小档案
主 唱：Mick Jagger
吉 他：Keith Richards
吉 他：Ron Wood
鼓 手：Charlie Wards
滚石乐队的灵魂人物有两位：歌手米克·贾格（Mick Jagger），吉他手兼歌手凯斯·理查德（Keith Richards）。两人是小学同学，毕业后十年内没有见过面，直到1960年重逢。当时贾格在伦敦经济学院就读，业余在乐队演出。后来理查德加入了他的乐队。接着，他们又遇到了布莱恩·琼斯（Brian Jones） ，一位因为对萨克斯的爱好不惜辍学的吉他手兼歌手。琼斯的个人生活非常不羁，他十六岁自己一人去斯堪的纳维亚半岛闯荡，并且已经成为两个私生子的父亲。后来，琼斯回到伦敦，打算建立一支自己的乐队，在报上登广告招募成员，找到了后来的钢琴手伊恩·斯图沃特（Ian Stewart）。米克，凯斯，琼斯等人相识后，成立了后来的滚石乐队。
小简介
滚石乐队(The Rolling Stones)的名字取自于前辈艺人Muddy Waters的一首歌曲“Rollingstones Blues”。它是当今乐坛最伟大的乐队，音乐史上最杰出的乐队之一，流行乐史上最重要的乐队之一，摇滚史上最有影响的乐队之一，现场演出表现最棒的乐队之一。乐队从1962年年底开始在伦敦的Marquee Club表演，自此他们开始了不凡的音乐生涯。早期的The Rolling Stones的作品走的是民谣和节奏&布鲁斯路线。1965年，“滚石”发表的第一首上榜歌曲“满足”(Satisfaction)奠定了乐队的基本音乐风格。不仅如此,这首名作在当时的西方社会取得了很大的反响，它引导了摇滚乐的创作演变为具有社会意义的一种文化表现形式。60年代末，The Rolling Stones发行的几张出色专辑《乞丐的宴会》(Begger's Banquet)《魔鬼陛下的乞求》(Their Satanic Majesties Request)以及后来的《让它流血》(Let It Bleed)等都取得了很大的成功，并成为了摇滚史上的经典杰作。“滚石”乐队本身也建立了自己富有个性与时代感召力的形象。鼎盛时期的“滚石”乐队能精确，生动地演绎布鲁斯音乐，另外他们表现的成熟，丰富的硬摇滚(Hard Rock)曲风能使人激动不已，The Rolling Stones形成的夸张，豪放的音乐表现特征也使他们成为经典摇滚(Classic Rock)的奠基者之一。The Rolling Stones与The Beatles(甲壳虫)、The Kinks(奇想)还有The Who(谁人)等乐队一起开创了60年代英国新摇滚文化的新纪元。进入70年代以后，“滚石”推出了象《Sticky Fingers》(小偷小摸)和《Exile On Main Street》(街头流亡者)这样优秀的唱片。The Rolling Stones在各地的演唱会使无数歌迷领略到了摇滚乐无穷的魅力与巨大快乐，“滚石”确实影响了后来许多出色乐队的创作和成长。80、90年代，“滚石”依然活跃于音乐舞台，他们1988年发行的专辑《钢轮》(Steel Wheel)引起了很大的轰动。94年的专辑《Vooddo Lounge》与1997年专辑《Bridge To Babylon》(巴比伦之桥)均取得了乐评界的好评并在销量上也取得了不俗的成绩。
“滚石”乐队(Rolling Stones)于1963年在英国成立，乐队成员5人： 歌手米克.贾格尔（Mick Jagger)、吉他手兼歌手基斯.理查德（Keith Richards）、吉他手兼歌手布莱恩.琼斯（Brian Jones)、贝司手比尔.怀曼（Bill Wyman）、钢琴手伊恩.斯图尔(Ian Stewart)和鼓手查利.活茨。乐队的名字——“Rolling Stones”来自摇滚巨匠的鲍勃•迪伦(Bob Dylan) 一句著名的歌词“就象一块滚动的石头”（Like a Rolling Stone)，这块硕大的“滚石”在摇滚界滚了整整30个春秋。
与同时代的另一支伟大乐队“甲壳虫”相比，“滚石”具有更强的攻击性和叛逆色彩——他们是天生的坏小子，狂放不羁，处处透着锐利狡黠的气息，是后期“嬉皮”运动中绝对的“自我中心主义”的代表，肆无忌惮地赞美性爱、毒品、无政府主义和极端享乐主义。从某种意义上讲，“滚石”的确具有魔鬼的一面，否则他们制作的经典作品《魔鬼陛下们的要求》也不会显得如此名副其实。邪迷黑暗的《魔鬼陛下们的要求》是一张好作品，但当真论起乐队的巅峰之作，还当首推1968的《乞丐的宴会》（Baggers Banguet）和1969年的《任血流淌》（Let It Bleed）。经过60年代的鼎盛时期，进入70年代后，“滚石”的叛逆形象有所降低，虽有《敲你》这样的佳作问世，但已无法再现当年的盛事。
大事记
滚石乐队(The Rolling Stones)是摇滚史上最成功和最长寿的乐队之一。The Rolling Stones乐队至今已有40多年的历史，堪称rock 'n' roll的定义者之一。由于乐队核心米克·贾格尔(Mick Jagger)和凯西·理查兹(Keith Richards)深受Chuck Berry，Howlin' Wolf和Muddy Waters等布鲁斯艺人的影响，The Rolling Stones几十年来一直坚持走着传统布鲁斯摇滚路线。
