special introductory paragraph!
England's Newest Hit Makers
12x5
Now!
Out Of Our Heads
December's Children (And Everybody's)
Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass)
Aftermath
Got Live If You Want It
Between The Buttons
Flowers
Their Satanic Majesties Request
Beggars Banquet
Rock And Roll Circus
Let It Bleed
Get Your Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert
Metamorphosis
Sticky Fingers
Hot Rocks 1964-1971
More Hot Rocks (Big Hits And Fazed Cookies)
Exile On Main Street
Goats Head Soup
It's Only Rock 'N' Roll
1969-1974: The Mick Taylor Years DVD
Black And Blue
Love You Live
Some Girls
Accidents Will Happen
Emotional Rescue
Tattoo You
Still Life (American Concert 1981)
Undercover
Dirty Work
Steel Wheels
Flashpoint
Voodoo Lounge
Out Of Tears 7"
Stripped
Bridges To Babylon
No Security
Rarities 1971-2003
Live Licks
A Bigger Bang
Shine A Light
Rare And Unseen DVD
In fact you want a rip off-I'll give you a definition. The Beatles's "Come Together" steals three lines from Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me", which the Stones covered (not ripping off) on Rolling Stones Now.
Oh yeah-the Stones copied the Beatles when they became a country-blues rock band. Absolutely ridiculous..The Beatles didn't have the instrumental skill (Why did Harrison call in Clapton to do a solo for "My Guitar Gently Wheeps") to come up with songs like "Live With Me", "Midnight Rambler", "Bitch" and "Brown Sugar". I'm not trying to argue that the Stones were a better rock and roll band-but they clearly strayed away from stereotypical British rock starting with Beggar's Banquet in 1968.
This album is basically the same as Britain's The Rolling Stones, except that "Mona" has been taken away and "Not Fade Away" (the Stones' third UK single) has been put in.
You think "Tell Me" and "Little by Little" are crappy? Aww. "Little by Little" is ripped off from the Jimmy Reed song "Shame Shame Shame" by the way.
Anyway, I basically agree everywhere else. Love the diversity factor. Barely holds a candle to what the Stones eventually put out though. Favorite song is "Carol." Also, "Now I've Got a Witness" has a pretty cool bassline at the end.
Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that "It's All Over Now" was their first No. 1 in Britain. Deservedly, I say; pity the earlier singles were not that respected. The guitar break is fine and certainly ripped-off by Dave Davies on "You Really Got Me". Well, maybe not. But then again, Dave was such an unimaginative freak back then, he wouldn't have thought of it all by himself. And the Stones also performed this recently, on their Voodoo Lounge tour, and Keith's guitar sounded crappy, and he'd already forgotten everything, and it was sad. Real sad!
That's one of the very reasons I continue to enjoy listening to these songs after all of these years: The reckless abandon with which they sing their songs...
Yeah, we agree again. Kind of unfortunate how this was a step back. This album just isn't as fun as the last one, but it's still got some high quality stuff. I'll take this fast, hard pounding version of "Susie Q" rather than CCR's overblown version. "It's All Over Now" and the tracks from the "Five by Five" EP are rough as shit too. But the real classic here is "Time on My Side," by far.
On the downside, that cover of "Under the Boardwalk" is just plain awkward, but it doesn't suck and "Good Times Bad Times" is just boring.
And it also seems that on the recent CD edition they included the original long, 5-minute (!) version of "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love". Groovy! Everybody Needs To Love This Album.
Awfully mono? Get the remastered CD then! This album wipes the floor with the previous albums with every song except for "Down Home Girl," which is a little repetitive. Very high quality record otherwise. Favorite is "Oh Baby."
Oh, and I saw the Allman Brothers in 2010 at the United Palace Theater and they did a version of "Heart of Stone" that's even better than this one.
For you are, indeed, a slice of my home.
Wow, what a great album. It was probably 'sink or swim' for the Stones - they could start writing their own material to match the trend The Beatles and Bob Dylan were setting and continue being superstars, or continue covering Chuck Berry and Jimmy Reed songs and Mick could go back to being a porter at a mental hospital. They split themselves between the two - this album features 7 originals and 5 covers - and the originals by far surpass the covers. "The Last Time" features Keith's first ever immortal guitar riff (of course that's only because "Satisfaction" comes four songs after it on this CD) and probably would have ensured their place in rock history had they never released another song ever. (As a side note, the Andrew Oldham Orchestra's version of the song, which of course was the basis of the whole Verve-Allen Klein lawsuit, is breathtakingly good and makes me wonder whether there are any other pop orchestra recordings floating around. Try and find the song somewhere). I can understand why Q Magazine named "The Last Time" as the best Stones song ever (with "Satisfaction", also on this record, #2). My US version of the CD has a live version of "It's All Right", which features a) cool-as-hell, danceable music which shows Charlie and Bill really can swing; b) literally only one lyric for the whole song; c) annoyingly loud screams from the girls in the crowd; and d) the only correct spelling of "all right" by a rock band that I'm aware of in a song title. ("Alright" is not a word!) "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is, of course, one of the most perfect songs ever recorded, and I probably don't need to say much about it, other than every time I hear the song I find myself listening to Bill's bassline. "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" and "The Spider And The Fly" are great examples of how Keith can cook up great blues music and Mick can stick a great melody and terrific lyrics over the top - along with "Satisfaction" Mick really displays his talent for being intelligent, thoughtful and charismatic at the same time on record as well as live in concert. "Play With Fire" is another classic, and stuck between the two blues songs it creates a great fun song-serious song-fun song flow. The covers are very good, but, as I mentioned, not up to the same standard. The opener "Mercy, Mercy" features the same lead guitar line as on their cover of "Walking The Dog", and while Mick displays possibly his first truly great vocals on "That's How Strong My Love Is", the fact it comes straight after "The Last Time" just highlights how much better the Stones' own material was at that point. Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike" features a cool little intro the Velvet Underground "used" a few years later for "There She Goes Again", and "Cry To Me" features the only example I can find on record that Brian Jones was actually any good at guitar at all (yeah, I said it). The only other thing I have to ask is why did "I'm All Right" and "Play With Fire" get the Nanker/Phelge treatment? Those songs are awesome!
This album should have a much better reputation rather than "the album with 'Satisfaction' on it." That might be the best song on here, but fuck it, they're all good. You basically summed up the album perfectly. Phil Spector played bass on "Play with Fire."
Quite a weird track listing for this album. I realized this was thrown together by London Records, but it's clear they really didn't give a shit at this point. They did choose some fantastic stuff though. Best song here is "Get off of My Cloud."
"Yeah I got a though the Stones just plain suck."
Let us examine these scholarly words for a moment. It should be obvious to anyone with an advanced degree in non-linear, syntax-free sentence construction that Mr. "Bogus" believes the quality of the Rolling Stone's catalogue to be of dubious merit. But what other new ideas can we take away from this uniquely poignant entry into the debate between Stone's aficionados and those nattering nabobs of negativity, the Stone's detractors?
!!!ABSOLUTELY NONE BECAUSE THIS "BOGUS ANDY" FUCKER ISN'T SPEAKING ENGLISH!!!
Why do you not reply to these sort of reader comment with the new "Napalm" attachment feature in Outlook Express 2004, Mark? I guess just so smart-asses like myself will have something to occupy themselves with for a couple of minutes.
Oh yeah. And did you check out that guy that was a complete asshole on the Everclear page? That guy's an ass-hole.
(Or at least I was back then.)
Unfortunately, that's my op-onion as of 9/8/05. I don't agree with the Bogus up there, but I definitely sympathize. Waaaaaaay too reliant on just pure attitude and "good taste" to get my nod as "the best rock and roll band that ever did anything." As far as I can tell, they never released an out- an-out album masterpiece their entire '65-'72 period (which is all I own, because it's the one everyone says is the Height of Stuff That Rules). Even though many of the bands-that-would-never-have-existed-had-it-not-been-for- them DID. Led Zeppelin? Two masterpieces under they belt, those crazy bombastic blokes. But the Stones? Tried, but couldn't cut it. Good taste, great chops, excellent mojo, coolness, rawness, good taste, and good taste just isn't/aren't everything. But hey! They tried (a few times). And they came close (once). Exile on Main Street? Splendid. I listen to it, on average, once every 92.5267 days.
But THIS album? WHERE'S "Down Home Girl", "What a Shame", and "Surprise Surprise"??? They were the best songs off of Now!, in my opinion!! The only old Stones album I own, incidentally.
Speaking of albums, here's how I rate: Beggar's Banquet's an 8, Let it Bleed's 8.5, Sticky's 8.5, Exile's 9, Between the Button's an 8, Now!'s an 8.5, Majesty's an 8, Some Girl's's a 7.5, and Aftermath's a 7. Well, they ain't inconsistent! And they make some great singles. But I tell you this: The UK Aftermath's their only hope. If THAT ain't a masterpiece, we'll have to call it a knight in shining armor.
(checks All Music Guide)
WHAAAAA?? THOSE DICK COCK SUCKERS!! THEY TOOK IT OUT OF PRINT!!! I'M GONNA START TYPE-YELLING IN READER COMMENT-ESE!!
YEAH I GOT A THOUGH WTF LOL BTWN OMG:)(*&!!!!! UR MOOZIK SUX MANY DIFFERENT VULGAR SLANG WORDS!!!!!!
Hey, this ain't exactly a second language. Are YOU fluent? If so, could you tutor me for free??
Any problems? Yeah, one. An eleven and a half minute one. "Going Home" is a stupid, boring "blues" jam that belongs on a bootleg - not in my record collection. However, the rest of the songs promise a rosy future filled with joy and wonder and "Emotional Rescue."
The American version has a completely other cover picture than the UK version. "Out of Time", "Take it or Leave it" and the opening track "Mother's Little Helper" have all been taken away. "Paint it Black", single no 9 has been put in.
The true beginning of the Stones is this fantastic LP. Many people say it's somewhat boring, especially near the end, and most of them despise "I'm Going Home" and say songs like "It's Not Easy" should have been left behind. Well, the only reasonable idea coming from these people is that the songs DO resemble each other: while on BB we witness a terrific variety of styles, the melodies and the arrangements here do not seem to stray too far away from each other. But then again, WHAT melodies! WHAT arrangements! "Paint It Black", "Under My Thumb", "Stupid Girl" - classics! And "Lady Jane" is arguably the best ballad they put forth in the sixties! "Flight 505" is a great song from the beginning (great piano introduction - I guess by Nicky Hopkins? or by Ian?) to the end; "It's Not Easy", "Think", "Doncha Bother Me" and "High And Dry" are lightweight but not less catchy then all those early silly Beatles' songs.
One more thing. I ADORE "Going Home". And not just because it was the FIRST song which exceeded the 3-minute barrier in such a terrific way. I just love Mick's screaming and screeching over that one! You HAVE to admit one gotta have a lot of talent to make so many different howls in more than seven minutes' time! And the guitars are also good. Anyway, it's much more exciting than both "Sing This All Together" and "Revolution 9". At least it's music!
This was the first stones album I ever heard. I was 15, and the reasons why I chose to start with it were because I heard it was the most Beatles sounding one, and because it featured a song I heard in Full Metal Alchemist: "Paint it Black." Its often compared negatively to the Beatles song "Norwegian Wood," cuz of that sitar, but it's not only better than that song, but basically every song on "Rubber Soul," and the best stones song at this point. The rest of the album doesn't hold up today as well, just a bunch of basic pop/rock songs. But their all good though, and this album could have been a fuckin masterpiece if more songs sounded like "Paint it Black."
Instead, it's average by stones standards, but it's still great. The playing is better than ever, and all the songs tell their own stories. The only song I don't like here is "Lady Jane," which is also the only ballad here.
All songs on Got Live if You Want It! were recorded live in London, Newcastle and Bristol during September and October 1966, EXCEPT "Fortune Teller" and "I've Been Loving You Too Long", which are studio recordings with crowd noise overdubs.
"Fortune Teller" was intended to be part of the second Stones single (coupled with "Poison Ivy") in 1963. Instead, they released "I Wanna Be Your Man"/"Stoned" and "Fortune" and "Ivy" were put on the shelf. Two versions of "Poison Ivy" can be found on No Stone Unturned and Collectors Only respectively. "Fortune Teller" (minus screams) can be found on an obscure compilation from -64, called Saturday Club. Maybe it's on Collectors Only, too.
"I've Been Loving You Too Long", the Otis Redding number, is a 1965 recording which was, for unknown reasons, never released.
And they exploit the "stereo" thing wonderfully. Take "Connection," for example, which features the rhythm section in the left speaker and piano and guitar in the right. Apart, they sound moronic, but together, they're boppier than a fistful of angry buzzing hornets! Also, for the first time, they display a keen understanding of musical dynamics - keeping the guitar out of the picture during bass/piano/percussion masterpieces like "She Smiled Sweetly" and "Ruby Tuesday" (which also boasts the most beautiful flute line this side of some foreigner country where they play the flute a lot), and highlighting the wonder and majesty of an amazing new guitar tone during the solo breaks in "Miss Amanda Jones." Probably the best-produced Stones record ever (aside from Sticky Fingers), but not their absolute best because, well, it's piano pop. And that's not exactly their forte. Buy it, though! And listen to it often! And throw away all those crappy Billy Joel records!
On the American version, "Please Go Home" and "Back Street Girl" have been taken away in favour of "Let's Spend..." and "Ruby Tuesday", a- and b-sides on the 11th UK single.
Because it's so English. Because it's the Stones imitating the Kinks. Just look - most of the lyrics deal with debunking the mythology of the English lady: 'Cool, Calm & Collected'; 'Complicated'; 'Miss Amanda Jones'; 'Backstreet Girl', everything! This is combined with direct Dylan influences which are also seen in 90% of the songs. And the melodies? English music hall! Does this tie in with the Stones' later hardrocking-cocksucking image? Nope! That's why the boys are a bit shy of this album themselves. A shame - it's so great. And they don't want to play it live. Imagine that.
And for heaven's sake buy it on vinyl. Because nothing matches the sonic glory of clicks, pops, hisses, skips and scratches.
Vinyl snobs make me ill. Your technology has passed. Cope.
Me? I'm gonna go listen to my extensive collection of Edison Cylinders. Tom's "Mary Had A Little Lamb" completely rips on Cylinder! Much better than that crappy 78.
But, anyhoo, Keef played 'Connection' with the X-pensive Winos. And it rocked...very underrated song.
Oh no, Mark! Some cocksucker from MIT is going to report you to the online-reviewer police because you don't have the proper credentials to have an opinion.
How I admire you for subjecting yourself to such idiocy just for the sake of giving a few of us who aren't elitist jerks {I REALLY HAVE CHANGED SINCE THAT EVERCLEAR INCIDENT! I PROMISE!!!} some light entertainment and some insight into some music we might not have heard yet.
P.S. -- This album is proof that Mick Jagger is indeed sissy enough to let David Bowie give it to him in the pooper like Bowie's wife says. Piano-pop on a Stones album, indeed! Feh!
Still really good though. I bet you didn't write it, did you? Justin Klosek? DID YOU???
Heck, maybe you won't like it.
Hmmm, I think this is a compilation, come to think of it. So forget everything I just said.
I've read that the Stones were themselves disappointed with their American releases, since they didn't show the right chronology. It IS a bit weird that "You better Move On" from the debut EP is found on the FIFTH American LP! And why was "Route 66" used twice??? It's even more strange that the Stones have put out the American albums as CD's if they are so disappointed...
And a good thing it is, too! If we take the Stones first two years, we'll see that they only had 3 albums in Britain (which are The Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones No. 2 and Out Of Our Heads), while in America they pumped out FIVE (Hitmakers, 12*5, Now!, Out Of Our Heads, December's Children). That means you have an easy access to a lot of songs which were NOT available on original LP's in Britain - among them such gems as "Satisfaction", "The Last Time", "Play With Fire", "Around And Around", "Little Red Rooster", "Time Is On My Side" and lots of others! The American catalogue is thus much more rational. It's a good thing they stuck to this one!
The only complaint is about their late sixties singles, such as "We Love You", "Dandelion", "Honky Tonk Women", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", etc., and more obscure British B-sides ("Who's Driving Your Plane", which I've never heard!) The only album where you can acquire ALL of them in one place is the 3-CD Singles Collection set. But I don't want to! It's very expensive and most of its tracks I don't need - they're British singles, see, so they're all on the American LP Catalogue!
I wish somebody would compile a 1-CD American Rarities set, which would resemble the Beatles' Past Masters!
Oh yeah, I'm already getting muddled myself. But 'tis not my fault. I've spent almost five years trying to find out how in the world could I possess two different albums both called Aftermath and which one was the right one, and when I finally found out, 'twas small consolation.
But convenience isn't everything. What about artistic integrity? When an album is released it's supposed to include a specific selection of songs. That's what the artist wants. Cutting and pasting, as the Americans did with the Beatles, Stones and Who records, is a violation to artistic integrity. Because of that, I still prefer the UK originals.
I mean, it would be very convenient to have "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Child Of The Moon" on Beggar's Banquet. But then it wouldn't be Beggar's Banquet anymore!
I find it very weird to find songs such as "Satisfaction" and "The Last Time" on an album!
About "Who's Driving Your Plane" - you can find the blues tune on the album"No Stone Unturned. But maybe that one isn't released on CD?
This is just the reason for which I think the Stones' American releases are at least ethically equal to British ones. Also, until Aftermath there was not a single sign of conceptuality on any Stones album: they just stuck their tracks one onto another until there'd be enough. In fact, the only American release that REALLY bugs me is Between The Buttons. This album has lots of conceptuality, and the hit single 'Let's Spend The Night Together/Ruby Tuesday' just does not fit in. This release should certainly be replaced by the British one. All of the others can definitely stay.
Anyway, maybe it's just a matter of personal taste and custom. And yes I agree that ABKCO is one of the biggest moneygrabbers in the world, and that Allen Klein should rot in hell (along with Shel Talmy who still keeps The Who's My Generation out of my reach).
Flowers is the best Stones album ever! Not really a compilation, it packs all of my favourite songs by the group (well, almost) onto one very short CD. It's got "Backstreet Girl" on it, which alone should merit a ten. And "Mother's Little Helper" - which I still think of as a "greatest hit" just because I love it so! The feedback-drenched ones are superb, too - "Haveyouseenyourmotherbabystandingintheshadow" (as George Starostin says) and "Please Go Home" are essential early acid rock. Cool, cool stuff.
And does anyone else notice the irony of a junkie, casual-sex loving group like Jagger and friends performing a song like "Ride On, Baby," a rejection song directed at a drugged-out groupie? Who cares, it's my favourite on here! In fact, I'm going to listen to it right now!
A ten!
The lovely piano-and-string-and-stupid-lyrics popper "She's A Rainbow" is the only semi-classic, but "Citadel" is rudimentary noisy guitar rock at its weirdest (complete with an eardrum-busting "ting!" noise during every chorus), "2000 Light Years From Home" sounds like it may have been the blueprint for Pink Floyd's entire second record, "2000 Man" is a splendid acoustic science fiction tale until it turns into crappy generic rock about halfway through (influencing Kiss in the process), the two "Sing This All Together" tracks represent druggy community at its most laughable (do we really need to hear one of the band members ask, "uhhh, where's that joint?" at the beginning of the song?), "In Another Land" is Bill Wyman's entertaining songwriting (and singing!) debut (which, while we're on the subject, is tons better than his disco solo albums, shockingly), "The Lantern" and "Gomper" are Moody Blues-ish classically-influenced yawn songs, and "On With The Show" is a bit of carnival magic left over from Between The Buttons.
You shouldn't complain about this record. The eight-minute noise thing is kinda dumb, but the rest of them, I feel, are extremely memorable. In fact, it's my brother's favorite Stones record! Take that to the bank and cash it! I mean, it's goofy, but it was 1967, for chrissake! What did you think they were gonna do? Fusion? Come on now. And try to get an original copy - with the funny 3-D cover.
You're completely right! Maybe THE most underrated record in the history of mankind. Away with all that "Sgt Pepper rip-off" bullshit. It doesn't sound like Sgt Pepper at all.
All of Satanic is great! "Citadel" has one of the coolest Keith riffs ever, and both "Gomper" and "The Lantern" create a very comfortable meditative atmosphere.
Oh, you're wrong on one point: There is one more classic here: "2000 Light Years from Home". It was even played on the "Steel Wheels" and "Urban Jungle" tours. ("She's a Rainbow" is occasionally played on the current tour).
And at last! from now on all American and European releases are identical!
The long "eight-minute noise thing" is much more interesting than "Revolution 9", but still forgettable. But most of the other tracks are fantastic! My personal favorites here are "The Lantern", with some of the most emotional lyrics Mick has ever written or sung, and "2000 Light Years From Home" - majestic and scary! The only problem with the album is that they overdid the trick. Even the Beatles did not make "Pepper" entirely psychodelic: there are songs like "She's Leaving Home" and "When I'm Sixty-Four" to enliven the bizarre acid atmosphere. On "Satanic" there are no such tracks: "pictures of us sitting in our caves" are followed by "flags flying dollar bills", then "in another land where the castles were blue", "oh daddy be proud of your planet", and so on. No escape from the acid! Well, maybe in the end, where we have that cabaret canticle "On With The Show", but everybody should admit it's rather lame. It takes time to get used to the album. But once you do, you'll be on cloud nine.
Just listen to the music. There aren't ANY similarities between the two albums. Maybe someone would say "Gomper" sounds like "Within You Without You", but the differences are enormous.
If the Stones stole Satanic from Sgt Pepper, then where on Pepper do you find anything similar to "Citadel"? Or "The Lantern"? Or "2000 Light Years From Home"?
Let's leave the "Sgt Pepper rip-off" myth behind us and be rational! Remember that neither the Beatles or the Stones were first with the psychedelic stuff. Both the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead were before them.
If you go in to listen to this, and try to forget for a while who made it, you'll be surprised when you think back to who the Stones were back then. My fave cut is "2000 light years from home" and is likely a classic to lovers of space rock.
(It is to me.) Not too many other bands of that day could reference "Aldebaran" in a lyric and actually know what it was. The 3-D album cover with the tipping motion is a trip. I found one with a lousy LP in bad shape for $20, but it's worth having for the cover alone, even if the songs were crap, which they sure aren't.
