The Rolling Stones

:For other uses, see Rolling Stones (disambiguation)

Letting it bleed: 1972-1981

As Keith Richards removed himself from society, Mick Jagger began to move in more elevated social circles. He married the Nicaraguan model Bianca Perez Moreno de Macias, and the couple's jet-set lifestyle put further distance between himself and Richards. Pressured by the UK Inland Revenue service for several years of unpaid income tax, their recently appointed accountant Prince Rupert Lowenstein, a 'society' friend of Jagger's, advised the band to move abroad to avoid bankruptcy caused by the high rates of taxation of the Labour government of Harold Wilson. They eventually decided to quit Britain for the South of France, the band members taking to this enforced change of lifestyle with varying degrees of success. Bill Wyman, in particular, soon felt at home in his new mountainside house and became friendly with French painter Claude Chagall. Richards, however, adopted a more head-in-the-sand approach, ensconced in his London Cheyne Walk home in a state of insurrection until the very last minute.

Related Topics:
Nicaragua - Income tax - France

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Once in France Richards rented a gothic chateau "Villa Nellecote", which had been used as the headquarters for the local Nazi SS during the Second World War, and sublet rooms to the band members and a multitude of assorted hangers-on. Using the Rolling Stones Mobile studio, they began recording the double album Exile on Main St. (1972) in the basement of their new home, reputedly using electricity purloined from nearby railway lines. Dismissed by some on its release as sprawling and self-indulgent, the record is now considered among the band's (and rock & roll's) greatest. The film Cocksucker Blues, never officially released, documents the subsequent American tour.

Related Topics:
Chateau - Exile on Main St. - 1972 - Cocksucker Blues

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By the time Exile on Main St. had been completed Jagger had made the other band members aware that he was more interested in the celebrity lifestyle than working on its follow-up, and increasingly their records were made piecemeal, with tracks and parts laid down as and when the band, Jagger and Richards in particular, could get together and remain amicable sufficiently long enough to do so. When it finally arrived, Goats Head Soup (1973) was disappointing, and memorable largely for the hit single "Angie," popularly believed to be about David Bowie's new wife, but in reality another of Richards' odes to Anita Pallenberg.

Related Topics:
Goats Head Soup - 1973 - David Bowie

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Interestingly, the popular ballad "Waiting on a Friend" was recorded during the Goats Head Soup sessions, but not released until Tattoo You, nearly ten years later. The making of the record was not helped by another legal battle over drugs, this one dating back to their stay in France. But the tour of Europe in the fall of 1973 showed the Rolling Stones in top form, particularly Taylor, who played extensive solos on songs like "Midnight Rambler" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" in an exciting interplay with Richards on rhythm guitar.

Related Topics:
Tattoo You - Europe - 1973

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A live recording made in Brussels on 17 October was intended for an official release, but owing to legal problems it only appeared only on bootlegs (Nasty Music, The Bedspring Symphony and Brussels Affair). Many fans and critics regard these as the best Rolling Stones concert recordings. By the time they came to the Musicland studios in Munich to record 1974's It's Only Rock'N'Roll, there were even more problems. Regular producer Jimmy Miller was not asked to participate because of his increasing unreliability and drug use. Critics generally wrote the album off as uninspired from a band seen as stagnating, but both album and the single of the same name were huge hits, even without the customary tour to promote them; and, if anything, It's Only Rock'N'Roll was a return to form, being closer to the great albums the band released between 1968 and 1972. Mick Taylor's intricate lead style lent itself well to the hard-rocking record though his shy persona never quite matched Keith Richards' outspoken image and basic, Chuck Berry-inspired rhythm work. By this time Richards was reportedly berating Taylor during recording sessions, and he contributed little to the album. Irked by perceived mistreatment and a small share of the band's royalties, Taylor announced he was leaving the band shortly before sessions started for the next album, Black and Blue (1976). The band used the album's recording sessions (again in Munich) to audition possible replacements. Guitarists as stylistically far-flung as Humble Pie lead Peter Frampton and ex-Yardbirds impressario Jeff Beck were auditioned. American session players Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel appeared on much of the album, but the band settled on Ron Wood, a long-time friend of Richards' and guitarist with The Faces, whose singer Rod Stewart had recently gone solo.

