The Rolling Stones 2000-present
 Despite the death of Brian Jones two days previously, a scheduled concert in London's Hyde Park went ahead in front of an estimated 250,000 fans. The band had just released Honky Tonk Women on 3 July, coinciding with the death. The band's performance was captured by a Granada Television production team, later to be shown on British television as Stones in the Park. Jagger read an excerpt from Percy Bysshe Shelley's elegy Adonais and released thousands of butterflies in memory of Jones. The concert was the first gig for the band in a little over a year .
Music samples:
Gimme Shelter
Sample of Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones, from Let It Bleed (1969)
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Brown Sugar
Sample of Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones, from Sticky Fingers (1971)
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The release of Let It Bleed (UK number 1 ; US 3) came in December. Their last album of the Sixties, Let It Bleed featured Gimme Shelter, You Can't Always Get What You Want, Midnight Rambler, as well as a cover of Robert Johnson's Love in Vain. Most of these songs became part of the live show for the resulting tour of America, their first in three years. Making their way from New York to California, the tour culminated with the band's staging of the Altamont Free Concert, at the disused Altamont Speedway, about 60km east of San Francisco. The concert was a disaster, due in part to the hiring of Hell's Angels to undertake security. Meredith Hunter, a young man, was stabbed and beaten to death by the Angels. The tour and Altamont were documented in Albert and David Maysles' film Gimme Shelter. As a response to the growing popularity of bootleg recordings, the live album Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! (UK #1; US #6) was released in 1970 and was considered by critic Lester Bangs the best live record ever.
By 1969, the band's 1963 contract with Decca Records ended, and the Stones formed their own record company, Rolling Stones Records. Sticky Fingers (UK number 1; US 1), released in March 1971, was the band's first album on their own label. The album contains one of their best known hits, two of which, Brown Sugar, and the country-influenced Wild Horses were recorded at Alabama's Muscle Shoals Sound Studio during the 1969 American tour.
Sticky Fingers continued the band's immersion into heavily blues-influenced compositions. The album is noted for its loose, ramshackle ambience and marked Mick Taylor's first full release with the band. Taylor collaborated on several songs with Jagger (likely Sway and Moonlight Mile), partially because of Richards' drug addictions and resulting unreliability. However, when released, all original songs were credited to Jagger/Richards.
Following the release of Sticky Fingers, the Stones left England after allegations by the UK Inland Revenue service of unpaid income tax. The band moved to the South of France. Richards rented a chateau, Villa Nellc?te and sublet rooms to band members and entourage. Using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio they continued recording sessions that stretched as far back as 1969. The subsequent recordings were finished at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles by the band. The resulting double album, Exile on Main St. (UK number 1 ; US 1), was released in May 1972. Given an A+ grade by critic Robert Christgau and disparaged by Lester Bangs — who reversed his opinion within months —Exile is now accepted as one of the Stones' best albums. The film Cocksucker Blues, never officially released, documents the subsequent, highly publicised 1972 North American (STP) Tour, with its retinue of jet set hangers-on. The band's early 1973 Pacific Tour saw them banned from playing in Japan and almost banned from Australia.
The Rolling Stones on tour, 1972.In November 1972, the band began sessions in Kingston, Jamaica for their follow-up to Exile, Goats Head Soup (UK number 1 ; US 1) (1973). The album spawned the worldwide hit Angie, but proved the first in a string of commercially successful but tepidly received studio albums. The sessions for Goats Head Soup led to a number of outtakes, most notably an early version of the popular ballad Waiting on a Friend, not released until Tattoo You, eight years later. The making of the record was hindered by another legal battle over drugs, this one dating back to their stay in France.
The band went to Musicland studios in Munich to record their next album, 1974's It's Only Rock 'n Roll (UK 2; US 1), but Jimmy Miller, who had drug abuse issues, was no longer producer. Instead, Jagger and Richards assumed production duties and were credited as the Glimmer Twins. Both the album and the single of the same name were hits, even without an immediate tour to promote them.
Nearing the end of 1974, Taylor began to get impatient because there had been no tours since October 1973. The band found itself in a stalemate, with members opting to spend time abroad between recording sessions, while Jagger was getting exasperated with Richards, who was becoming more unpredictable. The other members of the band ended up paying the fines and legal bills resulting from Richards' convictions, which led to the band being denied entry to certain countries and to missed income for all. Taylor spent his time helping Jagger compose and record songs in the studio, while Richards was often absent. Jagger promised Taylor recognition for his contributions in the form of official credits on tracks. When this did not happen, and with no tour in sight by the end of 1974 and a recording session already booked in Munich to record another album, Taylor quit The Rolling Stones. Taylor said in 1980, I was getting a bit fed up. I wanted to broaden my scope as a guitarist and do something else... I wasn't really composing songs or writing at that time. I was just beginning to write, and that influenced my decision... There are some people who can just ride along from crest to crest; they can ride along somebody else's success. And there are some people for whom that's not enough. It really wasn't enough for me.
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