Marshall Chess Born March 13, 1942

Biography

The Rolling Stones needed a massive hit in 1970. They appeared to have put their drug-related legal problems behind them. The loss of Brian Jones was tragic, but inevitable, and the introduction of Mick Taylor on guitar and Jimmy Miller as producer had rejuvenated the band.

1968’s Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed had re-established their creative reputation. The late 1969 US tour (see Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out) , their first US adventure for three years (because of Brian Jones-related visa problems) was a triumphant return to live work in the world’s biggest market.

But for all the shitkicking groove of their last two 1960’s albums and their outstanding concert work, the 1970s presented some major problems. The party was over, and in the cold light of day it was clear that damage had been done, and there was some major clearing up to do.

That same successful US tour also drew accusations of exploitation due to high ticket prices. It ended in bloody disaster at Altamont. Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed sold well, but neither topped the charts in the US (Let It Bleed hit number one in the UK). The punitive UK tax regime, and the disastrous nature of the deal they’d done with Allan Klein, had left them badly exposed financially.

The record industry changed in the late sixties and so did listening and buying habits. The golden age of the hit single was long gone, and the real money and credibility was now in Long Playing albums (LPs). The Stones needed to get back on top and only a massive hit album would get them there.

Their recording and distribution deal with Decca, negotiated for them by Allan Klein, was coming to an end, on less than amicable terms. The Stones elected to form their own vanity label and work with a major to get their records distributed and sold.

The problem with the plan was that although – as he’s since demonstrated – Mick Jagger has a rock solid head for business, he wasn’t ready to head a serious business in a cut-throat industry at that point. The rest of the band weren’t interested either, other than their need for the money it would bring. But what they really needed was someone who knew the record industry and could run the business for them.

In retrospect, it was always going to work, even allowing for the idiosyncratic nature of the band. Marshall Chess was the inspired choice to head up a new label formed specifically to produce and distribute the recorded music of a band as dedicated to the Blues as The Rolling Stones. As the son of Leonard and nephew of Phil Chess, founders of their eponymous, world famous Chicago-based blues record label and studio, whose recordings of acts like Muddy Waters and Bo Diddly had inspired The Stones to start playing music in the first place, he had grown up inside the music industry, learning everything from A&R to contract law to production to loading the truck to ship the final product to the store.

He also knew the Stones from way back, when, in the first flush of success in 1964, they came to pay homage and record some tracks at Chess studio in 1964, but the real thing was his love of black music, which he shared with The Rolling Stones.

As Marshall puts it himself, "I was a record, I was a music nut in those days. I would take Chess Record albums and go to this one record shop every week and trade Chess albums for all the new releases. That was an era when there was all, new things every day... I was a Rolling Stones fan and I definitely wanted to get involved with rock and roll. I’m the same age as The Rolling Stones so we’re coming from the same mindset and the whole drugs and sex revolution that swept across America and probably a lot of the world."

So they could work together. Marshall proceeded to put together the deal, the band and Jimmy Miller proceeded to put together Sticky Fingers, and the result was a triple platinum transatlantic Number One smash. Just what the doctor ordered.

Having shepherded Rolling Stones Records through the difficult early days, and achieved exactly what was needed, Marshall stuck around to enjoy the fun - maybe a bit too much fun. In the mid-seventies he recognised the toll his involvement with the Stones lifestyle was taking on his health and he got out, resigning in 1976, having overseen the resurrection of the band's fortunes, commercially and creatively.