The Rolling Stones由Mick Jagger和Keith Richards组建。这对黄金组合最早相识还是在Kent郡的Dartford上小学时，1960年，两人通过一位共同的朋友Dick Taylor再次相见。Dick Taylor不仅是Keith Richards在Sidcup艺术学校的同学，同时又是正在伦敦经济学学校上学的Mick Jagger在“Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys”乐队的队友。不久之后，Keith Richards就在老友的邀请之下加入了Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys。1961年7月，Jagger与Richards在当地一家酒吧中首次合作演出。在随后的一年中，Jagger与Richards结识了多才多艺的坏小子布莱恩·琼斯(Brian Jones)。Jones通晓吉他，萨克斯，黑管等多种乐器，很快便与Jagger和Richards成为了好友。不久，Brian Jones就决定带着个人发展期间招募的键盘手伊安·史都华(Ian Stewart)一同加入到了Jagger和Richards的阵营当中。1962年4月，Jagger，Richards和Jones宣布将乐队名正式改为“The Rolling Stones”，名字来源于布鲁斯吉他大师Muddy Waters的歌曲《Rollin' Stone》。
1962年7月12日，The Rolling Stones首次在伦敦的Marquee俱乐部演出，这时乐队的阵容包括：Jagger，Richards，Jones，键盘手Ian Stewart，鼓手Mick Avory和Dick Taylor。在本场演出仅几周之后，Dick Taylor宣布离开The Rolling Stones，他的位置由the Cliftons乐队的贝斯手Bill Wyman代替。在Mick Avory离开以及使用了不能令人满意的Tony Chapman之后，The Rolling Stones的鼓手最终确定为查理·沃兹(Charlie Watts)。有了固定阵容的The Rolling Stones此后几个月在Crawdaddy俱乐部举办了多场演出，不但赢得了大量的歌迷，更重要的是吸引了制作人Andrew Loog Oldham的目光。并不懂音乐但十分善于炒作的Andrew Loog Oldham决定将The Rolling Stones包装成为能与The Beatles分庭抗争的坏男孩形象。键盘手Ian Stewart被要求离开乐队，但他并没有真正离开，此后仍一直与The Rolling Stones一起巡演和录音，直到他1985年去世。因此，他也被称作“第六块石头”。
1963年5月，在Andrew Loog Oldham的帮助之下，The Rolling Stones与Decca公司签约。6月，乐队发行首支翻唱Chuck Berry的单曲《Come On》，名列英国榜第21位。同年年底，乐队再次发行单曲，一首翻唱Lennon与McCartney的《I Wanna Be Your Man》，打入英国榜前20。1964年初，The Flling Stones又发行一首翻唱Buddy Holly的单曲《Not Fade Away》最终创纪录的获得英国榜季军。同时，《Not Fade Away》还成为乐队首支在美国上榜的单曲，名列美国榜第48位。1964年5月，乐队首张专辑《The Rolling Stones(England's Newest Hitmakers)》发行。之后的单曲《It's All Over Now》令滚石首次获得英国榜的冠军，同年夏天，乐队在美国举行了大范围的巡演，吸引了众多美国歌迷。随后，翻唱Howlin' Wolf的《Little Red Rooster》成为乐队的有一首英国榜冠军单曲。尽管此时的滚石已经大获成功，但Andrew Loog Oldham并没有满足，他决定让Jagger和Richards开始创作自己的歌曲。乐队首支原创的单曲《Tell Me(You're Coming Back)》成为滚石首支闯进美国榜前40的单曲。此后，乐队又有一系列打榜成绩较好的单曲推出。1965年夏，乐队的单曲《(I Can't Get No)Satisfaction》连续四周称霸排行榜，Jagger和Richards的创作能力获得了一致的肯定，滚石不再翻唱传统的老布鲁斯歌曲，强硬的Blues riff和叛逆另类的歌词成了乐队的标签，而滚石乐队的辉煌时期也从此到来。
1966年，滚石发行了乐队第一张纯原创专辑《Aftermath》。对东方音乐的情有独钟的Brian Jones多方面的才华在本张专辑中发挥的淋漓尽致。身为节奏吉他的Jones在专辑中的名曲《Paint it black》当中还亲自演奏了席塔琴。1967年，滚石发行了乐队最为流行华丽的一张专辑《Between the Buttons》，获得一致好评。专辑中的《Let's Spend the Night Together》和《Ruby Tuesday》都成为滚石乐队的代表曲目。1967年2月，Jagger与Richards由于藏毒被逮捕。三个月后，Brian Jones因为同样的罪名被逮捕，但幸运的是，三人很快就重获自由。为了对抗The Beatles，滚石在获释之后发行了迷幻/试验专辑《Their Satanic Majesties Request》。尽管媒体和歌迷对这张专辑的褒贬不一，但专辑最终还是进入了排行榜的前三名。
