Why?

[Toadroller]

I'm forty-eight years old.

I've never listened to (or purchased) a Rolling Stones album in my life.

Why?

Many reasons.  They're not my thing.  Beatles or Stones?  Beatles. Pride. Ignorance. Just don't care. Life is too short.  Which is strange, because I've purchased albums of other artists who I've never cared for to see what, if anything, I might be missing.  Bruce Springsteen comes to mind as an example.* So does Prince.**

The 'Stones came up on some random playlist on the interwebs the other day.  It might have been YouTube or Pandora, but it was probably Amazon's music service which flows though the tele into the stereo into my family room.  An album is a click away, and so I clicked and added "Sticky Fingers," to my subscription, an album I remember for the vulgar intent of its cover, depicting and even providing an actual zipper embedded therein for purposes of, well, you get it, going back in time to regarding it as a mid-teen (15 years of age? 17?) in the early 80s.  The album itself, it turns out, was released in 1971, me just a toddler of a Toadroller.

And so, this evening, as I relaxed from a Sunday of Maine-styled roof-shoveling, I listened to "Sticky Fingers" from start to finish.

Not bad.  Bluesy, swaggery, sloppy, hardly polished and slick, but in the best way, and decent in attitude.

I'll listen again.

*Shame on me.  I've bought them, on vinyl even, but still haven't given them the "spin" that vinyl affords.

** Prince, it turns out, was awesome.

 

[killerteddybear]

I didn't care for their earlier or later material.

Sticky Fingers is the Stones album in my opinion.

Of course I was 15 when it came out.

 

[Steve Haynie]

Listening to The Beatles back when I was a kid was the greatest thing.  Now when I compare them with The Rolling Stones it becomes more clear why so many of the 70's bands named the Stones as an influence more often than The Beatles. 

 

[G Man]

Get a CD of Exile on Main Street, (or Beggar's Banquet,) and pop it in your car for a few weeks, it will start to make sense.

 

[cynic]

Excluding their latest release (multiple listens and just can't even pretend I like it), I only own Beggars Banquet through Goats Head Soup. For me, that era represents what I want to hear from the Stones. 

 

[Jakeboy]

Unlike Cynic, I LOVE the latest release beyond  all albums back to 1972...

send me your address and I will make you a CD showing why they are indeed the greatest rnr band ever...

 

[mathman]

I came of age with Some Girls, emotional Rescue and Tatoo You.  I listened to the earlier albums as a really young kid because of my brothers.  I like the older stuff but never was a fan enough to buy many other albums.  I really liked the Stones of my time.

 

[Toadroller]

Exile, Sticky, and Beggars it will be for the rest of Feb and into March.  I've got a lot of business trael ahead of me, which is driving, flying, and listening time.

 

[Toadroller]

...emotional Rescue   I really liked the Stones of my time.

I'd bet "the Stones of my time" applies to many generations, in a good way.  They've spanned 50 years.  That's a lot of time.

I remember Suzie, next door, 4 years my senior, and Emotional Rescue ...back in the day.  I wasn't sure what those feelings meant at the time.  Well, enough said.

 

[princeofdarkness56]

Big part of my musical upbringing when I was a teen in the late 60'sand early 70's. They had attitude and the chops to back it up. Being more blues based than the Beatles pop base appealed to me. 

 

[Kurt L]

Let it Bleed, Beggars Banquet, Black and Blue, Some Girls.... Add one live album, Get yer ya ya's out and one greatest hits (Hot Rocks) and you have them pretty well covered.

Love the stones, but they ain't the KINKS! 

Had to smile at the Kinks shout-out! But love the Stones, too!

"Can't You Hear Me Knocking" kicks insane amounts of ass! Especially when Mick Taylor starts channeling vintage Santana... at least it sounds that way to me!

 

[Toadroller]

Love the stones, but they ain't the KINKS! 

I threw "Around the Dial" into the What's Spinnin' thread a few weeks ago, and then went on a YouTube binge of the Kinks.  I couldn't believe how many great Kinks song I knew.  I'd have pegged them for 10 hits, not 30.  I think they were top of mind (reverently) when the lads made Spinal Tap, just given the genres and times they lived through, much less defined.

 

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

I don't like:

Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Black Sabbath, Janice Joplin, Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship, the Grateful Dead, Rush, U2, Michael Jackson, NIrvana, Oasis, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, most of Jeff Beck, the Kinks, Motley Crue, Guns and Roses...

...what are the other biggest names in rock music?  There's a good chance I don't like them, either.

Why?  I dunno.

 

[mathman]

I don't like:

Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Black Sabbath, Janice Joplin, Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship, the Grateful Dead, Rush, U2, Michael Jackson, NIrvana, Oasis, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, most of Jeff Beck, the Kinks, Motley Crue, Guns and Roses...

...what are the other biggest names in rock music?  There's a good chance I don't like them, either.

Why?  I dunno.

So sorry for you.

Hopefully you fully enjoy the bands you do like.

 

[kizanski]

I don't like:

Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Black Sabbath, Janice Joplin, Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship, the Grateful Dead, Rush, U2, Michael Jackson, NIrvana, Oasis, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, most of Jeff Beck, the Kinks, Motley Crue, Guns and Roses...

