, it was: 19th Nervous
Breakdown with as a flip side As Tears Go By, the American hit. It was a great
success, number two just three days after it's release. The following week it
was number one. In the USA another album
was release called: Big Hits, High Tide And Green Grass, it was selling fast;
also released in America was a new single: Paint It Black , featuring Brian
Jones on sitar, a very unusual record, a fantastic galloping track and a great
success all over the world.
Om 29th June 1966 the Stones
started their fifth Stateside tour. The tour began in Montreal, where they played
for 12.000 fans. On 2nd July they played in New York and went to Hollywood after
that show. After their American tour and a well earned holiday another single
was released: Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadow? . On the
day of the release of that single they started their seventh tour through the
UK, on the bill with them Ike and Tina Turner and the Yardbirds. The show in
the Royal Albert Hall in London was recorded for another future album. Yes 1966
had been another fantastic year for the Stones, with millions of their records
bought all over the world. There had been however riots during their shows in
Holland, Belgium, the Far East, France, Sweden Denmark, USA, Canada and Great
Britain, but that was all part of their image, whether they liked it or not.
We Love You and Dandelion
were released as a single at 18th August. We Love You began with the sound of
a prison warder's footsteps echoing along a corridor, then came the sound of
a cell door being firmly shut.
In the USA Flowers was
released and at the end of '67, 15th Decmber to be precise, a new sensational
and very progressive album was released: Their Satanic Majesties Request.
For the Rolling Stones
1967 had been a year of upsets and immense successes. In Great Britain they
released two singles and two albums. Those records were also on worldwide release.
There had been the Jager-Richards drug convictions and succesfull appeals, and
the Brian Jones drugs case and appeal. There had been a riotous Continental
tour, they had not toured the UK or the States.
In September Mick started
to work on his solo project the film: Performance . The album was completed
but not released, because the record compagny didn't like the controversial
cover of the album; in America there was even more controversy over a Stones
release. A track from Beggers Banquet, Street Fighting Man was released as a
single; their was quite a stir about the record's title and sleeve (showing
pictures of riots in LA). In the second week of November, their album Beggar's
Banquet still wasn't released, it was announced that the Stones were planning
to produce their own TV show, to be called "The Rolling Stones Rock n Roll Circus"
. Invited were Traffic, Taj Mahal, Jethro Tull and Dr John. Just for this TV
spectacular the biggest names in pop world would get together to form a supergroup:
Mick, Keith, John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Mich Miller. Traffic couldn't come,
they were replaced by the Who. Also appearing were: Marianne Faithfull and Yoko
Ono. On Friday 22nd November Beggar's Banquet was released. The ten tracks on
the album were: Sympathy For The Devil, No Expectations, Dear Doctor, Parachute
Woman, Jigsaw Puzzle, Street Fighting Man, Prodigal Son, Stray Cat Blues, Factory
Girl and Salt Of The Earth.
On the night of the 2nd
July Brain decided to go for a midnight bathe in his swimming pool, his girl
friend Anna Wohlin and Frank Thorogood went with him. For twenty minutes Brain
swam around, the others went back inside. A little later they
found him face-down at the bottom of the pool. All the members of the Stones
were informed on Thursday and they were shocked. Brain had been a member of
the Stones for seven years. The planned Hyde Park concert was dedicated to Brian,
as Mick said: he would have wanted it to go on. One day before the concert Honky
Tonk Women and You Can't Always Get What You Want was released as a single.
On Saturday 5th July the Stones performed in Hyde Park for a great crowd, an
official estimate of three hundred thousand people. Mick read out a poem by
Shelley for Brian and after that they started their gig, with some new songs
like Midnight Rambler. On Thursday Brian was buried.
For Mick and Marianne Faithfull
now came a journey to Australia for the film they were to appear, Ned Kelly,
the legendary Australian folk-hero. In London Keith's girl friend Anita Pallenberg
gave birth to a son, Marlon.
Now on worldwide release
was a new Stones album called: Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol 2) with
12 songs on it and a short tribute to Brain on the reverse side of the cover.
After filming Ned Kelly Mick went on 16th October with the rest of the group
to the States for their sixth tour in the USA. The largest audience to see the
Stones on this American tour, was by far the crowd (450.000-600.000 people)
at the free concert near San Francisco (Altamont) on Saturday, 6th December.
Groups of Hell's Angels volunteerd to guard the group; they stabbed one eigtheen
year old to death during an incident just in front of the stage, while Mick
was asking everybody to be quiet.
