My first real contact with the Stones' music was hearing Angie on the radio in 1973. That should have been enough to turn me off the Stones for life - fortunately it wasn't.
Before that my earliest recollection of hearing anything about them is Dad reading out a Sunday Times Story about the murder that occurred while the Stones played at the Altamont Festival. For some reason I remember that well, we had stopped in Taihape on what must have been a break driving to or from our Christmas Holiday in 1969. To me Dad usually only read out things from a newspaper when the articles aligned with his world view which in this case must have been something to do with the decadence of the Stones and the associated breakdown in civilization.
Terry bought a copy of a mixture of live and studio tracks called Gimme Shelter. That was an inconsistent collection which appeared to have no thematic base to it. It did however have a great live version of Midnight Rambler. That lead me to picking up a copy of Let It Bleed and my growing appreciation of how good the Stones were. I guess what made Let it Bleed so good was that you could almost hear the band working out what their next steps would be as they grappled with the increasingly erratic Brian Jones. Tracks like Gimme Shelter, You Can't Always Get What You Want and Midnight Rambler really took them well and truly away from a singles band and I think was one of early landmarks of album rock.
I had been lent a copy of Beggar's Banquet when I was about 15 and I did not connect with it at the time, apart from Sympathy for The Devil. If you like the song and have not read The Master and Margarita I strongly suggest that you give it a go - it shows how Jagger was really trying to update that book in song. I still find the rhythm for that song engrossing - and was probably Jones' last significant contribution as he introduced the drumming and percussion of The Master Musicians of Joujouka that he picked up on an ill fated trip to Morocco where his relationship with Keith Richards probably effectively came to an end.
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Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street are now the two Stones' albums I play the most. I find Sticky Fingers their most complete work as I find myself only skipping over Sister Morphine. It has two of my favourite Stones' tracks in Sway and Bitch. However you can't argue with the grace of Wild Horses, the swagger of Brown Sugar and the power of what seems to me to be the Santana influenced jamming of Can't You Hear Me Knocking?
I eventually picked up a copy of Exile on Mainstreet in the early 90s. I was immediately impressed at its breadth and how cohesive it is even thought there is not what I would call a single standout song. Somehow its sloppy, drugged out feel holds it all together.
So slowly but surely I became a Stones' fan. I never forgave them for Angie though.
Such was the impact of Angie and the equally awful title single off the next album It's Only Rock and Roll that I did not really dig my toes into their music for another 4 or 5 years when I eventually bought Rolled Gold a great collection of singles from the early 60s through to Wild Horses in 1971.
Terry bought a copy of a mixture of live and studio tracks called Gimme Shelter. That was an inconsistent collection which appeared to have no thematic base to it. It did however have a great live version of Midnight Rambler. That lead me to picking up a copy of Let It Bleed and my growing appreciation of how good the Stones were. I guess what made Let it Bleed so good was that you could almost hear the band working out what their next steps would be as they grappled with the increasingly erratic Brian Jones. Tracks like Gimme Shelter, You Can't Always Get What You Want and Midnight Rambler really took them well and truly away from a singles band and I think was one of early landmarks of album rock.I had been lent a copy of Beggar's Banquet when I was about 15 and I did not connect with it at the time, apart from Sympathy for The Devil. If you like the song and have not read The Master and Margarita I strongly suggest that you give it a go - it shows how Jagger was really trying to update that book in song. I still find the rhythm for that song engrossing - and was probably Jones' last significant contribution as he introduced the drumming and percussion of The Master Musicians of Joujouka that he picked up on an ill fated trip to Morocco where his relationship with Keith Richards probably effectively came to an end..
Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street are now the two Stones' albums I play the most. I find Sticky Fingers their most complete work as I find myself only skipping over Sister Morphine. It has two of my favourite Stones' tracks in Sway and Bitch. However you can't argue with the grace of Wild Horses, the swagger of Brown Sugar and the power of what seems to me to be the Santana influenced jamming of Can't You Hear Me Knocking?
I eventually picked up a copy of Exile on Mainstreet in the early 90s. I was immediately impressed at its breadth and how cohesive it is even thought there is not what I would call a single standout song. Somehow its sloppy, drugged out feel holds it all together.
So slowly but surely I became a Stones' fan. I never forgave them for Angie though.
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