1968年初，滚石解雇了前经纪人Andrew Loog Oldham，聘用Allen Klein为乐队新的经纪人。乐队原定的8月发行的下张专辑《Beggar's Banquet》由于采用了一个肮脏，满是涂鸦的卫生间墙壁作为唱片封面而被Decca公司拒用，使得专辑的发行日期被迫推迟到了11月。本张专辑以滚石标志性的布鲁斯摇滚融合乡村摇滚的风格获得大获好评，但这时候一场灾难正在悄悄的临近。在录制《Beggar's Banquet》专辑的过程中，毒瘾越来越重的Brian Jones开始对过于“专制”的Jagger与Richards非常不满。1969年6月9日，Brian Jones离开了滚石乐队。7月3日，在离队不满1个月之后，年仅27岁的Jones被发现死在了游泳池中。验尸官给出的死因是“意外死亡”，但在此后的两年中有各种关于Jones死因的传闻。
在Brian Jones意外过世的时候，滚石已经邀请到前John Mayall's Bluesbreakers乐队的Mick Taylor作为乐队的新吉他手。在乐队69年发行的专辑《Let It Bleed》中，由于部分歌曲Brian Jones生前已经参与录制完成，因此Mick Taylor在这张专辑中仅参与了个别歌曲的录音。尽管乐队人员发生了大的变动，但这张《Let It Bleed》仍是滚石最为出色的专辑之一。同年，乐队举办三年来的首次美国巡演。在这次巡演期间，滚石第一次被人称为“全世界最伟大的摇滚乐队”。乐队打破了票房收入的纪录，但这期间却出现了不和谐的音符。其中，乐队在Altamont Speedway举办了一场免费的演出。在The Grateful Dead乐队的建议之下，滚石决定启用“地狱天使党”(Hell's Angels)来维护演出现场的秩序。事实证明这是个错误的决定，当天整个演出现场的秩序一团糟，在乐队正在台上演出的时候，一位名叫Meredith Hunter的黑人男青年被Hell's Angels杀害，这就是著名的“地狱天使党”事件。
1970年秋，乐队发行在Decca公司的最后一张现场专辑《Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!》。随后，乐队在Atlantic公司旗下创建Rolling Stones公司。1971年，乐队的经典专辑之一《Sticky Fingers》在新公司发行。为了逃税，滚石乐队在《Sticky Fingers》专辑发行之后就集体逃到了法国。在法国期间，乐队又录制完成了一张双面专辑。这张著名的《Exile on Main Street》于1972年5月正式发行，而本张专辑日后也被众多歌迷评为滚石乐队最为经典的专辑。
1973和1974年，滚石乐队分别发行了由情歌《Angie》打头阵，相对较旋律化的专辑《Goats Head Soup》和《It's Only Rock 'n' Roll》，虽然这两张专辑都在排行榜中获得了冠军，但并没有给歌迷留下很深的印象。在录制完专辑《It's Only Rock 'n' Roll》之后，Mick Taylor离开了滚石乐队。乐队不得以再度寻找合适的吉他手，包括Jeff Beck在内的多位吉他高手都进入到了乐队的视线当中，而滚石最终选中的是前the Faces和Rod Stewart乐队的吉他手Ron Wood。1976年，滚石发行了Ron Wood加入后的首张专辑《Black n' Blue》。1977年2月，Keith Richards和女友Anita Pallenberg在多伦多由于携带毒品被逮捕。1978年，乐队发行了一张融合了朋克，新浪潮和disco等音乐风格的专辑《 Some Girls》，再次获得歌迷的好评。《Some Girls》和专辑中的主打单曲《Miss You》均使乐队再夺排行榜的冠军。1980年，滚石发行专辑《Emotional Rescue》，再次获得专辑榜冠军。1981年，乐队发行的专辑《Tattoo You》在商业和评论界得到了双赢，但这张专辑可以看作是滚石乐队辉煌时代的结束。从准备专辑《Undercover》开始，Jagger和Richards在乐队发展方向的问题上产生较大分歧，Jagger认为滚石乐队应该顺应时代潮流，而Richards要坚持走传统路线。由于Jagger和Richards的不和，83年的专辑《Undercover》的差强人意完全在人意料之中。由于Jagger早已决定单飞，所以在86年滚石发行专辑《Dirty Work》之后，Jagger甚至没有安排任何巡演。Jagger在1985和1987年发行了两张个人专辑，但均不能令人满意，相反，Richards1988年发行的首张个人专辑《Talk Is Cheap》却得到了良好的评价并成为金唱片。
