October 24, 1978: Keith Richards Cops a Plea

Left to right: Charlie Watts, Keith Richards,

Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, Bill Wyman

October 24, 1978: Keith Richards cops a plea. Having been busted for heroin possession at his Toronto hotel on the Rolling Stones' 1977 North American tour, the guitarist pleads guilty, gets a suspended sentence plus 1 year of probation, and forced rehab.

On that tour, Richards' addiction to heroin delayed his arrival in Toronto; the other members had already arrived. On February 24, 1977, when Richards and his family flew in from London, they were temporarily detained by Canadian Customs after Richards was found in possession of a burnt spoon and hash residue.

Three days later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived at Keith's hotel room, armed with an arrest warrant for Anita Pallenberg, Keith's longtime domestic partner, and the mother of 3 of his children. (One had died shortly after birth. Keith had stolen her from a former Stones member, the late Brian Jones.) They discovered 22 grams of heroin in the room. Keith was charged with importing narcotics into Canada, which carried a minimum 7-year sentence. The Crown prosecutor later conceded that Richards had procured the drugs after his arrival.

A blind fan testified on his behalf, so the judge got the idea to have Keith play a benefit concert on behalf of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. With the Stones, Keith played 2 shows at the Oshawa Civic Auditorium in Oshawa, Ontario on April 22, 1979.

The story that Keith beat his addiction by having all of his blood drained and new blood of the same type pumped in is an urban legend. It's not possible: Such a procedure would kill the patient.

The old joke is that, if Keith Richards tells you that you have a drug problem, you know it's bad. But as recently as 2016, he says that he still smoked marijuana. In 2022, Keith, so often photographed with a cigarette in his mouth or in his hand, said that he had quit smoking 2 years earlier.

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October 24, 1978 was a Tuesday. Baseball season had ended a week earlier, with the New York Yankees beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. Football was in midweek. There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 113-109 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Indiana Pacers, 97-95 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the New Orleans Jazz, 122-104 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Chicago Bulls, 123-117 at the Chicago Stadium. Artis Gilmore scored 30 points in defeat for the Bulls.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Boston Celtics, 132-109 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 124-116 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Walter Davis scored 38 for the Suns.

* The San Diego Clippers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 124-123 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena). Lloyd "All-World" Free, later to change his name to World B. Free, scored 35 for the Clippers.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Washington Bullets, 104-102 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There were 3 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers played to a tie, 4-4 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Atlanta Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings, 7-2 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the St. Louis Blues, 7-2 at the St. Louis Arena (then known as the Checkerdome).

And there were 2 games in the World Hockey Association. The New England Whalers beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 2-1 at the Riverfront Coliseum (now the Heritage Bank Center) in Cincinnati. And the Birmingham Bulls beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

July 5, 1969: The Brian Jones Memorial Concert

July 5, 1969: A concert is held in Hyde Park, in London, in memory of Brian Jones, who had died 2 days earlier.

Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was born on February 28, 1942 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in England's West Country. In 1962, living in London, and already the father of 3 children by 3 different women, he placed an ad in a trade paper for musicians to form a band. It was answered by singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. They later added bass guitarist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts.

They were all fans of American blues performers, including Muddy Waters, and Jones named the group after one of Waters' songs: "Rollin' Stone Blues." It was later adjusted to "The Rolling Stones." By 1963, they were having hits in Britain. By 1964, they were having hits in America, and touring there. In 1965, they topped the American charts with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."

They were promoted as the "bad boys" of "The British Invasion," as opposed to The Beatles being "good boys." It was closer to the other way around: The Stones were middle-class kids, poseurs, who became genuine bad boys, while The Beatles were already pill-popping womanizers, though this was hidden from the public.

Jones was the best musician in the band: A good guitarist, he played the sitar on "Paint It, Black," the recorder on "Ruby Tuesday," and the piano on "Let's Spend the Night Together." But he developed a serious drug problem, as marijuana use led him to try heroin, and he became addicted.

On June 9, 1969, he made a public statement that he was leaving the band. It wasn't his choice: Because of a drug conviction, he was denied a visa to enter the U.S. for the band's tour. He was replaced by Mick Taylor from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. (In 1974, Taylor was replaced, under far less controversial circumstances, by Ron Wood of The Faces.)

On July 3, 1969, Jones was found drowned in the swimming pool at his home at Cotchford Farm in East Sussex, formerly the home of Winnie-the-Pooh creator A.A. Milne. He was 27 years old, and this was before there was such a recognized thing as a "27 Club," making him one of the earliest rock stars to have died at that age.

Drugs were not a direct cause of his death, but an autopsy showed he had an enlarged heart and an enlarged liver, as a result of drug use. So he might not have lived a great deal longer, anyway. There is a theory that he was murdered, but this has never been proven.

The Rolling Stones had been scheduled to perform a free concert in Hyde Park two days later. The concert had originally been promoted weeks earlier as Taylor's public debut with the band. At the beginning of the concert, Jagger took the stage to read excerpts from "Adonais," a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 about the death of his friend and fellow poetic giant, John Keats. (Keats was 25. Shelley died the next year, at 29.) Stagehands then released hundreds of white butterflies from the stage area as a tribute to Jones.