Lots of great songs on this one, like "Sing This All Together" which is a really silly and catchy and fun sing-a-long song with all kinds of crazy percussion and group singing which is a lot more fun and engaging than the Beatles's own "Bungalow Bill" from the following year. "In Another Land" is a hell of a great song for Bill Wyman's debut at songwriting. I can't help but think of Syd Barrett when i hear his tremelo'ed vocals on this song! "2000 Man" is a really underrated Rolling Stones song as well, as i think it manages to be both beautiful and very very catchy and rocking. That line "ohh daddy proud of your planet, ohh mommy proud of your sun" always gets stuck in my head after i listen to it. "The Lantern", "2000 Light Years From Home", and "Gomper" are fuckin' trippy as hell, and are psychadelia at it's best and "She's A Rainbow" is positively gorgeous and i think it is really awesome the band attempted a song like this. What the hell is with people anyway? Don't they like diversity? I think it's great the Stones attempted a totally different multi-instrumental (thanks to Brian Jones!) experimental sound they weren't much accustomed to before.
I give this album a 9/10 rating. It might not be a masterpiece and among the best albums of all time, but it's definately one of my personal favorite Rolling Stones albums ever, no doubt in my mind. These guys sure as hell know what they were doing too, so it's not like this album is full of a bunch of amaturish crappy psychadelia, which is what people tend to think this is for some reason. I mean, some of these songs creep me the hell out! And i really don't think much of this sounds dated at all either; i was actually quite surprised at how well this was produced, but then again i love psychadelic music so no matter how dated it is i really don't care because i love the sound! I recommend this album to any fan of mid-60's music, even all Stones fans.
PS The Stones shouldn't have left Wyman's "Shades of Orange" off - it's way ahead of about a third of the tracks.
"Why you ask?". That's a good question, my friends, that's a good question.....
It seems to me that my opinion has not changed regarding this album between the first and second times i bought it.
I still think it's sometimes moderately interesting, there are some neat effects here and there, and the occasional good song, ("2000 man", "2000 Light years from Home", "She's a Rainbow", "On with the show" ---- i'm not joking about that last one, call me crazy, but i quite like it.)
What is this album??
--- jumpin' on the bandwagon?
--- an imitation of SGT. PEPPER?
--- the stones actually legitimately experimenting with a different sound?
--- a "we're too stoned out of out minds to think coherently, so let's write a bunch of songs" album?
--- the stones trying to experiment with the new musical style of the day, except that it goes horribly, horribly wrong?
--- or just a big joke, like METAL MACHINE MUSIC?
I like to think the album is a little bit of all of them.
4/10
This is fun, but in the end, it's not that great. But, some of these songs rule! "2000 Light Years From Home" is science fiction psychedelia at its creepiest (that beginning still sounds terrifying...Brian Jones had it going on for this album), and '68 Pink Floyd would have killed to have written that song, which is a true Stones classic and the best song on the album by a mile. "In Another Land" is goofy, but fun, "Citadel" is fucking awesome, and "She's a Rainbow" is still the weirdest single the Stones EVER released...hippy-dippy Nicky Hopkins-assisted piano-pop with nauseating avant-garde orchestration (arranged by none other than John Paul Jones, pre-Led Zeppelin) and acoustic rhythm guitar that sounds like it's being played with a switchblade. And that ending, with the freaky violin high notes and the huge, baleful electric guitar power chord rising over everything and getting cut off just as it stops peaking? What the fuck? Bizarre...and real psychedelic, too. "Gomper" is fun enough - I like the varied instrumentation - and "On With The Show" is catchy psychedelic music-hall, and notably has a sidesplitting Mick vocal, a hilarious and sweet-natured Ray Davies parody that manages to sound like a tribute and a raspberry at the same time. Hey, it reminds me of Ray Davies, may remind you of someone else. Some of these songs are just good and others are underrated Stones classix.
Unfortunately, there are some misfires. Both versions of "Sing This All Together" blow ass out loud, "The Lantern" is pure shit, and "2000 Man" starts off great, but blows it in the middle with some bad by-the-numbers rocking. Which reminds me - another thing that's fascinating about the album is how little input Keith had. Though he wrote a lot of the music, he was more just the guitarist this time out. This view is probably wrong and underthought-out, but this feels very much like Mick and Brian's album, no doubt. All the weird instrumentation is Brian Jones. Brian in general was underrated as a musician and composer; there is significant evidence - from Mick and Keith themselves - that Brian was the actual composer of a lot of "Ruby Tuesday" (which ain't all that surprising when you think about it), that he should have gotten a co-credit for "Paint It Black" (again, not all that surprising) and that "Gomper" was also co-written. (From Wikipedia article on Brian Jones.) But he wasn't credited due to contractual reasons. Brian could be pretty scummy - he was the Stones' original business manager before Oldham came on board, and had it written so that he got paid 5 pounds sterling more than the rest of the group - but he was underrated as a musician, probably because of how often he switched around on different instruments. If there was any classic rock star with musical ADD, it would be Brian Jones. Brian played hardly any guitar on the album...which means Keith was more present as a contributor than I thought. Whatever. It's fun but hardly a true-blue set-in-stone classic like the real essential Stones albums. I'll give it an 8 and leave it at that. "2000 Light Years From Home" rocks my socks off.
Some more facts about this album: The Small Faces' Steve Marriott played guitar on "In Another Land" and sang backing vocals along with Ronnie Lane, Jagger and Richards. Hendrix's engineer Eddie Kramer plays claves on "2000 Light Years From Home." John Lennon and Paul McCartney sing backing vocals on the first "Sing This All Together." "Sing This All Together (See What Happens)" includes a severely tape-manipulated rendition of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas."
Regarding the question of it being a "rip-off" of Sgt. Pepper, everybody and their brother made a psychedelic record that year; it was the style. And the Stones had laid their debt to the Beatles bare since they covered "I wannw be your man" in '63. The Beatles are pictures on the cover art. Even Beggars Banquet has the green apple on the inner-sleeve. So it's not so much a ripp-off as an homage to their trail-blazing countrymen.
First off, how much better can an album begin than with "Sympathy For The Devil," probably the most popular Stones song of all time? The groovy bongos, the piano, the "woo-woo"s, the sensationalistic violent lyrics - man, it's bitchin' hella killer, main! That Mick, when he's in the mood, he can make a dang song come alive! Imagine the Bush guy or the Gin Blossoms guy acting this macho in a song without sounding like a total dope! Very few can pull it off. Mick could in his prime. Bon Scott of AC/DC could, cuz he was funny enough to joke and brag at the same time. Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin could in his prime, 'cause he wasn't afraid to strain his voice and scratch up his throat in the name of an interesting vocal (see "The Crunge," "The Wanton Song," or pretty much anything on Presence). David Coverdale of Whitesnake couldn't. No sir. Never. Sounded like a dork. David Lee Roth could; Sammy Hagar can't. Simple lesson. Some guys have personality; some guys just sound dumb and sexist.
Thenaroonie, "No Expectations" shows the other side of this new Rolling Stones coin, slow and dripping with messy stinging slide guitar and desolate love-long-lost lyrics; very depressing (especially if you've ever lost a lover) and fitting in exactly with country-blues tradition. Next is the jokey redneck thumper "Dear Doctor" which is improved ten-fold by Keith's high-tone harmony vocals, followed by the short screaming harmonica rocker "Parachute Woman" and the second (and perhaps better) epic rocker "Jigsaw Puzzle," a dazzling, building tale of rockers and outlaws that inexplicably was never released as a single or picked up by classic rock radio. Maybe 'cause the slide guitar is such a tuneless mess? Brian Jones was apparently completely drug-obsessed and musically incompetent by this point, which might explain why it sounds like he's actually trying to destroy this godlike song with his crappy playing. It doesn't work; it's still an amazing song.
Then you turn the record over and you get "Street Fighting Man!" A loud acoustic/electric rock 'n' roll cry for revolution! Then a kickbutt skiffle cover called "Prodigal Son," the sleazy thowin'-it-to-little-girls smut rocker "Stray Cat Blues," the pretty-but-ruined-by-out-of-tune-vocals country ballad "Factory Girl," and the epic (or at least overblown) love-everybody-even-if-they're-not-a-big-rock-star anthem "Salt Of The Earth." And you got yourself a darn-near-perfect rock album. The mix is rough, but perchance it should be. You don't hear ME complaining.
If you hadn't written such crap about David, I would have given your review on Beggars Banquet a 10/10. You're very right on all points regarding the album. "Sympathy" is a monstrous classic and all of the rest is marvellous! Once, The Stones played "Salt of the Earth" together with Izzy and Axl from Guns 'n' Roses. It was a brilliant version, but then it was sadly laid to rest again. And I can't understand why "Jigsaw Puzzle" isn't on every Stones live set list. Those three mentioned songs may well be the best three Stones songs ever.
In fact, "Salt of the Earth" as a duet between Mick Jagger and David Coverdale would be qiute nice!
Now that I've gotten that out of my way, I will say that I love "Sympathy", and "No Expectations" and "Street Fighting Man" are decent (although I don't really like the latter, I admit it's pretty good). But the rest of the album is very weak. "Dear Doctor" is just stupid, almost as bad as "Lean on Me". "Parachute Woman" is a waste of a couple of minutes - nothing but a repeated line and a riff or two. "Jigsaw Puzzle" is noteworthy, but it drags on far too long and you get the sense that it deserves more playingwise - it's boring the way they play it. "Prodigal Son" and "Factory Girl" have nothing to recommend themselves, and "Stray Cat Blues" is just stupid. "Salt of the Earth" would be listenable if it were not smeared with female backing vocalists and schmaltzy arrangements. So that wraps it up. In a good mood, I give it a 4.
Where the hell's the bass?
I love Beggar's Banquet too--recently re-bought it on vinyl. One comment. I humbly disagree that Salt of the Earth is a "love-everybody-even-if-they're-not-a-big-rock-star anthem." It's a great song, but it's tongue-in-cheek (not unlike You Can't Always Get What You Want), and completely awash in cynicism. To me, it's thematically Kinksish, in its sense of irony (ex - Death of a Clown, Autumn Almanac, or Village Green Preservation Society)--the Stones are swiping at the what they consider the pathetic working and middle classes. Mick and the boys didn't give a shit about the "hardworking people," "the stay-at-home voter/His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows," "the rag taggy people," or the "lowly of birth"! It's a boozy tune, an end of the night song when you're so bombed and filled with alcohol-induced magnanamity you're toasting everybody and his sister (or his wife and his children).
Man! "Sympathy For The Devil" is OK but is not the best Stones song, not the best song on this record, the Richards solo is average, the crescendo is overlong and plainly even from beggining to end. It is original and hellish, yes, but I'd prefer "Gimmie Shelter" and "Midnight Rambler" a hundredtimes!!! Why the hell people rave with this song I DON'T KNOW.
Apart from that, most of the songs here are pretty small and redundant. Not bad, but not great either, just little, minor, cute, well played tunes that can't accomplish a real masterpiece. The only excellent ones are the rockers; "Stray Cat Blues" really kiss ass and "Street Fighting Man" is God! acoustic hard rock!!!
FUCKING OVERRATED. Try Let It Bleed instead.
10/10 on my scale
3.5/5 on the recommended scale
Best Song: Sympathy For The Devil
Other Standouts: Jig-Saw Puzzle, Street Fightin' Man, Stray-Cat Blues
Well, first I'd like to say that the reason why this album got a 3 on the recommended scale is becuase........ well, the songs aren't immediately acessible. 'Street Figtin' Man' is the only song which really sounds like a hit, and really, it wasn't much of a hit. Many of the songs acoustic blues-rockers or country. 'Parachute Woman' 'Dear Doctor' and 'Factory Girl' especially aren't catchy. They take a while to like, well, at least for me. Even the song 'Sympathy For The Devil'.......... it's 'Help!' that's for sure, but what it is is INTERESTING. The idea is a clever idea, and one that is, like I said, supremely interesting. Mick Jagger pulls off being satan in fine style. The wild African beats in the background, the pounding piano, the guitar solo and, of course, satan telling us what he has been a part of throughout the centuries. Unforgettable, my favorite song. Well, I have heard that, in reality, Mick is playing the human race and not the devil, that works too. Well, enough of that, why is Beggar's Banquet the best Stones album? Well, after psychedelia, the Stones decide to paint a nice serenic picture of the delta swamps. They play blues/country/rock in a way which works perfectly, there is rarely, if ever a moment where things are awkward. Sticky Fingers has too many of those moments, that's why I don't regard that as the Stones at their best, Let It Bleed is about as close as you can come to Beggar's Banquet, as long as you buy 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' and the delightful, but questionable 'Monkey Man'. Beggar's Banquet DOES have one such moment, that's with 'Salt Of The Earth' but it doesn't keep it from being unenjoyable. Jig-Saw Puzzle is a song which I have never heard the likes of in any other Stones song, it is a track which seems to have been forgotten, when people mention the best of the Stones, they rarely mention this fascinating narration. Stray-Cat Blues is the Stones at their sleezy best, Mick's voice is excellent and the sleeziness is controlled with taste (ha ha, is that possible?). Dear Doctor is a hilarious country song about an ill-fated marriage. AND, the country sounds natural, that is something special in-and-of itself. Street Fightin' Man is a furious rocker in the style of 'Brown Sugar' and 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' it's filled with political uneasiness. Prodigal Son is a hugely enjoyable blues song (a cover, I think). It's based on the Bible story of the prodigal son. No Expectations has an oceanic feel with a VERY nice acoustic guitar, Jagger's vocals are great. Paracute Woman and Factory Girl are both short, and bluesy affairs, they are a bit of a bore at first listen, but the grow on you, I think they're great now. Finally, Salt Of The Earth is the Stones ending on a positive note, a salute to the working man. It's filled with nice background vocals and a great piano arrangement, but, it just doesn't feel like a Stones song, it feels somewhat forced, I don't know. It's still an entertaining song, by a LONG shot, it does add to the score so, overall, the song is a winner. So, this is the Stones sounding their best at what the Stones wanted to play, they rarely sound forced and the thing isn't commercial sounding. It's the Stones being the Stones, not repeating past triumphs with new songs with forced lyrics and emotions, not a competition with the Beatles and definently not an excersise in showmanship. It reminds me of just a group of guys sitting in a church in Louisiana or on the porch of Robert Johnson's house, singing to the swamp and whoever wants to listen. Absolutely stunning, one of Rock's best records.
With that little bitch of mine out of the way, this album is a 9/10. "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Street Fighting Man" are the two most popular on here, but they're really no better than the rest of this material, as it's all great. "No Expectations" is beautiful, "Dear Doctor" is jokey, good-time country and fun at that. "Parachute Woman" has absurdly obscene lyrics (though not as bad as the ones that would later "come" on "Let it Bleed"), and is a neat little blues there. "Jig-Saw Puzzle" is amazing...MAN, what a song. Crazy that energy and gorgeous playing, huh? "Prodigal Son" is pretty neat; I really didn't think that was Mick singing at first, as it actually does sound like a black guy! "Stray Cat Blues" just kicks my ass all over the room; what an energetic, rock-out song! "Factory Girl" is kinda stupid, but still enjoyable. And "Salt of the Earth"...well, it woulda been better without the gospely women singers. But it's still good! It all is! At its worst, it's good. Once again, 9/10 (haha, that rhymes -- I'm a loser). Thank you, and good night.
matthew byrd is on the money. one of the greatest. try finding another record made by any rock outfit that sounds like this. with this one the stones put most rock acts to shame
I think the cover design (both back and front) is really neat, really sets the time period of the release: 'homages' and jokes to musicians and bands of the time: ie: John and Yoko, "Music From Big Brown" (ha! that cracks me up! take that, The Band!! No, that's not very fair, actually I quite like The Band. Especially their first two albums), Bob Dylan's dream, Love (possible reference to the band of the same name?). etc. etc.
Anyway, onto the record itself.
Apparently I was mislead. I THOUGHT this was a back-to-rock w/ electric guitars release for the Stolling Rones. But no. I was half right. It's a back-to-rock w/ ACOUSTIC guitars release. Interestingly enough, the best songs on this album (imo) kick off both sides A and B. Yup, you guessed it ----- "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Street Fighting Man". Hey.....weren't those the hits off the album? << shuffles imaginary papers around >> Well golly gee, they were!!
Well, i'm pretty sure the majority of the songs on here are acoustic songs. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing the Stones when they go acoustic, I like the acoustic/electric ballads on Sticky Fingers. A lot, in fact. I just think a few just-acoustic numbers in a row like there are on this album is a bit too uninteresting and underwhelming for me.
You, dear reader, may be thinking, "Hey, this guy seems to have no attention span if he can't appreciate a short acoustic song!"
Well, here i am to prove you wrong: i've listened to each of the following in one sitting at least once in my life: Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull, Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes, The Wall by Pink Floyd, Alchemy by Dire Straits, among others.
I'm not one to boast, so do not take the previous statement that way, i was just trying to prove a point.
In my opinion, i think the Stones should have just not released Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed (please hear me out before you start throwing tomatoes) BUT INSTEAD, have culled the best from those two albums into one album to be released. (and years later, they could put those "unreleased" tracks onto a special "rarities" disc for those who go for those types of compilations.)
What would the tracklist of this *imaginary* album look like, you might ask?
1. Sympathy for the Devil
2. Street Fighting Man
3. Stray Cat Blues
4. No Expectations
5. Salt of the Earth
6. Gimmie Shelter
7. Love In Vain
8. Live With Me
9. Midnight Rambler
10. You Can't Always Get What You Want
Anyway, you can probably tell from this imaginary track list which songs are my favourites from both albums.
Over all i think that both albums (BB and LiB) are both (gasp!) overrated. Though they both have a bunch of classic RS songs, and/or classic songs of the late 60's.
6/10 for BB and 7.5 for LiB.
But let's discuss this brilliant cornerstone of rock music track-by-track, shall we?
(Note: all my facts have been taken from the BRILLIANT and irreplaceable TrackTalk section of the best Rolling Stones website, Time Is On Our Side: http://www.timeisonourside.com.)
Sympathy For The Devil - The best incorporation of samba in rock, with one of the catchiest and most difficult drum parts ever thought of and recorded (have you seen Charlie playing this? It's crazy!), and man, just everything about it's a classic, from Charlie's groovin' drumming, Rocky Dijon's congas, Bill Wyman's maracas, Keith's bassline, and Nicky Hopkins' piano, to Keith's masterful, minimalist, literally scorching lead guitar (I've never heard anything like that white-hot tone to this day...I know he used a vintage three-humbucker Les Paul Custom for it, though, cause I saw him with it in the live version from the 1968 "Rock and Roll Circus" film, and the tone is the same), those goofy and inspired group backing vocals (Mick, Keith, Bill, Brian Jones, Nicky Hopkins, Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, and producer Jimmy Miller), and the capper, Mick's absolutely brilliant lyrics, probably the best he ever penned, and his immortal lead vocal. Absolute genius.
No Expectations - The last Stones song Brian Jones was heavily involved with, and it may be the best performance he ever recorded (aside from "Paint It Black," that is). Mark says in the review that "Brian Jones was apparently completely drug-obsessed and musically incompetent by this point," but that obviously isn't true, as Brian's the lead slide guitarist here, and plays with beautiful, truly understated grace. It sounds like there's a very minimal, one-note organ drone in the background, which I've never heard anyone mention; it is hard to hear, but it's there all right. You can hear it at 2:35 into the song, when Mick starts singing, "our love was like the water..." My guess is that Brian put it on there, if only because he was the really well known multi-instrumentalist in the group. The lineup here is Mick singing, Keith on acoustic rhythm, Brian on lead slide guitar and possibly one-note organ, Bill on bass, Charlie on claves, and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Mick says they recorded this live, sitting in a circle on the studio floor.
Dear Doctor - Keith and Traffic's Dave Mason are the acoustic guitarists on here. The rhythm section is totally old-time country, with Bill on acoustic bass and Charlie sticking to the tambourine on top of the hi-hat and possibly a brushed snare drum. Brian plays some great harmonica here, and Nicky Hopkins plays some fantastically old-timey tack piano (aka honky-tonk piano) here, but he's shoved off a little too far in the left speaker for my liking. The lyrics and Mick/Keith's dual vocals are hilaarrrious, telling the story of a poor unfortunate whose mother is forcing him to marry a girl with a face that could stop a clock, and the unexpected prevention of his horrid fate. Brilliant.
Parachute Woman - Short, sweet, and completely lascivious, this is a prototypical Stones sex rocker. Most of this one was apparently recorded on a small Phillips cassette recorder, which was then transferred to studio tape. This happened with a couple of other tracks on this album. The way the Stones would transfer the cassette recording to studio tape was pretty interesting; Keith would...well, I'll let Keith tell it: "I bought one of the first cassette machines - a must for a budding songwriter - and then day in, day out recorded on it. Then I began to get interested in the actual sound of the machine, how close you could put the microphone to the guitar and what effect you could get out of it... When we were in the studio I would bring in that little Philips cassette recorder, get a wooden extension speaker, plug that into the back of the recorder, shove a microphone in front of the speaker in the middle of the studio and record it. W e would all sit back and watch this little microphone record the cassette machine in the middle of the studio at Olympic, which was the size of Salder's Wells. Then we'd go back, listen to it, play over it, mash it up and there was the track." This technique was used extensively on the studio recordings of this song and "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and almost exclusively for "Street Fighting Man."
Jig-Saw Puzzle - Sounds like it was influenced lyrically by Dylan. At least that's a possible explanation for the wildest and most improbable images in a set of Stones lyrics ever. Really good, with a great rhythm and fantastic piano. Mick's vocal is a little wavery, but works really well anyway. The question here is the slide guitar part. I think Keith was trying to learn how to be a better slide guitarist during the "Beggars Banquet" sessions, and that it's actually Keith playing the slide guitar. The only problem with his playing is that the guitar is out of tune - the thing is so sharp that it sounds like it's in a different key. It's an interesting sound, but ultimately hurts the song a bit. Brian may have contributed some slide guitar, but I don't think he did - he's playing the high-pitched Mellotron, or possibly synthesizer, in the left speaker. I guess it's a Mellotron, because I don't know how far synthesizer technology had come in 1968, and the Stones were definitely using Mellotron around this time (Their Satanic Majesties Request, anyone?).
Street Fighting Man - Unbelievable but true fact: There is only ONE electric instrument on the master take of "Street Fighting Man." That is the bass guitar, which Keith overdubbed. The amazing, wailing, droning notes at the end come from Traffic's Dave Mason, who, in my eyes, has pretty much guaranteed himself rock immortality and total badassedness for playing on this song alone. It's not a guitar, though. The instrument Mason's playing is the Indian equivalent of an oboe, which is called a shehnai: it's a quadruple-reed woodwind (the reed is in the shape of an oboe reed, except there are two reeds for the top part and two reeds for the bottom), with the reed attached to a wooden tube with toneholes carved in and a brass bell (resembles the part of a clarinet where the sound comes out, for all you non-woodwind players). Charlie's massive, powerful drum sound on the track actually came from a 1930's toy drum practice set that Charlie found in an antique shop. Nicky Hopkins added piano, Brian Jones added sitar and tamboura to the massively multitracked, overrecorded, and tape-distorted acoustic guitars Keith had dubbed onto the cassette, and Mick's vocal was overdubbed after the track had been transferred to studio tape to complete the song.
