page_title: The Rolling Stones
section_title: 1972–1977: Critical fluctuations and Ronnie Wood
hierarchical_section_title: The Rolling Stones / History / 1972–1977: Critical fluctuations and Ronnie Wood
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Rolling Stones concert in Zuiderpark te Den Haag, Mick Jagger in aktie 29 mei 1976
context_page_description: The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. As a diverging act to the popular pop rock of the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, heavier-driven sound that came to define hard rock. The band's first stable line-up consisted of bandleader Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, and Ian Stewart, the last of whom was removed from the official line-up in 1963, but continued to work with the band as a contracted musician until his death in 1985. The band's primary songwriters, the partnership of Jagger and Richards, assumed leadership after Andrew Loog Oldham became the group's manager. Jones left the band less than a month before his death in 1969, having already been replaced by Mick Taylor, who in turn left in 1974 and was replaced in 1975 by Ronnie Wood, who has since remained. Since Wyman's departure in 1993, Darryl Jones has served as bassist. The Stones have not had an official keyboardist since Stewart's departure in 1963, but have employed several musicians in that role, including Jack Nitzsche, Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, Ian McLagan, and Chuck Leavell.
context_section_description: Members of the band set up a complex financial structure in 1972 to reduce the amount of their taxes. Their holding company, Promogroup, has offices in both The Netherlands and the Caribbean. The Netherlands was chosen because it does not directly tax royalty payments. The band have been tax exiles ever since, meaning they can no longer use Britain as their main residence. Due to the arrangements with the holding company, the band has reportedly paid a tax of just 1.6% on their total earnings of £242 million over the past 20 years.
  In November 1972 the band began recording sessions in Kingston, Jamaica, for the album Goats Head Soup; it was released in 1973 and reached No. 1 in both the UK and US. The album, which contained the worldwide hit "Angie", was the first in a string of commercially successful but tepidly received studio albums. The sessions for Goats Head Soup also produced unused material, most notably an early version of the popular ballad "Waiting on a Friend", which was not released until the Tattoo You LP eight years later.
  Another legal battle over drugs, dating back to their stay in France, interrupted the making of Goats Head Soup. Authorities had issued a warrant for Richards' arrest and the other band members had to return briefly to France for questioning. This, along with Jagger's 1967 and 1970 convictions on drug charges, complicated the band's plans for their Pacific tour in early 1973: they were denied permission to play in Japan and almost banned from Australia. A European tour followed in September and October 1973, which bypassed France, coming after Richards' arrest in England on drug charges.
  The 1974 album It's Only Rock 'n Roll was recorded in the Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany; it reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 1 in the US. Miller was not invited to return as the album's album producer because his "contribution level had dropped". Jagger and Richards produced the album credited as "the Glimmer Twins". Both the album and the single of the same name were hits.
  Near the end of 1974, Taylor began to lose patience after years of feeling like a "junior citizen in the band of jaded veterans". The band's situation made normal functioning complicated, with members living in different countries, and legal barriers restricting where they could tour. In addition, drug use was starting to affect Taylor's and Richards' productivity, and Taylor felt some of his own creative contributions were going unrecognised. At the end of 1974, with a recording session already booked in Munich to record another album, Taylor quit the Rolling Stones. Taylor said in 1980,
  I was getting a bit fed up. I wanted to broaden my scope as a guitarist and do something else ... I wasn't really composing songs or writing at that time. I was just beginning to write, and that influenced my decision ... There are some people who can just ride along from crest to crest; they can ride along somebody else's success. And there are some people for whom that's not enough. It really wasn't enough for me.
  The Stones needed a new guitarist, and the recording sessions for the next album, Black and Blue (1976) (No. 2 in the UK, No. 1 in the US) in Munich provided an opportunity for some guitarists hoping to join the band to work while trying out. Guitarists as stylistically disparate as Peter Frampton and Jeff Beck were auditioned as well as Robert A. Johnson and Shuggie Otis. Both Beck and Irish blues rock guitarist Rory Gallagher later claimed they had played without realising they were being auditioned. American session players Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel also tried out, but Richards and Jagger preferred for the band to remain purely British. When Ronnie Wood auditioned, everyone agreed he was the right choice. He had already recorded and played live with Richards, and had contributed to the recording and writing of the track "It's Only Rock 'n Roll". He had declined Jagger's earlier offer to join the Stones, because of his commitment to the Faces, saying "that's what's really important to me". Faces' lead singer Rod Stewart wen
caption: Jagger in 1976
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