THE ROLLING STONES (England's Newest Hit Makers) @ 60

Celebrating its 60th anniversary today is the eponymous debut LP from the legendary Rolling Stones, which was released in the UK on this day, April 17th, 1964. The slightly altered US edition came out on May 29th. While The Beatles were selling a relatively wholesome "mop top" version of the looming "British invasion", The Rolling Stones were digging deep into the grit and grime of American blues & R&B to fashion their "bad boy" counterpoint.

With roots that go back as far as 1950, when Keith Richards & Mick Jagger first became classmates and friends, the real genesis of the band would come in 1961 when the pair would reacquaint themselves on the platform of the Dartford railway station. Jagger was carrying records by Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters, which revealed to Richards a shared interest. A musical partnership began shortly afterwards, a relationship that was solidified when the pair responded to an ad in the music press from Brian Jones, who was looking to put together a new band after having split from his previous group.

For the next two years, the band would build their following, taking their cue from The Beatles, but self-consciously crafting their image so as to contrast against the "fab four". While they initially dabbled with the whole "matching suit" look, their manager quickly abandoned that approach and realized that the Stones could benefit by cultivating a style and aesthetic that was counter to The Beatles more approachable & family friendly vibe. Instead, the Stones would go for a messy, unkempt and raunchier look and feel, coming off as the kind of lads parents would definitely NOT want their daughters bringing home for dinner!

For their first LP, recording was completed in only five days scattered across January and February of 1964. At this point, the songwriting prowess of the Jagger/Richards duo was barely starting to take root, so only one of their compositions was included, and that was only on the UK version of the LP. There were also a couple of songs from these sessions credited to "Nanker Phelge", which was a pseudonym used by the band from 1963 to 1965 to designate songs they'd collectively written. The selection of covers reflects the group's focus on American blues & R&B classics. The US version had a slightly different track list, plus the subtitle, "England's Newest Hit Makers", which eventually became adopted as the official title for the album on later reissues.

While the group's sense of originality and identity were still developing, their debut LP still manages to stand as one of the best examples of the British blues scene of that era, full of vitality, rawness and edge. It became one of the UK's biggest selling albums that year, holding the #1 LP slot for no less than 12 weeks. And while it lacks the iconic hit singles that would soon define the band, it still represents the group in their early prime, poised to become one of the most important rock bands of all time. 

THE ROLLING STONES - SOME GIRLS @ 45

 

Celebrating its 45th anniversary today is the Rolling Stones' classic comeback LP, Some Girls, which was released on June 9th, 1978. After slipping into a slump in the middle of the decade (they didn't call that "best of" album, "Sucking In the '70s" for nothing), the band regrouped and managed to knock out the most commercially and critically successful album of their career. At a time when they seemed destined to be drowned out by disco, or made irrelevant by punk, they managed to embrace both genres in tandem, harnessing the infectious dance grooves of the former, while embodying the brazen rawness and edge of the latter.

After kicking off the '70s with a couple of solid albums, The Rolling Stones spent much of the middle years of that decade middling around with unfocused studio albums and lacklustre live releases. As a result, the band's popularity had waned significantly and they were in serious danger of becoming relics of a bygone era. The emergence of punk culture in the latter half of the decade was branding old farts from the '60s as "dinosaurs", lumbering about the world on their great big tours and motivated solely by their avarice for ticket and merch sales. Keith Richards was also struggling with legal issues resulting from drug charges in Canada, so the burden fell on the shoulders of Mick Jagger to rally the troops and rescue the band from oblivion. By 1977, Ron Wood had secured himself the position of permanent 2nd guitarist in the group, so they had a solid lineup for the first time in years. With the younger generation's wolves snapping at their heels, the band set about getting back to basics and crafting a lean, mean collection of songs capable of capturing the era's zeitgeist.  

Keith's legal issues ended up soliciting the help of US president, Jimmy Carter, and Richards was able to negotiate release from Canada in February of 1977, securing a visa which allowed him to first detox in the US and then travel to Paris to join the rest of the band in the studio. The severity of the charges for heroine possession with intent to traffic were such that there was a very real possibility of the bad-boy guitarist facing up to seven years in a Canadian prison. This dangling sword over the band's head meant that they could be facing the prospect of disbanding and that this might be their last album for a very long time. The thought that Some Girls might be their swan-song was clear motivation for them to put everything they had into giving their best effort in the studio. With the list of guest musicians kept to a bare minimum, the group turned to each other to create a tight, tough and focused sound, the likes of which hadn't been heard for many years. Richards eventually escaped the prospect of a custodial sentence with an agreement to perform a couple of benefit Stones concerts, but the experience certainly helped get the band's house in order.

With Richards distracted by his legal woes, Mick Jagger became the principal creative force during the writing and recording of the album, taking sole writing credits on a number of tracks. The explosion of dance music culture in the discos became a very big influence and Jagger sought to bring some of that four-on-the-floor vibrancy into the band's wheelhouse. Also, by 1977, punk had made major inroads into the public consciousness. Its sense of urgency and disregard for authority or manners had reinvigorated the rock 'n' roll landscape with a sense of danger, risk and innovation, something which had been lacking since the psychedelic inspired creativity of the previous decade gave way to the MOR "yacht-rock" sounds of the '70s. This time, however, it wasn't all utopian idealism and love, but rather it's inverse, with young artists embracing a decidedly dystopian misanthropy.  

Ronnie Wood securing his full-time position in the band helped bring a fresh energy to the group dynamic, shining a new light on their relationships. This interplay meant that, for the first time since 1968's Beggars Banquet, the group were confident enough to eschew the parade of guest players and lean into their own abilities for much of the recording. The result was a collection of songs which were brimming with renewed confidence. 

When it came time to package the album, the band wanted something extravagant and designer Peter Corriston came up with an elaborate die-cut design inspired by an old Valmor Products corporation advertisements for wigs. The cutouts revealed faces printed on the inner sleeve featuring the band in drag along with celebrities like Lucile Ball, Judy Garland, Farrah Fawcett, Raquel Welch and Marilynn Munroe. Color overlays on the images varied by market. The result was quite striking, but the fact celebrity likenesses were used without permission triggered a barrage of legal threats, including one from Valmor, who did go through with a suit and won monetary compensation. The cover was quickly pulled and the celebrity images were removed (except for former Beatle George Harrison). Where they had been was plastered over with garish punk like phrases like "Pardon our appearance – cover under reconstruction". Jagger personally apologized to Liza Minelli for using mother Garland's likeness when he encountered her at Studio 54. 

Despite the controversy over the album's cover, as well as over certain lyrics (the title track attracted scrutiny with the line "Black girls just want to get F****d all night/I just don't have that much jam."), the album went on to become one of the Stones' best selling releases of all time, garnering near universal critical praise in the process. It spawned numerous hit singles, including Miss You, Beast of Burden, Respectable, and my personal favourite, Shattered. It remains one of the band's most popular albums and helped propel their career well into the next decade.