I believe the 62-72 era of the band waa the best. Yes;.. after these years recordings got more technical (24 track + /Cd's / sacd's / etc). But the songs the band recorded in the 60's and early 70's are the foundation of this band. Yes, there are some great songs by the band in the 80's till the present. But as a person who is a fan and lived through all the decades of the Stones music. 1960's and 70's. are by far the best in so many ways. Attending a Stones concert in the early 60's the audiences and atmosphere was pure (it was all about the Stones)... In the 70's I would say 95% of the audience were big fans and knew all the songs the band played and what L.P. the song was on. Today and over the past 35 + years my thoughts is that maybe 50%(I'm being generous) are big Stones fans the rest of the audience were " the Stones are playing" and seeing them was the thing to do that day just like when the circus is town., The next day people would say we saw the Stones last night and when asked about what songs they played they would name like 4 or five big hits and not no anything else. The ticket prices make it really tough for many fans to go. Corporations would get blocks of tickets
and give them to clients. Which could answer why there are people in the first three or four rows of a show and have very little knowledge about the band and can be heard saying I hope they do Satisfaction and the young girl next to him says oh the Britney Spear's song. For those who don't know Britney Spears covered the Stones "Satisfaction" and it was a big hit for her.in I think in 2000

I have attended shows in the late 90's where people
near me asked which one is Bill Wyman, I would say he is the bass player... Another time the band played Crazy Mama and someone asked what is the name of this song. After 50+ years the Stones are still one of the best live bands if not the best live band.in the world. As an old Stones fan I believe they really don't need all that extra stuff to keep up with these other bands.. Go back to the 1972
stage presentation (raw and simple) their music will do the rest.. Then maybe ticket prices could be reasonably priced. I know this is all wishful thinking

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mtaylor

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2000 LYFH

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Hairball
The Brian era and the MT era are far better than the Ronnie era studio-wise (imo),
As for the first two era's, it's difficult to pick one over the other as each has positives as well as negatives, and thankfully there's so much variety to enjoy.

I agree. Would love to here the negatives...

Not extremely negative, but the album, where your name comes from!!

Accordingly there should be some earlier versions of the songs that are far better, "less produced".

Some of the Between the Buttons songs as well, the Stones pop period.

Not to mention several of the lame covers of that era...Under the Boardwalk for example is truly abysmal imo.
As for any negatives for the MT era - difficult to name any real duds, but some would argue IORR and GHS have inferior qualities compared to Exile, etc.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

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buttons67
always difficult to compare era,s but i feel the 1963-68 era had something that was lost therafter when brian jones was no longer there.

the big 4 albums from 1969-72 are great no doubt and mick taylor dominates these to a large extent, and while its often regarded that taylor was a better guitarist than jones, what cant be forgotten is that brian jones was much more than just a guitar player, he had plenty that taylor didnt have and during his era the stones evolved, grew and changed so much that listening to one song from another felt like you were listening to a completely different band.

the 63-68 period threw up some cracking songs that were all different.

paint it black
citadel
cool calm collected
jigsaw puzzle
ruby tuesday
the singer not the song
have you seen your mother baby
no expectations
on with the show
she said yead
2120 south michigan avenue
lady jane
child of the moon
we love you
the last time
off the hook
i just wanna make love to you
stray cat blues
something happened to me yesterday


all great songs from a great era.

the 1970,s didnt quite have as much of a mix.

yeah the brian jones-era definitely had the most variety and is personally more to my taste than what they put out after '69. for me '63/'64 - '68/'69 was by far the most innovative and in my opinion greatest era, everything after that kinda has the same sound to it, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but the earlier years contained so much musical variety in such a short period of time.

and to add to that list;

i am waiting
good times
mercy mercy
everybody needs somebody to love
under my thumb
mona (brian's guitar in this song is absolutely amazing, even bo diddley praised him greatly for it!)
get off of my cloud
etc etc

From the very beginning to when MT left is a lot of years but I love everything from these times. My first purchase was Not Fade Away, my last Steel Wheels. Got everything I need. I'm not sure how much exhibitionism holds for me?

It's the Jones-era all the way, for me. If it were not for my father keeping his Big Hits and Through The Past Darkly LP's, I don't believe I would be posting here today. Whatever the highs of the early-70's with Taylor and the occasional, sporadic greatness with Ronnie, it is those Decca/London 45's that made the Rolling Stones. It's somewhat telling that their biggest-selling record in the U.K. is their single, The Last Time. That was their peak on home soil. They reached their Everest as a live-act later, and went on to have the 'big-four' run of classic studio LP's, but, they'll never truly top those years with Brian Jones. The Stones are a 60's act at heart, and that's how they will be remembered.

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Big Al
It's the Jones-era all the way, for me. If it were not for my father keeping his Big Hits and Through The Past Darkly LP's, I don't believe I would be posting here today. Whatever the highs of the early-70's with Taylor and the occasional, sporadic greatness with Ronnie, it is those Decca/London 45's that made the Rolling Stones. It's somewhat telling that their biggest-selling record in the U.K. is their single, The Last Time. That was their peak on home soil. They reached their Everest as a live-act later, and went on to have the 'big-four' run of classic studio LP's, but, they'll never truly top those years with Brian Jones. The Stones are a 60's act at heart, and that's how they will be remembered.

+1

I prefer the Decca / Jones era. They went on a really interesting poptastic journey before going back to re-tool the Dartford Delta Blues and dumping Brian.
Obviously, the post-Jones albums are awesome up to Exile but it was a big shame that they stopped doing the non-album singles - JJF/COTM and WLY/D to name but two. They had a very good commercial non-commercial eye in the 60s.
When you look at the high quality non-album singles that they, the mopheads, the kinks and many others were releasing while constantly moving forward and making interesting albums, well i just have to prefer the 60s stuff.
The roughness, energy and noise of the mono 45 Get Off Of My Cloud nukes Brown Sugar which is where the slickness and self parody starts as far as I'm concerned.
We need some decent archival releases from the Decca / Jones era starting with multi disc radio sessions and studio sessions cds as well as something like the mopheads all-encompassing mono box compiled by someone like Andrew Sandoval (and not the ABKCO team who grossly overcharge and skimp on playing time).

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Big Al
The Stones are a 60's act at heart, and that's how they will be remembered.

I suppose you're right. Even the most cursory summary of "the Sixties" is going to have a couple of lines about Swinging London, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. It must be odd for the band (Mick especially, I imagine) to be actual historic figures.

I Love the early stuff, sometimes listen to just that for a couple weeks and it never gets old. They just ROCK!!!

Oh my, what's not to like? I grew up in the Brian era and became a Stones devotee at a very young age. The energy off those early 45's and albums was amazing and you can still feel it. Sure the band evolved after Brian died and the results were spectacular in the Taylor years, and have rocked on with Ronnie, but its the original band I will always love the most.

...High and dry well, I'm up here with no warning ...



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