Prodigal Son - Brian's harmonica is shoved waaaaayyy in the back of the recording. This was probably recorded live, as it's just Mick singing, Keith playing acoustic guitar, Charlie keeping time on the hi-hat, and Brian playing harmonica. This is a fantastic cover of a blues song that the Reverend Robert Wilkins recorded around 1930, apparently. Obviously, I've never heard the original, but this is a fantastic performance.
Stray Cat Blues - This is one of the most authentically sleazy songs the e of the best rockers they ever cut. Mick says that it was influenced by the Velvet Underground, of all bands! Listen to this: "I mean, even WE'VE been influenced by the Velvet Underground... I'll tell you exactly what we pinched from (Lou Reed) too. You know Stray Cat Blues? The whole sound and the way it's paced, we pinched from the very first Velvet Underground album. You know, the sound on Heroin. Honest to God, we did!" That's pretty funny, because the song sounds nothing like the Velvets, except for maybe the lyrics, which are as sleazy or sleazier than anything the Velvets drooled out. Brian's on Mellotron again for this one. Nicky's piano is fantastic as always, and the song has a brilliant breakdown with congas and Mick scatting a little. Keith played all the guitars. To me, this one belongs to the rhythm section. Bill and Charlie have that heaving, heavy groove down, and really give the song the horndog feel it needs.
Factory Girl - This one's my least favorite on the album. Mick's vocals are way too affected, way too stereotypically rednecky, and intentionally out-of-tune. Not too good. Musically, though, the song is really nice. Dave Mason's mandolin is really good, and Family/Blind Faith member Rik Grech contributes some sweet violin to the track. I originally thought the percussion was Charlie playing congas, but apparently he's playing tablas with drumsticks, which is not the proper way to play them, but gave a cool sound nevertheless. It's okay, but if I'd had my way "Jumpin' Jack Flash" would have been here instead or ended the album. It was such a mistake NOT to include "Jumpin' Jack Flash" on the album. I mean, it would have fit perfectly as an ending track, and they certainly had the room on the LP - what gives? C'mon, guys - it's "Jumpin' Jack Flash," fer God's sake! Oh well, I burned the album with the song on there, so I'm not gonna complain anymore.
Salt Of The Earth - Mick says that this song is completely cynical, and that he's saying that "the salt of the earth" have never had any power and they never will have any power. Jeez. But I guess there's feeling there - he's also saying let's drink to them and recognize their contributions to society, cause he wouldn't be able to do his stuff without them. Also pretty condescending, but the song's great anyway. Keith sings the first verse and he sounds drunk. The Watts Street Gospel Choir, from Los Angeles, was brought in to add vocals to the track. This one has a great Nicky Hopkins-led outro. It's an okay ender, but I'd have preferred "Jumpin' Jack Flash" as the album closer.
If you don't have this album, you should stop whatever you are doing and buy it NOW. Or download it and burn it to a CD with "Jumpin' Jack Flash" on as the last song. It really improves the listening experience even more.
And I swear to Jesus Figureoa that it came out of nowhere. One night we were laughing and seemingly having a good time as usual, and the next day she told me our marriage had been dead for years. As I wrote to a couple of my friends last night, it literally feels as if the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" snuck in overnight and replaced my wife with a soulless pod person. When I speak to her now, I see no sign of the person with whom I've spent nearly half of my life. I'm so confused. I feel like I'm stuck inside a nightmare that won't end.
And beyond the sadness, I'm also furious at her. If she felt our marriage was in trouble two years ago, why the Hell didn't she suggest that we seek counseling? Now not only am I suddenly single at age 36, but there's no way I'll ever be able to trust a female again. This is what I get for 15 years of loyal and loving husbandry? Fuck you, womanhood.
Rock And Roll Circus is the soundtrack to a stupid movie The Rolling Stones made and shelved in 1968, featuring performances by such timeless artists as:
1. Jethro Tull -- or rather Ian Anderson, who sings over the studio recording of "Song For Jeffrey" while the other Tullers (including Tony Iommi!) mime their parts behind him. You can't hear their miming on the CD of course, but it was probably pretty awesome. Iommi went to mime school, for example. I'm serious! I both wrote and read it on Wikipedia.
2. The Who, giving us a version of "A Quick One" that is -- against all rational hope or expectation -- very, very good!
3. Taj Mahal, the famous Indian mausoleum, which was flown in by helicopter to perform a rote blues rocker based on the "Gimme Some Lovin'" bass line.
4. Marianne Faithfull, who churns out some rootsy Band-esque blech between injections.
5. The Dirty Mac (John Lennon, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell and Yoko Ono), who whip out a killer rendition of The Beatles' "Yer Blues" and an insufferable pile of electric blues and shrieking called "Whole Lotta Yoko." Yeah, more like "Whole Lotta ROSIE" if you - no hang on
6. The Rolling Stones, who perform terrible shitty versions of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (where the hell are the high notes?), "No Expectations" (why the hell is Mick singing in his upper register?), "Sympathy For The Devil" (Where the hell are the "whoo whoo!"s? Also, at times the over-busy guitar and piano change the whole melody of the song!) and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (honestly never one of my favorites anyway, particularly as played here sans choir) -- as well as a version of "Salt Of The Earth" that is just Keith singing over the studio recording, and a single decent performance, that of "Parachute Woman."
Apparently the Rolling Stones hated their performance too, blaming the low quality on lack of practice and a ridiculously late/early filming time (everything ran so late that they apparently didn't hit the stage until like 5:00 AM!). Thus, they canned it, much like my wife canned our marriage and annihilated my belief in true love.
Which reminds me -- would the opposite of 'timeless' be 'timeful'? Because if so, the Stone Temple Pilots are timeful.
Anyway, I've been reading up on your recent experiences, and I just don't know what to say. I could say I understand, having been in relationships like that, but it's not the same thing... I hope you and your wife work this out in the end; all of your readers do, in fact. We're all so grateful for the world of music you've opened to us (especially to me: stumbling upon your site was a blessing, and since then, I've become acquainted with wonderful bands like the Cows, the Dead Milkmen, Sebadoh, Superchunk, Polvo, Fugazi... I also enjoyed reading your reviews of bands I already loved, like the Flaming Lips)
We're rootin' for you, Mark! Don't lose hope, you wonderful human being, you!
But that's about the extent of it, really. If you survive that one, the rest of the record is much more welcoming. Their stunning cover of the old blues standard "Love In Vain" shows exactly how far they've come since their early days as a fast-paced "blues" combo, "Country Honk" hicks up their hit single "Honky Tonk Women," "Live With Me" has a groovy-as-horseshoes bass line, and the title track is absolutely gross ("we all need someone we can cream on / and if you want to, well, you can cream on me!"). Plus, "Monkey Man" is a cool piano-guitar rocker, "You Got The Silver" features weak vocals courtesy of Keith, and if you're looking for epics, just stop here for a moment. "Midnight Rambler" is a seven-minute celebration of mass murder set to a sinister rockin' beat (with eerie slide guitar laid on top!) and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a gospel song! A real honest-to-goodness gospel song! And good? Ho! Ever heard Joan Osborne's "What If God Was One Of Us?" Imagine the exact opposite. IT'S THAT GOOD! An earthy bluesy country real-life no B.S. American album made by a bunch of British drug addicts. Go figure. And check out the album cover. Their best ever. Better than the zipper, even.
Oh yeah. They threw out Brian Jones while they were making this album. A couple of months later, he drowned in a swimming pool.
Yeah, it takes some time to get into, but you'll eventually be rewarded. "Gimme Shelter", "Midnight Rambler", "Monkey Man", and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" are all classics, but "Live with Me" and the wrenching "Love in Vain" are often overlooked. I can take or leave the other three tracks, but in this context it all seems great. In my opinion, this is the best record of 1969 and one of the best of the 60s as a whole.
Mick's vocal on Love in Vain delivers the somber lyrics perfectly. Country Honk and Live With Me are great fun, the latter with that great bassline and those goofy lyrics - "My best friend he shoots water rats and feeds them to his geese" Let it Bleed, although a tad bit boring, has amazing piano work and I, unlike a lot of people, love Mick's vocals on this one. Midnight Rambler is not my favorite track on the album (we'll get to that later), but it is the best. A truly haunting song - I love playing it late at night- it scares the crap out of me.
I really, really dig You Got the Silver. Keith should have taken lead vocal more - NO JOKE. That chorus is catchy as hell.
Monkey Man is my favorite song on this classic album, and it might be my favorite Stones song ever. That piano at the start of the song - WOW. And I love Mick's monkey impression near the end, priceless stuff. It is irrestible fun and top notch entertainment. And, as we all know, the album caps it all off with the gospelish epic You Can't always Get What You Want. Theres not much to say about it. Its catchy, philosophic, its Mick Jagger, and it has a choir intro!!! Brilliant.
Forget Beggar's Banquet and Exile, THIS is a Masterpiece.
OK, not ALL songs are great. "Live With Me" is rather generic and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is just a boring overblown "Hey Jude" wannabe.
But then... Oh Beloved God!!!
GIMMIE SHELTER is the BEST song ever made by the Stones, certainly SUPERIOR to "Sympathy For The Devil" Everything is great here, you know, everything, the vocals, the guitarrs, the melody. This song is pure DREAD. Midnight Rambler is a blues straighly from hell... The riff here is KILLER.
The rest of the songs are good either. 9,5/10
This album is, simply, one of the top ten rock classics.
"Gimmie Shelter": YES! Very good, excellent kick-off, I love it.
"Love in Vain": YES! Sad acoustic blues ballad, lost love, GREAT song.
"Country Honk": The only non-perfect song on here, but I can't complain - the other eight songs won't let me.
"Live with Me": YES! Very cool song, Keith plays bass, great sax solo, awesome lyrics.
"Let it Bleed": YES! Great slide work by Keith, disgusting lyrics are overpowered by the sheer greatness of the song.
"Midnight Rambler": YES!!!!!!!!!!!! My favorite Stones song EVER. Has been since I was a little tyke. The playing on this song outdoes any Stones song before or since. And dig that harp, man!
"You Got the Silver": YES! I like Keith's voice more than most people I know, and this is my favorite song that he sings. Great way to rock out at the end there.
"Monkey Man": YES! Humorous lyrics set to a truly awesome melody and backbeat. VERY underrated.
"You Can't Always Get What You Want": YES! Probably the most popular song on here. Boy, believe me, you can't play this song without that London Bach Choir backing you up. Sure, they can still play it good, but the original gives me goosebumps everytime that chior builds up to the finale. They haven't come close without that choir. But enough of how they play it live.
This is my favorite Stones album, and has been all my life. I've heard Exile, and it's not all it's cracked up to be. Sure it's got it's lion's share of good songs, but this is THE ESSENTIAL ONE TO GET. Let it Bleed. My god. Why am I still typing when I could be listening to it?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
By the way , Nicky Hopkins piano playing is the rhythmic and harmonic bedrock the guitars built upon. Keith and Mick T.s guitar work sound even heavier and more correct because so much chordal keyboard funk is already present.
I've been stunned for million times since '69 and I am still every day..
If 10 is the best mark, I'll give 25...
Thanx for this nice site !
............. later in the review by the guy above me
Over all i think that both albums (BB and LiB) are both (gasp!) overrated. Though they both have a bunch of classic RS songs, and/or classic songs of the late 60's.
6/10 for BB and 7.5 for LiB.
.............. (throws a tomato)
(ABOUT A YEAR LATER)
I can't believe I wrote that...... BB and LiB are great, not overrated, maybe underrated.... I was being a stupid ass.
This album's at least 8/10., Why? For one, almost every track is as good as ir their studio pals. Do you mean that "Street Fighting Man" isn't terrifying? Come on, the Ya's version is the best I've heard, the guitars surpasses just heavy riffing, they float into a pretty, screaming melody. And "Midnight Rambler" was excellent on Let it Bleed, but here it's magic, and heavy! Why did they lower the volume of the great riffing guitar of "Live with Me", was it just to hear Mick's vocals? The "Honky Tonk Woman" performed here is as good as in the studio. The sound quality, or mixing of sound is perhaps not the very best, but none of the ABKCO releases remastered to CD are pretty dull sounding, due to bad noise reduction, rather it has been increased so the records "noise my head off" almost as bad as my Electric Warrior, also a bad remastering.
Just asking, since you like the version of "Sympathy for the Devil" found here - have you heard the "ultimate" version (I think) found on The Rolling Stones Rock 'n Roll Circus and supposing you have, why in the earth haven't you reviewed it here?
As for Live at Leeds-that's another good live record, but inferior to this one. At least on Ya Yas you can hear the excitement of the crowd, the crowd in Live at the Leeds is reduced to nothing more than golf claps. The whole point of a live record is to make the listener feel sorry for not being there. Get Yer Yas Yas Out shares the excitement with the listener, Live at the Leeds fails in comparison.
Well its the fact that the Stones suck and the Who rules and it gets to Stones fans so they say things like "Well Ya-Ya's is better because you can hear then crowd while in Leeds you hear the music, whats that all about?" If thats the case I say buy The Monkees Live 1967 because you can't hear anything but the crowd so you know it must be the greatest live album ever.
By the way, guys, and gals, the best live album ever made was Stupidity by Dr. Feelgood, followed by Dylan's Before The Flood and Unplugged, and the J. Geils Band's Blow Your Face Out.
Ya ya's comes in at third place as contender for the greatest live record.
2nd? Got be 'The Pie', Rockin' The Fillimore, of course . . .
By the way, my vote's for Live At Leeds
I like Ya Ya's, but I mean, y'know.....or maybe you don't. "Midnight Rambler", my favourite Stones song (as you read by my slightly idiotic Let It Bleed review), is done in a neat, jamming fashion here, but the original is so much better. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is good, and at the beginning of side two, you can hear the infamous crazy woman: "I wanna hear 'Paint it Black.' 'Paint it Black.' 'PAINT IT BLACK', YOU DEVILS!" Good fun there. I hate the way they piss all over "Stray Cat Blues" though. The original could kill Goliath with a pebble. This one couldn't kill David with Goliath.
....I've never been big on analogies. 7/10? Yeah, we'll leave it at that and shut up.
Dang, I love that mid 60s Stones music though (say, "Heart of Stone" thru "Beggars Banquet", with a side order of "Jumping Jack Flash"). Mmm-Mmm!
As a rule, don't buy live albums. 9 times out of 10 you'll just be disappointed. Either that or you'll love it the first 2 times you hear it and then never listen to it again.
"Don't Lie to Me" and "Try A Little Harder" rank with the best of the early rockin' stuff, "Each And Everyday Of The Year," "I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys," and "Walkin' Thru The Sleepy City" are hilariously hokey yet extremely infectious mid-'60s Spector-esque sissy pop, and side two showcases the older, wiser, more drugged-up band that had brought Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers to the world's attention - and therein lies the reason that these songs are outtakes. As curious and moody as the seven side two selections are (especially "I Don't Know Why" and "I'm Going Down," two fantasmo ditters), they don't quite match up to the near-perfect presentations put forth by the Fab Five between '68 and '72. But don't believe the anti-hype! This isn't crap by any means. "Downtown Suzie" is a bit goofy, "Family" is extraordinarily ugly, and the alternate takes of "Out Of Time" and "Heart Of Stone" are wretched (Why in God's name would somebody think that a steel guitar solo belongs in the middle of "Heart Of Stone?"), but they hardly ruin an otherwise "chockfull o' underrated gems" LP. The poetry on the back of the album cover is pretty friggin' stupid, though. As poetry generally is.
"Little by Little" comes back from the dead to make an appearance here, as does the hard-to-find Booker T-inspired "Stoned", which is basically Mick not sounding stoned at all. Good jam, though. There's also the wackily out-of-key "The singer not the song", which still is kinda cool. You also get two bluesy gems, "The Spider and the Fly" and "The Under-assistant west coast promotion man."
Second CD time, and hey! WELCOME TO POP. But that's not really a bad thing. Sure, "Sad Day" is kinda dumb, but it's more than countered by Mick's soulful work on "Long Long While" and the totally unexpected (and totally unavailable) "Who's Driving your Plane?". "Stupid Girl", the Stones' greatest misogynist anthem, comes out of the effin' blue here as well.
The third CD is, well, kinda odd. There's a strange, shortened version of "You Can't always get what you want" (minus the french horn and about two verses). The movie version of "Memo from Turner", complete with Ry Cooder's slide guitar (missing on most bootlegs) is included. Also, three Metamorphosis tracks, including "I don't know why" and "Jiving Sister Fanny" pop up. By far the oddest track on the entire collection is the near-hilarious version of "Out of Time", with Mick J backed up by a STRING section and some altered lyrics.
Overall, it's a good collection if you don't own any of the early albums or the More Hot Rocks album. If you own 12 X 5, or December's Children, (or any of those pre-Aftermath LP's) then you have most of the songs on here already. Not an earth-shattering collection, but it's still a fascinating history lesson.
For the stuff that's actually the Stones, you're right about the fact that they're good, but don't really match up to what was on the fab five. "Memo from Turner," "I'm Going Down," "Jiving Sister Fanny" and "I Don't Know Why" were the ones that caught my attention the most. Bill Wyman's "Downtown Susie" kind of sucks though.
It's testament to the absolute genius of the Stones during this particular era that this record is actually better than the greatest hits record that came out the next year - mainly because, instead of being just a bunch of unconnected songs, it's a carefully-conceived document of the band at a crucial time. The Beatles had just broken up; perhaps others felt that the Stones should follow. But the Stones didn't agree. They weren't on the way out; they were at the pinnacle of their career. These songs are individually and collectively the definitive synthesis of all the creativity that the Stones were born with and all of the lessons they had learned from the blues, R'n'B, rock'n'roll, jazz, country/western, folk, and pop music that they had been absorbing since childhood. It's not "devilish" or "threatening" or "psychedelic," but intriguingly real and alive. This isn't a show; it's reality. It has its gleeful sickness and its desolate emptiness, and everything in between. Upbeat, downcast, beautiful, soulful, fun, rockin' - it's all right here. And man, that production! Fantastic guitar sounds all the way through.
These are the REAL good ones. Now "Sway" tends to drag - just a little, a teensy-weensy bit, but it's not their best effort at a philosophical song ("You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a trillion times better); and "I Got The Blues" - well, THIS one is FAKE: Jagger singing homemade opera-style! And "Moonlight Mile" is good, too, but overlong as usual. As for "Brown Sugar" and "Bitch", I have a mixed feeling for these two songs. On one hand, as musical entities, they are wonderful: I could listen to that "Bitch" riff for twenty-four hours a day, and "Brown Sugar" rocks as hard they could! It deserves its place among the dozen most popular Stones' songs.
On the other hand, the lyrics on these two songs - together with the offending front cover of the album - was a marking point for the Stones. It was there that they started overabusing their image. Yes, misogyny has always been typical of Jagger - beginning with "Downhome Girl" back in 1964, but here he is already mixing it with that sort of stinking kinkiness that reached its climax on Undercover! From now on, the Stones would fight to retain their status of "World Famous Perverts", and since by 1971 the standards of "pervertness" have already changed (you wouldn't be judged an "unnormal" kind of guy, for example, if you did not use obscene lexics in songs), they were trying to catch up with them!
"Sometimes I'm sexy, move like a stud". Imagine that line in 1964? Impossible. Thanks God, on Sticky Fingers the music level still prevails over the kinkiness level; by Some Girls both would become equal, and finally (after a brief musical revival on Tattoo You) kinkiness would take over completely on Undercover!
This is where it all began. Dammit! It's really sad watching Mick slowly trying to become a Sex Pistol (which, by the way, he never became).
"Brown Sugar" is an instant classic--'nuff said.
"Sway"--a great, out-of-control rocker.
"Wild Horses"--see "Brown Sugar."
"Can't You Hear Me Knocking?"--THE GREATEST STONES SONG IN HISTORY. That opening riff? The "help me baby" chorus? That great organ? Mick's singing? The extended jam session? Mock me if you will, but I think in time people will see how right I am.
"You Gotta Move"--great guitar and drum action here. You just gotta love how Mick sings this one.
"Bitch"--need I say more?
"I Got the Blues"--the only slow part in the album. BUT HELL! It's got some great organ work (by Nicky Hopkins I think ... or was it their old road manager Stu?) and some nice horn action.
"Sister Morphine"--creepy. Paced. Disturbing as all get out. By the way, how did they get that crashing piano sound in there?
"Dead Flowers"--best country song ever produced. Just goes to show you the Stones could have made the greatest country album in history if they tried.
"Moonlight Mile"--great closing track. The strings are what really make this a classic and that odd, vague Oriental-sound arrangement.
This is the type of album that should be analyzed over and over again. They shoulda just quit after Tattoo You. But that's another story.
"You Gotta Move" is a bit plodding and wears thin quickly, but otherwise there's not a weak song here. In fact they're all classics. Although not prototypical Stones, "Moonlight Mile" is one of the strongest recordings they've ever done and a perfect closer to one of the true classic rock & roll albums of all time. One of the most memorable outros to a song ever recorded!!
What follows is merely a brief impression of a portion of this classic album (and the little red discs that you gave to each of the Stones' outputs).
For my pleasure, "Dead Flowers" and "Moonlight Mile" are the only two songs that confirm the Stones' genius... in fact, they're the only two songs that I can think of right now (that is... by these fellas), that can genuinely excite me. OK, maybe not... but I'm never tired of that line "And I won't forget to put roses in your grave". Quite subtle and romantic, comparing with songs that nowadays serve to imbrue the group into raunchy images ("Gun face", the worst) but we don't need to distance all that from 1971, right?. Zip covers and all, "Dead flowers" could easily have been penned by Dylan (in a not too impossible parallel universe) at his most humble and sincere.
I agree with every one of your scores.
But then, what can I say about an album with "Wild Horses", "Bitch", "Brown Sugar", "Sister Morphine", "Dead Flowers", "Can't you hear me knocking" and "Moolight Mile" on it??? Simply awesome; full of insanely catchy grooves, fantastic melodies, excellent playing and killer riffs (The riff of Bitch is MADLY catchy) You Prindle are right, this is a truly great album.
You George Starostin, in case you are reading, I CAN'T UNDERSTAND HOW THE HELL YOU CAN PUT THIS GEM AT THE SAME LEVEL OF TATTOO YOU or AFTERMATH. YOU ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF SOME DOCTOR AND YOU BETTER FIND ONE SOON. Ok this is about George's site but as I can't manage to contact him by mail I guess this is a great chance to express one of the MAJOR disagreements I have with him.
You Prindle are right though.
