The Rolling Stones, against all odds, have managed to remain a band for over 50 years and still remain culturally relevant. All of their 1960's peers are either long gone or have ended up in a permanent feedback loop of nostalgia. Even among the second group, they probably didn't reach that point without some serious breakup event along the way.
The Rolling Stones emerged in the early 1960's as the second-strongest of the British Invasion bands, only outmatched by the Beatles. Below these two bands was a veritable fight-club of bands competing for a fabled "third" spot next to them. The Stones both imitated and offered an alternative to their clean-cut counterparts from Liverpool. Although all from middle-upper class backgrounds, they adopted a far grittier image and took advantage of their London origins to stay close to where the action traditionally always was in Britain. The initial lineup featured Mick Jagger, Keith Richards (who lacked the final "s" on the early albums), and Brian Jones with an irregular rhythm section and the soon relegated to session status pianist Ian Stewart. By 1963 the "classic" lineup with Wyman and Watts had finally come together and the first album released the following year.
The early albums set the gold standard for a proper introduction to British-interpreted blues and R&B, but the band seemed to have little inclination to write their own material, with only nine songs credited to either Jagger/Richards or "Nanker Phelge" on the first three British releases. Even the release of Aftermath, their first all-original songs album, in 1966 didn't show much progression from their previous records ("Paint It, Black" a notable exception), and it seemed like bands such as the Who, the Kinks, and even the flailing Yardbirds, were poised to move ahead. Determined to maintain their relevancy, the Stones launched into a chaotic trajectory following Aftermath with increasingly psychedelic albums like Between the Buttons, Flowers, and the notorious Their Satanic Majesties Request. Until the release of that album, just to really mess with people, the band had been maintaining two separate catalogs for the U.S. and U.K. markets, resulting in albums with the same cover images, but different titles, and usually substantially different track listings. On top of all of this was also Brian Jones's growing instability and Jagger and Richards's increasing problems with drugs and the authorities.
In 1968, the Stones made a smart move away from the psych scene, which was never really their thing. They were one of the last to enter and one of the first to get out. The movement destroyed the Animals and the Yardbirds, and the Beatles a couple years later would be its most spectacular casualty, in spite of a last-ditch "back to basics" move. The Who and the Kinks would wisely follow the Stones out of the scene the following year, neither one particularly invested. The first of their post-psych albums, Beggars Banquet, introduced the world to a new, more cynical Rolling Stones, but it was merely prologue for the trio of albums yet to come. 1969's Let It Bleed (supposedly of absolutely no relation to Let It Be) showed the band stronger than ever, seeming to keep their problems (like Brian Jones and his death) out of the music, while the rest of the old guard cracked under far less pressure in the midst of a new hard rock movement that took form in the U.K. While not as full-throated as a Led Zeppelin, and definitely nowhere near the progressives like Yes and the Moody Blues, the harder-edged, countrifyed Stones somehow managed to fit comfortably into the new 1970's reality, topping themselves yet again with Sticky Fingers in 1971, paving the way for the album many consider to be the finest moment of their 50 year career, Exile on Main St.
As with the Rolling Stones in general, I was pretty slow to finally get around to Exile. I recall looking over the track list and only recognizing one song ("Tumbling Dice") thanks to an unwanted gift to my parents that trickled down to me as a kid, the 1970's-1980's compilation Rewind. I think pretty much every other album of the period was better represented on that compilation, or even on the radio in general. This speaks to the fact that Exile on Main St. works best as an album across 18 tracks rather than a hodgepodge of hits. Without the warm embrace of its fellow songs, many of the country-inflected numbers (e.g. "Sweet Virginia") would feel awkward played alongside other hits of the growing British hard rock scene. Add to that a truly deconstructive, almost destructive, recording process with half the band and almost all of the production crew bombed out on drugs. It is a minor miracle that an album can be so cohesive that frequently shifted around who was actually playing what on each track. It is a matter of some dispute, but Bill Wyman is only credited with 8 of the 18 tracks, for instance, while party-and-beer sax man supreme Bobby Keys (not to be confused with renowned keyboardist Billy Sax) seems to be on every track. From all of the ink spilled about these recording sessions, it made The White Album seems like pure harmony. If I were to posit a guess as to what does work very well here is that Exile represents the culmination of the Stones' journey away from psych, restoring the "old" sound, minus the heavy reliance on cover material. Among the "classic" albums of the era, it stands out at the least experimental and most direct.
Exile was, by most beliefs, the end of that "classic" period for the Rolling Stones. Future albums had a kind of wandering quality, like the band wasn't sure (again) about their identity. By mid-decade, likely due to the crazy life, a decline was evident, which finally resulted in Mick Taylor walking out. Aside from the aforementioned compilation and the album Some Girls, I haven't invested anything in the post-Exile Stones. It seemed like the band was content to rest on the laurels of 10 years worth of great albums ("great" is one way or another) and settle for 40 years of mediocre albums accented here and there with a big hit single and supported by grand spectacle-level touring featuring mostly material from the first 10 years. But then again I think the band recognizes that their fans just appreciate the fact they are still around. Although there was some darn quiet periods in the 1980's when Mick and Keith weren't on speaking terms, the band has been in continuous existence for over 50 years. Not many bands can say that, or if they can, they probably are more likely to be found on cruise ships than stadiums.
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