The Rolling Stones, it might be argued, were not even as radical as the Beatles. But their music was defiantly dirty, and it got better and better. The syncopated chops that kicked “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” into being were the prelude to a domination of the rock scene that perfectly mirrored the febrile times. The band members themselves still flirted with the accoutrements of gracious living, twisting its elegant ways to suit their own purposes. In 1969, guitarist Keith Richards and his then partner, the actress Anita Pallenberg, moved into a Queen Anne mansion in Chelsea bought from a Conservative undersecretary of state. “The study where government officials had debated the Suez crisis in 1956 was now occupied by a large hookah,” writes Sandford with no little relish. It wasn’t the Stones selling out to the establishment, so much as vice versa.
more from Peter Aspden at the FT here.