"Brown Sugar is an absolutely fabulous, rock-out song. "Sway" is the same, in a slower form; man, Charlie sounds pissed in that one, doesn't he? I've never loved "Wild Horses" as much as some other people, but it IS a rather pretty balalalad. "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" is really two songs, but I shouldn't have to say that -- it's obvious! The grumbly riff part with the lyrics and the jazzy-funky jam section. Both are great, I particularly like it. "You Gotta Move" cracks me up in that damn-can-these-guys-play-some-blues-or-WHAT?!! kinda way. "Bitch" is classic, with that absolutely KILLER bari sax line, courtesy of our new-old friend, Bobby Keys. "I Got the Blues" dragged a little at first, but then I heard Mister Billy Preston over there on the Hammond B-3, and it just KNOCKED ME BACKWARDS. That is one hell of an organ solo! "Sister Morphine" would be enough to chill me to my very soul, but then they have to put that piano line in there. That thing is so spooky, I get GOOSEBUMPS when I hear it. Now THAT is a great song. "Dead Flowers" is some good country with a little surprise from Charlie for us drummers near the end. Well, it was for ME! And "Moonlight Mile" does drag a little bit, but whatever. I really do love this album. I think I'll give it the not-so-generous rating of 8.9/10. NOT QUITE AS GOOD as Beggars Banquet. But that close.
EXILE, LET IT BLEED and BEGGARS are their best
Buy this album or I will fucking kill you
Can you imagine what I thought of them? I FUCKIN LOVED EM!!!!!
To be truthful, my mom had some K-tel 30 Greatest Hits Album of theirs that she played every Sataday of my youth along with Cat Stevens's Tea for OR Teaser. So I knew all the early standards - from Not Fade Away to You Can't Always [finsih the title]. But THIS THIS THIS is what made me go and buy everything until I wanted to shoot myself after buying "only rock n roll".
I love "We Love You" and all those early R&B covers. For my money, they beat the hell out of almost all of what they were releasing on albums from 1963-1965.
The rockers ("Rocks Off," "Rip This Joint," "Happy," "All Down The Line," others) thrash mercilessly like a fuckin' choo choo train chasin' after a defenseless little baby deer, and several of the songs achieve a grandiose gospel feel that these fellows only hinted at with "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Generous doses of boogie-woogie piano and female back-up vocals transform "Let It Loose," "Just Wanna See His Face," "Shine A Light," and even "Tumbling Dice" into songs that would seem much more natural coming from a Mississippi black church choir than from a bunch of imported honky drug addicts. Their early records showed they had the love for black music; this one shows that, with age, they had developed the clops and sensitivity necessary to actually pull it off! The melodies are great, the guitar interplay is superfun, there's a Robert Johnson cover, some country-western, some skiffle - you really should buy it. Only a few of these songs are radio standards, but they all should be. The essential bar band record. What NRBQ and the Black Crowes wish they could do.
Heck, what the Rolling Stones wish they could still do. This was the last great record they ever made.
We find the Stones rolling through 18 gems that reassert all of their major musical roots. The country-folkish "Sweet Virginia" remains a timeless classic as does the old time rock and roll feel of "Rocks Off". Then we get the blues with the dark "Ventilator Blues" and the shuffling of "Turd on the Run". Not to mention the two best songs on the album are the concert favorite "Tumblin Dice" and the gospel influenced "Shine A Light".
An monumental piece of work, unfortunately the Stones never followed it up with anything worthy of comparison.
The Great Tunes here are: "Rocks Off", "Tumbling Dice", "Sweet Virginia", "Stop Breaking Down" and "Shine A Light". Oh yeah, and "Happy", too. And "Rip This Joint" is quite breathtaking - the fastest they ever played!
The other songs are crappy. CRAPPY! Eliminate most of them and you get a great album. DON'T mistake this one for Let It Bleed!
I believe it was recorded in a private studio, so they could just relax and let it all hang out.
This is the Stones...having FUN, and it sounds like it...it's loose, it's raw, and even though it's not as well crafted as previous albums, IMHO, it's the closest they ever came to the real spirit of the blues.
But choosing a standout moment is futile. Listening to Exile on Main Street in its entirety is one of the most rewarding experiences rock and roll has to offer. I can only think of three albums that succeed in developing a similarly consistent atmosphere: the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (which is basically the polar opposite of this record), Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, and R.E.M.'s Murmur (which, to me, is so consistent that every song sounds virtually the same). Maybe Bruce Springsteen's The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle should be in there too...at least the second side. It owes too much to Astral Weeks to get full credit.
My god, is this a great album.
8/10
There are just a pair of GREAT songs ("Tumblin' Dice", "Rocks Off" and "Sweet Virginia"), a little bunch of minor enjoyable tunes ("Casino Boogie", "Happy", "Ventilator Blues", "Stop Breaking Down" and maybe "Let It Loose"), and the rest is just filler; boring, noisy, repetitive, weak, melodyless, self - plagiaristic filler which I cannot stand. It is a total mystery why this record appeals so much to so many people. It is SO INFERIOR to Sticky Fingers that sometimes it makes me pityful. It's not crap, It's good, but average. ANY band could come up with a similar efford, I mean, this is not Stones standard quality. Less than 8 to this.
By this time, the Stones were masters of the form. They had assimilated and transcended their influences so that the music that they made was at the same time distinctly their own, but also a part of a continuum that included blues, boogie, country, R and B, you name it. Exile on Main Street is where everything came together and the Stones were able to demonstrate their mastery so effortlessly. It was the culmination of everything that they had done for the previous ten years and neither they nor anyone else would again equal it.
Yeah, the Stones were--and, thus, remain in image only--a great band. We needed an antithesis to the brilliant streamlined artistically brilliant pop of the Beatles with some sloppy, messy, beautifully down-and-dirty rawk and rowell. (Not terribly sure of the correct way to misspell 'roll'.) Still, though, I can't help but prefer the Stones artistic high of 66-69, 'Math through 'Bleed. I still can't figure out the principle draw to a record where most everything is murky and inaudible.
Although "Rocks Off" definitely rox my fukin sox.
Exile on Main Street is actually pretty damn good! Usually I'm not a fan of "roots-rock" or anything "off-the-cuff", but here it is. One of the truly great hard rock masterpieces of the '70's. It combines the raw energy from the Stones' early days (sorely missing from Satanic, Banquet, Bleed, and Fingers--although Fingers is still a masterpiece, too) and the sophistication they'd gained from recording Satanic, Banquet, Bleed, and Fingers (sorely missing from their early days). And Voila! Their best album. Not bad, guys. Not bad at all.
That's the glittering review of the actual enjoyable part of the record. The honorable mentions are: "Hip Shake", "Sweet Virginia" ("got to scrape the shi-shit right off your shoes!"), "Torn and Frayed", and "Loving Cup". The songs that I'm sure are okay but refuse to stick in my head are: "Casino Boogie" and "Shine a Light". The songs that don't stick in my head probably because they suck are: "Let it Loose" and "Soul Survivor". The songs on here that suck ALL OVER THE PLACE are: "Sweet Black Angel" and "Just Wanna See His Face". Those last two songs I mentioned are just crap. I can't think of many Stones songs I'd just come out and call "crap", but that's what these are. Crap. This whole collection gets a 6.8/10 in my best mood, and probably a 5.5/10 in my worst. Suck on that, stupid, crap-headed, classic-rock-radio-listening, "Free Bird"-screaming general public.
sorry about that! I thought you hate screaming, classic rock , beer drinking people! no! I do not scream freebird! fuck skynard! I like prog better. still I say I apologize. great work reviewing stones cd's but you forgot the early stuff.
Mr. Richard's is quoted as saying he learned to ski and shoot dope while making Exile On Main Street.
"Just as long as the guitar plays
Let it steal your heart away,
Let it steal your heart away"
And the others? They're slow. Very slow. I think by this point, three of them were hooked on smack, so perhaps that explains it. Ever seen the movie Cocksucker Blues? Probably not. It's pretty hard to find. So let me tell you about it! It was filmed during the Exile On Main Street tour. Remember that record? With all them upbeat rockers? That's what the concerts were like; the Stones presented themselves as the scummiest, sexiest, most party-happy rockers in the world. But, as the movie shows, twas but a mere facade. Between shows, all they did was shoot up and fall asleep. Even the pre-fabricated "orgy" scene on the airplane collapses as the band members lose interest and fall asleep. So that was their life. And that's why Goats Head Soup sounds like this.
But the songs are really good! I love the melodies, and Mick sings 'em with the conviction he's always shown. Heck, even Keith sounds great singing "Coming Down Again," and he can't sing worth a Jack Russell Terrier! The best song is the sorrowful acoustic ballad "Angie," but the others stand up, even when that awful "funky" keyboard rears its ugly head. If you like this band, but don't feel the need to rock and shimmy all the livelong day, definitely pick this one up in a cheapy bin near you. The only bad thing about it is the butt-ugly album cover. Bleah. Did they intend Keith Richards to look like a poop stain on the back? 'Cuz that's what he looks like.
Goat's Head Soup compares to THAT? Get out of the institution much?
I agree that Sticky Fingers was their peak. Exile is just icing on the cake. The band's best period was definitely when Mick Taylor was with them. It's too bad that after Wyman left, Ron Wood couldn't have switched to bass and a really good bluesy player like Taylor have joined. In fact how about Taylor himself, what's he working at Burger King now or something? Stevie Ray Vaughan would have been an amazing choice, Stevie and Keith jeeez!, but I guess his being dead creates touring problems.
Anyhow, nice site, I wish I would have thought of it, and what's with the Who guy?
In other words, if Sticky Fingers describes the struggle, and Exile describes the victory, Goat's Head Soup describes what was lost to get to that point.
But while Goat Head's sound isn't Exile or Sticky it's damn good. All the songs are good, some great and while it doesn't have the singular feel to it as some of thier better work I'll be damn if I heard any note on this album that didn't please me.
This is the start of the slide yes, but they were at the highest mountain top in rock and roll so a few feet down still puts them higher them most bands every dream of.
Worth the $$ if you like the previous 4. Don't let anybody sell your wrong.
But the other songs are cool. There's "Angie", and then there's the great buccanneer hymn "Silver Train", and "Winter" features some moving Jagger vocals (actually, it reminds me of the much better "Shine A Light"). The spooky songs ARE spooky ("Dancing With Mr D", "Heartbreaker"), the sexy songs ARE sexy ("Star Star" - good melody but shitty lyrics), and my personal favourite here is "100 Years Ago" because it features a fantastic wah-wah solo by Mick Taylor. It's a pity the others didn't let him carry it on for a few minutes more! And could somebody please explain to me what the hell is this discussion of Who's Next doing here?
Hey Mark, how ya doin'? I've been away for awhile doing Navy stuff, but it's great to see your site is still going strong. Congratulations on the kudos from the LA Times. This is the BEST record review site on the net because it's the only one where the reviewer has the BALLS to print stuff from people who disagree with him.
NB: I used to have a tape with this on one side and it's only rock n roll on the other, which didn't leave my walkman for about 3 years.
Get your facts right or I send the boys round.
But boring as shit for that very reason. As Jimmy Miller said during one 1970 recording session, "Can't you make that guy shut up?".
I've a bootleg recording of he & Keith working through what must be the very first idea of "Wild Horses". Keith's got the progression in order but is audibly trying to get a mood for it, and young Mick is just jamming away 40 notes to the second like some 15y.o. kid who's just learnt his first blues scale. Truly horrible.
Every Taylor solo is gibber, a soul-less gymnastic fretboard exercise, so expressionless as to leave me cold. The main reason they got him in was compared to the Trouble that was Brian Jones, this guy was a controllable lackey who'd know his place. I s'pose his style suited the times, the Claptons & Pages were in the ascendant then, but in hindsight his contribution to the overall progression of how guitars are played was fairly minimal.
In fact I would argue that he, though through sheer passivity, did contribute to the Stones' decline into mid-70s pap, something which they never truly recovered from. Tho, to be fair, Keith being a complete screwup-smackie probably did more to contribute to that debacle.
"Coming Down Again" and "Angie" in particular are one of my all time favorite Rolling Stones ballads, though most people either love or hate "Coming Down Again", which has the best lead vocal from Keith Richards possibly ever recorded in my opinion. There's also those beautiful guitar touches from Mick Taylor and great piano work which makes it quite the highlight for me. There's also "Winter", which just further shows these guys can do one hell of a beautiful song.
The only lowlights for me on this record are the faster paced songs, like "Star Star" and "Heartbreaker", which are just dumb songs, and the only thing that shows the band was going downhill after this. Most of the rest are really good though, even "Dancin' With Mr. D" has a great riff and "Hide Your Love" is catchy. "Can You Hear The Music" is very interesting too, and i dig that swirling leslie speaker effect on the guitar.
Even though this album is quite different than their "classic" material, that's exactly why i like it. They tried something new on this record instead of recording more of the same stuff they've done already in the past by creating a totally pleasant and relaxed sound that i think suited them very well. It's when they try to "rock" again is when they sound inappropriate, but that's just me!
I especially love 100 Years Ago and Can You Hear the Music.
Keep rockin', Marky P!!!!!
Anyway, "Angie" might be the best known song here, and it maybe a good song, but it doesn't come close to matching up to forgotten gems "100 Years Ago," "Winter" and especially "Can You Hear the Music?" (the best psychedelic song they ever did - aside from "Paint it Black,") hell even the follow up single "Heartbreaker" is better than that one, and unfortunately that song (along with pretty much the rest of this album) seems to have gone obscure over the years. What a bummer. The album is certainly not better than Exile, but it's certainly more even. There's not one song on here I don't like.
This is also what the original cover was supposed to look like: http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/Rock-n-Roll/goats_head_soup.jpg
Myself, I'm enamored by the distorted guitar grunts of "Dance Little Sister," the silly fun of "Short And Curlies," the excessive but wonderfully melodic Mick Taylor soloing in "Time Waits For No One," and the funky-as-the-theme-from-Shaft anti-FBI disco rocker "Fingerprint File," which gets my vote for best song on here, in addition to the office of attorney general. The title track's pretty great, too, but the others - well, the others are just okay.
This DVD is basically a bunch of talking heads (John Mayall, Robert Greenfield, Robert Christgau, Al Perkins, Bill Plummer, Barney Hoskyns, Mick Taylor, etc) chit-chatting about the Rolling Stones' albums and live performances between Let It Bleed and It's Only Rock And Roll, interspersed with live footage of the band.
Key conclusions:
- Mick Taylor was the most talented guitarist that the Stones ever had, and wasn't given enough songwriting credit ("Ventilator Blues" and that's it!?)
- The Stones lost it after Exile because Keith was a drug addict and Mick only cared about being a celebrity
Interesting facts that you probably already know, but I didn't:
- Anita left Brian for Keith, then cheated on Keith with Mick!
- The Stones were completely broke by the end of the '60s!
- The Stones were never all in the studio at the same time during the recording of Exile, and the record was completed by session musicians in L.A.!
- They recorded 150 takes of "Tumbling Dice"!
The DVD is interesting enough for one viewing, but not compelling enough for two. It's sorta like just hanging out with your buddies and discussing the Rolling Stones, except that these guys are more intelligent than your stupid, stupid friends. They can suck it with their whining about Goats Head Soup though. I love that album.
But let's get to the real reason we're here today -- to talk about how I've been thrown out of two bars in the last three weeks!
I'm told that the experience of being abandoned by a spouse is a form of "trauma," so I hope you can understand and forgive such recent misbehavior as staying out all night, sleeping all day, binge drinking, and essentially failing to get anything done. My mood is constantly shooting up and down, and I'm just trying to be out and about with my friends as often as possible. For the moment, sanity must take precedence over industry.
More specifically, I've been going to karaoke twice a week (generally with Jim Laakso, sometimes with James W. Greene as well) and sing/scream/abusing my heart out to the audiences' sheer delight and/or horror. Here are a few highlights you may have missed because you were at home being productive:
- "Unchained" - This Van Halen classic gave me the opportunity to show off all my old Tae Kwon Do kicks. I'm a little rusty, but I pulled them off okay.
- "Ebony and Ivory" - In this duet with Jim Laakso, I sang the Stevie Wonder lyrics while lying face down on the floor with a former America's Next Top Model contestant snuggling me.
- "Highway To Hell" - A pretty blonde woman was singing this with her two drunk friends when, seeing my zeal and remembering my delightful earlier performances, she invited me onto the stage and held my hand as I sang along. We chatted a bit afterwards too, but then she disappeared forever, like a lost vision on the prairies of a dream.
- "Toys In The Attic," "Draw The Line," "Back In The Saddle," "Heatseeker," "Who Made Who," "Sink The Pink" - Just your basic raving through the audience smashing into people and rolling on the floor like an idiot. The "Draw The Line" evening was notable though, for the fact that I blacked out before performing the song and got ejected from the club shortly afterwards -- apparently because I kicked a broom and then stared at the floor for several minutes while standing completely still. Oops! I also remember lots of 'tipping things over' going on -- several glasses and even the bench I was sitting on. Good old defensive drinking.
- "Munich" - In one of my most disconcerting performances, I sang every threatening and accusatory line of this Editors song while standing too close to various female audience members and looking directly into their eyes.
- "See Emily Play" - This performance won me my second bar ejection. I was having a grand old time singing the hits and living the good life when suddenly these two whiny assholes complained about me jumping up and down excitedly while grabbing onto a nearby ledge. "Every time you do that, you knock glasses and plates off the ledge," they argued. I apologized and sat down. However, thanks to sorrowful overdrinking, I grew angrier and angrier in that chair until by the time my name was called, I was a festering boil of spite. So as I walked to the stage, I purposely knocked a plate off the ledge. Then during the first verse of the song, I swiped a glass off the ledge as hard as I could -- it flew across the room and smashed against the wall next to Jim Laakso. Apparently I then tried to jump off the stage but fell on my face. The next thing I remember is a gigantic bouncer standing right in front of me. I proceeded to the table next to Jim to pick up the broken glass while continuing to sing. After the song, the bouncer ensured that we went on our merry way! Another funny thing about this evening is that a bit earlier, a woman shrieked about a roach on the floor so I ran around trying to catch it so I could hand it to her. In this way, I get dates.
- "Ace Of Spades" - A few minutes before this performance, I noticed two cute young (and drunk) laydeeeeez looking me over. When I hit the stage, they shouted, "Take it off!" I replied, "Huh!?" They reiterated, "Take off your shirt! Show us your tits!" Being an agreeable sort, I did so. But come on, it was "Ace Of Spades." So I proceeded to clear the dance floor with the most exuberant and violent performance possible. Afterwards, I approached the women to apologize. And this conversation took place:
(this is all true)
(I'm not making this up)
Me: "I'm sorry about that."
Woman: "You broke my necklace."
Me: "I'm so sorry. I was drunk; I don't even remember doing it. Here, let me pay for it."
Woman: "I don't want your money."
Me: "No seriously, let me pay for it."
Woman: "It's already fixed."
Me: "So... what's the problem?"
Woman: "I'm mad because of your carelessness! What if you'd grabbed somebody's vagina?"
!!!!
Okay, gotta go. It's karaoke time!
If I were the sort to complain, I might tell you that the melodies just repeat themselves over and over and over again for about five minutes apiece, and that the cheesy keyboards nearly destroy both the pleasant ballad "Memory Motel" and the already-pretty-lame "Fool To Cry," and that "Crazy Mama" is awfully generic to be only one of two rockers on here, and, oh, that's enough for now. I love "Hot Stuff"; only a great rock and roll band could pen a disco song this funky. And "Hey Negrita" - now that's a cool skittly guitar line goin' on there. And, throughout, the drums are louder than an aeroplane. Complain if you want, but this is the last time that the Stones were willing to experiment with an entire album. The rest of their career has pretty much been a restatement of "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll," with a few weird songs thrown in here and there. But for more data on that, continue reading!
Speaking of guitar breaks - the sessions for B&B were overloaded with guest musicians (Billy Preston, Harvey Mandel, Wayne Perkins, and lots and lots of others, I guess), but this cannot be considered a flaw. In fact, it is Perkins who contributes the great solo on "Hand Of Fate", and it's Preston's piano that makes "Melody" eminently listenable. And hey! "Fool To Cry" is not lame at all. It's a great humorous ballad, and besides the keyboards (which never ruin nothing), there are some painfully touching guitar licks (Keith's presumably), and I particularly love Mick wailing "I'M A FOOL - YEAH - I'M A FOOL!". Ve-e-e-e-ry modest, ain't he?
Finally, everybody seems to hate "Cherry Oh Baby". I LOVE it. Don't know why, but I LOVE it. I mean - come on, 'tis just a groove, ain't it? It's real funny hearing the guys singing "Ye-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-y-e-y-yeah!"
Remember that Ronnie Wood was still with the Faces during the recording of B & B and was just sitting in to help the boys out. The Stones were still auditioning guitarists during this period (Jeff Beck, Nils Lofgren, Rory Gallagher to name a few). Lots of guest musician work on this disc, so a good deal of the fine instumentation on this recording cannot be contributed to the Stones themselves. Wayne Perkins' lead guitar workout on "Hand of Fate" is absolute top-shelf. Mick Taylor could have at least performed this as well as Wayne, but it was certainly way beyond the abilities of Keith Richards!
1.HOT STUFF: CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA! FUNK GUEETAR LIKE JAMES BROWN! OW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOT STUFF IS A ROUGH DIRTY RAUNCHY JAGGED DANCE JAM THAT MAKES ANY WHITE BOY DANCE HIS ASS OFF WITHOUT MAKING A DAMN FOOL! AH AH AH! THE MEGAPHONE VOCALS ARE GOOD BUT I CANNOT HEAR JAGGER!
2.HAND OF FATE: CHUNKY ROCKER WITH UM.. HEY I THINK THAT KEEF DID THE SOLO OR RON WOOD?? ANYWAY YOU SAID IT WAS WAYNE PERKINS A SESSION GUY THEN U ARE RIGHT!
3.CHERRY OH BABY!: HA! REGGAE! SILLY SLOPPY STUFF! LIKE A BUNCH OF DRUNKS MESSING AROUND!
4.MEMORY MOTEL: OOOOOO YEAH. PRETTY BALLAD! SWEETEST BALLAD SINCE SHE'S A RAINBOW! TIFA, LARA, AREITH,CAMERON,KIRSTEN,ABBY,ARWEN. SHE'S ONE OF A KIND! YES IT IS A MAMBO .5 JOKE!
5.HEY NEGRITA!: ARRIBA! SUPER RICO! SUPER! SUPER 1976 QUE RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRICO ESTA! MEXICAN FLAVOR AND DIRTY RIFFS! I HAVE SEEN Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN! SWEET COOL DELICIOUS SEX! YEAH! MEXICANS COME TO GET SOME! EVEN I LIKED IT WHEN THE BOYS KISSED! WOAH!
