I Kid - my true feeling on the Stones is thus:

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

I do like them to a point.

They have some songs that I put in the creme de la creme - Memo from Turner, Gimme Shelter, etc.

I just don't feed into the hype that they are as good as their reputation

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. They are a bunch of old men and former drug addicts who wrote

some good rock and roll...none of it ever being cutting edge.

[DemBones DemBones]

17. "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, But I Like It, Like It,

Yes, I Do"

Yeah, the boys had the effrontery to stay together as a bad and to get old, instead of dying while young and being tragically hip forever a la Janis or Jimi.

And they just keep touring and recording, how postmodernist of them.

But, fuck it, if you wanna DANCE, you can count on the fucking Stones.

Oh, yeah, and "The Bitch is Back" et c'est moi! :evilgrin:

[mitchum]

18. I don't know about the never cutting edge part...

the horns on "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby" were dissonant for AM radio of the time

Jones' recorder on "Ruby Tuesday" is pretty damn classy

"We Love You" is proto-Eurodisco


But I still think that the Mick Taylor/Ry Cooder era is their artistic high point

[fjc]

2. You're right. They're better.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

6. If you say so

I'll take Muddy Waters any day

[Fenris]

3. It's often hard to live up to the hype (see below)

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

4. You just proved me right

[enigmatic]

5. The Stones haven't been good...

since Mick Taylor left in 1974, but during their 1969-1974 run w/ Taylor they were arguably the greatest band in the world..

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

8. proof?

I'm not feelin' ya

[enigmatic]

16. Proof???

Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street, though I'm known more to my friends as a Beatlemaniac since age 13..

[mitchum]

19. Yes they were!

[HEyHEY]

7. I love their dirty blues stuff

I think most of their music was awsome - though as NSMA said, they rarely did anything "new"

They even followed the Beatles SGT Pepper with Majesty's Request.

Gimme the ANIMALs!

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

9. Eric Burton was the man

:thumbsup:

[mitchum]

21. He was the one who brought a dark, brooding presence into pop/rock music..

if you look at performance clips from the time, Burdon (and the rest of The Animals) are not smiling (this at a time when Keef was still smiling and shaking his head like a Fab Four wannabe) But The Rolling Stones learned very quickly...

[jjmalonejr]

10. Stones Rock!

Sorry, I disagree with you CStT.

Overexposed doesn't necessarily mean overrated.

It's like when people bow at the altar of Clapton, chiefly because he's about the only "Guitar Great" whose name springs to their mind.

This "Clapton is God" stuff might irritate people who think that THEIR favorite doesn't get the attention he deserves, but it doesn't make Clapton any less GREAT.

That's just my opinion.

[shadu]

11. Jager is human garbage

wake the fuck up

[Mizmoon]

12. I knew one of Keith Richard's illegitimate children

He was going to an expensive private school, Keith sent an check every month, but the mother was a groupie who got pregnant on purpose so the kid never once met his father. It was clear he never would.

That's my strange Rolling Stones story.

[HEyHEY]

14. My Buddy knew Mic Jaggers kid

He went to Wells academy with him! He says he's a total junkie

[vi5]

13. I agree they are overrated....

But not as much as the Beatles are.

[mairceridwen]

15. charlie watts: you're my heeero

the thing I like about the stones is how they embody all that is rock-n-roll...they set a kind of cultural standard, not for music per se, not that anyone should *try* to live up to it, but Mick is just all that is dirty/ugly/sexy and amazing about rock-n-roll.

I think the history of rock, in terms of its connection to the blues, is more important than any of that...but there is something really appealing about the way that the stones just oooze rock-n-roll

now, my favorite stones album is aftermath. even with my feminist conciousness, I love under my thumb. in any case, aftermath is full of some great blues, really raw, edgy, bitter and even cynical blues.


But I have to say, in terms of sheer talent and originality, from that time genre/time, they can't hold a candle to the Kinks. That's right, the Kinks. Ray Davies invented Heavy Metal as far as I am concernd. They didn't perfect it, the way that Sabbath did. But coming out of the early British invasion, my man Davies was RAW.

[mairceridwen]

24. maybe

initiated is a better word. the kinks initiated metal.

anyway, i'm now (in a different context) being challenged so I'll say what I mean here too.

By that comment, I mean that the Kinks, really tried to push the envelope and create a sound that was different from the whole brit invasion thing...and then infuse that with some heavy, angry sounding riffs and vocals. it's tame by today's and later standards, but I think for it's time, it was edgy.

But not edgy in a punk way, which is what my friend is arguing. that isn't to say it couldn't have influenced both...but I think of punk as emerging as more of a direct confrontation with its cultural context, rather than part of a longer, music evolutionary process. again, that's not solid...i'm sure there are plenty of examples that contradict what I just said.

[Mr. Blonde]

28. I agree here

Rock and Roll isn't just about the music. It is the whole lifestyle. The Rolling Stones are the ones who made this clear. Since they have the music to back it up I agree with them being called the Greatest Rock and Roll Band. In my book only Zeppelin can argue with their supremacy. The Beatles although innovators were not all that R&R is.

[DemBones DemBones]

29. Excellent points, including that the Kinks were awesome!

We have been privileged to have a lot of great rock music but rock is a huge genre with room for enormous variety and numerous "best rock bands" if you break it down into sub-genres like alternative, heavy metal, rockabilly, punk, British Invasion rock, doo wop, etc.

As for the Stones, forty years ago (summer of '64), the best songs on the radio were "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "House of the Rising Sun." Those were the two you wanted on the car radio when you were out cruising!

Forty years later, I suspect those songs still get most people bouncing in their seats, no matter how many times they've heard them. Forty years later, the Stones are still touring and recording and have stayed true to their original style. If somebody had told me in 1964 that Mick and the boys would still be rocking in 2004, I'd have been skeptical -- everyone said rock wouldn't last, you know!

[mitchum]

20. It helps if you think of The Rolling Stones as being like painters...

or novelists who had a brilliant period, but continued to "create" long past their prime. that's how I deal with it.

[enigmatic]

22. You got it!

If they had broken up after Mick Taylor left, their legacy would be beyond question; Ron Wood effectively killed the band from ever being cutting egde ever again..

[mitchum]

23. Yes, they became a self-parody when Ronnie Wood joined

the only thing that could have possibly continued the brilliant sreak was if they could have convinced Roy Buchanan (the man who turned them down twice) to join. Even though Roy didn't "look" like a Rolling Stone.

[sendero]

25. I'm not a huge Stones fan...

... but they have done some great stuff here and there.

IMHO, the incredible ringing guitars in "Jumpin Jack Flash" put them squarely in the pantheon of psychedelic innovators. It is a completely original and compelling sound.

I think they WERE very talented, but I never bought into that "Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World" bullshit, because they weren't and never will be. But they did do some really great songs on occasion :)

[LWolf]

26. I like the stones.

I was never a big fan; thought some of their stuff was good, some ok, and I just didn't like Jagger; he gave me the creeps.

Until some years back, when my youngest son asked us to take him to a Stone's concert for his 17th (or 19th?) birthday. I had a blast, and listen to them more now than I did previous decades. "Some Girls" is my housecleaning CD.

[BigMcLargehuge]

27. they stopped being good when I was still in diapers

and I'm 35, and potty trained early.

[NightTrain]

30. The Stones were the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band from...

..."Satisfaction" up through EXILE ON MAIN STREET. Shame they didn't pack it in 32 years ago!