The Rolling Stones

4.3

Foundation date: 1962

The country: Great Britain

Town: London

Compound:
Mick Jagger (vocals)

Links:

Biography of the Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are synonymous with the rebellious spirit of the 1960s era. This amazing harmoniously outrageous group of guys broke into the world of rock and roll and made a revolution in it. Literally within a year, “rolling stones” were no longer perceived by the audience as an alternative to The Beatles, and by the beginning of the seventies they were already called an era.

The legendary Rolling Stones


History of creation

Dartford. Year 1961. Former classmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards meet by chance on the train station platform. Jagger is holding rhythm and blues records. Richards is surprised to note that his friend is passionate about the same music as himself.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were classmates


Then they remembered and contacted a friend, Richard Taylor, who was languishing in art school. Perhaps it was from his suggestion that the created group received the name “Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys”, which gave scope to the imagination. The trinity began to master the repertoires of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Elvis. However, Richard soon got tired of amateur performances, he decided to leave the Blue Boys.

Jagger and Richards in their youth


London. Year 1962. Mick and Keith spent this spring at the Ealling Club, where Brian Jones (slide guitar) and Alexis Korner (blues propagandist, founder of Blues Incorporated) worked at that time. Impressed by their performances, the Blue Boys showed Alexis their amateur recordings and soon became members of his team themselves – Jagger as a soloist, Richards as a guitarist.

Rolling Stones in London, 1964


Meanwhile, a London newspaper advertised a new rhythm and blues band, posted by Brian. With the first pianist who responded to the ad, they signed an agreement and began to rehearse. Ian Stewart turned out to be the lucky one. Soon Jagger and Richards also pulled up.

Photo shoot for the album Beggars Banquet (1968)


So the four began to rehearse together under the new name “Rolling Stones”. During a performance on the BBC on July 12, 1962, the group announced this date as their birthday, and began to be called.

The main stages of creativity

Sixties. The formation of the group took place throughout the autumn and winter of 1962. The line-up changed, invariably only Mick, Brian and Keith were present in it so far. At that moment, producer Andrew Loog Oldham drew attention to them, who decided to take the group under his wing.

Andrew Loog Oldham, producer of The Rolling Stones


The idea of ​​opposing them to the “clean” Liverpool four required the removal of keyboardist Stewart from the group, who did not fit the image of the “bad guy”. Andrew made it incumbent on each participant to let their hair grow longer, to smile less in public, maintaining a certain sullenness, and also to stress the sex appeal with all their might.

The Rolling Stones decided to oppose The Beatles


With the debut single for Chuck Berry’s song “Come On”, brutal and unusually uninhibited rollers soon became the idols of thousands of compatriots who dream of at least touching the performers, despite the angry streams of criticism. Meanwhile, the Rolling Stones toured Europe, released their first studio album, earned a notorious reputation and began to climb to the top of the charts.

In 1964, their cover version of Willie Dixon’s “Little Red Rooster” reached number one on the New Musical Express chart. After that, Oldham decided it was time for the band to move on to focus more on their own creations. After spending some time in a room deliberately locked by the producer, the Rolling Stones presented the author’s single “The Last Time”, which “broke” the British scene.

The Rolling Stones – The Last Time (live 1964)

1965 brought recognition to the group and the American public after the hit “(I Can t Get No) Satisfaction”. The psychedelic album “Aftermath” was sold in the States on every corner. Mick Taylor joined the group, taking the place of the departed Jones. The group began to promote “sex, drugs and rock and roll” as a lifestyle. In early 1968, Oldham stepped down as producer and handed them over to Alain Klein.

Sex, drugs and rock and roll became the motto of the group


The end of the sixties, against the backdrop of wild popularity and the same earnings, presented the group with a tragic event. Guitarist Brian left the Rolling Stones and plunged into a narcotic dope. A month later, he was found dead in the pool of his own house. In memory of him, the Rolling Stones gave a concert in Hyde Park, which was attended by a quarter of a million people. Mick recited Shelley’s poetry and released thousands of butterflies into the sky at the end. So they said goodbye to Jones. So they said goodbye to their crazy, scandalous sixties.

Brian Jones drowned in the pool


Seventies. The year 1970 saved the Rolling Stones from their main “competitors”: The Beatles disbanded after Paul McCartney’s statement about his unwillingness to further cooperate with the group. Rolling Stones capture all the first places of the popular charts. Designer John Pash develops the Rolling Stones signature emblem – a cheeky protruding tongue between red lips, and the outrageous Andy Warhol places it on the cover of the Sticky Finders record.

The theme of sex and death in the songs of the Rolling Stones clearly comes to the fore. Fans furiously sing at concerts along with rollers the poignant compositions “Sister Morphine” and “Wild Horses”.

Mick acts in films, then starts a family with black model Bianca Perez. The band is in turmoil again: Taylor leaves, replaced by Ronn Wood. Richards is in trouble with the law and is struggling to get off drugs. Jagger is tired of family life, he is divorcing Perez, having lost a lot on payoffs.

