While the '60s established The Rolling Stones as the antithesis of The Beatles while also establishing their own sound, the '70s were almost entirely about establishing them as an entity in their own right -- a larger than life entity.

The Fab Four were over and the stage, for the most part, was theirs to take and do with what they wanted.

That included taking control of their records, which were now being released on their own label, Rolling Stones Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic.

Their first release for the label was 1971's Sticky Fingers, which featured the infamous zipper cover designed by Andy Warhol.

It was also, further to establishing an identity, the first album which featured the now synonymous lips-and-tongue logo, often incorrectly attributed to Warhol.

That album, with its songs such as Brown Sugar and Wild Horses, kept their star rising -- while at the same time opening up some conflicts in the band.

By all accounts, Mick Jagger began to enjoy the spotlight and celebrity, starring in films and then, marrying fashion model Bianca Perez Morena De Macias.

For his part, the other half of the Stones' songwriting duo, Keith Richards, began to enjoy his substances a little more, moving on to heroin -- in fact, Richards' writing involvement on Sticky Fingers was reportedly much less than previous efforts as a result of his drug use.

He and the rest of the band seemed to harness that for their next record -- the sleazy, druggy, countrified blues rock double-album classic Exile On Main St., which was recorded in France and released in '72.

As well as coming away with another Stones masterpiece, Richards also came home with an arrest warrant for drug charges -- a popular theme in the '70s, including the notorious heroin bust in Toronto, which, had it not been for a suspended sentence and the "punishment" of having to play a live charity show, could very well have killed the band.

There had been another change -- Mick Taylor left prior to recording 1976's Black And Blue and was eventually replaced by The Faces' Ronnie Wood -- but without the Jagger-Richards tandem, there was little doubt The Stones would fold.

Despite how inextricably they were linked, there was increasing friction between the two, including by some accounts, over the band's overblown live theatrics such as the giant, inflatable penis from their '75 U.S. tour.

Musically, many also thought the rift was borne out on the recordings, which from '73's Goat's Head Soup to '74's It's Only Rock'N Roll and finally Black And Blue, were not as critically or commercially well received, leading many to speculate that with punk on the rise, rock acts such as The Stones were outdated dinosaurs.

But before the decade could be characterized as The Stones "sucking in the seventies," in '78 the band released what is often considered their last truly great record, Some Girls, proving many -- and not for the first or last time -- completely wrong.

As the decade came to a close, artistically, anyway, The Stones were going out on a high note.