The Rolling Stones: Love & Theft

My musical tastes have never been that varied. I've occupied the white trash "space" for most of my life. First, there was white trash rock: Motley Crue, Metallica, Black Sabbath; then there was white trash rap: Beastie Boys, House of Pain, Cypress Hill.

It didn't go much further than that for me over the last 30 years until I really started listening - really, really listening - to the Rolling Stones' classics Exile on Main Street and Sticky Fingers. Those albums are, to me, a blueprint of where rock-n-roll started and where it was headed.

I started running through the Stones catalog and found not-so-subtle bits and pieces of all sorts of other artists. I wanted to find the Stones' influences for myself, and expand my own musical exposure.

Here, then, are the artists and albums I discovered because of the Rolling Stones:

1. Bo Diddley. His music was once aptly described as, "the Devil moving furniture." Listen to "Brown Sugar" and you'll find pieces of every Bo Diddley song ever written.

2. Blazing Away, Marianne Faithfull. My favorite example of a life burnt away by rock-n-roll excess. Twenty years later, "As Tears Go By" is a totally different song.

3. Howlin' Wolf. The Stones covered "Little Red Rooster" and scored a hit. Watch Howlin' Wolf sing "Smokestack Lightning" and be embarrassed for every white-boy Chicago Blues wannabe.

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4. Chuck Berry. Yes, Keith Richards stole all of his riffs, and for good reason.

5. Bill Wyman's Bill Wyman. I know that he was a member of the Stones, so this shouldn't really count, but I would have never discovered the spaced-out decadence of this album had I not been poking around looking for anything Stones-related.

6. Ry Cooder. I'll buy every lick he ever produces as a thank you for his work on "Sister Morphine."

7. John Lee Hooker. Watch John Lee Hooker and the Stones play "Boogie Chillen" in Atlantic City in 1989. He's the fucking man.

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8. The Tin Man Was a Dreamer, Nicky Hopkins. The best rock-n-roll piano bar none; some parts of Exile on Main Street seem like a Nicky Hopkins album after a listen through this rocker.

9. Otis Redding. Keith Richards claims to always ask when writing, "what would Otis do?" Become my favorite soul singer is what.

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