Ted Gartland first walked into a newsroom at the Boston Record American in 1969, two weeks after his 21st birthday. He didn't walk out for another 42 years when he retired from the Boston Globe.

Tying each consecutive decade in one loud, transformative rock 'n' roll knot were the Rolling Stones. In every decade since their inception, they have rolled through Greater Boston at least once. And in each decade, as part of a journalist's duty to witness and recap the day's events, Gartland was there.

In the '70s, in between the federally mandated desegregation of the Boston Public Schools, and the infamous Blizzard of '78, (for which Gartland shares a Pulitzer Prize), the Stones rocked the old Boston Garden with their "Tour of the Americas" in 1975. It was Gartland's first Stones concert as a working journalist, and the rules were set and never changed. First three songs to shoot, and then escorted out of the venue. Black and white film.

It took an additional 14 years for the band to return. The decade started with a local watering hole becoming famous with the debut of the TV series 'Cheers', The Boston Celtics hoisted Championship banner #16 at the Garden, and Gartland joined much of the world traveling to Berlin in November of 1989 for the opening of the Berlin wall. Two months previously, the Stones shook the earth themselves at a sold-out stadium show in Foxboro for their record-shattering "Steel Wheels" tour.

The '90s headlined the tragedy of "The Perfect Storm", the demolition of the old Boston Garden and taking a long way around to circumvent the massive Central Artery Project, aka, "The Big Dig". The Stones made it to Foxboro twice, for 1994's "Voodoo Lounge" and 1997's "Bridges to Babylon" tours. They rolled back one more time in 1999 to tread the boards at the old Garden's successor, what's now called the TD Garden for their "No Security" tour.

In between the 2000s stunning investigative reporting by the Boston Globe's Spotlight team documenting sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, and the Boston Red Sox reversing an 86-year-old curse by winning the 2004 World Series, the Stones marked 40 years in the business in 2002 by kicking off their world-encompassing "Licks" tour in Boston with three dates at three different venues. The tour launched at the Garden, moved outside to Foxboro, and finished at the legendary Orpheum Theater. Keith dubbed it the "Fruit of the Loom" tour.

The 2010s hosted the birth of Occupy Boston, the deaths of three and wounding of hundreds by the harrowing Boston Marathon Bombing, and the capture of the FBI's most wanted, Whitey Bulger. The Stones capped the decade with their 'No Filter" tour visit in the summer of 2019 in Foxboro. Charlie Watts' last visit to town.