When we think about the Rolling Stones in the United States one of the first thing
that that strikes us as we look back at the chart numbers and, and all of that.
Is that the Rolling Stones had a much, the Rolling Stones had a much harder
time, getting themselves established in the United States than the Beatles did.
When we tell the Beatles story, it's all about the Ed Sullivan Show, February 9th,
1964. You know, instant acclaim.
All of the sudden they've got record, tons of records on the charts at the same
time. At one point, they were occupying the
first five chart positions [LAUGH] on the singles chart, just massive success.
Not just in the United States, but worldwide.
The Stones, not so much at first. They would come around and tour and
they'd get pretty good crowds in New York and Los Angeles, as in the big cities.
But as they went across to heartland of thee U.S, sometimes they were playing
state fairs and there weren't many folks there.
They had to work harder at it. They ended up having a tremendous
sustained success once they got it. And continued to be able to play wherever
they want to in the world and sell out stadiums.
But came a little more slowly for the rolling stones.
One of the interesting things Andrew Loog Oldham, their manager devised from the
very beginning was to judge the post the Stones against the Beatles.
The Stones would be the bad boys. because the Beatles had already sort of
taken up the space of good boys. I mean, the Beatles were charming, they
were bright. they were witty and, and, and
charismatic. And the kind of young man that maybe the
parents of young women in America wouldn't be so unhappy if their daughters
got involved with. The Rolling Stones, however, were the
kind of guys that you didn't want your daughter ever to get involved in.
Who knows what's going on with the smoking, and the drinking, and the sloppy
appearance, and all this kind of thing. They looked sexually menacing.
There was, they were, they were definitely the bad guys.
And, what's interesting in the popular music business is you'll see this kind of
market positioning happening over and over again.
We can already go back to the 50s and see Pat Boone as the good boy and Elvis as
the bad boy, back in that period around 1956, 1957, into 1958.
In fact, one of the reasons we said that Elvis went into the army was to kind of
correct that bad boy image so he could be a little bit more mainstream.
By 1960, 61, 62, 63 and all those movies I talked about, he was just as good boy
as good boy can get. So here along come the Stones, they're
the bad boys. The Beatles are the good boys.
Their success, as I said, was not immediate.
But the big hit for them was, I Can't Get No Satisfaction.
Number one in the UK, number one in the US in 1965.
It made them stars. And there was a story that arose about
the lyrics that said they had to do with a certain amount of sexual frustration,
let's say I Can't Get No Satisfaction. And when asked about that, the song about
not being able to get satisfaction in all kinds of areas of life.
But there is one line could be seen as having to do with sexuality.
And when this became a big big story, remember it wasn't too ago maybe in 1963,
1964 that was everybody was worked up about the possibility there could be a
swear word. And Louie, Louie, I mean, to the extent
that, you know, the FBI were brought in to listen to the tapes with all their
scientifically advanced technology. To see whether or not they'd actually
used a bad word. Determined that, the FBI determined that
they couldn't tell. But, nevertheless, that was the kind of
thing you know, a single bad word, a single reference, could get a song off
the playlist. But, what, what the Rolling Stones
decided to do was to not deny the reference to sexual frustration in the
song. It reinforced their bad boy image, but
there was nothing in it that was so blatant that it would get the record
cancelled. And, of course, it was a fantastic
promotional thing for them. And really sort of cemented their image
of being the kind of ne'er-do-wells of the, the British invasion.
other hits that we can point to from this period 65 and 66, Get Off My Cloud, which
was number one in both countries since 65.
And Paint It Black which was number one in both countries in 1966.
In addition to a number of other hits that did very well too.
sometimes Stones fans don't like to hear this and you may have a different opinion
about it. But my opinion is that for most of the
1960s, the Stones reminded in some ways in the shadow of the Bealtes.
They were kind of in the early days 63 64 always the junior partners to the
Beatles. The Beatles success always overshadowed
the success of the Stones. And many times the Stones would imitate
what the Beatles did just before that. And it really isn't until the Beatles are
on the ropes and getting ready to, to break up in 1969 about the, after the
release of Abbey Road. That the Stones almost as if they have a
burden lifted from them when the Beatles are no longer together again.
And it's really in the early 70s that they really start to blossom and come
into their own, as 70s rock and roll. Or so if you think about some of those,
some of those tunes, and Sticky Fingers, albums like that.
That's really where the Stones really start to become the Stones.
In many ways we look back at the su, success of the Stones and maybe because
they became so much bigger later. We may be sometimes guilty of
exaggerating their stature. They were big, but the Beatles were
probably almost always bigger. Again, that's more a matter of opinion,
interpretation, so there won't be any questions about that on the quiz.
Let's go forward now and talk about other British bands from the British invasion
and how they sounded.