“Then me and Mick are gonna wing on over to London and jam with the Stones!”
- Jeff Spicoli/Fast Times at Ridgemont High
On this day in 1971, The Rolling Stones released the first single, Brown Sugar, off their newest album, Sticky Fingers. The topic of the Stones has been on my mind recently because of part of a conversation I overheard in a bookstore. In the isle over from me I heard, what I took to be a youngish twenty something male voice, ask another person, “What was ever the big deal about The Rolling Stones, anyway?”
I had to walk away before I heard anything else. I get that a person of that generation might be clueless on the topic, but it made me sad. It was the equivalent of asking, “What's the big deal about Mount Everest?” Where would a person even start to try and explain the musical and cultural impact of The Rolling Stones to someone that's completely ignorant?
Can you separate their music from their cultural influence? No, not really, but I'll have to here. Talking strictly about their songs only, just a glance at their catalog reveals a mind blowing number of iconic, era-defining songs that they are responsible for. Ones that are recognized everywhere around the world. Here's a few:
Gimme Shelter
Satisfaction
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Start Me Up
Sympathy For the Devil
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Honky Tonk Woman
Brown Sugar
Angie
Wild Horses
Tumbling Dice
Beast of Burden
Miss You
It's Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)
Waiting on a Friend
Dead Flowers
Can't You Hear Me Knockin'?
Paint it, Black
Emotional Rescue
Time is On My Side
Let it Bleed
Shattered
19th Nervous Breakdown
Get Off My Cloud
Midnight Rambler
Under My Thumb
Street Fightin' Man
Some Girls
It's unbelievable, that many great songs from one outfit. And those are just the ones even most non-Stones fans are familiar with. Then there are those of us who claim some lesser known gems as favorites. I'll give you three of mine and await some of yours: Okay, I lied…four.