This is almost the end of
the historic overview of the Sixties with the Rolling Stones just one thing
left: the release of another album, their latest in the 60's: Let It Bleed.
Tracks on Let It Bleed are: Gimme Shelter, Love In Vain, Country Honk, Live
With Me, Let It Bleed, Midnight Rambler, You Got the Silver, Monkey Man and
You Can't Always Get What you Want. Let It Bleed was selling very well all over
the world.
Begin 1963 it looked as things were really beginning to happen, they played in
a lot of clubs. An article in the Record Mirror by Norman Jopling wrote: "the
group is red-hot, genuine R&B". Andrew Oldham saw the band and decided that he
would become their manager together with Eric Easton.
In the second week of May the Stones went to the Olympic Studios to record the
first of the group's releases and begin their immense repertoire. The tapes were
sent to Decca and they accepted them; the results were their first single: Come
on and I want to be loved.
The Stones were beginning to go out on the radio waves by Radio Luxemburg, so
their sound could be heard all over Europe. In July the Stones made their debut
in a major British pop television show of that time: "Thank you lucky stars".
The reaction of the adult viewers was anger.
Breakthrough 1964
On
16th April their first long-player was released in the Great Britain some tracks:
Route 66, I Need You Baby, Carol, Tell Me. The album was simply titled 'the
Rollings Stones' . In the USA a track from the album was released and immediately
sold 150.000 copies, that track was: Tell me . On the 2nd June they went to
New York and did a number of gigs in the USA. In Chicago they recorded many
new tracks for future new singles.
Satisfaction
- 1965
In the UK the second album was released on 15th January, simply titled 'The
Rolling Stones No. 2' . Much of the songs were identical to the American album
12 By 5, with some exceptions: Everybody Needs Somebody To Love, You Can't Catch
Me, Down The Road Apiece, What A Shame and Pain In My Heart.
That's How Strong My Love Is and Mercy, Mercy, this was during their third USA
tour. On the 25th of June their seventh American single entered the US Top 100:
Satisfaction, with on the B-side: The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man.
I Can't Get No Satisfaction was recorded in the RCA Studios in Hollywood; in
Great Britain an EP was released: 'Got Live If You Want It'. Satisfaction was
number one in all the charts in America, news which staggered the Rolling Stones,
this was the group's first number one in the United States. The record was released
in Britain on 25th August, with as a flip site: The Spider and The Fly. In the
rest of Europe the single was the same as in the States. Meanwhile they performed
in Dublin, Blackpool, the Isle of Man, they performed in the television program
'Ready Steady goes live!', and in Zurich and Germany during the month of September.
Back
in the UK the album 'Out of Our Heads' was released. This record was already
released in the USA, where it had earned the Stones a gold disc for having grossed
more than a million dollarsworth of sales. For the past six weeks it had been
number one in the American album charts. On the British release the tracks were:
She Said Yeah, Mercy Mercy, Hitch Hike, That's how b my love is, Good Times,
Gotta Get Away, Talking 'Bout You, Cry To Me, Oh Baby, Heart of Stone, The Under
Assistant West Coast Promotion Man and I'm Free. The Rolling Stones sixth tour
of the United Kingdom was getting very near and looked very promising. In the
beginning of October in the USA a new single was released: Get Off My Cloud
, a single with a very commercial beat. The B side was The Singer Not The Song
. Sales were colossal. In five days 500.000 copies were sold. In the end of
October they went for their fourth tour to the States, beginning in Montreal
(29th October) and ending in Los Angeles of December 6th. In the USA a new album
was relased 'December's Children' with As Tears Go By.
Aftermath - 1966
After New Zealand and Australia they went on Saturday the 26th of March to the
Netherlands (Den Bosch), during that performance there was a mass riot. After
that gig they did Brussels, Paris, Stockholm and Danmark. April 6 they flew
back to Britain to promote Aftermath, their new album with songs like: Mother's
Little Helper, Stupid Girl, Lady Jane, Under My Thumb, Dontcha Bother Me, Going
Home, Filght 505, High and Dry, Out Of Time, It's Not Easy, I Am Waiting, Take
It Or Leave It, Think and What To Do. For the first time all the tracks were
Jagger/Richards compositions and this was the first album on which the Stones
had featured a sitar. Many other artists scored hits with songs from Aftermath;
Chris Farlowe: Out Of Time, Gene Latter: Mother Little Helper, Searchers: Take
It Or Leave It. Other Jagger/Richards compositions were performed by other artists:
Satisfaction by Otis Redding, Sitting On A Fence by Twice As Much and and Blue
Turns To Grey by Cliff Richards.
