I got the blues (The Rolling Stones) (LP 4524 - 4533)

The Rolling Stones  Sticky Fingers (Vinyl, Rolling Stones Records, 1971) *****  

The Rolling Stones  Exile on Main St. (Vinyl/ CD, Rolling Stones Records, 1972) *****  

The Rolling Stones  Goats Head Soup (Vinyl, Rolling Stones Records, 1973) ***

The Rolling Stones  It's Only Rock'n Roll (Vinyl, Rolling Stones Records, 1974) ***

The Rolling Stones  Black and Blue (Vinyl, Rolling Stones Records, 1976) ***

The Rolling Stones  Love You Live (Vinyl, Rolling Stones Records, 1977) ***

The Rolling Stones  El Mocambo 1977 (2CD, Rolling Stones Records/ Polydor, 2022) *****

The Rolling Stones  Time Waits For No One: Anthology 1971 - 1977 (Vinyl, Rolling Stones Records, 1979) **

The Rolling Stones  Some Girls (Vinyl, Rolling Stones Records, 1978) ****

The Rolling Stones  "Bakersfield" (Vinyl, White label, 1978) *

Genre: Blues rock, pop

Places I remember: Marbecks Records, Record Fair, JB Hi Fi, record shop in Monterey.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: All Down the Line (Exile on Main St.)

Gear costume: Wild Horses (Sticky Fingers)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: The seventies kicked off in spectacular fashion with Sticky Fingers, their ninth studio album. It appeared on their new label - Rolling Stones Records with the iconic tongue and lips logo. This wasn't Apple Records, though, where the label was created to release loads of other artists. Apart from Kracker and Peter Tosh, the label was mainly a vehicle for solo Stones albums and the band itself.

Sticky Fingers kicks off with Brown Sugar as a statement of intent - no faffing abaht - just brilliant blues rock/pop in a loose ramshackle fashion. Each song has taken on a life of its own now, while Wild Horses is a song for the ages. Keef as the human riff was somehow able to produce brilliance through his decadent, chemical haze infused years.

That decadent world, full of hard drugs, sexual openness and ambiguity and the rock'n'roll touring lifestyle could have (should have) made Mick and Keith a cautionary tale but instead they seemed to thrive despite the chaos. Mick, Bill and Charlie must have been concerned as 1970 turned into 1971 and the band moved to the south of France for tax reasons.

What they produced there was miraculous on many levels. Suffice to say they made my favourite Rolling Stones album OAT. I just need to list a few song titles: Happy; All Down the Line; Tumbling Dice; Sweet Virginia; Rocks Off; Rip This Joint; Shine a Light; Soul Survivor. All towering peaks!

Inevitably, their next album couldn't hope to equal or better Exile on Main St. Goats Head Soup (still no apostrophe usage yet for the Stones) isn't a bad album but it does signal the point where the fey Stones (check out jet set celebrity Mick on the cover) with a slight whiff of parody started to creep in. 

Still, there's always Keith (looking positively strung out on the back cover) and Mick Taylor's guitar to save the day. The highlights: Coming Down Again; Angie (a great song but maybe it should have been a single only release?), Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker). The less said about Star Star the better, though. Suffice to say, I had to take the needle off before it came on when I was a teenager - mum would not have approved!

The only song on GHS that wouldn't have been out of place on Exile on Main St. was Silver Train. Some great slide guitar on it, but Mick's vocals don't sound as frenetically committed as they did on Exile.

The album covers by The Rolling Stones are great at clueing the listener into what was inside. It's Only Rock'n Roll (apostrophes!!) is a great example. Guy Peellaert's painting of the band as rock gods is terrific and signals the change towards self-parody. 

The transitional nature of the record is clear throughout with an equal number of hits and misses. Time Waits For No One remains one of my favourite Stones songs from the seventies.

The transitional still applies for their next one after Mick Taylor decided he wanted to survive the Stones experience and quit. That one would be Black and Blue. The Stones used a variety of guitarists on the album with Ron Woods eventually getting the gig.

My abiding memory of this album and its songs is the video collection with Mick hamming it up big time on songs like Hey Negritta. It wasn't a good look. Highlights: Hand of Fate and Crazy Mama. Low point - Fool to Cry is just one long cringe.

The subsequent tour to support Black and Blue resulted in Love You Love - a double live album with one side (the superior one) from El Mocambo. The rest is pre-arena rock Stones - so still quite sloppy at times and hammy.

Much, much better is the El Mocambo 1977 album recorded at the smaller Toronto venue - room for 300 punters. It's a great album - showing the band in top form as they rip this joint with a ferocious performance. Why oh why did they prefer the Love You Life performances? It's worth waiting 45 years for its official release.

The compilation Time Waits For No One: Anthology 1971 - 1977 is plain strange. For a group who complained about the Decca compilations, it's weird they should do the same to themselves. 

It's a bizarre collection of songs for sure, with a el cheapo knock-off cover. Are Star Star and Fool To Cry among the best Stones' songs from this period? Three songs from the recent Black and Blue? One song from Sticky Fingers? One song from Exile on Main St.? Really? Maybe the best question is why did I buy this pointless collection? I have no idea! 

What seems obvious now - the combination of a lack-lustre live album, and a dodgy compilation equals a band in a holding position at best following the Toronto drugs bust for Keith and Anita Pallenberg.

They needed a major win at this point and Some Girls delivered it against the odds in 1978. Although it has Mick's disco song (and big hit) Miss You on it, there are still some rock songs like Respectable and Shattered that showed they could still matter in the late seventies.

BTW: I also have a white label release of the album that I picked up from a shop in Monterey. Someone has written 'The Stones "Bakersfield" ' on the label. I guess it's a test pressing as it doesn't sound different to the actual album. It's a nice curiosity.

Where do they all belong? Into the eighties with the Stolling Rones. Tread carefully.