The Rolling Stones
Under My Thumb
Under my thumb
The girl who once had me down
Under my thumb
The girl who once pushed me around
Its down to me
The difference in the clothes she wears
Down to me, the change has come,
Shes under my thumb
Aint it the truth babe?
Under my thumb
The squirmin dog whos just had her day
Under my thumb
A girl who has just changed her ways
Its down to me, yes it is
The way she does just what shes told
Down to me, the change has come
Shes under my thumb
Ah, ah, say its alright
Under my thumb
A siamese cat of a girl
Under my thumb
Shes the sweetest, hmmm, pet in the world
Its down to me
The way she talks when shes spoken to
Down to me, the change has come,
Shes under my thumb
Ah, take it easy babe
Yeah
Its down to me, oh yeah
The way she talks when shes spoken to
Down to me, the change has come,
Shes under my thumb
Yeah, it feels alright
Under my thumb
Her eyes are just kept to herself
Under my thumb, well i
I can still look at someone else
Its down to me, oh thats what I said
The way she talks when shes spoken to
Down to me, the change has come,
Shes under my thumb
Say, its alright.
Say its all...
Say its all...
Take it easy babe
Take it easy babe
Feels alright
Take it, take it easy babe
_______________________________
The Rolling Stones are an English band whose blues, rhythm and blues and rock and roll-infused music became popular during the "British Invasion" in the early 1960s. The band was formed in London in 1962 by original leader Brian Jones, but eventually led by the songwriting partnership of singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Pianist Ian Stewart, drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman completed the early lineup. Jones died in 1969 shortly after being fired from the band and was replaced by 20-year-old Mick Taylor. After Taylor quit in 1974, former Faces guitarist Ron Wood took over. Wyman retired in 1993 being replaced by Darryl Jones who has played bass on subsequent recordings, but is not an official member of the band.
The band has released 55 albums of original work and compilations, and have had 32 U.K & U.S top-10 singles. They have sold more than 200 million albums worldwide. 1971's Sticky Fingers began a string of eight consecutive studio albums at number one in the United States. In 1989 the Rolling Stones were inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2004 they were ranked number 4 in Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Their latest album, A Bigger Bang, was released in 2005 and accompanied by their highest-grossing tour, which lasted into late summer 2007. During the 1969 American tour, tour manager Sam Cutler introduced them as "The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World". Their image of unkempt and surly youth is one that many musicians still emulate.
Band history
Founding: 1960-1962
In 1951 Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were classmates at Wentworth County Junior High School. They met again in 1960 while Richards was attending Sidcup Art College.[8] Richards recalled "I was still going to school, and he was going up to the London School of Economics... So I get on this train one morning, and there's Jagger and under his arm he has four or five albums... He's got Chuck Berry and Little Walter, Muddy Waters" With mutual friend Dick Taylor (later of Pretty Things), they formed the band Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. Stones founders Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart were active in the London R&B scene fostered by Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner. Jagger and Richards met Jones while he was playing slide guitar sitting in with Korner's Blues Inc. Korner also had hired Jagger periodically and frequently future Stones drummer Charlie Watts. Their first rehearsal was organized by Jones and included Stewart, Jagger and Richards - the latter came along at Jagger's invitation. In June 1962 the lineup was: Jagger, Richards, Stewart, Jones, Taylor, and drummer Tony Chapman. Taylor then left the group. Jones renamed the band The Rollin' Stones, after the song "Rollin' Stone" by Muddy Waters.
1962-1964
The Rolling Stones, c. 1963.On 12 July 1962 the group played its first formal gig at the Marquee club in central London (the first had been an informal performance in Ealing, west London), billed as "The Rollin' Stones". The line-up was Jagger, Richards, Jones, Stewart on piano, Taylor on bass and Tony Chapman on drums. Jones intended for the band to play primarily Chicago blues, but Jagger and Richards brought the rock 'n roll of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley to the band. Bassist Bill Wyman joined in December and drummer Charlie Watts the following January to form the Stones' long standing rhythm section.
