Year 5, Day 337

Hello. So today's song is You Can't Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones.

This is another famous band from England, active since 1962 and current members include Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood. It was a previous member of the group, Brian Jones, who named the group on the fly during a phone interview with inspiration from a Muddy Waters song. They did some touring around the country playing covers and gaining fans, becoming the most popular group by 1964, even beating out the Beatles. They shared a manager, who marketed them as the polar opposite of the other group, and got them a record deal with the label who passed on the Beatles before. They continued covering songs, making albums of those and touring with other groups to hone their craft. By 1965 they were releasing original songs that became huge hits. by 1967 they had released a lot of albums, and were being hounded about drug use which was pretty common for artists at the time. After a particularly nasty raid on Richards' home, most band members were charged for drug offenses, furthering their bad boy reputation. The music got a lot angrier too. Jones started to break down from the drug use and was pretty unstable, then left the band because he couldn't handle touring. He died a month later. The group toured, and then fulfilled their last contractual obligation (the fine print way. They did it without making something for release) before starting their own label and releasing an album through that. The logo that everyone associates with this group was created in 1971 and was inspired by the Hindu goddess Kali. The 70's saw them as tax exiles, no longer able to live in England. More drug charges popped up, messing with their tour. This pattern continued for awhile. In the early 80's their was tension in the band, since Jagger became more focused on solo work than the group, and that grew until the band almost broke up because of it. Instead the band kind of stalled while Richards and Jagger both did their own solo stuff with no desire to reconcile. That ended in 1989 when the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They made new music, toured and took breaks for solo work the next couple years; and even became the first major group to broadcast a concert on the internet. They've kept going, and are still going strong today. I can't fathom that they have celebrated their 50th anniversary, it's insane to me. I also can't really imagine the hype about this group, but they are one of the big ones so look up some documentaries if you're curious to learn more.

Peace.