Why the Rolling Stones ruled the Seventies

Telegraph UK ^ | 5/13/09 | Neil McCormick

[pissant]

Well, did you prefer Sha-Na-Na or Bill Haley and the Comets?

[KevinDavis]

Not really.. That was way way before my time..

[Fiji Hill]

Had I been a teen in the 60’s I would have been more of a Stones fan than a Beatles fan..

When I was a teenager in the 60's, I didn't care much for the Beatles or the Stones, although I liked some of their songs. When I discovered KWIZ with its all-oldies format in 1967 and Chuck Cecil's Swingin' Years, a big band show in KFI, I stopped listening to contemporary pop altogether. My tastes ranged from Paul Whiteman's records from the 1920's to the tunes of the Penguins, the Crew Cuts, Fats Domino, and Dion & the Belmonts from the 1950's.

[Fiji Hill]

Well, did you prefer Sha-Na-Na or Bill Haley and the Comets?

Although that's like comparing apples and rutabagas, since Bill Haley's heyday was the 1950's, while Sha-Na-Na's was the 1980's, I'll have to go with the Comets. I liked Haley better when he was with the Saddlemen, with hits like "Rock the Joint," Rocket 88," and "Green Tree Boogie."

[aruanan]

Had I been a teen in the 60’s I would have been more of a Stones fan than a Beatles fan..

Well, as a teenager in the 1960's I can say that though the Stones had some good tunes, they were (and still are) very limited musically; which is not to say that it hasn't been lucrative for them. They tried to ape various styles to keep popular (Ruby Tuesday springs to mind as well as Their Satanic Majesties Request ), but their best stuff was more like Satisfaction, Spider and the Fly, and later, Shattered. At least they didn't try to be as plastic as Jefferson Airplane going from psychedelia to leftist politics to "Jefferson Starship" to "The Starship" to the pop of "We Built This City."

The Mothers of Invention were musically (and lyrically) far more advanced than almost anyone else in that era.

[bmwcyle]

The Rolling Stone suck.

[Fiji Hill]

At least they didn't try to be as plastic as Jefferson Airplane going from psychedelia to leftist politics to "Jefferson Starship" to "The Starship"

Their music got worse with each name change.

[aruanan]

At least they didn't try to be as plastic as Jefferson Airplane going from psychedelia to leftist politics to "Jefferson Starship" to "The Starship"

Their music got worse with each name change.

I saw them on their Volunteers tour. At the time I remarked to my friend in high school that they were changing with whatever seemed like the big deal socially. I remember Grace Slick holding up a small American flag and saying, "You can see right through it." Though I did like their version of Wooden Ships.

[Fiji Hill]

I first became aware of the Jefferson Airplane in early 1967, when they did a radio commercial for Levi Strauss that went like this:
“I am a duck. I can’t wear white Levis. You are probably human. You have all the luck.”

[MikeD]

Exactly! Notice that the Stones did not adopt the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” moniker until *after* the Beatles quit touring.

[Mr. Mojo]

Some very good songs below the radar on Goats Head Soup. ...particularly “Winter,” “Coming Down Again,” and “100 Years Ago.”

[Mr. Mojo]

For me they started to lose it after Sticky Fingers when they replaced the guitar god Mick Taylor for the mediocre Ron Wood.

Actually, they didn't get Woody until the 4th album after Sticky. And although RW's style is very different than Taylor's, he's still a helluva guitarist. Woody also fit in much better with the band, personality-wise. Taylor always felt like an outsider. ...uncomfortable. ...overwhelmed.

[Mr. Mojo]

Saw them live Rich Stadium, Buffalo NY 1976

Good year. I was a little too young to see them in '75 at the L.A. Forum (one of the all-time classic shows, so I've heard), and when they came back in '78 to the L.A. Coliseum I was a bummed that they were playing such a large (outdoor) venue with "festival seating", so I didn't go. Never seen 'em to this day.