Rocks Off: 50 Tracks That Tell the Story of the Rolling Stones

Rocks Off examines fifty tracks that define the Rolling Stones' career and artistry. Bill Janovitz traces the band's history through song-by-song analysis, exploring the recording circumstances and personal contexts behind their most significant work. The book opens with an account of the December 1969 sessions at Muscle Shoals, where Keith Richards and Mick Jagger recorded three songs—"Brown Sugar," "You Got to Move," and "Wild Horses"—that would appear on Sticky Fingers. Recorded by a six-piece band in a converted coffin factory using an eight-track recorder without digital editing, these three tracks comprised thirty percent of the triple-platinum album, which reached number one in both the US and UK in 1971 and established the band's superstardom. Through detailed analysis of the band's representative songs, Janovitz reveals how the Rolling Stones expressed themselves through their music, mapping the landmarks of their career while documenting the forces that shaped one of rock and roll's most famous and acclaimed bands.