6.MELODY: 1933 JAZZ WITH A SMOKY BILLIE HOLIDY VIBE! OOOO CHICAGO! VELMA! HOT RENEE ZELLWATCHAMACALLIT! HER WAIST! OOOOO YEA!
7.FOOL TO CRY: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SWEET! A SEXY CALM FALSETTO-Y BALLAD JUST LIKE BARRY WHITE! SEXY WATERY ELECTRIC PIANO AND MICK!
8.CRAZY MAMA: DIRTY HARD AND ROUGH LIKE ROD STWERAT BFORE HE TAMED TO THE WORTHLESS SHEEP ! THE HERD OF CELINE 'I CANNOT SHUT UP' DION! STUPID
ANYWAY U MAY BE TIHNKING AND THINK WAY TOO MUCH ABOUT GIRLS, FUCK YOU! I STILL LOVE 'EM U GOTTA HAVE SEX! FUCK EMO UP IT'S BITCH ASS! ANYWAY LOVEMAKING IS KING! HERE I COME MS. LOCKHEART! THE LOVE TRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Hot Stuff" is so so silly. It's so tongue-in-cheek, it's almost as if Mick Jagger's tongue is in the listener's cheek (I wouldn't rule out that literal possibility; Mick was pretty glammy around this time). Great Harvey Mandel guitar guest spot. "Hand of Fate" is a little less memorable, if only because the other songs are so out-of- character in terms of genre ("Crazy Mama" suffers the same fate). But I prefer "Hand" to "Crazy" -- not sure why, but the former is a good rock song.
"Cherry Oh Baby." My, my, my. The Stones do reggae, and it is HILARIOUS...and hilariously good! This was the first song I heard from this album; can you believe it? Boy, what a fun song. "Memory Motel" is a very nice, if slightly overlong ballad.
"Melody" is an interesting glimpse into the (one-song ever) world of Stones jazz. Billy Preston? Fuck, we'll take it! Nice little boogie feel to it. Some may disagree, but I don't really care for "Fool to Cry". It's too keyboardy, too weird, too falsetto, I guess. Maybe it's just boring. The only time-edited song on Forty Licks that wasn't an abomination.
Saved the best for last...ready? "Hey-fucking-Negrita!" Best goddamn song on this album, and one of the best songs they did in the '70s, you better believe. Ronnie plays the "cool skittly guitar line" (perfect description, Mark!) while Keith plays the chords. Billy Preston (again!) bangs the fuck out of the piano like a pissed- off coke-headed black man (wait...he was), and Charlie and Bill hold it together PERFECTLY. And Mick? Mick runs the gamut from sounding like generic Mick (something he was surprisingly good at) to great soul screams to sounding like a woman sneezing, all the while incorporating suck classic idiocy as "I need money / My sweet ass". Seriously, this might be in the top ten '70s songs the Stones did. FANTASTIC fucking song.
I probably stressed that point a little too hard. Oh well. Black and Blue gets a mid-to-high 7/10, and deservedly so. When the Stones don't give a shit what their playing (in a peak period, such as 1976), the results are pretty entertaining!
But how can you dismiss side three, which is eventually the best of the whole record? "Four blues covers that all sound exactly the same"? There's "Around And Around" which is not a blues cover, it's pure rock'n'roll, and it's real satisfying to see Keef revitalize on this one and crack out his Berry-licks! And "Manish Boy" is fun. Even Mick's note-missing, gruff type of singing which is unfittable for oh so many originals sounds great on this one! "Exactly the same"? That's what Dave Weigel (an all-time nice guy but a complete idiot when he starts discussing things he doesn't understand) wrote in his review of Layla, "why does all blues sound the same"? What do I have to say in response? (Sigh).
But apart from that side three there is not much to be found on this album. Oh wait! There's that breath-ripping solo on "Brown Sugar". Cut it out from the CD and hang it on your wall (especially since it is most certainly overdubbed: you can hear that very well on the record). Sure, the album is valuable for completionists (like me), but NOT recommended for amateurs. "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out" instead!
On the lively side, "When The Whip Comes Down," is a latter-day three-chord rocker along the lines of "Get Off Of My Cloud," both "Lies" and "Respectable" show that Mick hadn't turned a blind ear to that crazy "punk" phenomenon that had taken British by storm in past months (go ahead, listen to these songs right after anything on Never Mind The Bollocks, and you tell me which is faster - go ahead!), and the title track is just as sleazy as every other song that this band of gentle loving scumbags has ever written about women ("Black girls just wanna get fucked all night?"). The cover of "Imagination" blows, and Keith's empty whiny vocal destroys the otherwise not-bad "Before They Make Me Run," but, as you might have figured out by now, I like this record pretty well. Their best since the glory days. And the album cover's kinda whimsical, too. Stones in drag. Sit on this one. They haven't done an album this good since.
In all, the album is quite interesting and worth having, but I agree it is badly overrated. It's a shame the world skipped Black And Blue and welcomed this one! Go figure!
Anyway, I guess I'll tackle the songs in the order they are presented.
Miss You... missed me. Disco? But then, I didn't even find out the name of the song until I bought Some Girls. Anyway, pretty much the #1 in the Stones formula of songwriting. This formula being: 1 = Catchy music that is good with really interesting/cool lyrics. 2 = Just the cool lyrics, dull music. 3 = Just really great music, average lyrics. Really funky and fun song, fun lyrics. Great way to start an album.
When The Whip Comes Down... first time I heard Mick say gay and fag in the same sentence (and probably the only time), really fast and fun, with some incredible lyrics. This couldn't have actually happened to him... could it? When the shit is hitting the fan, is Mick really wishing he was sitting on the can?
Imagination, or Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me), I'll admit, sounds really lame. It's got a fast beat, but the vocals are so soft and weak. I still like the lyrics. Stones Song Formula #2, nice lyrics, dull as Hell tune. I actually like it, though. If I'm tracking through this album, I might stop on this one.
Title track has a great intro, and it just gets scary with the lyrics. Mom likes it... I guess it's ok. Mom is in her 50's, so she knows better. And, now I need not go to China, because I know what the girls are like there. I'd put this in a borderline formula between #'s 1 & 2. Really great lyrics, especially "Gimme half your money/Gimme half your car/Gimme half of everything/I'll make you the world's biggest star/By half". Too cool.
Incredible fast music on Lies, with the blistering vocals to match. More fun with lyrics. "Lies, lies you dirty jezebel/Why, why, why, why don't you go to hell?" Mick knew to treat women as equals. Almost every vocal aspect of this song is enjoyable.
Underrated: Far Away Eyes. Mick does a really funny redneck impression, without dropping his English accent. Then he sings about being inspired by God to run 20 red lights. Thank You Jesus! Thank You Lord! Also, the fact that the main body of lyrics is in spoken word really helps the song. Neat lyrics, again, and I like that music. What kind of music is that, anyway? ;p
Don't take my wife, don't come back! Just kidding. I think Respectable is just kind of average, and not very punky at all (guitar isn't electric enough for that). Nice song, but that's it.
Keith's rebellion song, too bad he has nothing to rebel against. His choked vocals (he sounds like he's holding in a few hundred breaths) are pretty damn annoying, and the tune is really nice and sappy... but I kinda like it.
Almost done. Really cool guitar intro to Beast of Burden. I'm sure the song is about fucking, but don't tell Bette Midler that, she'd go into a conniption fit. Nice lyrics, ok music. This song isn't really near the top of the album.
Shattered is one of the classics, DUH!
8 out of 10
I'd have to say I pretty much love this album. Not as much as, say, Beggars Banquet, but yeah. "Miss You" is a ROCK AND ROLL SONG and great at that. Screw this disco crap. "When the Whip Comes Down" rocks along hard as a....hmm...I've never been big on analogies. "Imagination" is pretty cool; those guitars intertwine nicely. "Some Girls" is wowwie-man-wow type lyrics set to a grrrrrroovin'...groove. Great song. "Lies" is DAMN fast, and catchy, if you can keep up with it. "Far Away Eyes" is AWESOME. GREAT country. Boy, I love that one. "Respectable" is really cool -- all Chuck Berry there, I tell you what. "Before They Make Me Run" is good enough. "Beast of Burden" I like; it's rather pretty. Like a pretty pretty pretty pretty girl. Damn Forty Licks cut that one and "Miss You" all up. "Shattered" finishes it off pretty good. It's not great, but it's...good. Ah, hell. 7 or 8/10. Depends on if it's raining or not. If it's snowing, it gets a 12!
Regardless, you should definitely look for some of these bootlegs - let me give you some song titles so you know what you're looking for.
If you like early Stones, hunt down the side-bustingly hilar "Fuckin' Andrew," a tacky tribute to their original manager that is sung by... hmmm.... Brian Jones, maybe? Funny. There's also truckloads of what I believe to be covers that should have been on their first records: "Roll Over Beethoven" (which is large iotas better than the Beatles's version of same; Mick just had a much cooler voice, happy to say), "Bright Lights Big City," "High-Heeled Sneakers," "Baby What's Wrong," "Crackin' Up," "I Want To Be Loved," "Fanny Mae" - all cool. Maybe B-sides of singles? I don't know. You?
Later on, in the psychedelic drug era, they recorded the very catchy Who-ish vocal-harmony-immersed "Loving Sacred Loving" and the wretched "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"-wannabe entitled "Shades Of Orange." Horrid song. Horrid. God, it's bad. Look for it!
And man overboard, the acoustic blues outtakes from '68 to '72 are unbefrigginlievable. Oh my deary, find them all. Eat them. How in the world could they not have released "Still A Fool?" Eight or ten minutes of the heaviest blues they ever did - seriously! It's an amazing song! And unreleased? What kind of marketing scheme is that? And "I Was A Country Boy," the catchiest acoustic instrumental ever recorded by man? And "Blood Red Wine," more depressing than the wrath of an angry god, but in a good way? And the infamously obscene and overdramatic bawdy joke "Cocksucker Blues?" And the jaunty ragtime soon-to-be-the-intro-to-"Happy" "Who Am I (See I Love You)" that proved once and for all that Charlie Watts was actually a jazz drummer the whole time? And the completely frigged-up rocker "Highway Child" featuring only upbeat drums, Mick's eager vocals, and one distorted guitar playing a riff that sounds like it was written by a ten-year-old? And the almost-as-catchy-as-"I Was A Country Boy" instrumental "Potted Shrimp?" And the as-good-as-you-might-expect cover of Robert Johnson's "32-20 Blues?" And the bonus bluesy-wueser "I Don't Know The Reason Why?" Why? Why have they still not released these great songs? What are they thinking?
In addition to the ditties mentioned in that last paragraph, you can also find really neat early versions of hits, like "As Time Goes By" (very bad, but funny! Mick sings like a little boy.), "Did Everybody Pay Their Dues ("Street Fighting Man")," and "Good Time Women ("Tumbling Dice)." Wouldn't collectors just pay up a blue streak for this stuff? I would! They even did a few great ones in the late 70s! Avoid the crappy adult pop stuff like "What Gives You The Right," "You Married An Angel," and "Lonely At The Top," but keep your eyes peeled back in their sockets for "Claudine," a funny tribute to Claudine Longet (who "accidentally" shot her boyfriend - twice), and "Fiji Jim," a lead guitar-driven r'n'r fun ride (both available on Accidents Will Happen, as well as elsewhere). Man. If I were the Stones, this stuff would have been on the legal market years ago - 'Sup, guys? I mean, yeah, a lot of this stuff is just basic 12-bar blues, but what about the ones I just listed? Great songs! And, instead, they put out Steel Wheels. Fools. Hunt these songs down tomorrow.
Only the boring reggae "Send It To Me" and the semi-bluesy "Down In The Hole" cry out for a swift post-production kick in the asspipe. Go into it with an open mind and, like me, you'll find a good deal of festive pinatas. And the thermographic band photos are a dang snicker. I'm certain you can find this album for a dollar in the next three hours, so go ahead and buy it. And dig that falsetto!
On a more depressing note, here's an article I wrote for Crawdaddy.com shortly after my wife left me in May 2010:
OPEN MIC: Emotional Rescue
By Mark Prindle
I had seen her around campus, but knew her only as the ex-girlfriend of a fellow WXYC DJ. It wasn’t until a St. Patrick’s Day party on N. Greensboro Street that I worked up the nerve to speak to her. She was drunk and I was sober, so my dumb balloon animal gags were far better received than they deserved. “Look, a snake!” I boasted, simply hoisting a long balloon in the air. “And here,” holding a round balloon aloft, “A pig with no legs, tail or head!”
We talked well into the night and, as shy as I was, I somehow worked up the courage to invite her on a date to the hip collegey section of Durham the next day. And that’s when the trouble started.
See, I have issues. Okay, we all have issues. But my specific issues revolve around obsessive-compulsive disorder and low self-esteem. The former hit with a vengeance the next day, forcing me to (as always) wear whatever t-shirt was hanging next in the closet, and play whatever cassette tape was next according to whatever obsessive system I was following at the time. The shirt turned out to be a gigantic Ramones atrocity, and the cassette? Forget Crooked Rain Crooked Rain, Ill Communication and all the other college radio hits of the day. No, I would force this young woman to sit through the Rolling Stones’ much-loathed 1980 release Emotional Rescue.
The date did not go well.
However, a few months later a mixture of boredom and mutual attraction brought us back together – first as friends, then as lovers. And as time passed and we grew to compliment and complement each other, “Emotional Rescue” became a punchline – a funny reminder of a first date gone wrong. This is why I laughed in agreement when, seven years later, she suggested that we use this awful, endless sub-reggae mess as our wedding song.
She became my wife on November 10, 2001. We performed a ridiculous, over-the-top dance to our chosen schlock classic, and continued our journey through life.
Unfortunately, my issues had not gone away, and never would. In the early years of our relationship, I developed an anxious obsession so debilitating that it threw me into a lengthy depression and nearly tore us apart. Somehow, she loved me enough to stick with me until I found the right combination of medication and therapy.
But occasional setbacks were inevitable, and unbeknownst to me, each one tore another thread out of the emotional bond that held us together. On the surface we had a normal stable marriage – lots of laughter and dining out, vacations to exotic foreign lands, and even a puppy dog that we adopted and raised together. But underneath it all, something else was going on.
When bouncing paychecks forced me to leave my job in early 2009 -- during the heart of the recession -- my self-confidence hit an all-time low. I began treating her as my superior, my savior – and thus escalated the excuses, lies and drunken screaming fights. Soon I was threatening suicide on a regular basis.
Still, as bad as things were, I thought we’d be together forever – through sickness and health, richer and poorer. In particular, I thought that everything would be fine once I was working again. The irony is that that’s what she was waiting for; once I was working again, she could leave me without feeling guilty.
Is there nothing I can say
Nothing I can do
To change your mind
I'm so in love with you
She moved out without warning in May 2010, and we were legally separated by the end of July.
Don't you know promises were never made to keep?
Just like the night, dissolve in sleep
As anybody who has experienced this kind of abandonment can attest, it isn’t easy to accept. My life partner and soul mate had fallen out of love with me – after 15 ½ years. The confusion, pain and rage were overwhelming: “How could she do this to me?” I wondered. “Why didn’t she tell me something was wrong so that we could work together to fix it? Why did she fail me like this?”
Crying baby, yeah I'm crying
Yeah I'm like a child baby
However, once the tears dried and I was able to think clearly, I finally understood what had happened. She had warned me. At one point months earlier, she’d confessed that our marriage had begun to feel like a trap. Another time, she’d sadly lamented that we felt more like ‘friends’ or ‘brother and sister’ than a married couple. I had even seen her perusing marriage self-help books at Barnes & Noble. But I didn’t take any of it seriously. After all, she’d put up with my issues for this long; what could go wrong at this late date? We were life partners – together forever!
In other words, I was wrong: she didn’t fail me.
I'll be your savior, steadfast and true
I'll come to your emotional rescue
I failed her.
The title track was supposed to be "Miss You No. 2". It wasn't. It's still good, though (although I prefer the video version on Rewind. Why? Because it's two times shorter! And Keith wears a pretty fashionable jacket, too. Oops - sorry, that was on "She's So Cold").
"Let Me Go" is another good old-fashioned rocker. The faster version on Still Life worked better, though.
Now... I've started thinking about the other tracks and I wish I didn't. "All About You" is the usual Keith's wailing like on "Coming Down Again", but this time he did not bother much about setting it to a melody. "Down In The Hole" is a rather primitive bluesy tune. "Where the boys all go" is another punky tune, but, unlike "Respectable" or "Lies", it goes nowhere and does nothing besides exposing us to the unthinkable idea that the Stones DO know how to use bad words, too.
"Send It To Me" is OK, I guess, but I would prefer "Feel On Baby" from Undercover. "Summer Romance" is a good rocker but the sound is ruined by crappy production.
And finally (or, rather, initially), there is "Dance". Oh God! This is the ONLY track the Stones ever recorded that I honestly wish they wouldn't. DISCO CRAP - that's what it is! Sure, it's danceable, and I always said the Stones are primarily dance music, but not THAT dance music! HORRIBLE!
Anyways... this was never mentioned, but Summer Romance is incredibly unique for a song named "Summer Romance." Basically, it's an old guy (Mick) who had a fling with a high school slut, and is trying to console her over their breakup by explaining that in a little while, she'll be passing notes in study hall and hiding her make up and all her dumb-fuck girly bullshit, and he'll be in the pool hall with the guys and all will be normal.
Indian Girl is probably the only song where they mention Castro, or disemboweled corpses and mothers being raped by the soldiers. Scary song, and very serene, That's The Stones for ya. All About You is Keith's way of saying that he loves you because you're a dog and a jerk, and it's great.
This is really a semi-tame, semi-edgy album. There was only one real hit, She's So Cold (the best Stones song ever made, STILL!), and the rest of the album takes some getting used to, but it's all around great. Still hate Dance, other than the spoken word intro. Still think the title track is incredibly fun. Mick is my knight in shining arrrrmooooooorr.... ;p
And I can see why you might not like Send It To Me, since it's an average Stones song (formula #2, I think... great lyrics), but DOWN IN THE HOLE????? All of your friends gone... love that song. Give it one or two more listens. And I'll let you know, ah... when you're -
Bumming for cigarettes.... bumming for nylons! I'll let you know! When you're down in the hole! Something down, down down down...
LOOKIN' for cover and finding nowhere to go, no nowhere nowhere... *falls asleep, crying*
Well, EMOTIONAL RESCUE is the worst album ever by a world's formerly greatest rock and roll band. Or act. Don't wanna hear bout no Bob Dylan SELF PORTRAIT. Don't wanna hear no CCR MARDI GRAS. No Beatles' LET IT BE. Not even no U2 POP (or whichever 1 after JOSHUA TREE U think sent them in2 the toilet). Those ain't even close. At least those showed signs of life.
This is just mush. Lazy, muddy, spineless, no drive, no kick, lethargic, no EMOTION dammit, probly not even worth the trouble of hating, only 1 funny moment on it, Mick's slow-motion "Like a knight in shining armor, I am coming to your emotional rescue...."
Of course, 1 of the resons this is the worst album of all time is Bcos it SOLD so damn much. People never know what's good 4 them....
Anyway, with time, it really grew on us. Especially as we listened to it while playing that shitty Bomberman 64 game a long time ago. Good memories, boring game.
Anyway, this album deserves the 7 just because of "She's So Cold," which is the best Stones song ever, because it's the catchiest song in the history of FUCKING SONG FOREVEWR MOTHERUYFGCK
But really. That is one fucking multi catch of a hell hook in that song. It's fucking insane how catchy it is. Kind of like "Star Star."
I don't know about "Down in the Hole" or "Indian Girl," I remember not caring much about those, but "Summer Romance" is some great old classic Stonesy sneer rock that's a lot of fun. Same for "Where the Boy's Go." With a title like that, you'd think it would be a slow blues song about boys who've had their hearts broken by wumyn, and where they go to comiserate. But instead it's where the boys all go to party and get fucking drunk as shit! Awesome!
I kind of like how Keith sings, by the way. I just like that sort of beat up sounding voice, that's not too singy, but not too wretchedly bad. It's just kind of a calm human.
I also think that "Emotional Rescue" is a little bit moving as a fantasyish romanticism song, even if it's just me. I hate the ballads of course and shit like that, but this one has such a calm vibe.
I also like "Send it to Me," because it's a bluesy song that's a little catchy. I don't love it, but I won't skip over it. At least I DIDN'T, then. I haven't listened to this album in a long time, but I still remember the fond memories of listening to it.
There is ONE decent track on here. That would be "Dance." Arguably it's the best of the Stones' trilogy of disco tunes. ("Miss You" is good too, while "Hot Stuff" is vomit-inducing). Other tunes are listenable ONLY if one is in a VERY forgiving mood: "Indian Girl," "Down In The Hole," "All About You," and (god-forbid) even the title track can be listenable on occasion. Just not often. And the rest...god almighty! DON'T! Don't listen! It's crap like this that can cause stomach flus, strokes, and the worst of all, a severe loss of musical taste! (Which leads to today's faithful listeners of N'Sync...) Too many disastrous moments on here for this to be anywhere near good...
I am usually a very forgiving listener. I enjoy some popularly bad albums (the Stones Undercover album for instance). I understand other bad albums, and feel for the artists (the aforementioned "Undercover," was at least an attempt to do something different; and the Stones "Dirty Work"--well, I don't like it, but I understand the struggles they were going through at the time). But E.R. (an appropriate acronym, huh?)...this could well be the worst album I have heard in my life. There is no experimentation, no apparent "problem" inside the band at this time...just a possible contractual obligation, and a shameful need for the band to cash in on anything they do...don't support this people...they've already got enough...stick with the Let It Bleed's of the 60's the Exile's of the 70's and the Bridges of the 90's. They lost it in the 80's.
Four great songs surrounded by generic crap. The rockin' Windows 95 anthem "Start Me Up" will get your knees bouncin' to and fro, the "too-doo-doo-doo-doo"-enhanced "Hang Fire" belongs on Exile On Main Street, the weird, slow "Heaven" sounds like a Black And Blue outtake (and probably was!), and the gorgeous "Waiting On A Friend" actually surpasses "Beast Of Burden" to stake its claim as the most beautiful Stones song since "Angie" (it was also, FYI, the first music video that I ever saw on MTV - back when EBN-OZN's "AEIOU Sometimes Y" was in heavy rotation). And that's it. The rest of the rockers aren't just stagnant; they suck. Well, "Little T & A" doesn't suck, per se, but it sure aint no "Brown Sugar." Heck, it aint even no "Summer Romance." And the other slow ones sound like Rod Stewart, which is not a good thing at all.
