"The Stones were nasty and ugly and doing songs I was familiar with"

Robert Quine’s statement, “The Stones were nasty and ugly and doing songs I was familiar with,” captures a visceral reaction to The Rolling Stones that goes beyond mere appreciation or critique. The use of “nasty and ugly” should not be taken as wholly negative; rather, it evokes the dangerous, unpolished, and rebellious energy that the Stones embodied in their early years. For Quine, who was a guitarist known for his raw, expressive playing and his deep reverence for rock and roll’s roots, these qualities aligned with the essential spirit of the music he loved.

Quine recognizes in the Stones a deliberate embrace of imperfection and grit, musical traits inherited from the black American blues musicians both he and the Stones admired. The description of them as “nasty” suggests not only their untamed performance style but also their willingness to challenge social norms and conventional entertainment. The word “ugly” may refer to their refusal to conform to standards of polish or prettiness, musically and aesthetically, offering an authenticity that was rare in the pop landscape of the early 1960s.

Moreover, Quine mentions the Stones performing songs he was already familiar with, which speaks to their role as conduits, bringing the blues and R&B repertoire to a wider, largely white, international audience. For someone like Quine, steeped in the music’s origins, the excitement lay in hearing these raw interpretations on a major stage, validating his own musical passions and the genres that shaped him.

Overall, Quine’s words celebrate the Stones’ embrace of the wild, messy energy of early rock and roll and the blues, qualities often sanitized in mainstream music. Their “nasty and ugly” sound thrilled listeners seeking something more authentic, aligning with Quine’s own artistic values: emotional force, musical truth, and a respect for tradition unafraid to get a little dirty.