How can anybody doubt the Stones?

The Stones have only made one truly bad album IMO. That was Dirty Work. Their biggest problem is that they produced a string of classic albums that are pretty much unequalled in rock n’roll circles. Albums like Voodoo Lounge and Bigger Bang are often rated fairly average and so they are but only comparatively speaking. All this talk of ‘they haven’t done anything good since 72’ - thats twaddle. They haven’t done anything as good as those albums that came before 72 but then pretty much no one has. There is no shame whatsoever in that. Plenty of bands would be more than happy to lay claim to latter day Stones albums.

Creatively, yes way past their peak but so what? The vast majority of people in their 70s are - again, their is no shame in that. What they can still do well is put on a live show. They know it and so do the public and that is why their shows are still being sold out and people are still coming out with beaming faces. They are playing to the strengths that they have at this stage and I for one am happy about that. It is so easy to sit behind a keyboard and scoff and be cynical but they and those that go to see them are having more fun. And to see Jagger strutting about that stage at his age is really rather inspirational.

 

Yeah, but The Sonics had like a 43 year break...

 

You have to remember though the statement that Beatles heads love to repeat; even if you don't like The Beatles they influenced everything that came after, so you do kind of like them. I think that's a big lie, but in terms of Stones, they did kind of influence every harder-edged rock band that came after, musically or in attitude.

 

As influential as the Who or Led Zep?

 

That's like the second British invasion; Who and Zep were both influenced by the Stones as far as I know

 

You say this as if you expect bands that are 50-60 years into it to be as good as they were in their 20s.

Doesn't anyone else notice that this is impossible?

 

True, Led Zep came after. Although their level of sonics and power amplification on their first 2 albums seems to be more toward the Who spectrum. The Who was there from the beginning with the Stones...or very soon after. Although they were slightly more smart pop very early on.

 

NEWSFLASH!!!

Geez all of these BS posts about the Stones not being as good as they used to be.

I suppose none of you have aged at all in the past 50+ years? The world wants to know your secret.

 

Yes. That bolded sentence, in a nutshell, is what makes music lovers inherently shrug off and be dismissal of critics/writers at large.

I may even agree with the critic, personally, but to impose their taste or knowledge of music into a statement that disrespects or assumes an unknown listener's definition of rock and roll is...ridiculous. Contrary to what that sentence said, the aesthetic preference of the listener is actually the one thing they are completely free and right to make (for them). It's actually the more objective or documented aspects of the Stones that the listener may not be "getting". In other words, to be critical of a listener who blindly denies that the Stones sold this amount, or influenced such and such (when documented) or used such and such to write their songs, is the fair part. To say they aren't making aesthetic preferences about the group but simply "don't like rock and roll" is the ridiculous part.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox now. Back to the Citadel.

 

I like the band, you may not, that's okay. There are more pressing matters in the world. Music is a reprieve. Certainly their music is, for me and millions of othets

 

This is another song that was harder edged in the mid Sixties. From another band, even as the Stones kept up the Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley legacy and then expanded beyond:

 

This is the Stones I think of when talking of them being the embodiment of rock 'n' roll. If someone landed from another planet and wanted to know what rock 'n' roll was, this would suffice.

 

You can make any characterization you want but one so negative displays a disposition.

 

A lot of people on this thread agree with me.

 

Rock Around The Clock with more rhythm and blues. More Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley. Along with Chuck Berry. Rhythm and Blues with some rock. And definitely in the groove with some roll. They brought Black music to the world...although the masters and early innovators actually WERE Black. This is a good video. And Mick's singing sounds like a Southern accent. The South. Where rock and roll originated. The Southern drawl of Time Is On My Side. A Black Thang. Gotta love it. "I used to love her but it's all over now" continues the Southern Black thing. Credit where credit is due. The Stones did a great job paying tribute to this music and expanding upon it, no doubt.

 

Another influence in addition to the Stones.

 

and....

This stuff just writes itself.

 

You need a little more analysis there.

 

It's probably comforting for some to think in such black and white terms as' for or against' something music related, when the reality is that the majority of the world is either indifferent or uninterested, at least beyond a certain age.

 

I'm retired.

 

I think the OP just wanted to post some praise for a band he likes, but being who he is, must somehow make it into a grievance/complaint thread.

 

What is it you don't understand about "IMO"?

 

A post for the visually impaired. FINALLY.