However, for some reason, a lot of people really like this album. I don't quite understand why, but I'd wager it has something to do with "Start Me Up" - it is quite the album-opening crowd-pleaaaser. According to Mick, it was originally a reggae song, and all of the others were just old unfinished songs that they dug up and worked on for a little bit before recording. Hmmm. Figures. All I can say is that whoever thought it would be a good idea to split the album into a "fast side" and a "slow side" was a wee bit on the "dumb side." But don't worry! They only got worse from here!
But somehow you're more interested by the blandness of Emotional Rescue, which happens to be the worst Stones album. I guess we'll have to disagree on this one.
My personal opinion (and, I dare say, the opinion of most of your correspondents) is that on Tattoo You the Stones are at their ABSOLUTE BEST since... well, since Let It Bleed! There is not a single duffer among the songs! What did you say? "Little T&A" ain't no "Summer Romance"? I say it sure isn't - it's A MILLION TIMES BETTER! First of all, it's a groove, and it's a nice groove - a good riff and great soloing! And the ballads? Absolutely gorgeous!
It's even more incredible how after such a great album they could release an album as weak as Undercover. Maybe it IS due to the fact that most of the songs are outtakes from previous sessions, so that by 1981 there was no real composing already.
Check out your ratings, Mark!
Can't STAND the 1st side tho. "Start Me Up" sucks.
THEN THERE ARE THE LEFTOVERS from Some Girls and Emotional Rescue. Bad, bad idea. If you stop with the above songs, you have a pretty decent album. Not quite a good one, but quite listenable. However, throw in a stomach-wretching song like "Hang Fire," from the Some Girls throwaway batch and the album declines a grade. THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT EMOTIONAL RESCUE WAS FOR! TO GET RID OF THE REST OF THE SOME GIRLS OUTTAKES! (And boy, didn't that work wonderfully!) Then, if it wasn't bad enough to actually release the Emotional Rescue LP, the Stones then actually released the songs NOT GOOD ENOUGH to make the Emotional Rescue LP! NOT GOOD ENOUGH!?!? My snoring ability is good enough to make the Emotional Rescue LP! And upon hearing "Little T&A" and "No Use In Crying," which did not qualify for the E.R. album, I've concluded that my snoring is definitely preferable to these tunes! So, the album has just jumped down a grade-and-a-half. Not good. A possible B album is now a C- at best.
I am just writing this to warn people ahead of time about these albums, because there aren't enough nay-sayers writing in to do it. And since we're on that topic, Dirty Work is not worth buying as well as Satanic Majesties (although I must say it is intriguing, but the album as a whole is not good). Finally, Voodoo Lounge is drastically overrated. (Okay, I've thrown in my warnings. For my top ten, skip to the bottom.) In summation, I repeat--Tattoo You is not as dreadful as Emotional Rescue, but it's not much better either. Listen to the second half and you'll be fairly pleased, because if you start from the beginning, you won't want to get to the end...
Grant' top ten Stones list:
1) Exile On Main Street (the masterpiece--what a great atmosphere!)
2) Bridges To Babylon (the modern masterpiece--great tunes!)
3) Let It Bleed (the 60's masterpiece--dark and bluesy)
4) Sticky Fingers (the 70's runner-up to exile; great feel, grows upon
repeated listens)
5) Beggars Banquet (the beginning of the classics)
6) Steel Wheels (yes, it's poppy, but it's catchy and energetic as hell.
Best since...)
7) Some Girls (the last classic Stones album. Experiments with punk and
disco)
8) It's Only Rock And Roll (trying to combine the old Stones with new gloss.
It works)
9) Goats Head Soup (Still extremely creative, just lost a little attitude)
10) Black And Blue (Attitude and rawness is back. Some weak tunes, but
plenty of good ones)
PS: But, hey, I love "Going To A Go-Go!"
Oh so stale. And completely directionless, like it was recorded by eight different bands who hated each other. Well, I love the funky bass-driven "Undercover Of The Night" and "Too Much Blood," and the basic rockers "Too Tough" and "She Was Hot," and that "Pretty Beat Up" thing is pretty cool, but the other five songs are a complete embarrassment. "It Must Be Hell" sounds like John Cougar doing a cover of "Honky Tonk Women," "All The Way Down" sounds like a Stones rip-off band, Keith's "Wanna Hold You" is no improvement on his prior work, and the dub-esque "Feel On Baby" and "Tie You Up" prove that, sadly enough, not only is this not the Stones of Sticky Fingers fame; this isn't even the Stones of Black And Blue fame. Weird how half of the album can be so fun, and the other half so pathetic, eh? Crazy world we live in.
But "She Was Hot" is a fine rock piece, quite in the traditional style. And "Undercover of the night" is catchy. "Too Much Blood" is fun if not taken seriously. ALL the other songs are rather dull. And they also rely too heavily on electronics. I wonder if Charlie ever visited the studio during the sessions!
"Undercover of the Night"...incredible percussion, great rhythm riffs from Keef, Wyman at his absolute best, excellent lead work from Ronnie, Jagger really working out on vocals. Instrumentally, one of their finest performances ever.
"She Was Hot"..."Rocks Off" for the eighties, Exile quality vocals from Jagger, great Keef solo, politically uncorrect lyrics, a CLASSIC
"Tie You Up"...incredible percussion again, one of Keef's best lead guitar performances ever, no bullshit singing from Jagger, great backing vocals,etc., etc.
"Wanna Hold You"...Good song-could have been great if performed like the current tour version with horns, background vocals, and great slide from Ronnie. Could have been the equal of "Happy".
"Feel On Baby"...I've never been a big Stones' reggae fan, but this is the best reggae they've ever done. Incredible percussion from Sly Dunbar.
"Too Much Blood"...This song has it all-funk,disco, soul, rock and roll, and those kick ass horns
"Pretty Beat Up"...some of Keef's best bass work ever, nasty guitars, incredible sax from David Sanborn-one of their best disco oriented songs ever
"Too Tough"...How can this song not be great? "Brown Sugar"/"Jumpin' Jack" style riff, peak Jagger vocals and lyrics, fierce Ronnie lead, and more excellent percussion
"All the Way Down"...The most underrated song on the album. Jagger in fine voice, Keef and Woody weaving perfectly, those classic out of tune backup vocals on the chorus, and the incredible bridge "She's there when I close my eyes, there when I close my eyes."
"It Must Be Hell"..."Honky Tonk Women" in the verses, "Soul Survivor" in the choruses, and "Sympathy for the Devil" in the fadeout. Everything that makes the Stones the Stones in one song. One of the strongest pieces of music in their entire career
Just my two cents worth...give the album another listen to some time and see if you agree
But the title track is fucking awesome. Perhaps containing the greatest drum machine track ever made, unless that's actually Charlie. I wouldn't know, I don't have the album.
It's really raw, and it starts so simple. Some loud riffs, and that's all. Then as the song progresses, they add a million effects (of the not-entirely-gay variaty) and heavier riffs. And the drumming is really cool. The drumming is actually cool, and this is a Rolling Stones song.
The video was pretty neat too, even if it's incredibly dated. They get to fire guns, and then they die. That's a cool idea for a video.
No kidding! This is EASILY the best thing the Stones have put out since Some Girls. (It's not as good as the upcoming Steel Wheels, but...let's rewind back to '83 a second...) This is definitely not vintage Stones, but after the half-assed effort on Tattoo You and no-assed effort on Emotional Rescue (have you ever before heard an album that contains all FILLER tracks? E.R. is just that!), Undercover is the first solid effort the Stones have put forth this decade. "Undercover Of The Night," "Too Much Blood," "Too Tough," "Wanna Hold You," "Feel On Baby," "It Must Be Hell,"....the songs for the most part are all pretty good. Mick Jagger has obviously been influenced by Michael Jackson here and does his best to emulate him in some of these songs. The production job obliges with a crystal clear techno-pop sound and plenty of heretofore unseen tricks on a Stones' record. But the killer song (literally) that definitely keeps me coming back for more is "Too Much Blood," the centerpiece of the album. It's one of my favorite Stones' tunes of all time--the riff, the funk, the imagery, and the basic groove of the whole track just kicks! and never lets up! This track alone is arguably better than any other tune to come out of the Stones early 80's catalogue besides "Waiting On A Friend" (which is actually from the early 70's, but I digress).
Undercover barely missed my top-ten Stones' albums (Black And Blue is a tad better executed) The reason is...it still could have been better. There are good reasons why people do not like this album, and they should not be altogether ignored. There is filler material on here such as "All The Way Down, " "She Was Hot," (although released as a single, don't be fooled, it's not very good) and "Tie You Up," (it's okay, but could have just been dropped.) Further, some of the good tunes do not have the gritty production that is needed (ie. "Too Tough," "It Must Be Hell,"). And again, this is not the Stones we all knew and loved from the 60's and 70's. But it is a neat 80's experiment, and a good portion of it works...
Absolute garbage. Trying to prove they could keep up with the '80s, they spat up an album that belongs in that wretched Mr. Mister / Starship / Mike And The Mechanics era that VH-1 fans so love to reminisce about. Stupid keyboard-drenched adult pop and wretched guitar rock are pretty much all you've got here, with Mick not even bothering to sing, preferring to belch out all the words in an ugly phlegmy voice. Completely rotten. Starts with the strong rocker "One Hit To The Body" and dives headfirst into Crapsville River shortly thereafter. The covers of "Harlem Shuffle" and "Too Rude" are the only other songs that even come close to actual decency. The rest is unlistenable bullshit music.
The rest, however, is hogwash. "Back To Zero" and "Too Rude" are dull disco/reggae outbursts; "Fight" is an over-aggressive rocker which has nothing to show but the aggression; and "Hold Back" is the worst song by any Stone EVER (if the term 'song' is appliable to it). Particularly annoying are Jagger's vocals. Someone said he "barked all his way through the album". I couldn't agree more (except for "Had It With You"!)
I looked at the album cover and got ill. I'm never going to own this album, ever.
And the rest? Yyyyyyyuck! One listen to "Fight" almost made me vomit. "Got to get into a fight"? Sounds more like "GATCHGETINNTOAFAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!" Bastard Jagger. Bastard Jagger and his stupid 80's vocal deliveries or lack thereof. I don't even know WHAT I can rate this album. MAYBE a 3/10. And that's if I'm on morphine or something. Speaking of which, I long for the days of "Sister Morphine", don't you?
Low-grade dog food. After a three-year breakup and some scathing solo attacks on each other, Mick and Keith gathered the troops back into the studio to prove that they still had what it takes. They didn't. Aside from the decent, if generic, singles "Mixed Emotions," "Almost Hear You Sigh" and "Rock And A Hard Place," this is excruciating stuff.
Unlike Dirty Work, however, it's at least entertaining. As each song fades into the next, it becomes increasingly clear that they were trying desperately to prove that they were still "the Rolling Stones." You can almost hear them nudging each other and saying, "Hey! Let's show 'em that we're still the kings of the generic rock 'n' roller! ("Sad Sad Sad")," and "Hey! Let's show 'em we're the same band that did those disco songs in the late '70s! ("Terrifying")," and "Hey! Remember when we used to do a lot of country/western? ("Blinded By Love")," and "Hey! We did some fast songs in the late '70s, too! ("Hold On To Your Hat")," and "Ooooh! Remember those cheesy keyboard ballads from the last album? Weren't those the best? ("Almost Hear You Sigh")," and "Wait a minute! Didn't we start off as an R 'n' B band? ("Break The Spell")," and, most embarrassingly of all, "Hey dude! Let's show 'em we're still psychedelic on that groovy '60s vibe! ("Continental Drift," very possibly the most abysmal song they've ever recorded)."
But, alas, no matter how hard they tried to sound like the Rolling Stones, they still ended up sounding like a bunch of out-of-touch old bags. What's up with those horrendous guitar solos, anyway? Very successful tour, though.
1) Mick has begun to sing on this one. Sure, he continues to bark on the rockers - but not all of the tracks are rockers! 2) Keith's "Slipping Away" is probably the best ballad he's ever done ("You Got The Silver" is the only one that comes close).
3) The rockers are not as bad as the ones on Dirty Work, especially "Rock And A Hard Place" and "Sad Sad Sad". ("Hold On To Your Hat", though, is a terrible piece of punkish bullshit!)
4) "Terrifying" is not as entertaining a disco number as "Miss You" - but it IS a song, at least, unlike the worthless "Dance" on ER (wow! I like the way Mick goes "strange... strange... desiiiiiiiiires!") It even reminds me of something real good they've done way back, maybe "Fingerprint File"?
5) You skip through "Hearts For Sale", which is a filler, and you get... A BALLAD! A BALLAD! Hey, we haven't had a ballad from the Stones since "Tattoo You"! Even if it is not a very good one, it's still heartlifting to hear Mick singing it!
6) And finally, I don't like "Continental Drift" much, but it at least demonstrates that Mick and Keith were actually WORKING on the songs and experimentating again instead of THROWING them UP like a piece of VOMIT (which they did on Dirty Work)!
On the whole of it, Steel Wheels is undoubtedly one of the best albums of 1989, together with McCartney's Flowers In The Dirt and Clapton's Journeyman. It is the beginning of Renaissance for the Stones.
"mixed emotions" is pretty good though...
I'm surprised a reviewer regarded this as low-grade dog food and reviewed Some Girls favorably. Conversely, I consider Some Girls very boring and Steel Wheels a very decent record. Its best songs, "Almost Hear You Sigh," "Blinded by Love," "Can't Be Seen," "Slipping Away," and the experimental "Continental Drift" make it one of their strongest since Exile. The rest of the tracks are at least average, I don't think there's one bad track here.
i love the byrds, the kinks, the beatles and the stones and lots of other 60s stuff too, but i really dislike that mentality where bands from the 60s reign king no matter what era we are in. "good music" did not cease to be created after 1972.
i'm sorry if this sounds harsh or condescending (i really don't mean it! and i imagine i will be less in contact with contemporary music as i grow older) but it bothers me when loads of innovative and brilliant bands from the past 20 or 30 years get unjustly ignored or get the tag "good for the 90s" thrown on them because people can't look beyond the trailblazers of the 60s that they grew up with. i'm sorry but i'd much rather listen to built to spill than the stones in their latest "renaissance".
No long boring wank jams (although the mid-song guitar solos are atrocious) - just classic after classic after classiccc, all performed pretty well. Admittedly, "Paint It Black" sounds goofy being played by a bunch of fifty-year-olds, but "Satisfaction" kicks, "Sympathy For The Devil" starts with bongos and piano like it's supposed to, and "Factory Girl" never sounded this good! Mick actually hitting the notes? Neat neat neat, damn it! The only suck jobs are the two stupid Steel Wheels songs (I like "Rock And A Hard Place," so I'm not counting it).
And.... two new songs! How about that, eh? The anti-Gulf War "High Wire" sounds as much like BS now as it did at the time, and "Sex Drive" is a complete rip-off of "Hot Stuff," but I dig it 'cause that "Hot Stuff" makes my poundcake shimmy. Not fantazmo, but better than the last few studio albums, at least, which is something.
On the other hand, the young spirit's gone. That Spirit Of Youth and Energy. Indeed, it was already gone by the beginning of the 80s; what we had on Still Life was Old Fart Mick trying to catch up with it. In vain. Only looked ridiculous in his sportswear. By 1989 he got the message. So, instead of trying to look what he wasn't, Mick is honestly saying: "Hey guys, I've changed but I'll still do my best to please you!" So there's a lot of scenery and effects and smoke and inflated dolls and a giant screen and all, and there's also good old Mick running and jumping around as usual, but he's so small now - he's just a teensy-weensy part of the show, so nobody really minds if he misses a note or two (which he doesn't - the songs are all very well rehearsed). This is a grand show. Music is only a small and not the most significant part of it. At least that's what you get on video. On CD it's entirely different. You just hear the music and you let go - 'cos it's good!
And one more word about the new songs. "Sex Drive" certainly is a remake of "Hot Stuff" - a BAD remake: all those intoxicating guitar breaks eliminated and replaced by slicky horns and rappy back-up vocals. "Highwire" is decent, but uninspired. Nah! Skip 'em. Get Black And Blue instead.
Listening to it in my car the other day, it made me so embarrassed I rolled up my windows and turned the volume down, two things I never do unless it's either raining or other people are in the car. I mean, I like some parts of it a lot. "Ruby Tuesday" sounds great, and so does "Factory Girl," but other than that... there's not too much else to listen to here. At first I hated the version of "Satisfaction," but after a few listens it grew on me. Same goes for "Jumpin' Jack Flash," although I still like the studio versions of both a lot more.
Just about every song suffers from shitty lead guitar work. Ron and Keith either just dick around aimlessly, or start off with the original solo for a bit and THEN dick around aimlessly, a technique which is most readily apparent on, of all things, "Sympathy For The Devil," which I can't even get through.
Is it just me, or they (Keith & Ron) not even try to play some of the guitar lines right at all? "Brown Sugar" sounds like shit, and not just because of the back-up singers, either. "Paint It Black," to me at least, sounds like a joke here. Mick sounds like he's trying to make fun of the original's foreboding tone, and whoever's playing the lead part doesn't seem to be trying very hard to hit the right notes, or even wrong notes that would sound sort of close to the melody.
I think the best thing to do would be to just burn a CD with this tracklist, but the original studio versions rather than these dull, decidely non-rocking, wanky versions found here, and completely leave off the new stuff.
My friends and I all had a good laugh at the band pictures in the liner notes, though. If George Lucas ever needs to cut back on the makeup budget for a future Star Wars movie he can just slap some green shit on Mick Jagger's face and have him play Yoda.
No, I'm serious this time! It's good!
For reasons which I'm sure you can figure out on your own, I wrote this off before I'd even heard it. But then I started reading all these positive reviews of it and, even though I clearly remembered middle-aged critics going sow-wild over Steel Wheels five short years earlier, I was intrigued.
And good thing, 'cause this is a good album! A fourteen-song double-album (or fifteen-song CD, if you're that kinda person), it doesn't sound like old men trying to sound like the Rolling Stones; it actually sounds like the Rolling Stones as old men! They're a little slower and more introspective; for the most part, the emphasis is on creating melodic pop music instead of trying to keep up with current tastes (or fans's expectations). And it works. The pop songs (though a tad hokey) are extremely pretty, even approaching out-and-out beauty at certain junctures.
Maybe you've heard "Out Of Tears," Mick's piano-driven, paralyzed-by-loss love anthem. It might be the prettiest, but the sad-old-man-loses-the-girl-to-an-abusive-young-whippersnapper melodrama "New Faces" is fantastic as well as unexpected (who'da thought that Mick would ever fess up to the fact that, like most other human beings, at some point he was going to turn into an old geez?), "Blinded By Rainbows" is lyrically interesting as well as guitar-catchy, the slow blues-related "Baby Break It Down" does more to put forth an honest Exile On Main Street getting old, achy, and tired" emotion than anything else they've done since Goats Head Soup, and Keith's surprisingly excellent rebel anthems, "The Worst" and "Thru And Thru," do much to poke holes in the notion that he is completely incapable of writing a new melody. They're good, gosh darn it, good.
And for those of you who like the faster stuff, you can have the generic (but well-mixed and genuinely fun) radio standards "Love Is Strong," "You Got Me Rocking," "Sparks Will Fly," and "I Go Wild." And they don't sound like BS! On Voodoo Lounge, the Stones actually sound like a band again, instead of a retro irritation.
But, just so you won't get too excited about their long-overdue "comeback," they've included two or three songs that just suck all sorts of ass. "Sweethearts Together" has a nice accordion, but sickeningly saccharine lyrics and a poorly-conceived vocal style that complements neither Mick's talent nor that nice accordion, "Brand New Car" is a rotten sleaze explosion lacking both brains and energy, and the quote-unquote funky "Suck On The Jugular" does to James Brown what "Continental Drift" had done to "Paint It Black" just one album earlier - mutilates it into a so-bad-it's-not-even-funny food stain on the power tie of modern culture.
Aside from those few crappy songs, it's a pretty great record. Not a return to form, but rather a graceful acceptance of age, and an awfully honest and honestly not awful way of dealing with it.
The ballads are absolutely uninteresting. "New Faces", whatever you say, is maybe the worst ballad Mick has ever written. Why? I'll tell you! It reminds me of "Lady Jane", and trust me, I would rather listen to that one! "Out Of Tears"... everybody seems to like that one, but it just lacks the inspiration of their 60's - 70's ballads. Keith's "The Worst" is good, but short, and "Thru And Thru" is long, but bad.
The other songs are weak... insipid... lack excitement... make you sick... etc. Why people prefer this album to Steel Wheels has always been a mystery to me! Not that SW is a perfect album, see, but it's much more lively, at least!
What is unfortunate is that the album could have been even stronger, for the Stones were a little circumspect in their track selection. Two of the b-sides should have been on the album: "The Storm" is 2 1/2 minutes of straight blues and "Jump On Top Of Me" is simply great; slow and slinky with some nice interplay between Keith and Ron and an interesting lyric from Mick.
If you can ever get ahold of the outtake "Honest Man" on bootleg or the web-do it. A raw Keith rhythm, abrasive harmonica and genuinely good lyrics from Mick combine to create one of the better Stones tunes of the last decade-that they left it off the album is genuinely puzzling.
Anyway, I liked Mick's Wandering Spirit from this period much better. That record bordered on inspired.
¡Hola, mis amigos mexicanos! A partir del primer momento que lo oí, yo consideraba "fuera de los rasgones" una canción, un correcto para arriba allí con "Martes de Rubíes" y un "Angie" maravillosamente melancólicos. Sin embargo, debido a su producción pulida de los '90s, puedo entender definitivamente porqué pudieron otros considerado él basura soulless del contemporáneo del adulto. También, sé que me no suponen beber el agua en su país porque me dará diarrea. ¿Pero es aceptable beber la diarrea?
Zeg links uit, voel niet, u gekke Dutchers in Dutchville! Deze versie van "Uit Scheuren" is vermoedelijk "Aantrekt Was Uitgeeft," maar aan me schijnt het enkel over een kortere minuut, die fijn is omdat het lied te assfuckingly lang was te beginnen met (hoewel ik van het! houd). Het is een dergelijk MOOI lied! Vooral wanneer de volledige band speelt. U kent, over hier in Amerika, betekent de term ' Nederlands gaan ' dat een jongen en een meisje de controle van hun datum verdelen, eerder dan de jongen die voor alles betaalt. Dit omdat de Nederlandse mensen goedkope stukken van is shit zijn die denken zij een vrije snatchgrab verdienen enkel omdat zij stomme kleine houten schoenen dragen? Of is het om wat andere reden? Ook, denk ik u mensen windmolens hebt.
