rolling stones
Watch Rolling Stones Co-Founder Keith Richards Create Ambient Electronic Music
Who knew Rolling Stones guitarist and songwriter Keith Richards also played with modular synthesizers? In a clip unearthed by Far Out Magazine, the legendary musician is seen making experimental electronic music on a modular synthesizer. The footage shows Richards arranging cords and cables to create ambient sounds as a soft, dreamy hum emanates from the machine, most likely a Moog. The clip comes from an obscure documentary called Umano Non Umano, which was screened at the 30th Venice International Film Festival. The film’s title translates to “Human Not Human.” Mario Schifano, an Italian painter known for exhibiting alongside Andy Warhol, released the doc in 1969, per Far Out. According to IMDb, “artists and poets meet in a dreamlike space be...
The Reissue Section: Fall 2021
Vinyl sales have gone up 94% this year, according to a report by the RIAA. That helps the massive flux of reissues that dotted the fall. But that’s not the good news. What really makes this column hum remains the variety of choice titles that are released on CD, and sales of that sturdy little plastic silver disc went up 44% in the first half of 2021 as well. And with the slew of choice archival titles that dropped like so many acorns across the autumn landscape, both formats will certainly be seeing a significant bump in those numbers as the holiday season closes in. Now let’s get into it. Here are the best reissues of Fall 2021. Violent FemmesWhy Do Birds Sing? Expanded Edition (Craft Recordings) For a lot of kids who came of age in the 1980s, the first real taste of college rock came co...
Claudia Lennear, The Inspiration Behind ‘Brown Sugar,’ Regrets Song Leaving Rolling Stones’ Live Set
Claudia Lennear has been a witness to some peak moments in rock and soul. First as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, she’s sung backup on classic recordings and toured the world, shared stages with former Beatles and Bob Dylan, and was the inspiration behind David Bowie’s torrid 1972 epic “Lady Grinning Soul.” Just as famously, Lennear has been widely credited as the inspiration behind the Rolling Stones’ increasingly controversial classic rocker “Brown Sugar.” Founding bassist Bill Wyman confirmed her role in one of his books, and she’s always taken pride in that, calling the track “one of the greatest rock songs of all time, and not because I had anything to do with it.” Lennear was still an Ikette when she dated Stones frontman Mick Jagger in 1969, the same period the song wa...
Charlie Watts’s 10 Best Rolling Stones Songs
For 58 years, Charlie Watts manned the drum kit behind Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the unflappable bedrock of the Rolling Stones sound. Compared to his British Invasion contemporaries, he wasn’t a bombastic virtuoso like Keith Moon, and a gregarious personality didn’t shine through his playing like Ringo Starr. Instead, Watts was a drummer’s drummer, always in the pocket, always finding the perfect fill to serve the song. With his dapper suits and knowing smile, he was the mysterious one who gave few interviews and famously listened to more jazz than rock’n’roll. But he was central to the band’s sound, and as a visual artist sometimes designed record sleeves and tour stages. Earlier this month, the Rolling Stones announced that Watts would sit out the remaining dates of the No Filter T...
On The Road Again: Our 1989 Rolling Stones Cover Story
This article originally appeared in the December 1989 issue of SPIN. In light of Charlie Watts’ death, we’re republishing it here. Ian Stewart, 1975: The Beatles… I think they are nice lads who wrote pretty songs, but they are horribly overrated. In fact, most of the Liverpool groups were overrated, they were all musically inept completely. Some of them could sing, but they could never play their instruments. You could count the number of good musicians who came out of Liverpool on one hand. By 1964, the Stones took off, and it was obvious that they were going to have the same kind of following that the Beatles had got. But Andrew [Loog Oldham, the Beatles’ publicist and the Rolling Stones’ first manager] thought they couldn’t go on playing Muddy Waters material and maintain it,...
Charlie Watts Remembered by Elton John, Tom Morello, Liam Gallagher
The Rolling Stones’ legendary drummer Charlie Watts has died at age 80. His publicist confirmed to SPIN that he passed away Tuesday morning, August 24, in a London hospital, just weeks after it was announced he would not join his bandmates on the next leg of the No Filter tour. The iconic musician is revered as one of, if not the, best drummer of his generation. Many of them shared their reactions to the loss of the legend on social media. A very sad day. Charlie Watts was the ultimate drummer. The most stylish of men, and such brilliant company. My deepest condolences to Shirley, Seraphina and Charlotte. And of course, The Rolling Stones. @therollingstones #CharlieWatts #RIP pic.twitter.com/9rjSSgioZL — Elton John (@eltonofficial) August 24, 2021 Rock n roll would not be rock n roll witho...