1988年底，Jagger和Richards终于再次回到了一起，重新撑起The Rolling Stones的大旗。1989年初，滚石乐队被列入摇滚名人堂，Jagger，Richards，Ron Wood和Mick Taylor出席了在纽约举行的颁奖仪式。当年，乐队发行《Steel Wheels》，而随后乐为宣传本张专辑举办的巡演打破了多项纪录，本次巡演的票房收入共计达到1亿4千万美元。1991年，乐队发行现场专辑《Flashpoint》，记录了本次巡演的盛况。在《Flashpoint》发行之后，Bill Wyman正式退出了乐队。滚石并没有立刻寻找Wyman的继任者，直到1994年，乐队才请到了曾为Miles Davis和Sting伴奏的贝斯手Darryl Jones来录制最新专辑《Voodoo Lounge》，这张专辑成为滚石10年来评价最好的专辑，而乐队随后举办的巡演甚至要比“Steel Wheels”巡演更加的火爆。另《Voodoo Lounge》显得更加出色的是，滚石乐队依靠本张专辑首次捧得格莱美奖杯，《Voodoo Lounge》获得了当年格莱美最佳专辑奖。1997年，乐队发行了与制作人Don Was合作的第二张专辑《Bridges to Babylon》。2005年9月6日，在时隔近10年之后，滚石乐队发行最新录音室专辑《A Bigger Bang》。
By the time the Rolling Stones began calling themselves the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the late '60s, they had already staked out an impressive claim on the title. As the self-consciously dangerous alternative to the bouncy Merseybeat of the Beatles in the British Invasion, the Stones had pioneered the gritty, hard-driving blues-based rock & roll that came to define hard rock. With his preening machismo and latent maliciousness, Mick Jagger became the prototypical rock frontman, tempering his macho showmanship with a detached, campy irony while Keith Richards and Brian Jones wrote the blueprint for sinewy, interlocking rhythm guitars. Backed by the strong yet subtly swinging rhythm section of bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts, the Stones became the breakout band of the British blues scene, eclipsing such contemporaries as the Animals and Them. Over the course of their career, the Stones never really abandoned blues, but as soon as they reached popularity in the U.K., they began experimenting musically, incorporating the British pop of contemporaries like the Beatles, Kinks, and Who into their sound. After a brief dalliance with psychedelia, the Stones re-emerged in the late '60s as a jaded, blues-soaked hard rock quintet. The Stones always flirted with the seedy side of rock & roll, but as the hippie dream began to break apart, they exposed and reveled in the new rock culture. It wasn't without difficulty, of course. Shortly after he was fired from the group, Jones was found dead in a swimming pool, while at a 1969 free concert at Altamont, a concertgoer was brutally killed during the Stones' show. But the Stones never stopped going. For the next 30 years, they continued to record and perform, and while their records weren't always blockbusters, they were never less than the most visible band of their era — certainly, none of their British peers continued to be as popular or productive as the Stones. And no band since has proven to have such a broad fan base or far-reaching popularity, and it is impossible to hear any of the groups that followed them without detecting some sort of influence, whether it was musical or aesthetic.