Hé Français ! J'ai visité Paris par le passé et vous des types étiez un groupe de piqûres, mais j'apprécie comment vous êtes toujours nu et chose ! Jim Morrison est encore poésie vivante et d'écriture dans votre pays, et que diriez-vous de de tous ces crânes et os dans les catacombes ? C'est joli dopant de rad, n'est-il pas ? Je ne parle pas réellement du disque mais les Américains sont si stupides, ils savent seulement une langue ! Ils ne suspecteront jamais une chose ! Ha ha ! l'"liberté fait frire" en effet ! En tout cas, merci pour le pain grillé et la 'subsistance sur Frenchin '!"
"eu estou indo dirigir" sou um B-lado grande! É uma canção agradável e relaxada da rocha e do rolo do midtempo, com as cordas felizes do piano e os guys cheerful da guitarra. Modal! Canção boa harmless do vibe de Nice! Should've estado no album. Bate o inferno fora daquele cabelo sweaty smegma-embebido da esfera do semen-gotejamento no lado três do lounge de Voodoo. YECH! Também, você é portuguese! (Brasil)
Perchè ciao là, voi Sylvester Stallone-come 'lo stallion italiano '! Heh del heh di Heh. "Sto Andando Guidare" sono una distensione, canzone buona piacevole. Ammetto che è molto tradizionale, ma è così facile sugli orecchi! Quei twiggle del piano e Ron e Keith piccoli che vanno appena, sorta basso Elvising del tipo esso. È kinda come quando presa del poop sulla faccia della ragazza (perché è cattolica) che la stessa specie della sensibilità piacevolmente comoda che funziona attraverso il vostro corpo intero. Inoltre, non dica al mexicans in su là ma soltanto i fags portano i sombreros. Fuckin 'mexicans del fag tutto lo stickin 'nel nnnn durante i loro 'siestas quotidiani.' 'Siesta '? Più come '(Carlos è mio) il degustatore della penna!'
Okay, I'm back to English now. I actually put forth the effort to write Greek and Russian paragraphs too, but they fucking TURNED INTO QUESTION MARKS after I saved them in Text. May God Damn Them! At any rate -- Hello all you English readers! How did it feel being left out of the private conversation I was having with my International friends? Didn't feel very GOOD now, did it? So remember that the next time a Dutch guy comes up to you and says, "Als alle Nederlandse mensen, Ik ben homosexual. U zult me doen, recht? Hier, gelieve te buigen over zodat zou ik mijn pud kunnen opnemen." Just be polite, act like you understand him and before you know it, you might have a new friend!
Oh hell, I forgot my readers from the Orient. Hay! Take your shoes off when you come in the house! And have some rice! Side one of this record is the "Don Was Edit," but sounds exactly like the album version except shorter! Side B is called "I'm Gonna Drive" and it's a wonderfully relaxing, smooth and simple little midtempo rock and roll song with a couple of nice guitars and a fun little piano line! It's very basic, but should've gone on the album because it beats the hell out of all the stuff on side 3! So have a good kimono and keep beating your children so that they do well in school! Ah so! (*bows; karate chops through four concrete blocks*)
(*is rushed to hospital and informed that bones in hand have crumbled into a fine dust*)
(*pokes hole in finger; pours hand-dust into rolling paper; lights it up and gets hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*)
However, artistically and commercially, it's very reassuring to watch them follow up their best album in fifteen years not with another generic live album, but with a document designed to remind the world that they ARE the Rolling Stones, and that they are, first and foremost, musicians and songwriters. No back-up singers (except in the vomit-inducing Dylan cover) and very few guest musicians - just the Stones playing their old songs.
"The Spider And The Fly?" "Shine A Light?" "I'm Free?" That's pretty cool. And some of 'em actually sound great, too - my fave raves are "The Spider And The Fly" (in which Mick changes the original 1965 lines, "She was common, flirty / She looked about thirty" to a more resigned, slightly embarrassed "She was a hippie, thrifty / She looked about ...fifty") and "Love In Vain," which boasts an enjoyable missed note courtesy of Mr. Clean Keith Richards. A very good idea. And basically a pretty good record, although it's a little hard to take it seriously knowing that these are the same guys who gave us Steel Wheels and Dirty Work just a few short years earlier.
My problem was the covers of "Angie" and "Let it Bleed", which don't hold a filtered Pall Mall in the wind compared to the originals. The "Wild Horses" cover was at least palatable, though.
And FYI, the original "Street Fighting Man" was all acoustic as well. That version was better, though.
But not this one. No sir. When I listen to it, I like to imagine that the band has found themselves in some delightful time-travel accident (much like the one featured in the blockbuster-worst-in-the-trilogy Back To The Future III) whereby they have been transported to a saloon in the American west of the late 1800's. (The Dylan cover is a bit too produced for that, granted; I don't dislike it as much as Mark does though, even with the one fewer verse and fifteen unnecessary backup vocalists.) Anyway, I just really dig the vibe they got for this one, with out all of the extra production.
Hell... "Not Fade Away" doesn't even completely suck. And Buddy Holly was a simplistic dumb square fuck.
My dad looked just like him when he was my age, too. Isn't that keen?
The best Stones album since Some Girls! (as long as you don't go by "how good it is compared to the other Stones albums released since Some Girls"). Not what I'm looking for. Not only does this record refuse to create the goodtime jovial hell yeah mood you expect from a Stones album, but it also refuses to present any solid new riffs. They're going for a darker, sort of cooler R'n'B sound on a lot of these, and though the songs are by no means bad or embarrassing like a lot of the Steel Wheels and Dirty Work stuff, they also don't really register at all. On here, the Stones sound like depressed old souls trying to sound sleek and sexy. The sound almost works, but so what? The melodies are damn near non-existent. Aside from the Keith Richards-sung closers, "Thief In The Night" and "How Can I Stop," nothing on here goes anywhere particularly important. Even the rockers are more bitter and hateful than good-natured and catchy. And no, I don't mind bitterness and hate in rock music if it's presented with power, speed and emotion, but here it's just delivered by Mick trying to sound tough and the band just sort of pussyfooting around. Again, there really aren't many truly bad songs on here - probably only one or two. And I gotta commend the Stones for going out on a limb and trying something different (and darn near ALTERNATIVE!) this late in their lives. But what I don't gotta do is enjoy the music and, try as I might, I just can't. The last two songs are lovely. Very good, though predictable, tunes. And I never thought there would be a point in my life when I would say this, but maybe they oughta let Keith sing more often! Unlike Mick, who is trying WAAAAAY too hard to sound tough and sexy, Keith just sounds like raspy old Keith, which is a lovely thing. In conclusion, I'm glad that the boys didn't go back to being self-parodies, but I'm not thrilled with this particular brand of music they've chosen. It may be for YOU, so give it a chance if you like "Anybody Seen My Baby." It's just not what I personally am into.
I like PIZZA a lot, though! Making fart noises with my hands too!
I won't go through all the songs, but I have to mention the fantastic "Low Down", "Too Tight" and "Gunface". Rockers-wise, this is what they've been searching for on the last few albums. "Saint of Me" and "Out of Control" aren't the new "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Fingerprint File" they've been described as. Still great songs, though. Even that Keith reggae tune, "You Don't Have to Mean It" really works. Thanks guys for your best album in many many years!
7/10 ('cause however good Bridges is, Beggars Banquet, Sticky Fingers and Exile will always be better!)
The main problem is that there's very little cohesiveness with this album. Even Voodoo Lounge had a definite sequential plan to it. This one, however, seems to me to be a collection of singles and unconnected vignettes. Let's face it: "Saint of Me", "Always Suffering", "Out of Control", "How Can I Stop"...these are all good songs, all worthy of singles, in my opinion. But they just don't flow together.
Did any of you see the tour for B2B? I went to it, and it was almost like the Stones used the album as an excuse to tour. The tour was great, but they rarely played more than two or three songs from the album per show. (Normally "Saint of Me", "Out of Control", and "Flip the Switch"). It seemed that they thought that their faithful wouldn't be able to adapt to the new sounds of the album when laid alongside their prior successes (of which the setlists were chock full).
All things considered, however, I like this album, (better than Tattoo You and Emotional Rescue, actually). But hey, it's all a matter of individual taste.
That is why I am trying to buy every Stones' album that is. And I was happy to lay my hands on Bridges - because this is yet another Message from the Gods, one could say. And I don't like Bridges, mind you. It doesn't stand up to the Stones' name and fame. It's much worse than Voodoo Lounge. It's good they don't play much out of it. But I would prefer this album to ANY - mind you, ANY! - best-selling album of 1997 (and 1996, and 1995!) - just to hear Mick singing once again, and Keith tearing at his strings, and just to catch a few more shadows of the Stones' past glory!
God, shall there be another Mick Jagger in this world? Hardly. So, folks, let's pray he'll stay on stage for at least a hundred years more! I really don't know what's gonna happen to music when he's gone!
This is definitely Stonesy! And with the excitement and power the Voodoo Lounge album lacked. It has a very modern sound, like Steel Wheels before it, but it's not poppy/cheesy like Steel Wheels. "Flip The Switch," "Low Down," "Gunface," "Saint Of Me," "Might As Well Get Juiced,"--the hard tunes are really solid. And the few ballads, "Already Over Me," and "Always Suffering," are quite good. It fades a bit at the end, but every Stones album ever had filler material at some point (with the possible exceptions of Let It Bleed and Beggars Banquet). But the overrall package is quite powerful. This was the album that truly made me a Rolling Stones fan.
The Rolling Stones have definitely made progress over their last few albums. Steel Wheels started them off on the right track as the band reinvented the Stones classic sound, mixing it with an 80's flavor. Voodoo Lounge further stripped the Stones to their basic roots, with no compromises. And Bridges once again adds to that foundation with a hard-hitting sound of great songs and solid production. I can say without shame that this is tied for my second favorite Stones album of all time, with Let It Bleed. If you like the early Stones albums, you should love this one as well...
I am so tired of these "old men" cavils... Why dont people grow the fuck up? And get an education? We all know age does not matter... The Stones are so much better than pretty much everybody else that it isnt even funny. Thier bad albums are better than some bands best ones and "old age" doesnt technically start till 65. The Stones arent that old yet. And even when they are they will still be good-Mick Jagger still performs like a 25 year old. So... Just wanted u to know what a redneck, dumbass, uneducated thing to say that about the Stones... But you were right about one thing... Voodoo Lounge was a very good album. Have a great life-Goodbye
I like your reviews, they are all thoughtful and fun. But the people who comment on your pages, specifically the rolling stones page, are idiots.
Some examples (about the album Some Girls):
'More overplayed crap, specifically the singles "Miss You", "Beast Of Burden", and "Shattered"'
'"Miss You" is an embarrassment'
'"Miss You" is lifeless dross'
I don't know if it is a coincidence that "Miss You" was their biggest crossover hit, or that Some Girls sold as many copies as it did, but I STRONGLY suspect that the popularity of the album has something to do with these bizarre comments. I'm shocked so many people recognize the disco elements of "Miss You" in the first place. I didn't even notice it until I read a review of the album and recognized the 'four-on-the-gloor' beat. Or maybe once these people heard about how popular the song and album were, or how "Miss You" was built on a disco beat, they decided to hate it. It seems that way to me.
I want to know how old these reviewers are. I've heard about Stones fans who had temper tantrums when the band stopped putting out formula after "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" and began to experiment, but I thought that more than THIRTY YEARS later these people wouldn't fault the music for incorperating then-modern elements. People are still pissed about this? It's unbelievable. Time tests the quality of music, and the Stones' disco experiments sound good today, at least to me, and to almost everyone else I've ever encountered. Is it 40-50 year-olds that are STILL bitter about the Stones music in the 70s?
Particularly irritating:
'The "Hot Stuff" disco thing to this day makes me ill. The Stones sold out when they started doing disco'
With the possible exception of "Emotional Rescue," the Stones never really made a straight disco song. They played with the genre, but I don't see how this qualifies as "selling out," especially when the bands best-selling album (Some Girls) consists mostly of straight rock (When the Whip Comes Down, Lies, Respectable, Some Girls), and when the group was already one of the most popular, succesful, and wealthy in the recorded history of the world. They certainly didn't compromise their music, they expanded it. Isn't that supposed to be admirable?
On a final note, people are WAY too polemic about recent stones tours and material. For people who think the Stones are invested only in spectacle and wealth nowadays consider:
-Stones are already among the wealthiest musicians in the world.
-They are the only rock band in their age group still recording and touring, and I find it HIGHLY unlikely that remained togethor simply for money (if it were all about wealth then what caused greedier, even more successful bands to break up??). They are all in their 60s and could easily retire and live in fabulous luxury for the rest of their lives if they wished.
-The Stones have ALWAYS been about spectacle. I don't understand how poeple can overlook this fact. In the 60s Jaggers' lyrics were deliberately outrageous, he was one of the first rock frontmen to shock and move around the stage in ridiculous ways, their tours employed state-of-the-art lighting and production, even in 1969, they dressed in drag for promotional shots, in the 70s they donned deliberately androgynous costumes and heavy makeup, and Mick Jagger can be seen popping through giant Tongue and lips banners and playing with dozens of guest musician, Soaring above the crowed in a Cherry-picker, or dancing on a huge inflatable penis. If you go to a Stones tour today, even by contemporary Standards, they are almost LESS of a spectacle. And tour production has become MUCH more elaborate since the 70s. Some fire and fireworks to start and end the performances, a big screen, backing musicians, but for the most part the core band is tight. Tighter than they were in the 60s, and more energetic than they were in the 80s or 90s. The musicianship of players like the stones does not DECREASE over time.Contrary to popular belief, people won't play absurdly high prices to hear music that isn't exciting. If you can't understand why people wouldn't see the Stones if they weren't good, then you fail to recognize the idea of industry and bullshit and marketing. OK, the music industry is full of bullshit, but people hear this all the time and they don't understand WHY its bullshit, so they drag out cliches that it's just about money and spectacle when the real issue is FAR more complicated. The Stones would not be popular if people left the shows feeling deflated by the music. It just doesnt work that way
-Which brings me to the issue of TICKET PRICES. No one seems to realize that the Stones hold the record for the two most-attended North American tours of ALL TIME. Does anyone know what supply and demand is? If people are willing to pay prices so high, it doesnt make financial sense for the Stones to lower them. Mick Jagger whent to fucking business school.
I have to address this, too:
"This is the same hype every release has got for the last 15 years. They should just become a touring act, and stop trying to put out relevant music."
THE FINAL ISSUE is the music. People get so up in arms about this. The reason why new Stones albums are so hyped is that people are waiting for the great later-day Stones album. It's easy to write a band off. Anyone can do it and you don't have to be smart to do it. This of course explains why many are eager to write the Stones off, even though the band's stamina and endurance over the years isn't really cause for any sort of hatred. Careful listeners, however, can discern that the Stones have not simply lost their talent. If you are fair and objective and are someone who is astute and intelligent and thoughtful and CARES about music, you can tell there are flashes of vintage Stones brilliance in much of what they have done since the 70s (examples: the funk in "Too Much Blood" and "Undercover of the Night" the tight performance on "One Hit to the Body," stronger ballads on Steel Wheels and Voodoo Lounge, experimentation on "Moon is up" or "Thru and Thru," etc.). But people are hasty to proclaim a Stones album as "great" because they really want a great old-age Stones record. Plus, Mick Jagger is smart enough to release publicity that hypes their new albums and tricks reviewers into giving them better reviews than they deserve. But then there are the people who just refuse to admit that the Stones have released any good music and simply stick to party lines because they can't see beyond these issues. Anything that is not Let it Bleed or Exile on Main Street and was made in the last 10 years is crap, end of discussion. They either get mad at the Stones for experimenting too much in the 70s, or for sounding too generic and similar and derivitive of the old Stones in the 80s and 90s. These people don't get that most music is not bad, most music is simply mediocre. Led Zeppelin never got any shit for rehashing one overbearing metal riff after another year after year. They had strong tunes, but their sound didn't mutate, it wasn't as supple as the Stones. In other words, the main problem is party lines. People stick to trendy opinions. I think underneath all the bullshit, the Stones are a much better band than most people, even fanatics, will admit. Instrumentally, they are the greatest, most understated, hardest-rocking rock band of all time. You can't beat Charlie Watt's durms or Keith's rythm guitar playing, and Mick Jagger is ur-rock frontman (it would take another whole 5 pages to cut through all the fashionalbe opinions and bullshit about Mick Jagger, who some Stones fans seemed determined to hate b/c he isn't a reformed Heroin-addict grandfatherly pirate keith richards). The Stones songwriting has fallen off in the 80s and 90s, but they really never have released anything that is just horrible. They have released a great deal of solid filler and mediocrity, and this deflates people who inexplicably want to here 'Brown Sugar' quality material for 40 years. Bob Dylan has released HORRIBLE shit, possibly out of carelessness, but then again, he has released 1st tier latter-day recordings like "Love and Theft." It's easier for Dylan, though, because he has always been self-contained. It's hard to lose personal talent, but the Stones have always been about chemistry, which is easier to lose over time, especially if the musicians are not constantly living, playing, and touring togethor.
As for The Rolling Stones' Rarities CD, hurray! Hurray that we now have access to a couple of songs from the long-OOP impossible-to-find No Security live CD from like two years ago! Hurray that we now have hard proof that a CD called Stripped really does exist and isn't just a big made-up conspiracy theory on the part of the nation's cheapy bins! Best of all, hurray that only ONE of these tracks is actually a 'rarity' while dozens upon dozens of fantastic unreleased tracks remain available only in bootleg form! Hurray hurray hurray!
No, hang on. "Hurray" isn't the right w-- Ah! I remember -- "Fuck you, drug addicts"; that's what I meant to say.
Hey, what do you think about this band name: "The McCceCtsr Pzlnktrbblbp" Pretty good, right? If I had the time, energy and poor judgment to form a band, I'd call it that.
When the Rolling Stones were asked by Starbucks' Pizza to put together a rarities compilation especially for the popular pizza chain's customers, they thought to themselves, "Say... This would be a great opportunity for us to pretend that Bill Wyman never existed." As such, although he plays on 10 of these 16 tracks, neither his name nor likeness can be found anywhere in the 19-page booklet accompanying this CD. Not even in the 'Thank You's! Oh sure, you'll read about the 'distinctive bass line' of "Miss You," but you won't be told who played it. Even fuckin' MICK TAYLOR gets a mention, but not Bill Wyman. But then, he was only in the band for a mere 29 years.
But enough of my complaining. What am I, a complain-wart? Let me get down to business now and tell you what's on the CD. First of all, it's 80 minutes long so don't be afraid of not getting your bottom dollar's worth! And in conclusion, it features 16 songs: 1 live from a DVD, 1 unreleased live, 4 from live albums you probably already own, 3 12" dance remixes, 6 b-sides, and 1 that was previously only available on a compilation. 11 of these 16 songs are simply alternate or live versions of songs that you most likely already own. 4 are cover tunes. 3 were on Sucking In The Seventies. Wow! What a bargain!
Highlights include:
- A really long version of "Miss You" with extra jive monologue in the middle after "Hey, let's go mess and fool around, you know, like we USED to!"
- a wonderful rendition of "Tumbling Dice" that was left off of Stripped for God knows what reason
- a sad, smoky acoustic/violin Mick/Keith duet called "Anyway You Look At It" that was left off of Bridges To Babylon because somebody was positive that "Anybody Seen My Baby" was a much, much better song
- a raw, feel-good bluesy piano smiler called "Wish I'd Never Met You" that was left off of Steel Wheels because it didn't suck enough
- an extended version of "Mixed Emotions" complete with horn and lovely sustained piano
- a classic Stonesy dirty chuggle cover of Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock" from when they were young and hungry! (1971)
- "Thru And Thru" is a terrific Keith Richards song. This live version from the Four Flicks DVD doesn't really add anything to the original, but hey! Crowd noise!
Highlights exclude:
- "Fancy Man Blues," the well-mixed boring worthless 12-bar generic blues throwaway b-side of "Mixed Emotions"
- No Security's rectally painful cover of "I Just Wanna Make Love To You," a slowed-down "I'm A Man" with different lyrics whose shittiness is further compounded by the appearance of "I'm A Man" itself six songs later
Middlelights don't discount:
- "Through The Lonely Nights," a pleasant but not very memorable country snore from the b-side of "It's Only Rock and Roll"
In other words, though a listenable enough selection of live recordings, b-sides and remixes, Rarities is bound to piss off every single person who purchases it. Who needs all this substandard live material, particularly when most of it has been easily available for years? It's nice to have all these later B-sides together in one place, but even here the compilation is an incomplete (and thus complete) failure; where is "I'm Gonna Drive," for example? And do they honestly think there are people out there whose lives might be enhanced by the existence of "Harlem Shuffle (NY Mix)"?
Because indeed there are! And their names are Bob & Earl Royalty Fund.
Luckily it DOES have its moments in the sun: a sped-up choogle boogie take on "I Know It's Only Rock 'N' Roll" is a nice ear-treat, Mick against all odds actually manages to not make a wretched urine farce out of "Angie," "Satisfaction," "Monkey Man," "Start Me Up," "Street Fighting Man" and a few others, and maybe neatest of all is their 'all over the career map place' set list, which includes such unexpected winners as "Paint It Black," "Rocks Off," "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'," "That's How Strong My Love Is," "When The Whip Comes Down," "You Don't Have To Mean It," "Worried About You" and "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love." Granted, they don't play most of these songs worth a SHIT (Mick ruins "Paint It Black" with a dopey faux-Eastern lilt in his delivery, the 10-minutes-of-Hell "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" only proves that 65-year-olds aren't quite as good at ethnicy improvisation as, say, ANY OTHER DEMOGRAPHIC IN THE UNIVERSE; "When The Whip Comes Down" is musically more energetic than the original but nevertheless converted to dung by Mick 'singing' as if he's busy watching a TV show on the side of the stage; self-same singer renders "Worried About You" unlistenable by adopting the falsetto of a fat retarded 85-year-old woman; and Charlie is pretty much the only guy in the band who remembers how to play "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love," so that's a lost cause from the getgo), but isn't it the effort that counts? Isn't it now?
No, it's really not. Not when the effort is so hamfisted that it manages to suck all the greatness out of such previously infallible works of utter genius as "You Can't Always Get What You Want," "Honky Tonk Women," "Happy" and "Gimme Shelter."
Then there's the new material - My God! If you thought the Stones' recent originals haven't been too great, wait til you hear their stultifyingly grim takes on Hoagy Carmichael's "The Nearness Of You" and BB King's "Rock Me, Baby." I've heard car horns with more soul. And who's the man with semen in his ears that put "Neighbours" on the set list? Gee, why not add "Back To Zero" and "Suck On The Jugular" while you're busy performing your WORST MATERIAL EVER!?