Charlie Watts, Rolling Stones Drummer, Dies at 80
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has died at the age of 80. A statement obtained by SPIN from a Watts spokesperson can be seen below: “’It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts. He passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family. Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also as a member of The Rolling Stones one of the greatest drummers of his generation. “We kindly request that the privacy of his family, band members and close friends is respected at this difficult time.’” The Stones shared the news on their social media accounts as well. A few weeks ago, Watts dropped off the Stones’ upcoming U.S. tour due to an undisclosed medical procedure. Prior to this, Watts didn’t miss a Stones gig. ...
Charlie Watts to Miss Rolling Stones’ No Filter Tour Due to Medical Procedure
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts will miss the band’s upcoming rescheduled No Filter U.S. tour after undergoing an undisclosed medical procedure. Watts will be replaced by Steve Jordan on the 13-date trek. “Charlie has had a procedure which was completely successful, but I gather his doctors this week concluded that he now needs proper rest and recuperation. With rehearsals starting in a couple of weeks it’s very disappointing to say the least, but it’s also fair to say no one saw this coming,” a spokesperson for Watts said in a statement. Watts himself had a statement expressing his own disappointment in missing his first shows since joining the band in 1963. “For once my timing has been a little off. I am working hard to get fully fit but I have today accepted on the advice of the ex...
The 50 Best Live Albums of the 1970s
The concert industry exploded in the 1970s, and the live album, a stopgap project once reserved for only the biggest artists, became a compulsory ritual and a pivotal moment for many artists. Live albums captured legendarily loud bands like The Who and The Ramones in their natural element. Once obscure regional acts like Bob Seger, KISS and Cheap Trick exploded into the mainstream with live albums. The Band, The Stooges, and Velvet Underground put their final gigs on vinyl. Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young (as his ongoing archive series shows), and Jackson Browne recorded entire sets of new songs onstage. The Grateful Dead released several official live albums (and continue to do so) that only made fans want to bootleg shows on their own more. With the 50th anniversary of a landmark live album, Th...
Bill Wyman Auction Breaks Record for Most Expensive Toilet Seat, Bass Sold
Talk about flushing your money down the toilet. This weekend, a collector dished out $1,152 for a yellow Rolling Stones’ tongue logo toilet seat cover during an auction of bassist Bill Wyman’s archival belongings. The purchase via Julien’s Auctions made a splash in the history books, with the cover becoming the most expensive ever sold at an auction. Wyman’s auction also set a few other records. His 1969 Fender Mustang Bass with a Competition Orange finish — designed by Leo Fender before he left the company — went for $384,000, the highest a bass guitar has ever sold for. Wyman’s 1962 VOX AC30 Normal model amplifier also took home an unexpected victory for most expensive amp ever sold at an auction, landing for $106,250. CREDIT: Frazer Harrison Most impressively, the top-selling ...
Mick Jagger and Jimmy Page Can’t Agree on Where ‘Scarlet’ Was Recorded
The Rolling Stones have been rolling out remixes of their previously unreleased single “Scarlet” from the likes of the Killers and the War on Drugs, but Mick Jagger and Jimmy Page, who’s featured on the 1974 track, can’t seem to agree on where the original was recorded. The Stones frontman swears it was done at Olympic Studios in London, while the Led Zeppelin guitarist insists it was Ronnie Wood’s basement, though he hadn’t yet joined the Rolling Stones’ lineup at that point. During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Jagger had this to say about the session: “I spoke to [Jimmy Page] the other day. I said, ‘I’m sure we did that at Olympic.’ He said, ‘No, no I remember it really well. We did it in Ronnie Wood’s basement.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s weird, why isn’t Ronnie on it, the...
Rolling Stones, Ariana Grande, Elton John Are Music’s Highest-Paid Musicians
This year may be a disaster for the music biz, but that doesn’t (obviously) mean that 2019 wasn’t. Last year, a number of artists made a shit-ton of money on the strength of touring. Billboard shared its ranking of last year’s highest-paid musicians, and the Rolling Stones top the list. The band made $65 million last year, including $60.5 million in touring. Ariana Grande was in second with $44.3 million, with $33.7 million from touring. The top five is rounded out by Elton John ($43.3 million overall), the Jonas Brothers ($40.9 million) and Queen ($35.2 million). Other names on the list include Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Post Malone, Kiss, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Backstreet Boys, BTS, Khalid, John Mayer, Fleetwood Mac, Cher, Metallica, Aerosmith and Billie Eilish. Che...
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