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Essential Rolling Stones?
I know basically nothing about the Rolling Stones and can only even tell you the names of like two of their songs (i cant get no satisfaction & gimme shelter). I don't really know why, but I've just never made an attempt to listen to them. I think the Beatles are great and I'm pretty much positive I'll love the Rolling Stones...I just need to know where to start.
So...what are the 3-4 essential Rolling Stones albums from their enormous discography? It appears that Exile on Main St. and Sticky Fingers are popular...but I'm not sure. Anyway, what do I do? |
Exile on Main St.
Let It Bleed Beggars Banquet Sticky Fingers Those are my top 4. |
Yup agreed.
Then after that, if you're still hungry for more, I would go with: Get Your Ya Ya's Out - Best live album Aftermath (UK Version) - One of the best early Stones records And for later Stones: Some Girls - Pretty damn essential Emotional Rescue - Some would take Tattoo You over this, but this is a fun, eccentric record that holds up amazingly well. Undercover - A surprisingly strong late period record that often gets overlooked and one of the last to feature Bill Wyman. |
So much (deserved) attention to their Late 60's-Early 70's albums, but there are four essential Pre-Beggars albums that should be checked out in my opinion.
Rolling Stones Now - possibly the very best of their Pre-Aftermath albums. It's pretty much a lot of the UK Volume 2, with some singles sides. Heart of Stone, Off the Hook, Surprise Surprise, Mona (Killer Brian Jones Guitar playing), and Little Red Rooster make this album great. Out of Our Heads is solid Aftermath is best heard with the UK edition Between the Buttons is Mod Era Pop Rock the Stones way, and all the good for it. Lots of clever lyrics, excellent hooks, and plenty of cool. Connection, All Sold Out, She Smiled Sweetly, Yesterday's Papers, plus US edition tracks like Let's Spend the Night Together and Ruby Tuesday make it a fine album to get into '67 Stones. Lots of classic Brian Jones touches throughout. There's one collection worth mentioning... Flowers - Yes, this is one of those US collections, but being The Stones in their Mod-era Pop Prime, it's seriously something to check out maybe after hearing the rest of the essentials. A curio, but a great one. It's tough to choose four, seriously. Maybe a good all around 60's-Early 70's selection can be put to: Hot Rocks Vol. 1 - One of the essential collections of all time. Let It Bleed - Still my personal favorite Stones album Sticky Fingers - Essential Exile on Main Street - Worth the time to hear. Then there's Some Girls, and the Hot Rocks Vol. 2 with a more interesting selection, Tattoo You, and some songs on Undercover are great (Love the title track!). I like at least 3/4'ths of Satanic Majesties, "2,000 Man" being pretty under-rated while "2,000 Light Years From Home" and "She's a Rainbow" are rightfully in their long list of classics, but it's certainly not something to start off with, either. |
if you want something off the wall and don't mind experimentation (or at least throwing in everything AND the kitchen sink), i'd recommend "Their Satanic Majesties Request"
sprawling but a very interesting listen |
What I don't think has been mentioned yet is that quite a lot of the Stones early singles made between 1963 & 1967 were never released on official studio albums (Hence there being hundreds of compilations and differences between U.K. & U.S. releases) If you were to get Hot Rocks 1 & 2 or The London Singles Collection that would give you pretty much all of them plus B sides.
Also Goat's Head Soup doesn't seem to get a lot of love here but I would say it's easily their best album out of the top 4. |
Make sure you check out their 4 golden era records, then worry about the others.
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Hot Rocks, More Hot Rocks 1 & 2 essentially covers everything left off the US & UK releases, and also has all of "Flowers"
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I would also recommend Hot Rocks 1964-1971, as a good entry point to their music.
You really can't go wrong with any of their mid '60s to mid '70s albums, though. A couple of mid '70s albums nobody's mentioned yet, 'It's Only Rock 'n Roll' and 'Black and Blue' are also worth a listen. |
"A Bigger Bang" I thought was a great comeback
not many people are with me on this one, though |
I have been following this thread, and trying to come up with some good suggestions. Being a huge Stones fan, it is hard to select just a few songs, although i agree with most all of the suggestions so far.
When you have nearly 50 years of recordings to choose from, it might make more sense to pick a decade to start with. My suggestion would be start with the 1970s, which i consider the decade that the Stones were truly the Greatest Rock n Roll Band in the World. Enjoy your listening. |
Oh and if you want a good bootleg.... Philadelphia 72.
They were on fire during that tour, Stevie Wonder shows up for a couple of tunes too. |
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I wouldn't bother with albums, the Stones were a radio band so its the hit singles and other fine releases you want to check out. This should cover it.
I can't get no satisfaction Under my thumb Paint it black Sympathy for the devil Ruby Tuesday Jumpin Jack Flash Shelter Brown Sugar Honky Tonk Woman Wild Horses You Can't always get what you want Doo Doo Doo Doo Heartbreaker Angie Its only rock n roll Miss You Beast of Burden Shattered Emotional Rescue She's so Cold Start me up Waiting on a friend Slave Undercover in the night The Harlem Shuffle. Scroll through these, and you'll find some gems. |
^ i do agree to an extent, its why i find their albums very inconsistent. Although Aftermath (US version) and Exile on Main St are essential albums, everything else by the stones i could take or leave.
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