Throughout their career, Mick Jagger (vocals) and Keith Richards (guitar, vocals) remained at the core of the Rolling Stones. The pair initially met as children at Dartford Maypole County Primary School. They drifted apart over the next ten years, eventually making each other's acquaintance again in 1960, when they met through a mutual friend, Dick Taylor, who was attending Sidcup Art School with Richards. At the time, Jagger was studying at the London School of Economics and playing with Taylor in the blues band Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. Shortly afterward, Richards joined the band. Within a year, they had met Brian Jones (guitar, vocals), a Cheltenham native who had dropped out of school to play saxophone and clarinet. By the time he became a fixture on the British blues scene, Jones had already had a wild life. He ran away to Scandinavia when he was 16; by that time, he had already fathered two illegitimate children. He returned to Cheltenham after a few months, where he began playing with the Ramrods. Shortly afterward, he moved to London, where he played in Alexis Korner's group, Blues Inc. Jones quickly decided he wanted to form his own group and advertised for members; among those he recruited was the heavyset blues pianist Ian Stewart.
As he played with his group, Jones also moonlighted under the name Elmo Jones at the Ealing Blues Club. At the pub, he became reacquainted with Blues, Inc., which now featured drummer Charlie Watts, and, on occasion, cameos by Jagger and Richards. Jones became friends with Jagger and Richards, and they soon began playing together with Taylor and Stewart; during this time, Mick was elevated to the status of Blues, Inc.'s lead singer. With the assistance of drummer Tony Chapman, the fledgling band recorded a demo tape. After the tape was rejected by EMI, Taylor left the band to attend the Royal College of Art; he would later form the Pretty Things. Before Taylor's departure, the group named itself the Rolling Stones, borrowing the moniker from a Muddy Waters song.