1967- Let's
Spend The Night Together
Their first release
in '67 was a double A-side: Let's Spend The Night Together and Ruby Tuesday
. In the USA Ruby Tuesday was the A-side and the title Let Spend The Night Together
was banned by the radio stations so they changed the words to: Let's Spend Some
Time Together. On 21th of January a new album was released: Between the Buttons
. In the States an album was released called: Got Live If You Want It , the
huge sales of that record gained the Stones their fifth consecutive gold disc
for an American album. In April they started an European tour, as well as performing
in Sweden, Austria, France, Poland and Switzerland, the Stones visited Holland,
Germany and Greece. After that tour on 11th May Brian Jones was arrested for
the possession of Indian hemp at his flat, he was later release on a bail of
250 pounds. Mick and Keith were arrested for drug abuse, they were charged with
a 7000 pounds bail awaiting their trial in September. During those days they
went to the studio for the recording of We Love You and an album. Meanwhile
the Who released a single with Under My Thumb, and The Last Time as a tribute
to Mick and Keith, who were in jail at that time.
The end of the 60's
They started 68 very quiet; there were plans to start with their own record
label. During the month of February and March they invited Jimmy Miller to produce
several new tracks. The 12th of May they made a suprise appearance in the New
Musical Express Poll Concert. They played their new single which was released
at the 4th of May: Jumping Jack Flash with the B-side Child Of The Moon. After
their performance they worked on a new album to be titled Beggar's Banquet .
They planned to release the album on 26th June, Mick's birthday, but the release
was posponed several times, because Mick wanted another artist to work on the
album sleeve. Mick flew to California to complete the process of dubbing and
mixing the album together with Jimmy Miller, later Keith, Charlie and Marianne
Faithfull also flew to California. Meanwhile in Hollywood Mick went to a concert
of the Doors and he also appeared on stage together with Jim
Morrison .
On Sunday 8th June
came a decision that had been predicted in rumours for almost two years. Brain
Jones left the group. They agreed that it would be best for Brain to go his
own way.The Stones had already decided on a replacement for Brain. He was Mick
Taylor a 22 year old guitarist who had been playing for the John Mayall
Blues Breakers.
....the Rolling Stones greatest Rock and Roll band on earth....
|
|
|
Picture by Cindy Parkhurst |
May
1998 BRIAN JONES the late founder member of The Rolling Stones, is
at the centre of a political row in his hometown of Cheltenham which has
caught the attention of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Pat Andrews, the guitarist's former girlfriend, launched a campaign last March for a statue to commemorate Jones in the town he was born in, reports The Times newspaper. The Rolling Stone died in a swimming pool accident in 1969 at his property Cotchford Farm, the house where previous owner A.A. Milne wrote the Winnie The Pooh stories, and is buried in Cheltenham. Cheltenham mayor Les Goodwin is aghast at the proposal. He says: 'Brian Jones wasn't a popular man. He lived in a drug culture. When you remember what this man did in his lifetime, you have to think, 'Does he deserve a statue?'. The local MP for the area Nigel Jones (Liberal Democrat and apparently no relation to the Stone) sent Blair's office details of the situation. The Prime Minister, whose Oxford university band The Ugly Rumours played Stones covers, replied with a message of his support to Pat Andrew wishing her and co-campaigners 'all the best'. MP Jones says: We were thrilled. Mr Blair is in very good company. Marianne Faithfull also wants to recognise the enormous contribution that Brian made to the '60s. The Prime Minister's support has earned him a lifetime membership of the Brian Jones Fan Club. July 1999: Swedish Girlfriend Claims Stones' Jones Murdered STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish woman who found Rolling Stones star Brian Jones drowned in his own swimming pool has said she believes the guitarist was murdered. Anna Wohlin, who was Jones's girlfriend at the time of his death 30 years ago, has broken her years of silence with a new book, 'The Murder of Brian Jones,' published this week. Wohlin, now 53, told Swedish newspaper Expressen it had taken her this long to be able to talk about the night of July 3, 1969, when she found 27-year-old Jones' dead in the pool at his luxury farmhouse in Hartfield, England. 'It hurt so much and went so deep. It was as if it had not happened to me,' Wohlin said in the interview. 'I was in such shock that I was sick. Then I repressed it -- I got married.' |
| A verdict
of misadventure was recorded at the inquest into Jones's death, which happened
a month after he quit the Rolling Stones. He was believed to have been swimming
while under the influence of drink and drugs. But Wohlin, who now runs a
woman's clothes shop in Stockholm, insists that by the time of his death
Jones had stopped using hard drugs and had cut back on his drinking. She
claims builder Frank Thorogood, now also dead, killed Jones in a dispute
over money. Thorogood was doing some work for Jones at his farm. This theory
gained credibility in 1994 when a recording of an alleged death bed confession
by Thorogood came to light. Police briefly re-opened the investigation but
with no progress. Wohlin said she decided after her divorce recently to
write down her version of Jones's death.
