Pick up to two.

Allow me to Predict Jimbo's answer:


I went with the first period. the nastiest, bluesiest piece of it. Had I noticed I could pick 2, I'd have picked the first two.

I've often said I would give up everything they did after the year I was born (1972) in order to have seen them live in a bar that year. After the Beatles broke up, and before Zeppelin really took off (no pun intended), the Stones would have been it that year.

The '60s,when they were young and hungry and relatively drug free.

All of it.

And I'm serious.

I guess my favorite stretch is 1968-81.

I selected the 1st two......might've picked the 3rd in Black & Blue wasn't part of it.

My favorite is the small somewhat laid back area of 1966-67. I consider this the "19th Nervous Breakdown" single > Aftermath > Between The Buttons > Flowers > Satanic Majesties.

With the exception of "Dirty Work", I've enjoyed all of the Stones' output. My favorite period though is 1963-1971.

1968-1971 (Beggar's Banquet - Sticky Fingers + 2 live)

1972-1976 (Exile - Black & Blue + 6 live)

These got my vote, although I love the image they portrayed in the early part of their career (the Anti-Beatles), and I think Brian Jones was the living epitome of a 60's rock star in every way. Musically, I prefer the late 60's to late 70's stuff to most of the other stuff they've done.

Having said that, I enjoy everything they've done. I can't think of a Stones album I dislike. Two of my favourite albums of all time by anyone are Exile On Main Street and Goat's Head Soup.

The first 2. Kept buying their stuff thru Tattoo You, then gave up on 'em... Hard to top those 60s singles !!

i picked option 2 & 3 .....mick taylor lit a fire for them.

Totally agree!!

I picked the first 2, but really Exile should have been included in the second group.

After that they were never really the same....

For me Exile was their peak, the album they always had in them and wanted to make...after that it's all about the money...

I picked the first period. I do enjoy some of their later, funkier things like "Miss You" and "Heartbreaker" but to me their early stuff is their most consistant. Sixties rock doesn't get much better than Aftermath.

Tough call for me to make? I love the first three options equally. Hail I like most of The Stones output up to the 80's. After that I am Stoned out.

Mick Taylor era
Brian Jones era

Couldn't pick Exile as it is limped in with Black & Blue - my least favorite Stones lp. If the cut off were It's only RnR that would have been one of my 2 choices.

Went with #2 1st and #1 2nd.

Just read Charles post - I see we both agree on Black & Blue - to me it made it look like the Ronnie Woods era would be the Ronnie Woods error.

IMO Some Girls stands up to most of the pre-B&B releases.

Me and Jimbo have been entranced with the Stones since the late 60's. At age 10 I bought Hot Rocks in for show and tell in my 5th grade music class. Then we wore out the Get Your Ya Yas Out album. Since the '72 shows at the Garden it was readily apparent ,even to an 11year old, that when the Stones came to New York they simply OWN the entire city. I didn't see them that year, (only our brother Eddie got to go when the Exile post cards from in the album got picked in the lottery....yes LOTTERY!) but all my mother could talk about when she got off the train from work in NYC that night was how the the city was over run by stones fans. Three years later they announce their tour in NYC by playing Brown Sugar on the back of a flatbed truck going down 5th Avenue. The city was at a fever pitch until the Garden shows later that summer. Me and Jim saw that show together and were utterly mesmerized. We could barely speak, or hear, for days.

Now Mick and Keith are in their 70's and still own al of NYC when they play. Multiply that by how they own Milan, London, Rio ...etc and the picture becomes clear. THEY OWN THE FRICKIN' PLANET(and still do.) Oh and the first concert in Havana when sanctions are lifted... Of course! Oh let's open fashion week in NYC with the Stones playing Start Me Up on the catwalk wearing stratospherically priced designer creations made just for them.

This may not fully translate on the typed screen but the devotion only grows over the years. I loved the Beatles, and they owned the planet too, for four years. The stones domination has been for over 50.

This is why me and Jim can't ever imagine saying "I like this album but not that one" . We have both seen every tour from '75 on. From our perspective not liking something they've done would just mean we slipped out of the noose they snared us with that night back in summer '75 when we saw Micks hand come out at the top of one of the points of the folded up star shaped stage. We were hooked then, now and forever! I don't want to be out of that loop.

I vote for the whole thing.

I checked the first two, but really from the beginning through Some Girls would be my favourite Stones era(s).

Small correction there Jack: after '75, I didn't see them play live again until Steel Wheels in '89 (3 nights at Shea).

Plus, I've told the story here about how I was supposed to go to the '72 show, but got sick and our parents wouldn't let me go, so Eddie took John W. while I stretched out on the couch and watched the MLB All-Star game instead.

Otherwise, you hit most of the high points.

P.S. I love Black and Blue. Give it another listen.

I just can't believe I stumbled into those two tours from '78 and '81. I saw the Some Girls tour with my high school buddies at JFK stadium in Philly (Peter Tosh And Foreigner opening) and the Tatoo You show at Rich Stadium in Buffalo. Then they took the hiatus till The Dirty Work album which I love. The next tour was Steel Wheels which I saw at the LA coliseum with Living Color/Guns and Roses. The Voodoo Lounge tour was awesome. Saw that 4x two in So. Cal. Never once saw a bad show.

I guess I should have put Black & Blue with Some Girls. I put it where is as this wasn't a lot of album releases in that period; & B&B didn't have Some Girls disco influence. My choices were 68-71 & Greatest Hits.

This is a tough one, Geff. I love most of these eras and like the others, but I went with '68-'71 and '78-'83, the latter because it coincided with my teenage years when I first became obsessed with The Stones.

I still love what they've done since 1983.

I have never understood why people rip those albums (aside from Dirty Work) when they consistently made really good material.

Was their best behind them?

Yes, but isn't that the case with every single artist?

I'll put Steel Wheels, Voodoo Lounge and A Bigger Bang up there with albums like Between The Buttons (just another US cash grab by the label), Goats Head Soup or Black and Blue and I enjoy a decent amount of those albums too.

Mick Taylor era for me.