Assembled in 1962, according to the Rock and Roll hall of fame, the Rolling Stones are the longest lived, continuously active group in rock and roll history. Over four decades they have adopted and molded the latest styles and sounds to become possibly “the World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” (The Rolling Stones 2007).
Watching their beginnings, their early manager-producer Andrew Loog Oldham said that he saw “the opposite to what the Beatles are doing” in the Stones. Right he was, while the Beatles, as I mentioned in my last post, had a “energetic sound and buoyant melodies”, the Stones would come to be the epitome of the dark, scruffy and bold sexual side of rock and roll (The Rolling Stones 2007). In 1967 the Stones were on fire, releasing three albums: Between The Buttons, Flowers, and Their Satanic Majesties Request. However also in 1967 the Stones were also showing signs burning out, with their involvement in media-instigated drug busts which nearly saw lead singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards accumulate lengthy jail sentences (The Rolling Stones 2007).
While Jagger and Richards hung in there with steely resolve, band mate Brian Jones left the band in 1968 likely due to drug related problems and in 1969 was found at the bottom of his swimming pool, the official cause being given as “death by misadventure” (The Rolling Stones 2007).
One of the most telling attributes of the band is that throughout times of creative brilliance and relative creative lulls, triumph and tragedy the Rolling Stones have managed to maintain a dedicated following and continue to influence on Rock and Roll when most of their peers have fallen by the wayside.
The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 after a long and famous history in Rock and Roll music (The Rolling Stones 2007).
References:
The Rolling Stones, 2007, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, viewed 30 May 2009, http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/the-rolling-stones
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