Rolling Stones from Altamont to Zilker
An alphabetical primer written before the first Stones show ever in Austin
A Altamont. If Woodstock highlighted the good vibes of '60s counterculture, the ugly, violent scene at California's Altamont Speedway on Dec. 6, 1969, marked the beginning of the end of the peace and love generation. The free concert seemed doomed when the site moved from San Francisco's Golden Gate Park to the remote speedway with just a couple days' notice. Hell's Angels, hired to work security in exchange for free beer, went into the crowd swinging pool cues, and one fan, 18-year-old Meredith Hunter, was stabbed to death, an act captured on the documentary 'Gimme Shelter.' Amidst the chaos, the Stones' bad-boy mystique grew, with 'Sympathy for the Devil' becoming that song that makes evil things happen. (Austin connection: While Altamont was going on, the Texas Longhorns were coming from 14 points behind to beat Arkansas 15-14 in 'the game of the century.')
B Beatles, The. The Lakers of the '60s had the Celtics, and the Stones had the Beatles, whose shadow they walked in until the 1969 release of "Let It Bleed," a better record than the Beatles' "Abbey Road" of the same year. Until then, the Stones were always a step behind. "Sgt. Pepper" begat "Satanic Majesties Request," for instance. The Beatles used a sitar, so the Stones went out and got one. But it was much too much, much too soon for the Beatles, who chucked it all only six years after their historic February 1964 "Ed Sullivan Show" appearance. Success made the Beatles become less a band than a collection of individuals, while the Stones just got tighter as a band and created that kindred, lock-step singer-guitarist model that would be emulated by everyone from Led Zeppelin and Iggy & the Stooges to Aerosmith and Guns N' Roses.
C Chess Records. On their first visit to the States in 1964, the Stones didn't want to see the Grand Canyon or the Statue of Liberty. They wanted to see the Chess Records studio in Chicago. This was where the records that changed the band members' lives, by such artists as Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Bo Diddley, were made. The Stones booked a couple days at the studio and recorded their next single, a cover of Bobby Womack's "It's All Over Now." Legend has it that the Stones were shocked, upon their arrival, to find Muddy Waters painting the ceiling for a little extra cash.
D Dartford Railway Station. Where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, casual acquaintances while growing up in the London suburb of Dartford, met again as 18-year-olds in 1961. Jagger had a bunch of blues records under his arms, and a lifelong musical partnership was born. Impressed with Richards' blues acumen, Jagger asked him to play guitar in his primitive R&B band Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys.
E Elmo Lewis. This was Brian Jones' nom de plume when Jagger and Richards first saw him play slide guitar onstage in April 1962 at the Ealing Club in West London. They just had to have that cool cat in their band. The blonde moptop assumed leadership because he had the most connections and was most serious about pushing the band out of the garage and onto stages all over the U.K.
F Frauds. "Frauds. They're singing frauds." Did Dean Martin know his mike was on? At any rate, Martin could be heard muttering that harsh assessment of the Stones during their June 1964 performance on Martin's TV show. Unlike Lennon and McCartney, who could sound almost like the Everly Brothers, Mick Jagger wasn't a good singer in the usual sense. To the old-line entertainment clique, girls screaming to his braying vocals was the sound of pop music losing its mind.
G Glimmer Twins. The production pseudonym of Jagger and Richards, starting with the 1974 album "It's Only Rock 'N Roll." The name reportedly comes from a boat ride in South America when a fellow passenger could sense celebrity with the singer and guitarist, but didn't know who they were. "Give us a glimmer," the guy said.
H Heroin. When you've got the world's most famous (and successful) junkie as a co-leader, smack becomes the apple of your aura. The "elegantly wasted" Richards has become a folk hero for drug use; his habit was so intense that when he was busted in Toronto in 1977, it took cops 30 minutes to wake him up. He possessed enough heroin to draw "with intent to distribute" charges, but those were dropped to mere possession when authorities took a look at Keef and realized he was about as likely to sell his stash as Hugh Hefner would be to kick a Playmate out of his bedroom.
I International jet set. While Keith and his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg were headed for the gutter, Mick was ringside at the runways of Milan and partying with the privileged in Paris. When he married Nicaraguan fashion model Bianca Morena de Macias in May 1971, the couple was the toast of high society. This caused a nearly Yoko/Linda-sized riff amongst Mick and Keith for years, until they met in the middle with the 1978 comeback "Some Girls."
J July 12, 1962. The first public performance of a band billing itself as the Rolling Stones. The lineup at London's Marquee Club that night consisted of Jagger, Richards, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart on piano, Dick Taylor on bass and future Kinks drummer Mick Avory. The first time drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman, perhaps the greatest rhythm section in rock history, would play with Jagger, Richards and Jones would be Jan. 14, 1963 at the Flamingo Jazz Club in London.
K Klein, Allen. Being a 1960s rock superstar meant a life of groupies, private jets, free drugs, mansions, screaming fans . . . and Allen Klein, the great equalizer. This pit bull of a manager figured more heavily in the Beatles' breakup than Yoko, but he was an ace at renegotiating bad contracts and digging up owed royalties, so the Stones hired him as financial adviser. He eventually became their hard-to-reach manager, and was fired in 1970 at a steep cost, as Klein walked away with the masters and publishing of all the Stones '60s classics. Not bad for four years' work. The band's subsequent $30 million lawsuit against Klein was settled out of court.