The Stones' first manager Giorgio Gomelsky booked the band to play at his Crawdaddy Club [8] for what became an eight-month residency during which their fan base grew to include the The Beatles. The Beatles in turn recommended the Stones to their publicist Andrew Loog Oldham[citation needed], who promptly signed the band to a management deal with his partner and veteran booker Eric Easton. (Gromelsky had no written agreement with the band and was not consulted.) George Harrison likewise suggested to Dick Rowe of Decca Records (who came to regret turning down the Beatles) that he should sign the Stones. Their first EP, The Rolling Stones and album (also titled The Rolling Stones, titled in US England's Newest Hit Makers), were composed primarily of covers drawn from the band's live repertoire. A notable hit from the album was the band's first Top 40 single written by Jagger and Richards, "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)". After signing with Decca, the Stones began touring the UK and Europe. On their first tour of England, the Stones were packaged with American stars including Ike and Tina Turner, Bo Diddley, The Ronettes, The Everly Brothers and Little Richard. The first tour also cemented the Stones' shift from a rhythm and blues band to more of a pop band, resulting in a reduction in the number of blues songs the band played live.[citation needed] The Rolling Stones No. 2 (The Rolling Stones, Now! in the United States) (UK #1; US #5) again contained mainly cover tunes, but was augmented by songs composed by Jagger and Richards. After the album's release, the band began to tour constantly. The Rolling Stones' first UK chart-topper was the cover of "It's All Over Now" in June 1964.
During the first American tour in June 1964, the Stones began years of recording exclusively at American studios Chess Studios in Chicago and RCA Studios in Los Angeles. The Stones' version of “Little Red Rooster,” which went to number 1 in the UK, was banned in the US because of its “objectionable” lyrics. Oldham crafted the band's image of long-haired tearaways "into the opposite of what the Beatles [were] doing" . The Stones also appeared on American variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan reacted to the pandemonium the Stones caused and promised to never book them again, though he later did book them repeatedly . They also played on the The Hollywood Palace where host Dean Martin made fun of their longish hair, which was considered provocative. In October the band appeared immediately after James Brown in the filmed theatrical release of The T.A.M.I. Show, which showcased American acts with British Invasion artists. According to Jagger in 2003, "We weren't actually following James Brown because there were hours in between the filming of each section. Nevertheless, he was still very annoyed about it...". The first American tour was not an overwhelming success: the band had not topped the charts and poor booking marred many live appearances.[citation needed]
1965-1969
The first Jagger/Richards composition at number 1 in the UK was "The Last Time" in early 1965. The U.S. version of that year's Out of Our Heads LP contained seven original songs, including "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" which became the band's first number one in the US where it remained for four weeks in July, and established the Stones as a worldwide premier act. Shortly thereafter they released their second number one, "Get Off of My Cloud". Out of Our Heads and the US-only released December's Children were also the last Stones albums to predominantly feature covers. The release Aftermath (UK number 1 ; US 2) in the late spring of 1966 was the first Stones album to be composed only of Jagger/Richards songs. The American version of the LP included the chart-topping, Middle Eastern-influenced "Paint It, Black", the ballad "Lady Jane", and the almost 12-minute long "Going Home", the first extended jam on a top selling Rock 'n' Roll album; later Jimi Hendrix, Cream and other sixties and seventies bands would release long jams routinely.
Jagger, Richards and Jones began to be hounded by authorities over illegal drug use. In 1967 the Sussex police, tipped off by the News of the World, raided a party at Keith Richards' home, "Redlands". Jagger and Richards were charged with drug offences. Richards said in 2003, "When we got busted at Redlands, it suddenly made us realize that this was a whole different ball game and that was when the fun stopped. Up until then it had been as though London existed in a beautiful space where you could do anything you wanted."
Amid this, January saw the release of Between the Buttons (UK number 3;US 2). The US version included the double A-side singles of "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday". The Stones performed the former on The Ed Sullivan Show in the USA, where Jagger was forced to mumble the song's lyrics and change the chorus to "Let's Spend Some Time Together" due to the threat of censorship. The album was Oldham's last venture as the Stones' producer (and, effectively, manager as well). On his departure, Jagger said in 2003, "The reason Andrew left was because he thought that we weren't concentrating and that we were being childish. It was not a great moment really - and I would have thought it wasn't a great moment for Andrew either. There were a lot of distractions and you always need someone to focus you at that point, that was Andrew's job."[8] Oldham, in his biography, says it was because his shortage of money led to his surrendering his management contract to others.
