Posted on 05/13/2009 12:53:12 PM PDT by pissant
It was in the Sixties that the Rolling Stones first found global fame – but a magnificent new clutch of re-releases from the Seventies confirms it was then that Mick, Keef and the boys struck artistic gold.
Universal Music recently announced the imminent release of "14 remastered classic albums" from the Rolling Stones. It is a laughable claim. They may well be The Greatest Rock And Roll Band In The World (a title they conferred upon themselves when introducing live shows in the late Sixties), but I don't know if anyone but the most rabid fan could name more than a handful of Stones albums still worth listening to in their entirety, particularly when the list of the latest reissues excludes their Sixties heyday.
Yet, the imminent first batch of re-releases from the Seventies (Sticky Fingers, Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock N Roll and Black and Blue) serve as a potent reminder of exactly why the Stones have endured. For a golden period, they released a series of albums almost untouchable in the pop pantheon as examples of free-flowing, high-spirited, elegantly extemporised blues, country and rock and roll. And, it was the replacement of the increasingly dysfunctional multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones with lyrical, technically audacious, young guitarist Mick Taylor (19 when he joined) that resulted in that golden period.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Well, did you prefer Sha-Na-Na or Bill Haley and the Comets?
Not really.. That was way way before my time..
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.
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."
The Rolling Stone suck.
Their music got worse with each name change.
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.”
Exactly! Notice that the Stones did not adopt the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” moniker until *after* the Beatles quit touring.
Some very good songs below the radar on Goats Head Soup. ...particularly “Winter,” “Coming Down Again,” and “100 Years Ago.”
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.
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.
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