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Controversy often limits a good song's exposure and hinders its climb up the charts. Such is the case with The Rolling Stones' double A-side single, "Let's Spend The Night Together" that only got as high as #55 on the Hot 100. It did much better in the UK, where it topped out at #3. It also served as the lead off track on their American LP,  Between the Buttons . The more famous and more deserving flip side, "Ruby Tuesday," reached #1 in the USA and #3 at home in England. Many American radio and television stations refused to play "Let's Spend The Night Together" because they considered it an obscene song, and in 1967 that wasn't surprising. Even with today's more lenient standards the lyrics still generate a lot of controversy. When the quintet appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1967 to promote the record Sullivan told Mick Jagger - who composed the song with Keith Richards -   "Either the song ...

One of the few positive things to come out of the Coronavirus pandemic is some good music even though I'm sure we'd all be willing to give up a few excellent tunes to eradicate that bad boy from the face of the Earth. One of the artists who drew inspiration from the dismal lockdown was The Rolling Stones. They released "Living In A Ghost Town" on streaming services and as an mp3 download back in April 2020. It's also available as a ten-inch, one-sided single on vinyl and as a single track CD on Amazon . I recently purchased the song from iTunes. The track is the first new, original Stones' music since "Gloom and Doom" and "One More Shot" became available in 2012, and it's the only new work they've released of any kind since their very fine album of blues covers, Blue & Lonesome , in 2016. "Living In A Ghost Town" is notable for being the group...

With the remaining members all well into their 70s and Charlie Watts already gone Blue & Lonesome is more than likely The Rolling Stones' last studio album, and it's their only full length record since The Bigger Bang  was released way back in 2005. It's also a surprise because there isn't a single Keith Richards / Mick Jagger original song anywhere. Instead, Blue & Lonesome offers up twelve raw covers of old blues tunes, many that predate the infamous British rockers' career. I've written here before that when an artist releases an album of all cover songs it's often because he or she has run out of inspiration while still having contractual obligations to fulfill. It is to the Stones' credit that they didn't fall into that fatal trap by releasing an album that often puts the nail in the coffin of many formerly great and productive careers. Blue & Lonesome sounds like a true labor of love. The blues are what inspired Jagger and...

This is another old post that was originally published here on April 21, 2011. It's both a history lesson on The Rolling Stones and a tribute to an original member, the late Ian Stewart. This post is more than a review, it's also a history lesson. The late Ian Stewart (July 18, 1938 – December 12, 1985) was a founding member of The Rolling Stones. He preceded everyone but Brian Jones into the group when he was the first to respond to an ad Jones placed in a newspaper looking for musicians to start a new band. Stewart, whose nickname was "Stu," staked out a reputation for himself as a great piano player who loved big band jazz, R & B, blues, and boogie woogie. Stewart's physique was on the hefty side. He wore his hair differently and he was a few years older than the rest of the Stones. He didn't look the part, so in 1963, their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, decided Stu was too uncool for the image he was marketing - and that six guys on stage was to...

Charlie Watts on the cover of a live Rolling Stones CD This is not going to be one of my better pieces of writing because anything I say today about Charlie Watts would just be redundant. You can already find everything you need to know about him all over the blogosphere yet I would feel remiss if I didn't acknowledge his passing in some way.   Watts was always my favorite member of The Rolling Stones and his death yesterday is one that bothers me a lot. Maybe, it's because of how iconic The Stones became during what is now the first era of classic rock. Admittedly, I was never the band's biggest booster although I do like their music enough to have read Keith Richard's autobiography . As written over and over the last two days, jazz was always the drummer's first love thoug...

I offer my deepest apologies to those people who believe the Rolling Stones really were the "world's greatest rock 'n' roll band" because I'm about to commit rock 'n' roll blasphemy with this statement: Exile on Main Street , the band's 1972, double-disc LP, considered by most critics of the musical cultural elite to be one of the finest rock albums ever recorded, is an immensely bad set of songs. Maybe it's the very muddy sounding final mix that made every track, except for the two big hit singles, "Tumbling Dice" and "Happy," sound exactly the same, or is it the crudity of many of the songs. After all, what is there to like about a song titled "Turd on the Run?" Therefore, you may be surprised to find that I feel just the opposite about this compilation from Telarc consisting of ten songs from Main Street re-recorded by a crackerjack blues band along with a host of blues all-stars. Exile on Blues Street is ...

I've never been a big fan of The Rolling Stones. I like them but don't love them. My favorite Stones songs are "Jumpin’ Jack Flash," "Gimme Shelter," and "Mother’s Little Helper." I also like "Tumbling Dice" but most of Exile on Main Street is too muddy and too raw for my tastes. Despite my ambivalence toward the band, Life , by Keith Richards is among the most interesting autobiographies I've ever read. Because the 547 page book is a very detailed narrative you can tell that Richards was truly involved with its creation. It's not just the work of his collaborator, James Fox. You have to be amazed by The Stones' great guitarist for his candidness about his wild, hedonistic lifestyle. He makes no excuses for his exploits, never sugarcoats them, and he is equally blunt about his family and his former and current bandmates. At the same time he possesses a soft spot for many of the people who have passed through his l...