The Rolling Stones gave their first performance at the Marquee Club in London on July 12, 1962. At the time, the group consisted of Jagger, Richards, Jones, pianist Ian Stewart, drummer Mick Avory, and Dick Taylor, who had briefly returned to the fold. Weeks after the concert, Taylor left again and was replaced by Bill Wyman, formerly of the Cliftons. Avory also left the group — he would later join the Kinks — and the Stones hired Tony Chapman, who proved to be unsatisfactory. After a few months of persuasion, the band recruited Charlie Watts, who had quit Blues, Inc. to work at an advertising agency once the group's schedule became too hectic. By 1963, the band's lineup had been set, and the Stones began an eight-month residency at the Crawdaddy Club, which proved to substantially increase their fan base. It also attracted the attention of Andrew Loog Oldham, who became the Stones' manager, signing them from underneath Crawdaddy's Giorgio Gomelsky. Although Oldham didn't know much about music, he was gifted at promotion, and he latched upon the idea of fashioning the Stones as the bad-boy opposition to the clean-cut Beatles. At his insistence, the large yet meek Stewart was forced out of the group, since his appearance contrasted with the rest of the group. Stewart didn't disappear from the Stones; he became one of their key roadies and played on their albums and tours until his death in 1985.
With Oldham's help, the Rolling Stones signed with Decca Records, and that June, they released their debut single, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On." The single became a minor hit, reaching number 21, and the group supported it with appearances on festivals and package tours. At the end of the year, they released a version of Lennon-McCartney's "I Wanna Be Your Man" that soared into the Top 15. Early in 1964, they released a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," which shot to number three. "Not Fade Away" became their first American hit, reaching number 48 that spring. By that time, the Stones were notorious in their homeland. Considerably rougher and sexier than the Beatles, the Stones were the subject of numerous sensationalistic articles in the British press, culminating in a story about the band urinating in public. All of these stories cemented the Stones as a dangerous, rebellious band in the minds of the public, and had the effect of beginning a manufactured rivalry between them and the Beatles, which helped the group rocket to popularity in the U.S. In the spring of 1964, the Stones released their eponymous debut album, which was followed by "It's All Over Now," their first U.K. number one. That summer, they toured America to riotous crowds, recording the Five by Five EP at Chess Records in Chicago in the midst of the tour. By the time it was over, they had another number one U.K. single with Howlin' Wolf's "Little Red Rooster." Although the Stones had achieved massive popularity, Oldham decided to push Jagger and Richards into composing their own songs, since they — and his publishing company — would receive more money that away. In June of 1964, the group released their first original single, "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)," which became their first American Top 40 hit. Shortly afterward, a version of Irma Thomas' "Time Is on My Side" became their first U.S. Top Ten. It was followed by "The Last Time" in early 1965, a number one U.K. and Top Ten U.S. hit that began a virtually uninterrupted string of Jagger-Richards hit singles. Still, it wasn't until the group released "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in the summer of 1965 that they were elevated to superstars. Driven by a fuzz-guitar riff designed to replicate the sound of a horn section, "Satisfaction" signaled that Jagger and Richards had come into their own as songwriters, breaking away from their blues roots and developing a signature style of big, bluesy riffs and wry, sardonic lyrics. It stayed at number one for four weeks and began a string of Top Ten singles that ran for the next two years, including such classics as "Get off My Cloud," "19th Nervous Breakdown," "As Tears Go By," and "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?"
