THE ROLLING STONES - Out Of Control
THE ROLLING STONES (1964)
Regular readers, if any such beast exists, will know that one of my personal bugbears concerns Our Lady Adele Of The Perpetual Broken Heart, matron saint of duplicitous bastards, and her inability to embrace any hint of Englishness in her singing style. So the prospects of me being able to say anything positive about the early Stones without earning a gold hypocrite badge are remote. It's probably what sets them apart from their contemporaries, and particularly The Beatles, that they really did go for a full-on, black American blues sound from the start. Even Fleetwood Mac retained a degree of Englishness in their early stuff. It's hard to imagine that the content of the Stones' opening track here: 'Route 66', bore any relation to their own personal world experience. Just as a side note here for US readers, the album was released there under the rather clunkily literal moniker of 'England's Newest Hit Makers' and opened with 'Not Fade Away' which replaced 'I Need You Baby (Mona)'. Coming off the back of the four Smiths studio albums, it's notable that Richards' guitar intro to Mona resembles Marr's on 'How Soon Is Now'. There's only one original Jagger/Richards composition on here 'Tell Me (You're Coming Back)', the rest being (I think) blues standards, albeit some of which may owe their reputation to these Stones' versions. 'Tell Me' is therefore interesting and it is very different from the rest, much more in line with their English pop contemporaries. Beat music rather than blues. The cover picture is a good one, but remember these are the bad boys of the British Invasion and yet they still look like a bunch of trainee bankers. And verily that Decca logo in the top right corner doth please mine eye.
Side 1
Route 66
I Just Want To Make Love To You
Honest I Do
I Need You Baby
Now I've Got A Witness (Like Uncle Phil and Uncle Gene)
Little By Little
Side 2
I'm A King Bee
Carol
Tell Me You're Coming Back
Can I Get A Witness
You Can Make It If You Try
Walking The Dog
12 x 5 (1964)
A US only release, but it seems to be fairly well accepted in the canon, and more importantly, Spotify places it next in sequence. That means that it is still something of a showcase for the Stones blues credentials, although there are 5 original songs, three credited to Jagger/Richards and two to the alias of the collective band, 'Nanker Phelge'. It feels like Jagger is finding his voice a little more on these songs. It's recognizably him, and therefore provides that missing Englishness that I moaned about on the debut. Jagger is only 21 at this time, but it's a mature and interesting voice regardless. Nanker's 'Empty Heart' shows off an ability to fuse the blues with some other musical styles into a deceptively complex whole. Wikipedia tells me that the version of 'Time Is On My Side' is the more obscure of two versions of the song that the Stones did, and features some rather pleasingly cheesy electronic organ. The Mick/Keef composition 'Good Times, Bad Times' is a rather wistful blues and is followed by 'It's All Over Now'. Ruined for me by a 80's TV ad to the same tune for Insignia deodorant - #It's new Insignia; Create a buzz not a hum# they sang. Nanker's second contribution, '2120 South Michigan Avenue' is an instrumental and has a lovely raspy bass intro from Wyman, some delicate drumming from Watts and Keef doing what he does best. Spotify notes that this is the long version, at 3 minutes 38. Not much fat to trim I'd say. Their version of 'Under The Boardwalk' does sound like Jagger is singing through a cushion. I'll take the Drifters every day I think. We get two Jagger/Richards songs in succession: 'Congratulations' (not
that
one, obvs) and 'Grown Up Wrong' which is another blues which seems to be barely held together with sticky tape and glue and ambles in and then wanders off - probably aiming for authenticity. Cover photo: More toeing of the conventional dress line, although Mick daringly goes for the open-necked shirt, and Bill even more daringly goes for the nerdy no-tie/fastened top shirt button option, but not one of them is what you'd call a looker are they?
Side 1
Around And Around
Confessin' The Blues
Empty Heart
Time Is On My Side
Good Times, Bad Times
It's All Over Now
Side 2
2120 South Michigan Avenue
Under The Boardwalk
Congratulations
Grown Up Wrong
If You Need Me
Susie-Q
THE ROLLING STONES No 2/THE ROLLING STONES NOW! (1965)
It's all quite confusing. The Stones next five albums all have a dual existence in UK and US forms. To add to my woes the UK version of this album (No. 2) has the same cover picture as 12 x 5. One thing we can be sure about, Decca didn't believe in investing a lot of time and money in marketing consultants when it came to thinking up album titles. The differences are that there a few tracks from 12 x 5 on the UK version and a few additional tracks on 'Now!' in their place, most notably 'Little Red Rooster'. Oh, and 'Mona' turns up again on 'Now!' after appearing on the UK debut. Are you keeping up? If so you are better than me. Of course it's still very blues-heavy. Both start with 'Everybody Needs Somebody To Love', which we all know because of the Blues Brothers. I kind of assumed that the opening part was unique to the movie, but Mick does it too, so I guess it's all part of the published lyric. Mick's characteristic vocal style is developing nicely. On 'Down The Road Apiece' it is what my dear departed mother-in-law would have described as "all over the bally option". No-one does a glottal stop like Jagger. There's an additional Jagger/Richards composition at the end of Now!, 'Surprise, Surprise' which is a good breezy piece of blues-pop. The artwork on the US release is good. Very modern and arty. Ahead of the competition in that respect.
