The Rolling Stones

July 22, 1967

MICK JAGGER, THE CONTROVERSIAL LEAD SINGER OF ENGLAND’S ROLLING Stones, is now free on bail after receiving a three-month jail sentence for possession of four Benzedrine-type tablets, but the furor over his sentence has just begun.

Besides Jagger, another member of the group, Keith Richards, also is out on bail after receiving a one-year sentence for allowing his country home to be used for the smoking of a soft narcotic similar to marijuana.

Most of England’s younger generation spoke out against Jagger’s harsh sentence, and even the London Times ran an objective editorial on England’s drug laws. One of the best passages in the Times editorial was: “If, after his visit to the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury had brought proprietary air-sickness pills at the Rome airport, and imported the unused tablets into Britain on his return, he would have risked committing precisely the same offence.”

London’s Carnaby Street took on a circus-like air by cashing in on the misfortune of Jagger and Richards. Lord Kitchener’s Valet displayed hand-cuffs in their window along with a sign saying, “Be faithful with a pair of Jagger links.”

The drug controversy hasn’t seemed to hurt the sales of the Stones new album, Flowers. The songs on the album are a mixture of old and new. The titles are “Ruby Tuesday,” “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows,” “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” “Lady Jane,” “Out of Time,” “My Girl,” “Backstreet Girl,” “Please Go Home,” “Mother’s Little Helper,” “Take It or Leave It,” “Ride On Baby,” and “Sittin’ on a Fence.” Besides Jagger and Richards, the Stones featured on the LP are Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman.

Members of the recording industry are paying tribute to the Stones in their own unique ways. According to Disc and Music Echo, a British music weekly, the Who have rush-released two Stones songs, “The Last Time” and “Under My Thumb.”

The reasoning behind the release of these records, as explained by members of the Who, is that “The Who consider Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have been treated as scapegoats for the drug problem, and as a protest against the savage sentences imposed on them, The Who are issuing a series of Jagger-Richards songs to keep their work before the public until they are again free to record themselves.”

The above statement was made before Jagger and Richards were freed on bail. After being notified of the Stones being freed, Who co-writer Kit Lambert stated: “We made this record (“The Last Time” and “Under My Thumb”) and released it in twenty-four-hours flat before we knew they’d got bail. It’s just a simple gesture and we are not trying to cash in at all. All royalties will go to charity.”

Ian Ross, owner of a mod clothing firm in England; Ronan O’Rahilly, a director of Radio Caroline (a pop music radio station located on a ship anchored off the shore of Britain); and Denny Cordell, manager of England’s Procol Harum (“A Whiter Shade of Pale”), are planning a “massive” concert to raise money to send flowers of forgiveness to the Chichester (England) judge who sentenced Jagger and Richards.

Rolling Stones in D.C.

PHOTO BY MIKE KLAVANS