L Lubbock. Hometown of Keith Richards buddy Bobby Keys (below), whose lascivious sax solo on "Brown Sugar" is a tune unto itself. Keys met the Stones in June 1964 at their second-ever U.S. concert, at the San Antonio State Fair. Keys played sax for opening act Bobby Vee. Also on the bill: George Jones.
M Miller. Brooklyn-born Jimmy Miller first showed up on the radar by producing the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. Unhappy with Andrew Loog Oldham's technical limitations, the Stones saw Miller, himself a musician, as the producer to take them to the next level and he did beginning with 1968's "Beggars Banquet." 1969's "Let It Bleed," 1971's "Sticky Fingers" and 1972's "Exile On Main Street" put Miller at the helm of one of the greatest album trilogies in rock history. He also played drums on "You Can't Always Get What You Want" when Charlie Watts couldn't lock down the rhythm. But Miller eventually got so strung out on heroin that Jagger and Richards had to take over on the uninspired "Goat's Head Soup" (1973.) He died of liver failure in 1994 at age 52.
N Nineteen Eighty Six. The year the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band won its first Grammy, for lifetime achievement.
O Oldham, Andrew Loog. At age 19, Oldham was the band's first manager and "producer" of such hits as "Satisfaction" and "Let's Spend the Night Together," although by most accounts he just waved his arms around a bit and nodded to the beat in the studio. A weird bird, Oldham was also cagey. When he started trying to get the Stones a record deal, his first stop was with the man who passed on the Beatles. Dick Rowe of Decca was eager to redeem himself and offered the still-rough Stones a deal. A master of media manipulation, former press agent Oldham wisely marketed the Stones as the antithesis of the Beatles.
P Pasche, John. Though Andy Warhol is often credited with creating the Stones' instantly recognizable tongue logo because it debuted on the inner sleeve of 'Sticky Fingers,' whose famous zipper cover was designed by Warhol, the multimillion-dollar emblem actually came from John Pasche, a graduate student at the Royal College of Art in London. He was paid about $125 for the original design and sold the copyright to the Stones for an undisclosed amount.
Q Quote. "If I'm still singing 'Satisfaction' when I'm 40, I'll kill myself." Mick Jagger, 1972.
R Replacing Mick Taylor. The young guitarist Mick Taylor, who took over for a drug-addled Brian Jones a month before Jones drowned in his pool in July 1969, never really felt like an official Stone. His bank statements would concur, as Taylor didn't receive songwriting credit for songs he had a hand in composing. But his playing added texture and grace to Richards' riffage, elevating such tunes as "Honky Tonk Women" and "Brown Sugar." When Taylor announced he was leaving the band (and heroin) in 1974, the Stones used the "Black and Blue" sessions as one big audition, recording with the likes of Rory Gallagher, Jeff Beck, Harvey Mandel, Wayne Perkins and Ry Cooder. Instead the band hired Ron Wood, who had been playing Keith to Rod Stewart's Mick in the Faces, chosen as much for his good humor as his chops.
S Stu. Paddle-jawed boogie-woogie piano player Ian Stewart was an original Stone, but he was gently nudged out of the group membership by manager Oldham, who thought six members was one too many. (Especially when one of them looks more like a longshoreman than a pop idol.) Stewart found out the hard way, when Oldham ordered just five matching houndstooth jackets for a TV appearance. Stu was eventually replaced as touring keyboardist by Nicky Hopkins, though Stu stayed on as road manager. The beloved mentor-turned-sideman died in 1985 from a heart attack.
T Trudeau, Maggie. After she disappeared behind backstage doors a couple times, Margaret Trudeau, the 28-year-old wife of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, faced rumors that she was having an affair with Jagger in March of 1977. This was bad news for Richards, who had been arrested in a Toronto hotel with an ounce of heroin and a few grams of cocaine a month earlier and was looking for a little favoritism from the Canadian authorities. Richards pled guilty of possession in October 1978 and was sentenced to a year of probation. Guess the rumors weren't true.
U "Up and Down." Tony Sanchez, Keith's drug dealer known as "Spanish Tony," wrote a book in 1979 titled "Up and Down With the Rolling Stones." A thick book. Though this is a fairly scandalous account of supplying the Paul Bunyan of dope fiends, the most readable Stones tome is "True Adventures of the Rolling Stones" by Stanley Booth, who may have missed a deadline or a hundred. His book on the 1969 tour came out in 1985.
V Voodoo Lounge. This album started the tired Don Was trilogy that continued with 1997's "Bridges To Babylon" and last year's "A Bigger Bang." In recent years, Stones albums have become necessary evils: no album, no mega-million dollar tour.
W 'Wimmen.' Richards' answer to the question of what is the overriding theme, if any, to the music of the Rolling Stones. Women, they've had a few, with the most notable being Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall, Marianne Faithfull and Chrissie Shrimpton (Mick); Anita Pallenberg (Brian, Keith); Patti Hansen (Keith); Shirley Shepherd (Charlie); and Mandy Smith (whom Bill Wyman met when she was 13 and married at 18).
X X-pensive Winos. Talk of a feud between Mick and Keith intensified when Richards formed this new band in 1988, after Jagger released his first two solo albums, "She's the Boss" and "Primitive Cool." The Winos toured behind "Talk Is Cheap," but then it was back to the cash cow with the big red tongue hanging out.
Y Ya-Yas. Get yers out, Austin. Just figured out that "ya-yas" is Dartford slang for wallets.
Z Zilker Park. Site of the very first Rolling Stones concert in Austin; Oct. 22, 2006.