The Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones Cambridge Companions to Music Series

The Rolling Stones are one of the most influential, prolific, and enduring Rock and Roll bands in the history of music. This groundbreaking, specifically commissioned collection of essays provides the first dedicated academic overview of the music, career, influences, history, and cultural impact of the Rolling Stones. Shining a light on the many communities and sources of knowledge about the group, this Companion brings together essays by musicologists, ethnomusicologists, players, film scholars, and filmmakers into a single volume intended to stimulate fresh thinking about the group as they vault well over the mid-century of their career. Threaded throughout these essays are album- and song-oriented discussions of the landmark recordings of the group and their influence. Exploring new issues about sound, culture, media representation, the influence of world music, fan communities, group personnel, and the importance of their revival post-1989, this collection greatly expands our understanding of their music.

Part I. Albums, Songs, Players, and the Core Repertory of the Rolling Stones: 1. The Rolling Stones: albums and singles, 1963–1974 John Covach; 2. Guitar slingers and hired guns: the musicians of The Rolling Stones Bill Janovitz; 3. The Rolling Stones in 1968: in defense of lingering psychedelia John Covach; 4. Exile, America, and the theater of The Rolling Stones, 1968–1972 Victor Coelho; 5. Post exile: The Rolling Stones in a disco-punk world, 1975–1983 Paul Harris; Part II. Sound, Roots, and Brian Jones: 6. The Rolling Stones's sound: at the crossroads of roots and technology Ralph Maier; 7. Driving Stones country in five songs Daniel Beller-Mckenna; 8. A 'gust of fresh air': Brian Jones, assemblage, and world music Brita Renée Heimarck; Part III. Stones on Film, Revival, and Fans: 9. Shine a light: The Rolling Stones on film Michael Brendan Baker; 10. Second life and the dynamics of revival: The Stones after 1989 Victor Coelho; Afterword: being a Rolling Stones fan is not a choice but a state of mind Philippe Puicouyoul.

Victor Coelho is Professor of Music and Director of the Center for Early Music Studies at Boston University, as well as a lutenist and guitarist. His previous publications include Instrumentalists and Renaissance Culture (with Keith Polk, Cambridge, 2016), The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar (Cambridge, 2003), and Performance on Lute, Guitar, and Vihuela (Cambridge, 1997).
John Covach is Director of the University of Rochester Institute for Popular Music, Professor of Music in the College Music Department, and Professor of Theory at the Eastman School of Music. He is the principal author of the college textbook What's That Sound?: An Introduction to Rock Music (5th edition, 2018) and has co-edited Understanding Rock (1997), American Rock and the Classical Tradition (2000), Traditions, Institutions, and American Popular Music (2000), and Sounding Out Pop (2010).