10 Albums That Defined Rock And Roll

For a band that had dominated the early '60s, the Rolling Stones were hanging on by a thread once the Summer of Love came and went. With their psychedelic rock experiment getting more and more out of control and Brian Jones going deeper and deeper into his drug habits, it felt like the bad boys who led the British Invasion were inches away from self destruction. The blues does always show the way forward in these situations though.

By leaning into their bluesy side, the Stones created one of the most jaded albums they ever made on Beggars Banquet, with each song being about some sort of evil in their world. From the talks of riots on Street Fighting Man to the personification of Lucifer on Sympathy for the Devil, there's a hidden sense of darkness on this album that pretty much confirmed the Stones' nature for some lude behavior.

At the same time, you can hear Mick Jagger and Keith Richards slowly growing into the bluesmen that they always wanted to be, whether they're sitting around talking about scoring some tail on Stray Cat Blues or being heartbroken on a train on No Expectations. The entire bluesman schtick doesn't make for the most stable life, but it does provide one hell of a soundtrack.