I know what you're wondering - how on Earth could I give this dreadful display of apathy and old age a much-coveted 6 out of 10? Well, it's like this -- no matter how little effort you put into your performances of 20+ classic Rolling Stones songs, they're still 20+ classic Rolling Stones songs. And to be fair, they only completely destroy a few tracks ("Beast of Burden" and "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" are the main culprits); the rest have salvageable elements, especially once you find the original master tapes and remove all the vocals. Not even the backup singers perform worth a crap on this thing!
But that's just my opinion. Please take it with a grain of sand.
I'm not a damned fool and I know exactly what they're trying to pull here. Come on --- A Bigger Bang? BIGGER BANG!? Gee, that doesn't sound suspiciously similar to a certain OTHER Rolling Stones album title, does it? A certain Rolling Stones album from 1968 that was the first in their quadruple-shot of jaw-droppingly classic blues/rock albums? Mark my words - in five years (following another live album and greatest hits compilation) the Stones are going to release a CD called Leaded Tweed. From there it's only a hop, skip and four or five live albums, greatest hits compilations and box sets until Stocky Fungus hits stands and the band's career finally reaches cessation with Charlie Watts, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger all passing away on mic during the recording of Eggsalad On Strained Meat. Then you'll know I'm right and everybody else in the world is wrong. Not only about this, but about EVERYTHING. For example, did you know that John F. Kennedy actually died by choking on an olive? Many people don't.
So now onto A Bigger Bang. First, a description: It is 64 minutes long and features 16 original new tracks. It has a lot of Stonesy rock and roll on it, with the same raw distorted guitar tone that Keith has been using since Some Girls and an overreliance on basic tonic-subdominant chord constructions, along with the expected stylistic diversions (1 old-timey slidey blues, 1 slick r'n'b, 1 funky, 1 acoustic ballad, 2 Keith vocals). It also has good strong production that retains their classic raw sound while making it easy to hear all elements in the mix. But overall, it is a frustratingly hit-and-miss record.
First of all, "Rough Justice" is one of the worst singles I've ever heard in my life, so there's that. Have you heard this piece of crap? It sounds like a gang of jokesters went into the studio, said "Hey look, we're the Rolling Stones!," and proceeded to lay down the most damning and obvious Rolling Stones parody of all time. The verse - like many of the verses on this record - has no musical hook AT ALL. It's just Keith doing his usual 'one chord' jinka-janka crap while a wildly over-loudly-mixed Mick Jagger shouts every word on one note, then the 'hook' comes in with the chorus -- a standard ascending John Cougar redneck chord riff that only sounds catchy in comparison to the amusicality of the rest of the track. A truly terrible song, though well-loved by people whose entire qualification for 'a great Rolling Stones record' seems to be that it 'was recorded by the Rolling Stones.' Which is fine - I do that with Motorhead! I'm just complaining because I so violently hate the boring yet also IRRITATING (because of the overloud distorted vocals) song!
More generally, the album reeks of 'wasted potential' and 'terrible vocals.' Starting with my second problem first, what has happened to Mick Jagger? On most (though not ALL, I must add) of these 16 tracks, his voice has taken on this really amateurish tone-deaf timbre that clashes terribly with his naturally arrogant swaggering delivery. He has done this to varying degress in the past, dragging one-syllable words out into four or five, and ruining gentle moments by 'chewing the scenery' like a Vegas entertainer who feels absolutely no emotion towards the words he's singing. But here, it seems almost epidemic -- there are only two or three songs that he sings like a normal human being! Is this an age problem, you think? Why can't he just use a tastefully calm and melodic delivery like he did on the '60s and '70s Stones albums? Or such as he uses on THIS album's "Let Me Down Slow," a pleasant Tom Petty-like pop/rock song that's a standout track on here simply because it doesn't feature a single moment that SUCKS COCK TO HIGH HEAVEN!?!
Jesus, sorry about that. Let's try again. So that's the Mick thing -- it seems as if he's more concerned with trying to sound sexy and cool than he is in singing the songs. Check the (absolutely hideous) r'n'b ballad "Laugh I Nearly Died" for a great example of this: the song calls for a whispery, sultry, soulful delivery, yet Mick is unable to refrain from basically SHOUTING the quiet part and is clearly unable to distinguish between 'soulful' and 'simply mispronouncing every word in the lyrics.' Plus he's too high in the mix and his lyrics are as meaningless as they've been since Emotional Rescue. (And that's another thing! What happened to witty lyrics like "Shattered" or "Far Away Eyes"?)
On to that wasted potential now. I would need six or seven hands to count the number of songs on here that feature a strong, catchy verse followed by a cliched, non-written, effortless one-chord chorus (or vice-versa). If you turn on the CD and just go about your business, washing the cat or taking Excedrin or whatever you people do for a living, you'll come out of it thinking, "Wow! That new Rolling Stones album has a lot of catchy hooks on it!" And you know what? You'd be right. It does. However, they're all spread out very thinly across 16 songs and 64 minutes, separated by dozens and dozens of instantly forgettable no-effort two-chord shit-riffs. I'm not talking about melodies that I personally don't like; I wouldn't mind that. I'm talking about melodies that AREN'T MELODIES. They're just Keith hitting one chord, or maybe doing the ol' tonic-subdominant bluesy thing - while Mick sings everything in one or two notes atop. This to me is not songwriting; it's just laziness. The abundance of this non-material in no way detracts from the awesome vocal hooks you'll find in songs like "Let Me Down Slow" ("Baaaay-bay! Baaaaay-bay! Let me down reeeeal sloooow."), "Streets Of Love" ("I-eee-I-eee-I-I, I-eee-I-eee-I, walk the streets of love"), "She Saw Me Coming" ("She saw me CUMMIN'!") and "Biggest Mistake" ("Hoooooo-ooooooo-ooooooo-oooooo"), but it does detract from the overall listening experience when you pay closer attention to the CD and find yourself waiting impatiently through minutes and minutes of generic Stones-by-numbers bullshit to get to the good parts.
So maybe they just need a producer with more guts? Somebody willing to say, "Mick baby - stop sticking your lips out and just sing the fucking song like a human being" and "Keith baby - that is one AWESOME chorus you've come up with there. But maybe instead of pairing it with that 50-year-old Chuck Berry riff, we should pair it with the awesome VERSE hook from that other song -- you know, the one with the one-chord chorus? -- and create one entirely solid Rolling Stones song!"? Because if somebody would have gone through the master tapes, deleted all the made-up-in-four-seconds non-hook chord sequences and paired together the remaining pieces of music, this could have been a seriously catchy-as-hell 35-minute, 9-song album. And would that be so bad? From a bunch of senior citizens, I don't think so! So there - I'll place the blame entirely on the shoulders of the spineless producers. Fuck you, Mel Brooks' The Producers!
Summation: If you're a Stones fan, A Bigger Bang is definitely worth buying because there are so many great parts buried here and there among the faceless choogle churn blahs. But the Stones are never going to release their long-awaited 'comeback' album until Mick gives his schtick a rest and somebody reminds the band how to edit themselves. They obviously will never be able to recapture the youth, energy and social atmosphere that helped them create their greatest masterpieces of all time, but Some Girls is not such a pinnacle of perfection that Jagger/Richards by necessity will never be able to match it again, even in their 60s (or 70s!). So enough apologism - I'm not going to say "It's a solid Rolling Stones album, and what more can we expect at this point?" because that's bullshit. It's not like their brains have turned to mush - there's plenty of catchy hooks still coming out of their heads. They just need a little more help weeding out the weak parts than they used to.
I also wanted to say a few other things that I was unable to fit into the rest of the review, so I'll do so here at the end, as a post-script.
(1) "Look What The Cat Dragged In" sounds like INXS! INXFuckingS!!!!! Wonderful! HA! And catch that "diddly diddly diddly" lick during the chorus! WHEEEEE!!!! And those stompy drums! Fantastic!!! Make this song a hit! It is FUN AS HELL! Good? Eh. But fun? WHEEE!!!! It's like there's a party in my stereo and everyone's invited to stand on my stereo and enjoy it!!!!!!
(2) "Infamy" rides along on a four-note melody that could have been written and performed by a 9-year-old -- yet it still has a more interesting personality than nearly any other song on the record.
(3) "Sweet Neocon" is about the Bush administration. "Dangerous Beauty" is about Lynndie England. Both songs are among the Stones' worst compositions of all time. Conclusion: Keith doesn't want Mick's naive political comments embarrassing the entire band through radio play, so he pairs these lyrics with the worst music he can think of.
(4) Nearly two decades after its release, Dirty Work is still the worst Rolling Stones album of all time! Huzzah to the chef!
Of course again intelligent people will have to deal with all the stupid things that people say about the Stones nowadays. Usually these are dumb kids or bitter old men eager to write their music off and whine about the old days. Etc, etc, etc. It's all been said before.
II. Is this an age problem, you think?*
Yes, I think. In fact it is the merging of his aging voice paired with a desperate attempt at recapturing the vocal tone of his youth gone wild which leads to an empty whole. That being his vocal delivery being complete and what not, sounding like it's not possible for him to do any better yet something is still missing, I mean the tone itself sounds to me as youthful as he can make it, but without that Deep Throaty "down to earth flava" as evidenced in the last studio album. Like, it sounds like he has to comprmise his breathing/breath with the sustain/power with the tone of his voice via a sort of Shout-o-meter technique; or shoutometer. Or just take the whole of what I said and transpose it from the realm of (micks) physical struggle into the realm of (micks) spiritual struggle and you end up with what you just said, which is really the same as what I said because what you wrote was so all encompassing and omniscient (in the context of it's own meaning) that 9 billion words weren't necessary to convey what is described in statement I.(see I.), except that you follow up on that in the form of a question, (see ? II. *) even though your question is almost already answered by the implied insinuations that are so prevalent in the unquestioning authority of your holy fluent prose. Am I obsessed with mick jagger? not really. Am I obsessed with mick jagger's voice? no, but I like what he says sometimes. He's got potty mouth, and I’m a 2000 (flushes) man. But I'm definitely not obsessed with mick's Jagger, that's for sure.
III. What happened to witty lyrics like "Shattered"?*
Wow, talk about a tongue in cheek inside of a tongue that is inside of a cheek, the notion of Shattered being witty. HA!. All over man hat in. Now that's witty.
* -> (above question mark for III., which is really question two, is an insert and without the consent of the author and/or publisher of the above written material)
P.S. you ruined my life, Quite Franklin was going to be the name of an experimental nostalgic art forum project touring band fair show I was going to start sometime in this decade featuring obscure covers, improvised poetry, acted out plays and video remixes of our favorite songs incorporating a sort of "where are they now" historical fantasy theme intertwined within, of the greatest mystical and mysterious figures of the past that might be - or would/should have remained (cryogenically frozed) in the past for the metaphorical and poetic sake of it all, so in that way the essence of the past can be justfully and properly resurrected to fix present situations and other problems, via Quite Franklin. Such prospective projects were to include a Judge Reinhold facial expressions (from Beverly Hill Cop ONE! the sequelz will suk 4 eva yo) tribute music video superimposed with Axel F with the historical context being the fantasy of the Judge's vegan recluse monk hibernation only to resurrect in quasi-human artistic glory. Also in the works included an Andrew Ridgeley mystery section. All that is known is after Wham made it BIG he became second banana in more ways than one by marring the chick from bananarama. Others like John Ritter would have been potential candidates for the project, as their early personas fit the bill but unfortunately he stuck around for too long and wiped out his aura. I even had an interactive forum for clove cigarettes all ready to go but now all those dreams are over.
1. Rough Justice
2. Rain Fall down
3. Back of my hand
4. This place is empty
5. Oh no not you again
6. Sweet Neocon
7. Look what the cat dragged in
8. Streets of Love
There we go, i just cut this SOB in half and probably saved stones fans around the world 30 minutes of time. The songs listed above are catchy, they variate, and keith gets his one sappy track.
And I'm glad you did. Until I read your review, I hadn't really articulated my present feelings on the present Rolling Stones (my feelings about their classic stuff will remain as high as they ever were). But man, I've never heard a more spot-on observation about who they are now. I mean, most people either love everything they do because they simply do it, or they hate it because that's what you're supposed to do when you don't love them.
Total BULLSHIT. Either way. I love the goddamned Stones, but I haven't heard a point of view on their current state that didn't lean in either direction. Excellent job, man. We can both kid all we want, but I don't at all believe at all, I don't think that you do either, that talent, and whatever the Stones have and are fucking MADE OF simply goes away--"It's not like their brains have turned to mush." I don't believe that about anybody. The Stones (MICK) just need to stop trying to be "The Rolling Stones (TM) (R)(C)" and be who they really are. Even if it sucked, it would be a beautiful thing if they put down all of the unnecessary baggage and did what they would no matter what. Even if that means the end of the Stones as we know it, it would be worth it for themselves and for everybody.
Actually it was released as a single-CD too, but that has six fewer songs, is better, and earns a 7/10, so I'm reviewing the double-CD instead.
Shine A Light finds the Stones once again digging back through the old catalog to play some unexpected oddities ("Connection"? "She Was Hot"!? "Far Away Eyes"!?!) while simultaneously failing to acknowledge that the past 25 years ever happened. The newest song on this thing is from 1983!!!!! That means that they theoretically could have recorded this exact same concert on the Undercover tour -- except Jack White and Christina Aguilera weren't around yet to ruin any songs with their shitty vocals. (Not that Mick couldn't have handled that task on his own. As Official MarkPrindle.com interview transcriber Jim Laakso put it after viewing the Shine A Light movie trailer, "He literally sounds retarded! Or like a non-English speaker who just learned the words phonetically!")
Bean Counters may find interest in the following LP/song breakdown:
Some Girls, Exile on Main Street - 4
Tattoo You, Let It
Bleed, Out Of Our Heads (U.S.) - 2
Undercover, Sticky
Fingers, Beggars Banquet, Between The Buttons, Aftermath, December's
Children - 1
The "Jumpin' Jack Flash" single - 1
A blues
cover with Buddy Guy - 1
The band is accompanied by three back-up singers, two saxophonists, a trumpeter, a trombonist and a keyboardy. Ron Wood and Keith Richards sound excellent together - one in each speaker, playing in and around each other's notes, chords, twangs and asides as if they were Jammin' In Tha Garge. Hi! I'm Larry Jenkins and welcome to today's episode of Jammin' In Tha Garge.
Unfortunately, Mick "Dick Dagger" Jagger lazily sucks all the melodic life out of songs like "Some Girls," "Tumbling Dice" and "Brown Sugar" by just saying all the words instead of singing them. With "Far Away Eyes," he goes a step further, reducing the original's charming sing-song narration to a complete monotone, as if it's all he can do to simply remember the words, never mind putting any thought into their delivery. Even when he does sing, he generally fails to sound like a human being. Remember his tender original performance of "As Tears Go By"? Compare it to the weird affected drag queen voice he uses on this version. At this point, I'm almost convinced that he doesn't even realize he's doing it! Whether due to ego or age issues, he seems to be simply incapable of singing like a normal person.
Or rather, barely capable, because he somehow manages a surprisingly warm and melodic version of "I'm Free" toward the end of the set. No clue how that happened; maybe he was too tired to over-perform?
But Gosh bless Keith Richards. Not only has he survived 60 years as Keith Richards, but he is also a true rock and roll heart. Mick is a businessman, a socialite, a poor singer; Charlie is a jazz lover who's only in the band because Keith said he'd punch him if he quit; and Ron played on several Rod Stewart albums -- but Keith Richards is rock and roll in human form. He's drunk, self-satisfied, vulgar, aggressive, funny - and he's always playing that goddamned guitar! Weirdly, he's also by far the Rolling Stones' best vocalist at this point. Not only does he do a terrific job adapting "You Got The Silver" to his now-weathered voice; he even sings the poppy old obscurity "Connection" from Between The Buttons! How did Mick allow this to happen!? It makes it completely obvious that Keith is the more spirited and melodic vocalist of the two! Does Mick just not give a shit about his reputation anymore? I know I do! Come on, Mick! Stick that ass out further! You're only 64!
Also, did the original Temptations version of "Just My Imagination" feature the lyric "SHE DOESN'T FUCKIN' LOVE ME!"? If so, good on ya Eddie Kendricks. Keep on truckin'!
Heh heh. Little joke for all you Eddie Kendricks fans out there.
Shine My Tights is a fun and interesting live album, but is marred by a number of almost unlistenable moments: Jack White ruins "Loving Cup" with his hideous fake Southern accent; Christina Aguilera won't shut up her gigantic mouth in a rendition of "Live With Me" already ruined by Darryl Jones' failure to play the actual bass line (the part of the song that provides the MELODY in the original version); "Little T&A" is just a stupid song; and I pity your ears if you've ever heard an uglier, less respectful version of "Satisfaction." Other than that, though - wow! It's another Rolling Stones live album!
Mick even makes a homophobic joke before "Loving Cup"! This from the guy who spent the first half of the '70s with his HELLO! in David Bowie's ZOIKS!? This from the guy who supposedly NOT SAFE FOR WORK! with one or two members of his own band? This from TOO MUCH INFORMATION! a TOO MUCH INFORMATION! his tongue with TOO MUCH INFORMATION! brown streaks on the TOO MUCH INFORMATION! Pete Townshend TOO MUCH INFORMATION! electric eel?
Best,
The Liner Notes
-------------------------
Dear The Liner Notes,
I read with interest your review of the Rolling Stones' Rare And Unseen DVD and must take umbrage with your description of the program as "strange" and "mesmerising." Furthermore, your claims that the clips are "odd," the flick "weird," and the interviews among the band's "oddest" and "funniest" make me wonder if you are somehow connected to the disc, on either a personal or business level.
Personally I found the disc under discussion to be a 64-minute collection of unremarkable and seemingly chosen at random Mick Jagger interviews, along with a few boring words here or there from other past and present members of the Stones. Don't misunderstand me; there is some footage here that would interest the hardcore Stones collector. These moments include shots of an unrecognizably young, clean and quiet Keith Richards; the infamous '67 drug arrests; early '70s Bill Wyman discussing the band's limitless future; Keith's '78 heroin arrest; present-day Mick Taylor remembering Jagger as 'a bit of a primadonna'; and Ron Wood discussing his painting hobby. Upon viewing these scenes, my brain became erect with interest and my parietal lobe turned into a boner and shot out my ear.
Unfortunately, my parietal lobe quickly grew soft and embarrassing, dangling down the side of my face as I sat through frame after frame of Mick complaining about having the responsibility to serve as a role model thrust upon him. And what's with the DVD juxtaposing these 1967 comments with Mick's 1983 argument that the "Undercover of the Night" video reflects his responsibility as an artist to show the brutal reality of violence? Was the editor trying to say "Look! Mick contradicted himself!"? Because all I got from it was "Look! Sixteen years have passed!"
By the time I'd slept through a staged '60s food fight, Mick whining about all the paparazzi at his wedding to Bianca, and ten minutes of reporters shouting "Keith! Keith!" at the Shine A Light opening, I had a severe case of blue occipital lobe. Not only is this DVD "A WienerWorld Presentation," it's also a weiner, world. I can't believe that my beloved Rolling Stones approved the release of such a tawdry and heartbreaking DVD. I shall never listen to them again, and will in fact burn all of their records, along with my body, in the basement incinerator this evening.
Sincerely,
Mr. David G. Rickets
Burnside
-------------------------
Dear Mr. Rickets,
This programme is unofficial. It does not seek to represent The Rolling Stones or any official body working in association with the Rolling Stones. It does not necessarily represent their views on any subject today but shows the range of opinions they held across 45 years of news.
Best,
The Liner Notes
-------------------------
Dear The Liner Notes,
I love the Rolling Stones! I can't wait to buy this DVD and hear all their great songs!
Best,
Little Jimmy Shitsalot
McGarnigle, East End
-------------------------
Dear Little Jimmy,
This DVD does not contain any Rolling Stones performance or music.
Best,
The Liner Notes
-------------------------
Dear The Liner Notes,
Fuck you!
Best,
Little Jimmy Shitsalot
McGarnigle, East End
-------------------------
Dear Little Jimmy,
Fuck me!? Fuck YOU!!!!!
Best,
The Liner Notes
-------------------------
Dear The Liner Notes,
Do the liner notes really say that?
Best,
Little Jimmy Shitsalot
McGarnigle, East End
-------------------------
Dear Little Jimmy,
No.
Best,
The Liner Notes
TATTOO YOU was a good record. Very crisp sound. Nicely divided between the "hard" and "soft" sides one and two. "Heaven" on side 2 is an underrated winner.
Listened to STICKY FINGERS and EXILE the other night. STICKY is easier to like but EXILE goes a bit deeper. STICKY is a bit more polished and commerical. Love the string arrangements deep in the mix of "Sway". "Moonlight Mile" is another underrated classic.
Best way to listen to EXILE is to remember the original 4 sides of the double set. Each side is sort of an entity unto itself. Somehow side 3 is may fave. Everybody knows "Happy" but "Turd on the Run" "Ventilator Blues" "Just Want to See His Face" and "Let It Loose" all superb. In a sense both "Just Wanna See His Face" and "Shine A Light" are gospel songs. Figured out the opener "Rock's Off" is about impotence. Whether Mick or Keith who knows. (" I only get my rocks off when I'm dreaming" quoting his woman: "Whats the matter with the boy/he don't come around no more" "I was making love last time/with a dancer friend of mine/I can't seem to stay in step" "I want to shout but I can hardly speak") Great tune.
Take away "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Street Fighting Man" and BEGGARS BANQUET becomes an album of country/blues/folk songs more or less. Perhaps the greatest country blues album ever recorded in that context.
SATANIC MAJESTIES is a likeable mess. The Beatles psychedlic era was much more inviting to the general audience. SGT PEPPER was an easy trip that invited the whole world along for the ride. Granted "A Day in the Life" had some darkness and the whole thing reached its zenith a few months later with the demented and brilliant "I Am the Walrus". But in general the Stones' trip was darkier, scarier, messier, less inviting. "2000 Light Years from Home" was the best moment in this vein. The "Dandelion/We Love You" single was a winner for me. They could have put both songs on either FLOWERS or SATANIC MAJESTIES REQUEST, a title which indeed became a millstone around their necks in subsequent years. btw- I remember Mike Egan's mom had this record in her collection back in 1983. Not a record my parents would have bought. Probably not yours either.
Best early one is ENGLAND's NEWEST HITMAKERS. "Route 66" cooks. "Not Fade Away" takes Buddy Holly adds Bo Diddley comes up with definitve version. On "Walkin' the Dog" Jagger is a hoot. "Tell Me" a good original if you get past the slight dorkiness.
BLACK & BLUE is a good jam record but short on real tunes. UNDERCOVER stinks and STEEL WHEELS is professional yet highly boring. Still like VOODOO LOUNGE.
The Rolling Stones are said to be gearing up for a tour and album in 2011. Rock On guys.
Other Rolling Stones Sites
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