Dez's Top Rock/Pop Artists, #9: The Rolling Stones

In the Frankenstein Monster of Rock and Roll, the heart and soul would be The Beatles. The brain would be Bob Dylan, as he opened the door wide open for the subject matter of Rock and Roll. Dylan moved it beyond "Baby, Baby, I love you." Elvis would be the hips and the hair. Chuck Berry would be the hands, as he created the basic rock guitar language. The Rolling Stones? They are the balls. You can decide which body part you think is most essential to rock and roll.

What To Listen To:
As the longest running rock band in the music's history, The Stones have a pretty huge discography. Complicating matter further, up until 1967, they released quite different versions of their records in Britain vs. the U.S. Some of their early and mid-60's records are considered classics, but in my view, you can go song by song in this period vs. looking at whole albums, which were a mix of greatness and filler. But between 1968 and 1972, The Stones hit a streak that is unmatched. They could not miss. Beggar's Banquet, Let It Bleed, the live Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street are absolutely essential rock and roll. Essential, and the essence really. After that, we kind of return to great songs surrounded by some filler. It's Only Rock and Roll is a solid Stones record, and Some Girls surprised many critics and fans with its experimentation with newer sounds. A latterday Stones classic. Tattoo You was released as an album, but it was really a collection of leftovers, albeit top notch and it plays like one of their better latterday records. I wrote an entire post about the controversial Undercover record, I love it. Some hate it. But it was the last time they were really invested in creating interesting music vs. releasing mere product.

Not surprisingly, The Stones have lots of compilations out there. But due to legal complications and multiple labels, few of them attempt to be comprehensive. Hot Rocks is Stones 101, the place to start and in my opinion, the greatest compilation ever released. Not a bum track over two discs covering their music up to 1971. More Hot Rocks is a nice companion piece, going for some deeper cuts and rarities from the same period. For a more comprehensive look at the same period, box set Singles Collection - The London Years collects all of the singles and b-sides through 1971. The perfect addendum is the now out of print Rewind, a tight single record covering '71-'83 almost perfectly. It is really a shame that it is hard to find. There is one compilation that was able to overcome the legal issues and covers their entire career, Forty Licks. It is a bit haphazardly ordered, but it does have the most coverage, but necessarily only skims the surface.


ABOVE: Hot Rocks is the greatest compilation of them all