LATEST ALBUM RECORDED IN JUST THREE DAYS

AND THERE COULD BE ALBUM WITH NEW ORIGINAL STONES SONGS ON WAY

 

The new Rolling Stones album, Blue and Lonesome, was recorded in just three days and has the band going back to their blues roots.

Set for release on December 2, the new Stones album was recorded at British Grove Studios in West London and features guitar maestro Eric Clapton on two tracks. Clapton just happened to be in the studio next door recording his own album.

The Rolling Stones own website states the band’s approach to recording was that it be spontaneous and played live in the studio without overdubs.

Blue and Lonesome is made up of cover versions of songs by blues greats including Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Willie Dixon and Little Walter, the Rolling Stones website said.

The album cover
The album cover

See and here snippets of two songs from Blue and Lonesome on

Facebook page rockonrockmusic

The 12 tracks are:

Just Your Fool
Commit A Crime
Blue and Lonesome
All Of Your Love
I Gotta Go
Everybody Knows About My Good Thing
Ride ‘Em On Down
Hate To See You Go
Hoo Doo Blues
Little Rain
Just Like I Treat You
I Can’t Quit You Baby

“This album is what I’ve always wanted the Stones to do. It’s what we do best and what we did when we first got together,” said drummer Charlie Watts, The New York Times reported. 

The Associated Press recently reported that when asked what the future goals of the Rolling Stones were, Charlie Watts — ever the one for a good one-liner — quipped: “Staying alive I think is the biggest thing at the moment, or getting up in the morning.”

The New York Times also reported Mick Jagger saying of the new Stones album: “The blues still have something about them that’s really good. I love all kinds of music and I still listen to the blues. To me it’s a homage to all those people that we’ve always loved since we were kids.”

Jagger also said the band had “half an album” of new songs – so hopefully we will also see an album of new Stones songs in the not too distant feature.

Blue and Lonesome is the first Rolling Stones studio album since A Bigger Bang in 2005, itself a cracker of an album.

 

STONES KEEN ON NEW ALBUM OF ORIGINAL SONGS

 

The Rolling Stones were originally in the studio to record original songs, before coming up with the blues album.

“The reason we hit into the blues stuff was we were in a new studio and in new rooms, it always takes a while to adjust to sounds,” Keith Richards told Billboard in November 2016.

 “So I said to Ronnie [Wood] and Mick [Jagger], ‘Let’s just hit into the blues,’ something we’re all familiar with to get the sound together. It came together so quickly and so well, suddenly Mick said, ‘Well in that case, let’s do this Howlin’ Wolf song,’ and one led to another and before we knew it we had an album without any intention of doing it.”

Guitarist Wood told Billboard “The blues songs that we played we hit it once or twice maximum and cut it, so we had an album in two or three days. The new material will take a while to sit and reshape.”

Mick Jagger said of the prospect of a new album of Stones originals: “I was working on it quite recently. We’ve got a long way to go, but I think it sounds really great and I’m looking forward to carrying on with that.”

Both Jagger and Wood told Billboard they were hopeful the band would return to the studio in 2017 to work on the new songs.

BILL WYMAN PROSTATE CANCER

FORMER STONES BASS PLAYER UNDERGOES TREATMENT 

Bill_Wyman_Rhythm_Kings

 

Bill Wyman, a founding Stones member, has been treated for prostate cancer in 2016.

“He is undergoing treatment and is expected to make a full recovery as it was caught in the early stages,” a spokesman for Wyman said in March.

Wyman, who was with the Stones for more than 30 years, celebrated his 80th birthday in October of 2016 with his band Rhythm Kings and a host of guest musos at a BluesFest gig at 02 Indigo in London.

The guest musicians included former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler, Mick Hucknall and Imelda May.

Wyman [real name William Perks — no wonder he changed it, that doesn’t sound very rock and roll] was presented with the BluesFest Lifetime Achievement Award during the show, Variety magazine reported.

NO FLEAS ON MICK JAGGER > COURT IS TOLD

Rolling Stones piano player Ian Stewart
Rolling Stones piano player Ian Stewart

THEY ARE NOT LONG-HAIRED IDIOTS, SAYS SOLICITOR

That was the message from a solicitor defending the Rolling Stones’ lead singer on driving offences.

“Put out of your mind this nonsense talked about these young men,” the solicitor said.

“They are not long-haired idiots but highly intelligent university men … the Duke of Marlborough had much longer hair than my client and he won some famous battles. His hair was powdered, I think because of fleas > my client has no fleas.”

Jagger was fined 16 British pounds. (November, 1964)

HARDLY A REASON TO LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS > IAN STEWART, THE SIXTH STONE

Boogie-woogie pianist Ian Stewart was an original Rolling Stones member but deemed unsuitable for the Stones rebel image by group manager Andrew Loog Oldham and shunted to the background. (What! Too ugly even by Stones standards?)

He continued to play with the Stones and was their road manager in the early years.

Stewart was with them right up to his death from a heart attack in December, 1985. As road manager he was reknown for affectations such as when they are due to go on stage: “Come on, you’re on, my little sacks of shit”.

 

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‘THE HAVE LOW FOREHEADS AND HIGH EYEBROWS’

Crooner Dean Martin
Crooner Dean Martin

THAT’S REAL LOW BROW, DEANO

1950s American crooner Dean Martin attacked the Rolling Stones when they appeared on his Hollywood Palace TV show.

Dean Martin said of the Stones: “Some people have the impression that some of these new groups have long hair. It’s an optical illusion, they just have low foreheads and high eyebrows.’’