A crowd of 500,000 is said to have attended the show. The same number that was alleged to have attended the Woodstock concert in New York State 6 weeks later. But, given the population difference between America and Britain, this was, proportionally, a far larger crowd.

When asked if he felt guilty about Jones's death, Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone magazine (named for the Bob Dylan song "Like a Rolling Stone," not the band) in 1995, "No, I don't really. I do feel that I behaved in a very childish way, but we were very young, and in some ways we picked on him. But, unfortunately, he made himself a target for it; he was very, very jealous, very difficult, very manipulative, and if you do that in this kind of a group of people you get back as good as you give, to be honest. I wasn't understanding enough about his drug addiction. No one seemed to know much about drug addiction."

Within the band, that would change.

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July 5, 1969 was a Saturday. Hockey star John LcClair was born on this day. And these Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Yankee Stadium. Steve Hargan outpitched Stan Bahnsen.

* A doubleheader was split at Fenway Park in Boston. The Washington Senators won the 1st game, 6-2. The Boston Red Sox won the 2nd game, 11-4. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-8 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Frank Robinson went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs. Al Kaline went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 13-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew hit 2 home runs, and Rod Carew went 1-for-5 with a walk and 2 RBIs. The A's only run came on a home run by Reggie Jackson.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 5-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Ernie Banks did not play.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Pilots, 6-4 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Fans of Jim Bouton's book Ball Four, take note: Mike Marshall did not get out of the 4th inning. I guess he didn't smoke 'em inside. Bouton pitched a scoreless 5th and 6th innings. Mike Hegan and Don Mincher each had 2 hits.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 9-8 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). The game went to extra innings, and each team scored a run in the 10th. The Astros scored 4 in the top of the 12th, but the Padres scored 5 in the bottom of the 12th. Walt Hriniak, later one of the game's great hitting instructor, singled home the winning run.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Pete Rose went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs, and Johnny Bench went 0-for-2 as a pinch-hitter.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Hank Aaron did not play. Willie Mays went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* And the New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates were rained out at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 12. The Mets won each game by a 1-0 score. In the opener, Jerry Koosman pitched a 3-hit shutout. In the nightcap, Don Cardwell outpitched Dock Ellis. And each Met pitcher singled home the only run of the game. Roberto Clemente went 2-for-4 in the opener, and pinch-hit without reaching base in the nightcap. 

May 12, 1965: The Rolling Stones Record "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"

Left to right: Bill Wyman, Brian Jones,

Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards

May 12, 1965: The Rolling Stones, already the next-biggest British rock and roll band behind The Beatles, record "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." It becomes their signature song, and one of the most popular songs in rock and roll history.

The Stones consisted of lead singer Mick Jagger, lead guitarist Keith Richards, rhythm guitarist Brian Jones, bass guitarist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. Also on the recording were pianists Ian Stewart and Jack Nitzsche, although Jones could also play the piano -- and, as it later turned out, the sitar (on "Paint It, Black") and the recorder (on "Ruby Tuesday"). Andrew Loog Oldham produced the record.

Richards claimed he wrote the opening riff for the song at his apartment in St. John's Wood, North-West London. Then he recorded it on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Then he fell asleep. When he played the tape in the morning, he found it contained 2 minutes of acoustic guitar, "and then me snoring for the next 40 minutes." It became one of the most famous opening riffs in rock and roll history. He said Jagger wrote the lyrics by the pool in Clearwater, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area.

They recorded the song on May 12, 1965, at the studio of Chess Records on the South Side of Chicago, home to Richards' hero Chuck Berry, and to blues musicians such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon. The studio's address became the title of an instrumental the Stones later recorded, "2120 South Michigan Avenue."

The song was released on June 5, and was so damn catchy that, despite the bad grammar of the title, Billboard magazine listed it as the Number 1 song in America in their July 11 issue. It remains the Stones' most familiar song. As Jagger put it: 

It was the song that really made The Rolling Stones, changed us from just another band into a huge, monster band... It has a very catchy title. It has a very catchy guitar riff. It has a great guitar sound, which was original at that time. And it captures a spirit of the times, which is very important in those kinds of songs... Which was alienation.

It hit Number 1 right around the high point of Lyndon Johnson's Presidency. And yet, had Johnson heard the song, whether he liked it or not, would have understood the title completely.

There are 3 surviving musicians from the recording session on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction": Jagger, Richards and Wyman. Oldham is also still alive. Jones died in 1969, Stewart in 1985, Nitzsche in 2000, and Watts in 2021.

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May 12, 1965 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 2-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Bill Monbouquette threw a 6-hit shutout, to outpitch Jim Bouton. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 at Shea Stadium. Jack Fisher went the distance for the win. Lou Brock went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Frank Robinson went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Pete Rose went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson did not play.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 5-2 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Joe Torre and Felipe Alou hit home runs for the Braves. Hank Aaron did not, but did go 3-for-5. For the Pirates, Roberto Clemente went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Chicago White Sox swept a doubleheader from the Kansas City Athletics, 7-4 and 6-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew hit 2 home runs.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 4-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Don Drysdale went the distance for the win.

* And the Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Willie Mays went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Ron Santo of the Cubs and Willie McCovey of the Giants hit home runs.