7/14/2023 0 Comments The who bandBut nobody does it better than the Stones. But at their peak – from the mid-60s to the late 70s – The Rolling Stones created some of the most important and influential rock music of all time.Īs Mick famously proclaimed, it’s only rock’n’roll. Author Will Self, attending a Stones concert in 1999, branded it “a grotesque parody of youthful abandon” – and that was 20 years ago (but everyone knows he's a contrarian – for the record, we quite enjoyed their No Filter tour in 2018). And in recent years, it has become almost obligatory to knock the Stones. They’re old guys now: Mick and Keith are 76, Charlie 78, Ronnie 72. It is now over 50 years since Jagger, Richards and Jones formed a band in London, styled it on American R&B and named it after the Muddy Waters song Rollin’ Stone. There’s darkness: the death of original guitarist Brian Jones in his Sussex swimming pool in July 1969, which is still the subject of conjecture the murder of 18-year-old fan Meredith Hunter, in December 1969, at the hands of Hell’s Angels at the Stones’ free concert at Altamont Speedway in California.Īnd there’s controversy: the infamous drug busts Jagger’s alleged dalliances with Princess Margaret and Margaret Trudeau the seduction by bassist Bill Wyman of 13-year-old Mandy Smith the saga of guitarist Ronnie Wood and his young girlfriend Ekaterina Ivanova. There’s the lifestyle: no rock star before or since has enjoyed such a legendary reputation for drug-fuelled rock’n’roll excess than Keith Richards no other rock star has played the part of international playboy as expertly as Mick Jagger. But the legend of The Rolling Stones was built on more than music. Then there are the classic albums: Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main St, Some Girls, Tattoo You. But there has never been a better rock’n’roll band than the Stones.įoremost, there are the classic songs: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Women, Brown Sugar, Sympathy For The Devil, Gimme Shelter, Tumbling Dice, Miss You, Start Me Up. The Beatles were more innovative, more popular, more of a cultural phenomenon. In the late 60s The Rolling Stones claimed a title that has stayed with them for over 50 years: The Greatest Rock ’N’ Roll Band In The World. The Rolling Stones in 1968 (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images) Metal up your ass? Nobody does it better. But their influence is still powerful, their legacy a mighty one. Of course, Metallica are no longer “the future of heavy metal”. To Self-Destruct, they credibly created one of the best rock albums of the last decade. Anger was weak, the following Death Magnetic put them back on track. Ulrich and Hetfield resolved their differences. The movie was at times painfully embarrassing, but the therapy worked. Anger to enter rehab.Įmploying ‘performance enhancing coach’ Phil Towle as mediator, Metallica engaged in a lengthy counselling period, much of it filmed for the documentary Some Kind Of Monster. But the biggest battle of Metallica’s career was fought from within: a power struggle between the group’s surviving founder members, drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield, who clashed in 2002 when Hetfield broke from recording St. The ensuing controversy jeopardised the credibility of a band that had prided itself on its anti-corporate ethos. And in 2001, Metallica were demonised after suing online file-sharing service Napster for copyright infringement. On September 27, 1986, bassist Cliff Burton was killed when the band’s tourbus crashed in Sweden. There have been bad times as well as good. Developing a more traditional rock sensibility on 1991’s Metallica, aka The Black Album, they became one of the biggest bands in the world. Moreover, like all true innovators, they were the first to transcend the scene they had created. Yet this gonzo mentality masked a revolutionary agenda.Īs progenitors of thrash metal, the most extreme and influential underground rock phenomenon of the 1980s, Metallica changed the entire fabric of heavy music for generations to come. They were nicknamed ‘Alcoholica’ and the mooted title for their first album was Metal Up Your Ass. Incredible as it now seems, Metallica were initially dismissed as a bit of a joke.īased in San Francisco – they’d moved there from LA because the latter was full of big-haired poseurs – Metallica were four spotty, bum-fluffed heavy metal herberts whose stated mission was “to bang the head that does not bang”. This is where the real future of heavy metal lies.” But in truth, few believed him. It was just over 35 years ago that British writer Xavier Russell boldly stated: “The world is ready for Metallica. Metallica at a Ride The Lightning photoshoot in 1985 (Image credit: Fin Costello / Getty Images)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |