"It was a really strange time in America," Greenfield explains. "Maybe it's always a strange time in America. But when the Stones had toured previously, it was full-on counterculture, to hippies. Who else would see them?
"But now it was starting to change. They were becoming more of an interest to mainstream audiences. The glam stuff was beginning to happen, and the seventies were really starting to pump up. The [sixties] revolution was over, and the sexual and drug stuff was just starting to boil over."
In the early 1970s, audiences were changing, and so was the business of playing to them. The 1972 tour was the highest-grossing tour ever at that point; arena rock, which led to stadium shows, was born.
"It was the turning point in the history of rock 'n' roll," Greenfield says, "and the Stones were doing the turning."
Travel back to 1978 where we find Mick Jagger joining Peter Tosh on Saturday Night Live.
Croats, Muslims unite for Rolling Stones concert
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro, Jul. 16, 2007 (IPS/GIN) -- Belgrade and a northern Serbian city called Novi Sad became multiethnic centers during the past five days, while hosting the EXIT music festival and a Rolling Stones concert. . .
The disintegration of former Yugoslavia 16 years ago did not mean just the bloody wars that took at least 100,000 lives. It meant also the cutting of all ties between the former republics, including direct telephone lines. A ban on travel was also imposed. Suspicion, fear and hatred prevailed for years, but relations improved after 2000 with the departure of the leaders who led the fighting. . .
Trajan Ionescu, 25, from Romania and Stojan Bordzev, 22, from Bulgaria shared a tent with two young Englishmen who introduced themselves simply as "Rory and Adrian from Oxford." Rory and Adrian were expecting their friends from New Zealand, as well. . .
The concert of the rock legends Saturday evening brought the mix to Belgrade. Crowds of Bosniaks, Croats, Slovenes and Macedonians started roaming the streets of their once-single capital in the early hours on Saturday.
"This is something I never thought I'd do," said Senad Smajcevic, 46, from the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. Senad survived the savage three-and-a-half-year siege of his hometown under Bosnian Serbs in the 1990s.
"Belgrade was the word I hated most for years. But I gave up when I heard the Stones are coming over."
"Satisfaction," "Get Off My Cloud," "As Tears Go By," "19th Nervous Breakdown," "Paint It Black," "Mother's Little Helper," "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing in the Shadows," "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "We Love You" represents one of the most remarkable hit streaks in pop history. - Roy Trakin, HITS Magazine
Before they were “The World’s Greatest Rock ‘N Roll Band,” the Rolling Stones were one of the greatest pop groups, too. Celebrating the first ever release of their Sixties albums on CD with their original tracklisting, Matthew Weiner [Stylus Magazine] looks back at their work from 1966-67.
