Ah, The Rolling Stones. Where do I start? I guess I was first made aware of them as a seven or eight year-old in the 1966-67-68 period when they started to appeal to my heightening sense that the all-conquering Beatles were goody-goodies and The Stones were proper bad boys. My developing tastes found this to be an admirable thing. Even at that age, there was a nascent feeling that if the older generation - parents, teachers and the like, even the judiciary - despised them, they must have something about them. Ironically, though, my Mother loved The Stones.
Then, of course, there was the music - loud, punchy, riffy, buzzy and singalong, but not in a "she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.." way, but in a "he can't be a man because he doesn't smoke the same cigarettes as me" style. The Stones always had a healthy cynicism and a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour that appealed to me no end.
Not only that, there was the look - the cockiness, the laddish (but pretty harmless) sexism, the sneers, the long hair. A general wilful grubbiness that appealed to many young boys such as myself. I let my hair grow Stones-ish. No mop-top for me, thank you very much.
When The Stones really started to resonate with me was in 1968 when Jumpin' Jack Flash hit the number one spot. Wow! What a devilish brew of a song. What an accompanying video they showed on Top Of The Pops - the group looking positively Mephistophelean. I was ten by then and I loved it. The huge, dirty riff, the menacing lyrics - "I was bawwwn in a crossfire hurricaaaaane...." - and Mick Jagger's drawled, affected but immensely captivating singing. I'll take half a pound of those please...
The next song to do the business for me came as life went in to colour in the seventies and Brown Sugar came out. Jagger strutting around on Top Of The Pops in a pink shiny suit and looking just so supremely decadent. The King of Knaves. They just looked the absolute business. That was that sealed for me. The Stones were here to stay. They have been here ever since. They always will. Say what you like about them going through the motions for over thirty, forty, fifty years. So what? Just listen to any Keith Richards intro. They can go through as many motions as they fucking well like, man.
Anyway - here we go then. The Rolling Stones....click on the images for in-depth reviews -| The Rolling Stones | Number Two | Out Of Our Heads | Aftermath |
| Between/Buttons | Satanic Majesties | Beggars Banquet | Let It Bleed |
| Sticky Fingers | Exile/Main Street | Goats Head Soup | Only R 'n' R |
| Black And Blue | Some Girls | Emotional Rescue | Tattoo You |
| Undercover | Dirty Work | Steel Wheels | Voodoo Lounge |
| Bridges To Babylon | A Bigger Bang | Blue & Lonesome | Hackney Diamonds |
| 12 x 5 | Now! | Out Of Our Heads | December's Children |
| Flowers | Rolling Stones EP | 5 x 5 EP |
| Metamorphosis | Big Hits 1 | Big Hits 2 | Singles Box 1 |
| Singles Box 2 | Singles Box 3 | Mick Jagger solo | Keith Richards solo |
| On Air 63-65 | Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out | Love You Live | El Mocambo |
| Jamming With Edward | Stones In Mono |