By 1966, the Stones had decided to respond to the Beatles' increasingly complex albums with their first album of all-original material, Aftermath. Due to Brian Jones' increasingly exotic musical tastes, the record boasted a wide range of influences, from the sitar-drenched "Paint It, Black" to the Eastern drones of "I'm Going Home." These eclectic influences continued to blossom on Between the Buttons (1967), the most pop-oriented album the group ever made. Ironically, the album's release was bookended by two of the most notorious incidents in the band's history. Before the record was released, the Stones performed the suggestive "Let's Spend the Night Together," the B-side to the medieval ballad "Ruby Tuesday," on The Ed Sullivan Show, which forced Jagger to alter the song's title to an incomprehensible mumble, or else face being banned. In February of 1967, Jagger and Richards were arrested for drug possession, and within three months, Jones was arrested on the same charge. All three were given suspended jail sentences, and the group backed away from the spotlight as the summer of love kicked into gear in 1967. Jagger, along with his then-girlfriend Marianne Faithfull, went with the Beatles to meet the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; they were also prominent in the international broadcast of the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love." Appropriately, the Stones' next single, "Dandelion"/"We Love You," was a psychedelic pop effort, and it was followed by their response to Sgt. Pepper, Their Satanic Majesties Request, which was greeted with lukewarm reviews.
The Stones' infatuation with psychedelia was brief. By early 1968, they had fired Andrew Loog Oldham and hired Allen Klein as their manager. The move coincided with their return to driving rock & roll, which happened to coincide with Richards' discovery of open tunings, a move that gave the Stones their distinctively fat, powerful sound. The revitalized Stones were showcased on the malevolent single "Jumpin' Jack Flash," which climbed to number three in May 1968. Their next album, Beggar's Banquet, was finally released in the fall, after being delayed for five months due its controversial cover art of a dirty, graffiti-laden restroom. An edgy record filled with detours into straight blues and campy country, Beggar's Banquet was hailed as a masterpiece among the fledgling rock press. Although it was seen as a return to form, few realized that while it opened a new chapter of the Stones' history, it also was the closing of their time with Brian Jones. Throughout the recording of Beggar's Banquet, Jones was on the sidelines due to his deepening drug addiction and his resentment of the dominance of Jagger and Richards. Jones left the band on June 9, 1969, claiming to be suffering from artistic differences between himself and the rest of the band. On July 3, 1969 — less than a month after his departure — Jones was found dead in his swimming pool. The coroner ruled that it was "death by misadventure," yet his passing was the subject of countless rumors over the next two years.
By the time of his death, the Stones had already replaced Brian Jones with Mick Taylor, a former guitarist for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. He wasn't featured on "Honky Tonk Women," a number one single released days after Jones' funeral, and he contributed only a handful of leads on their next album, Let It Bleed. Released in the fall of 1969, Let It Bleed was comprised of sessions with Jones and Taylor, yet it continued the direction of Beggar's Banquet, signaling that a new era in the Stones' career had begun, one marked by ragged music and an increasingly wasted sensibility. Following Jagger's filming of Ned Kelly in Australia during the first part of 1969, the group launched its first American tour in three years. Throughout the tour — the first where they were billed as the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band — the group broke attendance records, but it was given a sour note when the group staged a free concert at Altamont Speedway. On the advice of the Grateful Dead, the Stones hired Hell's Angels as security, but that plan backfired tragically. The entire show was unorganized and in shambles, yet it turned tragic when the Angels killed a young black man, Meredith Hunter, during the Stones' performance. In the wake of the public outcry, the Stones again retreated from the spotlight and dropped "Sympathy for the Devil," which some critics ignorantly claimed incited the violence, from their set.
As the group entered hiatus, they released the live Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! in the fall of 1970. It was their last album for Decca/London, and they formed Rolling Stones Records, which became a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. During 1970, Jagger starred in Nicolas Roeg's cult film Performance and married Nicaraguan model Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, and the couple quickly entered high society. As Jagger was jet-setting, Richards was slumming, hanging out with country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons. Keith wound up having more musical influence on 1971's Sticky Fingers, the first album the Stones released though their new label. Following its release, the band retreated to France on tax exile, where they shared a house and recorded a double album, Exile on Main St. Upon its May 1972 release, Exile on Main St. was widely panned, but over time it came to be considered one of the group's defining moments.