BRIAN JONES LEADER OF THE PACK

Guitarist Brian Jones was the band’s founder and leader > not Mick Jagger or Keith Richards, both of whom later became the songwriters for the group. Jones was also their most accomplished and versatile musician.

“The Rolling Stones that I joined were led by Brian Jones. There was no doubt whatsoever who led the group in every way,” Bill Wyman wrote in his autobiography Stone Alone.

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STONES SONG “APPALLING IN TIME OF WAR”

The Highwire single
The Highwire single

Studio single Highwire, with its anti-Iraq War stance, incurred the wrath of, amongst others, British politicians and the BBC. The first Iraq War that is, when George Bush Senior was let into the White House.

A Conservative member of Parliament called it appalling in a time of war and the BBC added it to a list of songs it “discouraged” its DJs from playing.  

There was, surprisingly, little backlash in America.

Mick Jagger told the London Times newspaper: “Pop music should address a broad range of subjects > not just sex and cars”.

Highwire and another studio track Sex Drive are tucked at the end of 1991 live album Flashpoint.

KEITH RICHARDS OFF HIS TREE > SUFFERS BRAIN INJURY

Pic from 1988 solo album Talk is Cheap
Pic from 1988 solo album Talk is Cheap

The Rolling Stones guitarist required brain surgery after falling from a tree > or part thereof > in April 2006, while holidaying in Fiji.

He underwent surgery at a hospital in New Zealand to relieve a blood clot on his bran, and was there for several weeks.

The accident caused a delay to the Rolling Stones tour of Europe.

Initial reports had Keith Richards falling from a coconut tree.

But he later told Rolling Stone magazine:  “It’s embarrassing, really. I was sitting on this gnarled shrub about six feet off the ground. I was wet – I’d been swimming. I hit the ground the wrong way, my head hit the trunk, and that was that.”

In a video message in late 2013 as part of the On Fire tour, Richards gave his thanks to the surgeons in New Zealand who treated him, remarking that >

“I left half my brain there.”

THEN ALONG CAME JONES > NEW STONES BASS PLAYER

 

Along came Jones: Darryl Jones joined the Stones in 1993 and his background is steeped in jazz > having played with the likes of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. He had also toured with Madonna and Eric Clapton.

Darryl Jones joined the Stones in 1993, replacing founding bass player Bill Wyman who left the band of his own volition

Jones’ background is steeped in jazz > having played with the likes of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock.

He had also toured with Madonna and Eric Clapton.

Jones > also known as “The Munch” > has never officially been a member of the Stones > with his role more as an on-stage musician.

Jones replaced founding bass player Bill Wyman, who left the Rolling Stones in an official announcement early in 1993.

 

 

STONES FIRST MAJOR BAND TO VIDEO STREAM CONCERT

Voodoo_Lounge_tour_posterWith a 20-minute video streaming from a concert at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, the Rolling Stones on November 18, 1994, were the first major recording artist to broadcast a show over the internet.

The video streaming included five songs > Not Fade Away, Shattered, Tumbling Dice, You Got Me Rocking and Rocks Off.

Mick Jagger greeted the internet audience and said he hoped the system didn’t collapse, the New York Times reported.

The concert was part of the hugely successful worldwide Voodoo Lounge tour, promoting their album of the same name.

‘There were lots of hacks (reporters) out there who said we couldn’t do it anymore. But maybe what they meant was they couldn’t do it anymore.’ 

> that’s what Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone magazine.

Jagger continued > “Anyway, once we started playing, all that died down. You can talk about it and talk about it – but, once we’re on stage, the question is answered.”

The tour took in $320 million to become the highest grossing of any artists up to that time.

 

I SNORTED MY DEAD FATHER’S ASHES > KEITH RICHARDS

Keith Richards on the cover of his 2015 solo album
Keith Richards on the cover of his 2015 solo album.

‘He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow’

That’s what Keith Richards told British music magazine NME (April, 2007).

“The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father,” Richrads said.

“My dad wouldn’t have cared, he couldn’t give a shit.

“It went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.”

The tabloid press soon had a field day with the story and outrage ensued.

Richards pissed on the fire a few weeks later by claiming he had just made it up.

There’s also a long-held belief that in 1973 Keith Richards had a complete blood transfusion > involving an embalming process > during drug addiction treatment in Switzerland to prepare for a Stones tour.

Richards many years later denied this, saying he just made it up as he was approached by the press at London airport.

Keith Richards in Pirates of Caribbean movies

JohnnyDepp_KeithRichards_RollingStone_magazineJOHNNY DEPP BASED JACK SPARROW ON STONES GUITARIST

 

Rock and roll pirate Keith Richards appeared in 2007 Pirates of the Caribbean movie At Worlds End as Jack Sparrow’s father Captain Teague.

Actor Johnny Depp had previous stated that he based his Jack Sparrow character on Keith Richards, so it seemed like a natural fit.

“Pirates were the rock stars of their day,” Depp said.

“Their myths or legends would arrive months before they would ever make port, much like rock stars

“Having spent some time with Keith Richards was certainly a huge part of the inspiration for the character.

“I spent a little time with Keith here and there, and each time I’d see him he’d have a new thing tied into his hair. ‘What is that hanging?’ I’d ask, and Keith would say, ‘Ah yeah, I got that in Bermuda,’ or wherever.

“So it felt to me like Jack, on his travels and adventures, would see something and go, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll keep that,’ tie it in his hair or have someone else do it. Each little trinket would have a story.”

Keith Richards, who reprised his Captain Teague role in 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean movie On Stranger Tides, said: “It’s about freedom, baby. Open the cage, let the tigers out.

“Somebody’s gotta do the naughty work. It’s not so much about destroying the establishment. It’s to prevent them from destroying you.”