Maybe the Last Time?

Released the day after the death of their founder Brian Jones in July 1969, Honky Tonk Woman remains the last Rolling Stones single to top the charts. As the sixties drew to their close, the party would soon be over. The Beatles disintegrated within the year amid a maelstrom of recrimination and bickering. The single which had come to define the sixties was fast becoming passe. A new audience was emerging which was looking for something a bit more challenging than the three minute format of the commercially orientated single.

As the Beatles and the Stones began their gradual descent, other bands soon came to the fore to define the direction of music for the next decade. Led by Led Zeppelin, the new breed of band was more geared towards live performance and albums. They were more interested in the American market than ours and were set to realise fabulous wealth. As with the Who and a number of other successful bands, the halcyon years of the Zeppelin were brought to an abrupt close by the death of their drummer. Both bands boasted drummers who had become synonymous with the heavier sounds which had replaced the Beatles and Stones.

A former hod carrier, John Bonham was a powerful drummer and the sound of his snare drum has been compared to a shotgun going off. Like Keith Moon and many other drummers in rock music, he had a penchant for fast cars, drugs and alcohol. His lunacy may not have been in Moon's league, but his propensity to excess was almost without parallel. It is an amazing fact that Jimmy Page still asserts that irrespective of how much booze Bonham had taken on board, he always kept perfect time and never arrived late for a show. It seems as though Bonham took his job seriously and placed a high value on the performance of the band. It was somehow fitting that when the Zeppelin reformed a few years ago for a one off show in London, Jason Bonham took up the drums. Having grown up watching his illustrious father, he was perhaps better placed than anybody to try and emulate that unique sound.

On reflection, it is quite incredible to think that the Stones seem more popular than ever this year. You really start to wonder how long they can carry on. Yesterday, the BBC announced that after a staggering 69 years working for the BBC, the veteran broadcaster David Jacobs would be retiring from his weekly Sunday evening show on the radio. Perhaps we will be seeing a lot more of the Stones yet!