...what are the other biggest names in rock music?  There's a good chance I don't like them, either.

Why?  I dunno.

That explains a lot.

 

[Kurt L]

I don't like:

Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Black Sabbath, Janice Joplin, Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship, the Grateful Dead, Rush, U2, Michael Jackson, NIrvana, Oasis, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, most of Jeff Beck, the Kinks, Motley Crue, Guns and Roses...

...what are the other biggest names in rock music?  There's a good chance I don't like them, either.

Why?  I dunno.

But damn if this doesn't make me like YOU despite my unrepentant Deadhead leanings!

And I agree with you about Jefferson Starship/Starship but Jefferson Airplane had Jorma and Jack. Nothing but love for Jorma and Jack... 

 

[tbonesullivan]

Honestly I don't like their music, or their lyrics. Their songs mostly seem to have no real form and don't appeal to my musician side.

I really don't see why they are considered on the same level as bands like the Beatles.

I think it has something to do with them being "rockers" as opposed to "musicians".

 

[Dasein]

An album is a click away, and so I clicked and added "Sticky Fingers," to my subscription, an album I remember for the vulgar intent of its cover,

So here's where I got to ask --- I'm an atheist but I grew up as a Christian attending church (the only member in my family - Sunday school bus used to pick me up every Sunday alone from the age of 5). I remember being 6 or 7 years old and the Christian church I was in depicted the Rolling Stones as some evil Satanic band full off the devil's mischief and all kinds of other stuff. I specifically remember reading Christian comic books where they had illustrated Keith Richard's hands will his skull rings etc... So when I read your reaction to the cover of Sticky Fingers and characterization of it as "vulgar intent" I knew (or at least suspect) you were raised similarly and that your rejection or non-embrace of the Stones was tainted by all that crazy Christian anti-rock bullshit from back in the day. (I don't speak to the Christian belief, just the bullshit paranoia that led preachers and church people to get carried away with their anti-stone rhetoric). Am I close?

The Stones are an amazing band -- absolutely amazing. Their catalogue is so deep and their hits so numerous that you could spend years digging into them and still not even touch their greatness as a band. Outside of all the cartoon characterizations of what people think the Stones are - you can close your eyes and cue up an album and just be amazed at when you hear.  When people talk about them being the greatest rock n roll band I would have to agree. They are the nexus and intersection of basically every modern rock style and everything that became and was the blues. The Stones are so unique and so great that they literally have no equal on any musical field and as much as I too am a Beatles guy I know the Stones will be studied by musicologists for centuries as they try to unlock the musical mysteries of the 20th century.

I liked the Stones -- but I never got into them like I should have because of my early Christian history, but also the cartoon characterizations that dominated the media's portrayal of the Stones in the 80's and beyond. I so wish I could turn back time and get into them earlier and deeper because I think I'd be a better musician today if I had.

I'll say it again - The Stones are the greatest rock n roll band of all time - no question at all about that for me in terms of what rock n roll was and is.

 

[Kurt L]

So here's where I got to ask --- I'm an atheist but I grew up as a Christian attending church (the only member in my family - Sunday school bus used to pick me up every Sunday alone from the age of 5). I remember being 6 or 7 years old and the Christian church I was in depicted the Rolling Stones as some evil Satanic band full off the devil's mischief and all kinds of other stuff. I specifically remember reading Christian comic books where they had illustrated Keith Richard's hands will his skull rings etc... So when I read your reaction to the cover of Sticky Fingers and characterization of it as "vulgar intent" I knew (or at least suspect) you were raised similarly and that your rejection or non-embrace of the Stones was tainted by all that crazy Christian anti-rock bullshit from back in the day. (I don't speak to the Christian belief, just the bullshit paranoia that led preachers and church people to get carried away with their anti-stone rhetoric). Am I close?

The Stones are an amazing band -- absolutely amazing. Their catalogue is so deep and their hits so numerous that you could spend years digging into them and still not even touch their greatness as a band. Outside of all the cartoon characterizations of what people thing the Stones are - you can close your eyes and cue up and album and just be amazed at when you hear.  When people talk about them being the greatest rock n roll band I would have to agree. They are the nexus and intersection of basically every modern rock style and everything that became and was the blues. The Stones are so unique and so great that they literally have no equal on any musical field and as much as I too am a Beatles guy I know the Stones will be studied by musicologists for centuries as they try to unlock the musical mysteries of the 20th century.

I liked the Stones -- but I never got into them like I should have because of my early Christian history, but also the cartoon characterizations that dominated the media's portrayal of the Stones in the 80's and beyond. I so wish I could turn back time and get into them earlier and deeper because I think I'd be a better musician today if I had.

I'll say it again - The Stones are the greatest rock n roll band of all time - no question at all about that for me in terms of what rock n roll was and is.

Oh boy, does this bring back memories! I remember a preacher named Bob Larson who would go on and on about rock music. He's since moved on to exorcisms, I think. Keef was too tough, I guess.

Teenage years in small town East Texas, what a bundle of joy. Neil Peart nailed it, conform or be cast out...