Should the Rolling Stones have broken up 20 years ago?

[liberalpragmatist]

I'm only a casual fan of the Stones -- not a huge one, but everyone I know says that their peak was the late 60s/early 70s although "Some Girls" (1978) is said to be good.

Still, a comparison with the Beatles is apt. I think part of the reasons the Beatles have worn so well is b/c they broke up before they could decline - and though they would've been better together than on their own in the mid-'70s, that slump that brought us such mid-70s garbage as "Listen to What the Man Said" and John Lennon's "Somewhere in NYC" (great political themes, crappy music) would still have occurred.

The Stones, by contrast kept going past their prime. Every talent deteriorates after awhile, and while it does come and go in cycles, there is usually a definite peak that is never again equalled. The Stones have stuck around, and I feel their music really deteriorated.

As an aside, it sort of annoys me how the Stones have had so many members -- really, what IS the Stones? To me, it just seems to be Mick and Keith at it's core -- there's not been a continuous equivalent of "John, Paul, George, Ringo" -- the lineup has changed so much.

Should the Stones have broken up sometime in the late 70's or early 80's?

[Blade]

1. Heck yeah...

they were bad then and they're worse now. Enough is enough already!

[HEyHEY]

2. Yes Yes a thousand times yes

[Nevernose]

3. Hell no

For octagenarians, they still put on a hell of a live show, even if they're not making anything new that's better than mediocre.

[OneBlueSky]

4. maybe not brroken up . . .

they are, after all, something of a family . . . but definitely stopped touring . . . watching a 60-year-old Jagger prancing around singing "Satisfaction" (which is something he once swore he'd never do) whilst fingering his navel and displaying his "package" (likely artificially enhanced now) is disconcerting, to say the least . . .

[RandomKoolzip]

5. I think "Tattoo You" should have been their cut-off point.

Great album, especially side two. After that, they were useless except as a museum attraction. And the whole run of albums from "Goat's Head Soup" to "Some Girls" could be boiled down to one decent C-60 mix tape; lotsa filler got loose in Keith's heroin years.


Gimme "Exile on Main Street" any fuggin' day of the week, though- it doesn't get any better than that.