STONES!!!! (Again)

My 9:00 AM meeting was (mercifully) cancelled. So, I thought I'd squeeze in another quickie (OHHH!!!!).

Over the next (I'm not sure how long, exactly), I will be posting quite a bit about the Stones. Other events (particularly if a certain game down in Miami goes a certain direction) might inspire unrelated posts. Otherwise, it's Stones time, people!!!

As some of you might recall, I did a mini-series of 4 posts a while back about what I dubbed the greatest "creative outbursts" in rock music history. [You can read them here: 4th place...3rd place...2nd place...Numero Uno] I prefaced the whole thing by giving the Stones albums pictured above an "honorable mention" as opposed to a spot in my final four, mainly based on the presence of 2 full-time songwriters in the Stones, as opposed to the largely solo songwriting efforts of my "Top 4."

HOWEVER, when I now shift gears into incredibly timeless, ultimately listenable, flat-out excellent albums, it's hard to top the 5-in-a-row (4 if you stick to studio-only) of Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969), Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out [Live] (1970), Sticky Fingers (1971), and Exile On Main St (1972). Not to mention, it's not like Goats Head Soup (1973) and It's Only Rock'n Roll (1974) are exactly throwaways...one could include them as well. One can argue greatness/influence of various groups (read: Beatles). However, when it comes to actually listening all the way through the albums, give me these Stones discs over Rubber Soul/Revolver/Sgt Pepper/"White Album"/Abbey Road any day!!!