The famous “Sticky Fingers” album cover


This decade has pleased fans with four new albums, in which there is a complete mixture of genres – from blues and soul to country and gospel. The end of the seventies is marked by the release of the energetically powerful album “Some Girls”.

The Rolling Stones – Respectable (1978)

Eighties. While the media were trumpeting with might and main that the era of the Rolling Stones had come to an end, and the monolithic tandem Mick & Keith were arguing about the further development strategy of the group, as if in between times they were recording a studio disc called “Emotional Rescue” in 1980 and going on tour in America. Then they release another album “Tattoo You” and for some time they really go into the shadows and are engaged in solo projects.

The Rolling Stones era did not end in the 80s, as critics predicted


Having satisfied their personal ambitions, the musicians recorded three more studio albums, signed a contract with CBS Records, and began collaborating with Steve Lillywhite, a new producer. An international tour in the late 1980s netted nearly $150 million for the band. The hits of Steel Wheels are on the radio, fans come to concerts in branded T-shirts and go on a rampage to Rock and a Hard Place. The Rolling Stones once again prove that they are more alive than all the living.

The Rolling Stones

Nineties. The main event of this decade and confirmation of the creative success of the Rolling Stones were two Grammys in 1995 – for the best rock album and the best video for the song “Love is Strong”. The original Voodoo Lounge album was a truly happy one for the band. With new bass player Darryl Jones, the Rolling Stones embark on yet another US tour, once again proving that the Rolling Stones are the most popular and legendary rock band in the world.

The Rolling Stones are the most popular rock band in the world


Tandem Mick & Keith performed with such youthful enthusiasm, as if they returned to the formative years of the group. The new sound and virtuosic skill of Watts as a drummer amaze the fans who became the owners of the new album “Bridges to Babylon” (1997). The world tour, which took place in support of the new disc, remained in the memory of the audience from Holland to Argentina. For the first time, Rolling Stones visited Russia, having played a concert in Moscow. The group’s energy was still off the scale, despite 35 years of stage experience.

The Rolling Stones

Collaborations with other artists

Scandals

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the whole life and work of the Rolling Stones is involved in constant scandalous stories. First following the image, and then getting involved, the “dirty boys” have remained so for more than fifty-five years. Drug possession, trials, suspended sentences, fines, probation, high-profile divorces – all the English newspapers of the sixties and seventies angrily denounced the band members.

The name Rolling Stones has become synonymous with breakout


Rolling concerts were often accompanied by fights, and in 1969 a free performance in Altamont, California ended in the death of one of the fans. 18-year-old African American Meredith Hunter wanted to get on stage, but the guards, which the team formed from Hells Angels bikers, used physical force on him. Then the young man took out a revolver from his pocket and tried to return to the stage, but the guard Alan Passaro stabbed him with a knife. The wound proved fatal. At the same festival, which was later dubbed “rock’s worst day”, two spectators were hit by a car and one drowned in a ditch.

Murder at a Rolling Stones concert, Altamont, 1969

After that, the musicians decided to refuse the services of the Hells Angels. In retaliation, the bikers decided to sneak into Jagger’s Long Island mansion. In order to bypass the guards at the gate, the attackers decided to sail at night on a boat from the coast. But on the way a storm began, and the boat sank. The bikers escaped, but did not plan any more assassination attempts. Jagger himself does not like to remember those times, as he is ashamed of his former ties with the Hells Angels.

Numerous novels of “stones” with fans are still in the field of view of the media. For example, in 2016, 29-year-old ballerina Melanie Hemrick gave birth to Jagger’s child, who was already the singer’s eighth. But a couple of months later, he was photographed on a date with 22-year-old producer Nur Alfallah. At that time, the leader of the Rolling Stones turned seventy-four, but to say that he is an old man does not turn his tongue, it was not for nothing that his friend Keith enviously advised Mick to be sterilized!

Selected discography according to Know Everything

  • The Rolling Stones (1964)
  • Between the Buttons (1967)
  • Sticky Fingers (1971)
  • It’s Only Rock’n’Roll (1974)
  • Undercover (1983)
  • A Bigger Bang (2006)
  • Blue and Lonesome (2016)

The Rolling Stones now

In the new millennium, the Rolling Stones are still in the ranks, traveling the world, celebrating new anniversaries and collecting new millions, as well as the warm applause of fans whose ranks, although thinned, are invariably faithful to the idols of several generations.

Rolling Stones are still in the ranks


Rock centenarians even have their own museum in Germany, six of the greatest hits have been honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame as historic, and in 2018 the Rolling Stones won another Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album (Blue and Lonesome). Jagger, meanwhile, was filming The Burnt Orange Heresy directed by Giuseppe Capotondi. Genre, as always scandalous: dramatic action movie. But the main “moving stone” is no stranger to this!

Rolling Stones – listen online