On 12 July, 1962, The Rolling Stones played their first show at the Marquee Club in London. At the time of writing, they're still playing shows and making records. And more power to 'em too.
To the Stones' credit, they've been relatively consistent on record, unlike some of their peers like Rod Stewart whose catalog is littered with rubbish among the gems. I always thought of them as somewhat inferior in the compositional stakes; The Beatles releasing original material from the very beginning of their career on EMI while the Stones took a while to start having hits composed by themselves.
They also seemed a little behind the 8-ball in terms of musical innovation. The Beatles started the trends and then the Stones followed soon after. For example, in 1965 the Fab Four issued "Norwegian Wood" with an Indian influenced sound. Several months later, the Stones issued "Paint It, Black" with sitar featured on it. 5 months after "Sgt pepper" was released, The Stones tried their hand at Psychedelia with "Satanic Majesties" with disastrous results. From 1968 onwards, they forged their own path, stepping out of the musical shadow of the Beatles and cutting some brilliant records like "Let It Bleed" and "Sticky Fingers".
It's interesting to hear a lot of people complaining these days that "there is no good music around these days...". Some people are of the opinion that music hasn't gotten any better since the high peaks of the Beatles and Rolling Stones. And sure, they are peaks in the history of pop music, but have they given any other acts a chance to make music to that standard?
It's also interesting to hear people say that the Justin Beibers of the world will only last 5 minutes and will never to be remembered once the next new teen sensation comes along.
Well you know what? Parents of teenagers circa 1965 were saying the same thing about the Rolling Stones.
Look who's laughing now?