In May 1967, shortly before the trials of Jagger and Richards, Brian Jones was arrested for possession of cannabis[8] He escaped with a fine and probation but was told to seek professional help. On 27 June Jagger and Richards were convicted and jailed. Following an editorial critical of the convictions and sentences in The Times, entitled "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?", Richards' conviction was quashed on appeal, and Jagger's sentence reduced to a conditional discharge. The band recorded a new single, "We Love You", as a thank-you for the loyalty shown by their fans during the trials. It began with the sound of opening prison doors and in TV films to promote the record Jagger dressed in a style reminiscent of Oscar Wilde.
December 1967 saw the release of Their Satanic Majesties Request released shortly after the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Satanic Majesties was recorded in difficult circumstances while Jagger, Richards and Jones were in and out of jail. (Bill Wyman wrote and sang a track on the album — "In Another Land" — and the front cover of the album had a kaleidoscope picture.) Jagger was a strong advocate of the psychedelic sound of the album, but rarely have any songs from the record been played live. Though the band has released psychedelic tracks, Satanic Majesties is an anomaly. It also marked the first time the Stones produced their own album.
By early 1968 the Stones had acquired Allen Klein as their new manager. The band spent the first few months of the year compiling material for their next album. Those sessions resulted in the song "Jumpin' Jack Flash", released as a single in May. The song, and later that year the resulting album, Beggars Banquet marked the band's return to its blues roots with new producer Jimmy Miller. Featuring the album's lead single, "Street Fighting Man", and the opening track "Sympathy for the Devil", Beggars Banquet is another eclectic mix of country and blues-inspired tunes and was hailed as an achievement for the Stones at the time of its release. On the musical evolution between albums, Richards said, "There is a change between material on Satanic Majesties and Beggars Banquet. I'd grown sick to death of the whole Maharishi guru shit and the beads and bells. Who knows where these things come from, but I guess [the music] was a reaction to what we'd done in our time off and also that severe dose of reality. A spell in prison... will certainly give you room for thought... I was fucking pissed with being busted. So it was, 'Right we'll go and strip this thing down.' There's a lot of anger in the music from that period." During this time Richards started using open tunings, most prominently a 5-string open-G tuning (with the lower 6th string removed), as heard on the 1969 single "Honky Tonk Women", "Brown Sugar" (Sticky Fingers, 1971), "Tumbling Dice", "Happy", (Exile on Main St., 1972), and "Start Me Up" (Tattoo You, 1981). Open tunings lead to Stones' (and Richards') trademark guitar sound.
By the release of Beggars Banquet Brian Jones had contributed sporadically and was more troubled. Jagger said that Jones was "not psychologically suited to this way of life." His drug use had become a hindrance, and he was unable to obtain a U.S. visa. In a June meeting at Jones' house between Jagger, Richards, Watts, Richards said that Jones admitted that he couldn't "go on the road again." All agreed to let Jones, according to Richards, "...say I've left, and if I want to I can come back.' His replacement was the 21-year-old guitarist Mick Taylor, of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, who started recording with the band immediately. On July 3, 1969, less than a month later, Jones drowned in the pool at his Cotchford Farm home in Sussex. All sorts of conspiracy theories have made the rounds ever since.
Despite the death of Brian Jones two days previously, a scheduled concert in London's Hyde Park went ahead in front of an estimated 250,000 fans.[8] The band had just released "Honky Tonk Women" on 3 July, coinciding with the death. The band's performance was captured by a Granada Television production team, later to be shown on British television as Stones in the Park. Jagger read an excerpt from Percy Bysshe Shelley's elegy Adonais and released thousands of butterflies in memory of Jones. The concert was the first gig for the band in a little over a year .
