When did the Rolling Stones stop writing songs?

[Facelift]

Where the Beatles were compelled to innovate out of an artistic impulse to do so, the Stones self-consciously dabbled for reasons rather less exalted until they took stock and settled on what they were really good at, a "come to Jesus" moment that resulted in the masterful Beggars Banquet and the albums that followed from its premises. Know thyself. Indeed.

I think that this is pretty accurate.

[ronmac]

The Stones rested on their laurels, which is not necessarily a bad thing. They are predictable and relatively consistent. You pretty much always knew what you were in for. Kinda like McDonald's.

The Beatles, on the other hand, never rested on anything. You could argue that the "Get Back" period was when they tried to regress to simpler times. But, that was a failure (by their standards) and Abbey Road showed that they had more to prove to themselves.

[3LockBox]

Might interest in the Stones stops at Some Girls.

[bob_32_116]

I think the moment when I realised the Stones were no longer cutting edge music pioneers was when I heard "Little Queenie". This was the band that gave us songs like Paint It Black, Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown and Ruby Tuesday?

They did do a few pretty decent songs after that one, but they were very much flashes in the pan.

[JJ88]

Um, 'Little Queenie' is a cover, on a live album.

[Jerjo]

New interview with Keith, there's a money quote in here that will get at the Beatles fans in a twist

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment...nterview-0915/

I just like Keith's attitude, it's just so rock'n'roll. "Second best guitar player in Weston Connecticut"

[trurl]

I don't mind what Keith said because his opinion is basically rubbish to me Really, he should have that attitude for the Stones to do what they do.

[GuitarGeek]

Paperback Writer and Revolution both rock more than anything the Stones ever did.

You've clearly never heard (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Get Off Of My Cloud, Sympathy For The Devil, or Gimme Shelter. I mean, just the intros on those songs...I mean, my goodness, the way Gimme Shelter builds, it's very cinematic. I always thought Keith's guitar sounded like the very beginning of a rainstorm, than the way the instruments come in, it's like the raining gets harder, than you hear that piano bass, and it's like thunder. Gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Awhile back, a picture popped up on Facebook, of Neil Peart shaking hands with Charlie Watts. I remember suggesting Neil probably wanted to shake the hands of the man who played Get Off Of My Cloud.

[rcarlberg]

How often have The Stones guested on other musicians' records, individually?

I know there must have been some. All I can think of is "Neo-Stones" jam sessions like Jamming With Edward.

[Jerjo]

Well, Charlie Watts has his jazz stuff but that's more of a side project. Richards and Jagger both have plenty of solo stuff. Keith has also done stuff with Aaron Neville, Ziggy, Jerry Lee, Chuck Berry.

[GuitarGeek]

How often have The Stones guested on other musicians' records, individually?

I know there must have been some. All I can think of is "Neo-Stones" jam sessions like Jamming With Edward.

Mick sang back up vocals on You're So Vain. He also sang on the Jacksons song State Of Shock. He and Keith both performed on All You Need Is Love (or at least they were part of the chorus of friends who performed on the TV broadcast, the camera picking Mick out at one point).

Ron Wood can be seen in the finale of The Last Waltz.

Keith was the bandleader for the all star concert that was filmed for the Chuck Berry biopic Hail! Hail! Rock N Roll! (in which there's some awesomely tense rehearsal bits where it's clear Chuck and Keith aren't getting along well). There was a video Aretha Franklin did for her version of Jumpin' Jack Flash, in the mid 80's (done as the theme music for a Whoopi Goldberg picture), which had both Ronnie and Keith in it, but I'm not sure if they were on the actual recording, or if they just hammed it up for the video. He's also apparently on a motherfucking shitload of other people's records, as listed on Wikipedia.

Ian Stewart, the band's original pianist, guested on Led Zeppelin's Rock And Roll and Boogie With Stu (he of course being the "Stu" of the song title). He, Bill, and Charlie all appear on the Howlin' Wolf London Sessions record. He's also on the Bad To The Bone album by George Thorogood And The Destroyers.

Then there's Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, an album Brian produced a few months before his death, though it wasn't released until a couple years later. Apparently, Brian played sax on the Beatles track You Know My Name and back up vocals on Yellow Submarine, as well as percussion on Jimi's version of All Along The Watchtower . He's also on a gaggle of somewhat lesser known recordings, including one by a duo called McGough & McGear (Mike McGear's actual surname turned out to be McCartney, his older brother being a certain famous southpaw bassist/guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist/songwriter).

And Mick Taylor's played on a motherfuckin' shitload of records, as well, including one of Bob Dylan's 80's era records, a couple records by Pierre Moerlen's iteration of Gong, and the Little Feat live album Waiting For Columbus (playing slide guitar on A Apolitical Blues). He also participated in the live premiere of Tubular Bells and a TV broadcast of the piece.

There's a bunch of others, surely lots done using pseudonyms (as The Beatles frequently did), I'm just naming a bunch of the top of my head (well, sort of off the top of my head, I did peak a bit at Wikpedia for a few of the answers).

[trurl]

You've clearly never heard (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Get Off Of My Cloud, Sympathy For The Devil, or Gimme Shelter. I mean, just the intros on those songs...I mean, my goodness, the way Gimme Shelter builds, it's very cinematic. I always thought Keith's guitar sounded like the very beginning of a rainstorm, than the way the instruments come in, it's like the raining gets harder, than you hear that piano bass, and it's like thunder. Gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Well, obviously this is not worth dignifying with a response. I do think Gimme Shelter is a great song though. It just proves to me, really, that Brian Jones was the soul of the band.

