10 Albums From The '60s That Changed Rock History

Towards the end of the ‘60s, life wasn’t really looking too well for the Stones. After being known as the misfit children counterpart to the Beatles, the last few records like Aftermath seemed to be taking on a darker tone, all while band member Brian Jones was starting to lose his way and become dismissed from the band just a few years later. That’s a lot of pain to have to deal with, but pain always makes for some of the best blues songs ever made.

Before they exiled themselves in the early ‘70s, Beggars Banquet was one of the Stones’ first real dives into something a bit more sinister, starting with the celebration of evil on Sympathy for the Devil. As if Paint It Black wasn’t enough of a morose feeling track, these songs were more concerned with the darker side of life, like the call for revolution on Street Fighting Man or the late night debauchery going on in Stray Cat Blues.

Underneath all of that hardened exterior though, these were wounded men trying to find their redemption through song, whether that meant trying to brave the storm in whatever way they could on Jigsaw Puzzle or just accepting their fate as the lonesome drifter on No Expectations. They were still a little bit away from letting it bleed, but this is where the Stones really started to show us some of the scars that they’ve had to wear all these years.