The Rolling Stones\u00a0have forgotten more about rock and roll, in all its hedonistic, drug-fueled splendour, than most other bands could ever dream of. Presented to the world as the rebellious, rough-edged alternative to the fresh-faced Beatles, Mick Jagger and the gang seemed to do everything in their power to live up to that moniker, even if it often came at the detriment of their musical output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was during the early 1970s that The Rolling Stones reached the peak of their drug-fueled depravity, carving out\u00a0Sticky Fingers<\/em>\u00a0from the heroin haze of Keith Richards\u2019\u00a0mansion in France. That rather chaotic lifestyle had begun years prior, though, and became particularly unavoidable during the days of\u00a0Beggars Banquet<\/em>, once The Stones had emerged from the other end of their short-lived experiments with psychedelia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marking the moment that The Stones graduated from the youthful rebellion of their earlier material to something far more compelling, the 1968 record still stands among the band\u2019s greatest works, but it might have never come together in the first place, given the endless chaos and lack of organisation during the recording process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admittedly, few rock bands \u2013 particularly those as young, drunk, and beautiful as The Rolling Stones \u2013 pay much attention to admin or, as it turns out, keeping track of things. Brian Jones, for instance, was so unpredictable during Beggars Banquet<\/em> that he hardly bothered to show up to the sessions, and when he did, he was rarely in a fit state to play. Even if the rest of the band did show up, they weren\u2019t much better, in terms of sobriety or organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In hindsight, it is a miracle that the album turned out to be as good as it did, especially because the group nearly lost track of one of its stand-out tracks, \u2018Parachute Woman\u2019, almost as soon as they had recorded it. Helen Lawrenson, of\u00a0Esquire<\/em>, sat in on some of the album\u2019s sessions, and she recalled an incident when nobody in the band, nor the production staff, could remember what they had done with the tapes of \u2018Parachute Woman\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the studio staff turned over every corner of the building looking for those tapes, Mick Jagger seemed expectedly laid back about the whole situation. \u201cIt\u2019s a drag,\u201d he admitted. \u201cLike a kid looking for a marble: here\u2019s that one I lost two years ago, but where\u2019s that blue one?\u201d It wasn\u2019t long before the situation turned farcical. \u201cThey\u2019ve lost \u2018Parachute Woman\u2019,\u201d the singer declared, \u201cAnd now we\u2019ve lost the bloke who went to look for it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a final plea, Jagger asked, \u201cCan anyone remember what were we doing the night we made \u2018Parachute Woman\u2019?\u201d The answer to which was a resounding no. It would be a miracle if anyone in The Stones or their posse could remember waking up that morning, never mind the specific time period in which they recorded\u00a0a rock masterpiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, of course, \u2018Parachute Woman\u2019 was retrieved and made it onto the final track listing of Beggars Banquet. Even still, the very fact that it was allowed to get lost in the first place should tell you a lot about The Rolling Stones\u2019 attitude back in 1968; Jagger and co were far too busy establishing the archetypal rock and roll lifestyle to worry about trivialities like the whereabouts of their master tapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We may never know how many other Stones tracks were lost down the backs of sofas at Olympic Studios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n