But the Stones still don't rock, not even at blues. Zeppelin- they rock at blues.

[ronmac]

But the Stones still don't rock, not even at blues. Zeppelin- they rock at blues.

Well, I think claiming that The Stones don't rock is just silly. They sure as hell do. In fact, that's pretty much all they ever did, aside from some ballads, country and dance music. Just not as hard/heavy as some of the tracks the Beatles did.

[klothos]

But the Stones still don't rock, not even at blues. Zeppelin- they rock at blues.

Well, I think claiming that The Stones don't rock is just silly. They sure as hell do. In fact, that's pretty much all they ever did, aside from some ballads, country and dance music. Just not as hard/heavy as some of the tracks the Beatles did.

Well, there is a "winky" smiley at the end of his post

[Mister Triscuits]

I do think Gimme Shelter is a great song though. It just proves to me, really, that Brian Jones was the soul of the band.

Brian Jones isn't on "Gimme Shelter." (He appears on only two songs on Let It Bleed, playing percussion on "Midnight Rambler" and autoharp on "You Got the Silver.")

[Jerjo]

But the Stones still don't rock, not even at blues.

3s3k1d.jpg

[trurl]

Brian Jones isn't on "Gimme Shelter." (He appears on only two songs on Let It Bleed, playing percussion on "Midnight Rambler" and autoharp on "You Got the Silver.")

I did not know that! I've been wrong all these years...

[JJ88]

They did marvellous work with Brian Jones but alas, he was 'long gone' by the time of Let It Bleed, even before he was out of the band. Mick Taylor and Ry Cooder did some work in a session capacity on that album, but most of the guitars are Keith Richards on there.

For me the real Stones magic is their first decade or so- the Jones and Taylor periods. I like the 1978-81 Ron Wood period a lot too, but it's that 1963-73 period that's the best for me.

[mogrooves]

it's that 1963-73 period that's the best for me.

'64 - '72, for me. Like their contemporaries the Who and the Kinks, essentially a "60s band."

[ThomasKDye]

So I'm a total Stones noob apart from "Satisfaction," "Paint it Black," "You Can't Always Get What You Want," "Wild Horses" and "Start Me Up." Thus, based on this thread, I had a friend play me Beggars' Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Goat's Head Soup, all of which I'd never heard before. (I asked for Exile as well, but he said it wasn't a favorite of his.)

Wow. I had no idea how MANY pseudo-country and blues songs were on these albums. I really had an idea they ROCKED more. My favorite song from all of these is "Bitch," because it has a nice rocking groove and the horns were quite tasty. (I have no idea what the lyrics are; I'll remain ignorant for the time being.) Some of the slower songs worked okay for me; "Wild Horses" deserves its classic AOR-overplayed status and "Moonlight Mile" is a really sweet and moody piece. Honest, I don't know how I missed it, but I have no memory of ever hearing "Gimme Shelter" before. (You can probably guess Sticky Fingers is my favorite of the four, but even that has "Dead Flowers" on it, which makes me roll my eyes so hard.)

Mick also seems to be mixed BACK on these albums, as if no one trusted his voice to carry the songs. There are what sounds like a lot of wailing groupies providing backing vocals, which adds to this "drunk bar band" feel for me. And yet, there are some sublime moments. "Salt of the Earth" is a good song, if somewhat justifying doubts about Mick's singing ability. Of course, "You Can't Always" is fantastic to me. And Goat's Head Soup has… "Can You Hear The Music," I suppose.

I don't know. There's too much of that country and blues rock stuff on there, most of which is interchangeable to me, and it's not my thing, I guess. All the same, it was fascinating to listen to, honestly. Even the slow Delta blues stuff had some passion to it, but it's almost as if they didn't care if they wrote similar songs, album after album. If someone was playing it day after day in the office cubicle next to me, I might learn to hate them, but an occasional trip to their well is fine, I suppose.

[trurl]

Well, I was joking a bit, but I'm not kidding in my assertion that when they rock, the Beatles generally rock harder. And you have to give Ringo props for that in the early days; he was THE big beat drummer on the scene when they got him in the band. But of course, the Beatles did all kinds of music and they didn't really rock that hard that often after the first couple albums so I concede the Stones were far more consistent in that regard (although they did a lot of country stuff as pointed out above). They certainly had their moments; Bitch, Happy, Shelter, Satisfaction...

[rcarlberg]

I just like Keith's attitude, it's just so rock'n'roll. "Second best guitar player in Weston Connecticut"

Yeah, nice interview. Keith comes off as a humble and grounded man, despite his fame & fortune. He makes no apologies for not being as curious or intellectual as The Beatles. They were all raised working-class; only The Stones stayed that way.

[Jerjo]

I suspect that Mick is a little more on the intellectual side (and a little more pretentious as well). When they were in the Twin Cities a local bookstore told one of the newspapers that Mick was in the art section and got into a long conversation with the owner about art history. Then again there was the time when he called Charlie "my drummer" and got floored with one punch from Watts.

[JJ88]

Then again there was the time when he called Charlie "my drummer" and got floored with one punch from Watts.

This was in Watts' own 'drug haze' period, in the mid 80s. Rather atypical behaviour from him!

[ThomasKDye]

Then again there was the time when he called Charlie "my drummer" and got floored with one punch from Watts.

This band sounds as crazily codependent as the Beach Boys to have stayed together all these years through things like this. I mean, I guess you had Mick Taylor and Bill Wyman calling it quits, but still, if Jagger and Richards feuded so hard, for instance, how could the call of money have been enough to get through THAT?