Related Topics:
Brussels - 17 October - Bootleg - Munich - 1974 - It's Only Rock'N'Roll - Jimmy Miller - Black and Blue - 1976 - Humble Pie - Peter Frampton - Yardbirds - Jeff Beck - Wayne Perkins - Harvey Mandel - Ron Wood - The Faces - Rod Stewart

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Wood had already contributed to It's Only Rock'N'Roll, but his first public act with the band would be the 1975 United States tour. The shows featured a new format for the Stones with their usual act replaced by increasingly theatrical stage props and gimmicks, including a giant inflatable phallus and a cherry picker on which Jagger would soar out over the audience. This represented a further breakdown in Jagger and Richards' relationship —the pragmatic Richards considering it entirely superfluous and distracting from the music. Once again, Jagger was, if nothing else, shrewdly interpreting market trends. The mid-1970s were the era of extravagant stage shows from the likes of Queen and Elton John, and the band's tours were to become even more expensive and elaborate in the years to come.

Related Topics:
1975 - Phallus - 1970s - Queen - Elton John

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Although The Rolling Stones remained hugely popular through the 1970s, music critics had grown increasingly dismissive of the band's output until the seminal late-1970s album Some Girls. Keith Richards would have more serious concerns in 1977: despite having spent much of the previous year undergoing a series of drug therapies to help withdraw from heroin, including (allegedly) having his blood filtered, Richards and Pallenberg were arrested in a Toronto hotel room and charged with possession of heroin. The case would drag on for a year, with Richards eventually receiving a suspended sentence and ordered to play a concert for a local charity. This motivated a final, concerted attempt to end his drug habit, which proved largely successful. It also coincided with the end of his relationship with Anita Pallenberg, which had become increasingly strained since the tragic death of their third child (an infant son named Tara).

Related Topics:
1970s - Some Girls - 1977 - Toronto - Suspended sentence - Charity

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While Richards was settling his legal and personal problems, Jagger continued his jet-set lifestyle. He was a regular at New York's Studio 54 disco club, often in the company of model Jerry Hall. His marriage would end in 1977. By this time punk rock had become highly influential, and the Stones were increasingly criticized as being decadent, ageing millionaires and their music considered by many to be either stagnant or irrelevant. The Clash vocalist Joe Strummer even went so far as to declare "No Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones in 1977." What people did not realise at the time was that many punk bands idolised The Stones, Keith Richards in particular, and this does not seem surprising given the band's earlier rebellious image.

Related Topics:
Studio 54 - Disco - Jerry Hall - 1977 - Punk rock - The Clash - Joe Strummer - Elvis

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In 1978 the band recorded Some Girls, their most focused and successful album in years, despite the perceived misogyny of the title track. Jagger and Richards seemed to channel much of the personal turmoil surrounding them into renewed creative vitality. With the notable exception of the disco-influenced "Miss You" (a hit single and a live staple) and the droll, country-ballad "Far Away Eyes", the songs in this album were fast, basic guitar-driven rock and roll or impeccable ballads like "Beast of Burden", and the album was widely praised as both a Stones classic and a summation of late 1970s music trends. Emotional Rescue (1980) was in a similar vein, but lacked the redeeming features of its predecessor.

Related Topics:
1978 - Some Girls - Emotional Rescue - 1980

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Tattoo You (1981), was composed partially by using new material and by using unused songs from earlier recording outings (the ballad "Waiting on a Friend" dated back to the Goats Head Soup sessions). It also featured the hugely popular single "Start Me Up," showing that Richards was still capable of writing monster guitar parts of the same calibre as ten or fifteen years earlier. Tattoo You and the subsequent tour were major commercial successes.

Related Topics:
Tattoo You - 1981

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