The Rolling Stones made a career out of being controversial, the "anti-Beatles." Would you let your daughter date a Rolling Stone? You would now, considering how much they'd stand to inherit.
I'm sure there are plenty more that we could list. But these are my favorite controversies. (First poster to mention "Claudine" gets a star on my refrigerator.)
10) We P*** Anywhere, Man: Bill Wyman urinated on a gas station wall and you'd think the end of civilization was at hand. Then again, it's all a slippery slope. Next thing you know people are crapping on the sidewalks. What a mess. This town's in tatters!
9) Who Breaks A Butterfly Upon A Wheel?: Drug laws are always pretty suspect. Just look at how many non-violent drug offenders are in jail. Of course, the British authorities enjoyed it no end that they could lock up Mick Jagger and Keith Richards over anything. The British press in their oh-so-cryptic way came to the Stones' defense with this headline. These days the editorial header would read: Stones-Gate Provides No Satisfaction.
8) Let's Spend The Night Together: The Stones had the line "make some girl" bleeped from U.S. Television when they performed "Satisfaction" and Ed Sullivan saved the youth of the nation by having Mick sing "Let's Spend Some Time Together" on Ed's little-known TV program. The eye-rolls from Mick and Wyman are worth it.
7) Beggars Banquet Album Cover: To think there was a time when you couldn't put a toilet on an album cover. These days a toilet would seem mild. Especially if it was empty!
6) Altamont: OK, the Stones were dumb for hiring the Hell's Angels to police the free show. But, to be fair, the British Hell's Angels were nothing like these American lunatics and the Grateful Dead thought it was a great idea. You can't blame the Stones for the murder of Meredith Hunter. You can only blame Mick for constantly announcing "Brown Sugar" as a song "we just written it." Don't tell me they don't have the word "wrote" over in the U.K.
5) Tax Exiles In France: For all the bellyaching in the U.S. over the high levels of taxation, British taxes were far worse in the 1970s and led to the Stones moving to France to finally make some money. The result was Exile On Main Street. So you see every negative motion has a positive one that counterbalances it. Kind of like the way Leonard Cohen's manager ran off with all his money and we all got a fantastic tour from a 75-year-old man who can still outdo me (and you) any day of the week.
4) Keith Richards' "Blood Transfusion": Did Keith really get his blood transfused to clean him out from heroin? I would think clean blood would be such a shock to his system that it would likely kill him if he tried. Everyone knows his blood is part bourbon, part opiate and part rock n' roll.
3) Promotional Campaign For Black And Blue: Tying a woman up and showing her off all black and blue is sexy and not sexist, right?
2) "Some Girls" Offends Rev. Jesse Jackson: No one seemed to mind when Jagger spoke about doing heroin with the President or suggested someone was the easiest lay on the White House lawn, but when he offered up that African-American women liked to have excessive sexual relations and that he couldn't keep up...well, that offended Jesse Jackson. Had Mick suggested Jesse Jackson couldn't keep up, I could understand. But who gets mad when they're told they're too thin, too rich or too young?
1) Keith Richards Snorts His Father's Ashes: Further proof that you can't leave anything lying around Keith.