'I felt that I wanted to tell what really happened, mainly for the sake of his son and his closest friends who also believed that he died when he was on drugs. That wasn't true. I knew what was going on,' she said. |
|
Following
Exile, the Stones began to splinter in two, as Jagger concentrated on being
a celebrity and Richards sank into drug addiction. The band remained popular
throughout the '70s, but their critical support waned. Goats Head Soup (with
the hit Angie), released in 1973, reached number one, as did 1974's It's Only
Rock 'N' Roll, but neither record was particularly well received. Taylor left
the band after It's Only Rock 'N' Roll, and the group recorded their next album
as they auditioned new lead guitarists, including Jeff Beck. They finally settled
on Ron Wood, former lead guitarist for the Faces and
Rod Stewart, in 1976, the same year they released Black N' Blue, which only
featured Wood on a handful of cuts. During the mid- and late '70s, all the Stones
pursued side projects, with both Wyman and Wood releasing solo albums with regularity.
Richards was arrested in Canada in 1977 with his common-law wife Anita Pallenberg
for heroin possession. After his arrest, he cleaned up and was given a suspended
sentence the following year. The band reconvened in 1978 to record Some Girls,
an energetic response to punk, new wave and disco.
The
record and its first single, the thumping disco-rocker "Miss You," both reached
number one, and the album restored the group's image. However, the group squandered
that goodwill with the follow-up Emotional Rescue, a number one record that
nevertheless received lukewarm reviews upon its 1980 release. Tattoo You, released
the following year, fared better both critically and commercially, as the singles
"Start Me Up" and "Waiting on a Friend" helped the album spend nine weeks at
number one. The Stones supported Tattoo You with an extensive stadium tour captured
in Hal Ashby's movie Let's Spend the Night Together and the 1982 live album
Still Life.
Tattoo You proved to be the last time the Stones completely dominated the charts and the stadiums. Although the group continued to sell out concerts in the '80s and '90s, their records didn't sell as well as previous efforts, partially because the albums suffered due to Jagger and Richards' notorious mid-'80s feud. Starting with 1983's Undercover, the duo conflicted about which way the band should go, with Jagger wanting the Stones to follow contemporary trends and Richards wanting them to stay true to their rock roots. As a result, Undercover was a meanspirited, unfocused record that received relatively weak sales and mixed reviews.
Released in 1986, Dirty Work suffered a worse fate, since Jagger was preoccupied with his fledgling solo career. Once Jagger decided that the Stones would not support Dirty Work with a tour, Richards decided to make his own solo record with 1988's Talk Is Cheap. Appearing a year after Jagger's failed second solo album, Talk is Cheap received good reviews and went gold, prompting Jagger and Richards to reunite late in 1988. The following year, the Stones released Steel Wheels, which was received with good reviews, but the record was overshadowed by its supporting tour, which grossed over $140 million dollars and broke many box office records.
In 1991, the live album Flashpoint, which was recorded during the Steel Wheels shows, was released.
Following the release of Flashpoint, Bill Wyman left the band; he published a memoir, Stone Alone, within a few years of leaving. The Stones didn't immediately
replace Wyman, since they were all working on solo projects; this time, there was none of the animosity surrounding their mid-'80s projects. The group reconvened
in 1994 with bassist Darryl Jones, who had previously played with Miles Davis and Sting, to record and release the Don Was-produced Voodoo Lounge. The album
received the band's strongest reviews in years, and its accompanying tour was even more successful than the Steel Wheels tour. On top of being more successful
than its predecessor, Voodoo Lounge also won the Stones their first Grammy for Best Rock Album. Upon the completion of the Voodoo Lounge tour, the Stones released
the live, "unplugged" album Stripped in the fall of 1995. Similarly, after wrapping up their tour in support of 1997's Bridges to Babylon, the group started another
live set, No Security (the live album culled from the Bridges to Babylon tour) in 1999 in the States, while the Bridges to Babylon tour restarts in Europe
in 1999.