Following Exile, the Stones began to splinter in two, as Jagger concentrated on being a celebrity and Richards sank into drug addiction. The band remained popular throughout the '70s, but their critical support waned. Goats Head Soup, released in 1973, reached number one, as did 1974's It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, but neither record was particularly well received. Taylor left the band after It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, and the group recorded their next album as they auditioned new lead guitarists, including Jeff Beck. They finally settled on Ron Wood, former lead guitarist for the Faces and Rod Stewart, in 1976, the same year they released Black n' Blue, which only featured Wood on a handful of cuts. During the mid- and late '70s, all the Stones pursued side projects, with both Wyman and Wood releasing solo albums with regularity. Richards was arrested in Canada in 1977 with his common-law wife Anita Pallenberg for heroin possession. After his arrest, he cleaned up and was given a suspended sentence the following year. The band reconvened in 1978 to record Some Girls, an energetic response to punk, new wave, and disco. The record and its first single, the thumping disco-rocker "Miss You," both reached number one, and the album restored the group's image. However, the group squandered that goodwill with the follow-up, Emotional Rescue, a number one record that nevertheless received lukewarm reviews upon its 1980 release. Tattoo You, released the following year, fared better both critically and commercially, as the singles "Start Me Up" and "Waiting on a Friend" helped the album spend nine weeks at number one. The Stones supported Tattoo You with an extensive stadium tour captured in Hal Ashby's movie Let's Spend the Night Together and the 1982 live album Still Life.
Tattoo You proved to be the last time the Stones completely dominated the charts and the stadiums. Although the group continued to sell out concerts in the '80s and '90s, their records didn't sell as well as previous efforts, partially because the albums suffered due to Jagger and Richards' notorious mid-'80s feud. Starting with 1983's Undercover, the duo conflicted about which way the band should go, with Jagger wanting the Stones to follow contemporary trends and Richards wanting them to stay true to their rock roots. As a result, Undercover was a mean-spirited, unfocused record that received relatively weak sales and mixed reviews. Released in 1986, Dirty Work suffered a worse fate, since Jagger was preoccupied with his fledgling solo career. Once Jagger decided that the Stones would not support Dirty Work with a tour, Richards decided to make his own solo record with 1988's Talk Is Cheap. Appearing a year after Jagger's failed second solo album, Talk Is Cheap received good reviews and went gold, prompting Jagger and Richards to reunite late in 1988. The following year, the Stones released Steel Wheels, which was received with good reviews, but the record was overshadowed by its supporting tour, which grossed over 140 million dollars and broke many box office records. In 1991, the live album Flashpoint, which was culled from the Steel Wheels shows, was released.
Following the release of Flashpoint, Bill Wyman left the band; he published a memoir, Stone Alone, within a few years of leaving. The Stones didn't immediately replace Wyman, since they were all working on solo projects; this time, there was none of the animosity surrounding their mid-'80s projects. The group reconvened in 1994 with bassist Darryl Jones, who had previously played with Miles Davis and Sting, to record and release the Don Was-produced Voodoo Lounge. The album received the band's strongest reviews in years, and its accompanying tour was even more successful than the Steel Wheels tour. On top of being more successful than its predecessor, Voodoo Lounge also won the Stones their first Grammy for Best Rock Album. Upon the completion of the Voodoo Lounge tour, the Stones released the live, "unplugged" album Stripped in the fall of 1995. Similarly, after wrapping up their tour in support of 1997's Bridges to Babylon, the group issued yet another live set, No Security, the following year. A high-profile greatest-hits tour in 2002 was launched despite the lack of a studio album to support, and its album document Live Licks appeared in 2004. A year later, the group issued A Bigger Bang, their third effort with producer Don Was.
