Rolling Stones “Beggars Banquet” 1968. Our copy old and super-raggedy. We saw in Chicago Stones last weekend for the first time (and likely the last as they are also old and, in Keith Richards’ case, super-raggedy) and one of the many many concert highlights was “Sympathy for the Devil” which appears on Beggars Banquet.

The album went to #5 in the US and to #3 in the UK; it was the last to be released while Brian Jones was alive (he’s on a few songs, including “Sympathy” playing acoustic guitar). A mixture of blues and country (also known as rock-n-roll haha), Beggars Banquet is on the list of most “best-of” records and in ’99 was inducted into the Grammy’s Hall of Fame. Besides “Sympathy” my other top tracks are “Parachute Woman” (Mick Jagger’s harmonica is soooo good – he played harmonica during the concert but not sure what song that was on now), the controversial “Street Fighting Man” (#48 US, #21 UK; Jagger’s maracas are next-level) which was banned by many US radio stations due to its commentary on the political and cultural violence of ’68 (it was released within a week of the violent confrontations between the police and anti-Vietnam War protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago) and the sexy/sleezy garage rocker “Stray Cat Blues.”