Their last album of the Sixties, Let It Bleed featured "Gimme Shelter", "You Can't Always Get What You Want", "Midnight Rambler", as well as a cover of Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain". Most of these songs became part of the live show for the resulting tour of America, their first in three years. Making their way from New York to California, the tour culminated with the band's staging of the Altamont Free Concert, at the disused Altamont Speedway, about 60km east of San Francisco. The concert was a disaster, due in part to the hiring of Hell's Angels to undertake security. Meredith Hunter, a young man, was stabbed and beaten to death by the Angels. The tour and "Altamont" were documented in Albert and David Maysles' film Gimme Shelter. As a response to the growing popularity of bootleg recordings, the live album Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! was released in 1970 and was considered by critic Lester Bangs the best live record ever.
By 1969, the band's 1963 contract with Decca Records ended, and the Stones formed their own record company, Rolling Stones Records. Sticky Fingers released in March 1971, was the band's first album on their own label. The album contains one of their best known hits, two of which, "Brown Sugar", and the country-influenced "Wild Horses" were recorded at Alabama's Muscle Shoals Sound Studio during the 1969 American tour.
Sticky Fingers continued the band's immersion into heavily blues-influenced compositions. The album is noted for its "loose, ramshackle ambience" and marked Mick Taylor's first full release with the band. Taylor collaborated on several songs with Jagger (likely "Sway" and "Moonlight Mile"), partially because of Richards' drug addictions and resulting unreliability. However, when released, all original songs were credited to "Jagger/Richards".
Following the release of Sticky Fingers, the Stones left England after allegations by the UK Inland Revenue service of unpaid income tax. The band moved to the South of France. Richards rented a chateau, Villa Nellcôte and sublet rooms to band members and entourage. Using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio they continued recording sessions that stretched as far back as 1969. The subsequent recordings were finished at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles by the band. The resulting double album, Exile on Main St. was released in May 1972. Given an A+ grade by critic Robert Christgau[18] and disparaged by Lester Bangs — who reversed his opinion within months —Exile is now accepted as one of the Stones' best albums.[19] The film Cocksucker Blues, never officially released, documents the subsequent, highly publicised 1972 North American ("STP") Tour, with its retinue of jet set hangers-on. The band's early 1973 Pacific Tour saw them banned from playing in Japan and almost banned from Australia.
The Rolling Stones on tour, 1972.In November 1972, the band began sessions in Kingston, Jamaica for their follow-up to Exile, Goats Head Soup. The album spawned the worldwide hit "Angie", but proved the first in a string of commercially successful but tepidly received studio albums. The sessions for Goats Head Soup led to a number of outtakes, most notably an early version of the popular ballad "Waiting on a Friend", not released until Tattoo You, eight years later. The making of the record was hindered by another legal battle over drugs, this one dating back to their stay in France.
The band went to Musicland studios in Munich to record their next album, 1974's It's Only Rock 'n Roll but Jimmy Miller, who had drug abuse issues, was no longer producer. Instead, Jagger and Richards assumed production duties and were credited as "the Glimmer Twins". Both the album and the single of the same name were hits, even without an immediate tour to promote them.
Nearing the end of 1974, Taylor began to get impatient because there had been no tours since October 1973. The band found itself in a stalemate, with members opting to spend time abroad between recording sessions, while Jagger was getting exasperated with Richards, who was becoming more unpredictable. The other members of the band ended up paying the fines and legal bills resulting from Richards' convictions, which led to the band being denied entry to certain countries and to missed income for all. Taylor spent his time helping Jagger compose and record songs in the studio, while Richards was often absent. Jagger promised Taylor recognition for his contributions in the form of official credits on tracks. When this did not happen, and with no tour in sight by the end of 1974 and a recording session already booked in Munich to record another album, Taylor quit The Rolling Stones. Taylor said in 1980, "I was getting a bit fed up. I wanted to broaden my scope as a guitarist and do something else... I wasn't really composing songs or writing at that time. I was just beginning to write, and that influenced my decision... There are some people who can just ride along from crest to crest; they can ride along somebody else's success. And there are some people for whom that's not enough. It really wasn't enough for me."
Info courtesy of Wikipedia.org
co-workers and friends. Nate 9/30/07