The Rolling Stones No. 2 (UK)
Side 1
Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
Down Home Girl
You Can't Catch Me
Time Is On My Side
What A Shame
Grown Up Wrong
Side 2
Down The Road Apiece
Under The Boardwalk
I Can't Be Satisfied
Pain In My Heart
Off The Hook
Suzie-Q (is it an S or a Z? - who knows?)
The Rolling Stones Now!
Side 1
Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
Down Home Girl
You Can't Catch Me
Heart Of Stone
What A Shame
Mona (I Need You Baby)
Side 2
Down The Road Apiece
Off The Hook
Pain In My Heart
Oh Baby (We Got A Good Thing Going)
Little Red Rooster
Suzie-Q
OUT OF OUR HEADS (1965)
I think I've pinpointed what makes the Stones special, and you can't really tell it from just listening to the music. If you watch them perform in those early days they are just so bloody physical in the way that they deliver the music. Obviously and especially Mick Jagger stands out, but while from the distance of all these years later, it's easy to dismiss his antics as bizarre and mannered, when you watch him back then, he just seems so consumed by the music that he can't help himself. And if he still does it today, then you have to assume its because it still takes him that way. Meanwhile Keef invents the art of throwing guitar hero shapes, Wyman is fascinatingly blank, Watts seems to be just tapping away absently and only Brian Jones seems to have no discernible schtick. Spotify serves up the US version which includes 'The Last Time' and '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' where the UK version does not. The latter is the first instance from what I've encountered so far of Richards mastery of the electric guitar riff. There's also a live version of 'I'm All Right'. Much knicker-wettening hysteria in the background but a pretty poor recording nonetheless. The Stones are never what you'd call polished but some of the production on these early albums doesn't do them any favours. The slow paced 'Play With Fire' is an unexpected highlight, and Mick goes all a bit Sam Cooke on 'Good Times'. They aren't getting any better looking though.
Side 1
Mercy Mercy
Hitch Hike
The Last Time
That's How Strong My Love Is
Good Times
I'm All Right
Side 2
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Cry To Me
The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man
Play With Fire
The Spider And The Fly
One More Try
DECEMBER'S CHILDREN (AND EVERYBODY'S) (1965)
This is a US release and that means yet more cobbling together of tracks from previous UK releases. In fact the purpose of the Rolling Stones early US albums seems to be largely as a vehicle for following up on singles successes, so included on here for the first time is 'Get Off Of My Cloud' along with a whole load of re-released padding. About half is also Jagger/Richards compositions, and they still veer away from the bluesy end of the spectrum with their own creations. But 'As Tears Go By' counts as a bina fide classic, with Jagger managing to give the impression that he's close to tears by modulating his characteristic vocal quaver. This album is pretty much contemporary with Rubber Soul, and 'As Tears Go By' gives anything on that a run for its money. Listened to objectively, 'Get Off Of My Cloud' seems like it's been thrown together in about 5 minutes, but I have a sneaking suspicion there's a lot of craft behind the seemingly shambolic call-and-response nature of it all. 'I'm Free' is better known to me for the cover version by the Soup Dragons. The production continues to suggest they favoured the bottom of a well as a recording studio and nothing breaks the 3 minute barrier, which is not a complaint. We get a couple more live songs, 'Route 66' and 'I'm Moving On', with attendant screams. I'm always ready to defend the right of teenage girls to lose their wits about a bunch of pretty boys but they could be playing anything for all the notice that's being taken, and the Stones weren't all that pretty anyway. Dangerous? That's a different matter.
Side 1
She Said Yeah
Talkin' About You
You Better Move On
Look What You've Done
The Singer Not The Song
Route 66
Side 2
Get Off Of My Cloud
I'm Free
As Tears Go By
Gotta Get Away
Blue Turns To Grey
I'm Moving On
AFTERMATH (1966)
Still two versions, but I'll concentrate on the US issue since it includes 'Paint It Black'. As an opening salvo on a new album it pushes the Rolling Stones in a disturbing direction. Depression or some kind of deeper psychosis? "I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes, I have to turn my head until my darkness goes". That, my friend, is a dark side.. There used to be a recurring
on the Fast Show in the 90's in which a middle aged couple were painting a picturesque landscape and chatting amiably until the man suddenly decides to add a touch of black to the picture and then immediately descends into a cycle of destructive daubing "Black, black, black! It's all BLACK". It was a funny, and slightly sad, idea, but it always felt like they had just based it on this song. 'Stupid Girl' is less clear in it's meaning and intentions but seems quite misogynistic. At least I don't think we are witnessing the earliest use of the word "sickest" in the modern way to denote a positive sentiment. They go for women again in 'Under My Thumb' which at least has the virtue of being irresistibly catchy. A bit more respect is shown in 'Lady Jane' I guess although Wikipedia suggest some less edifying interpretations of the title. Everything on here is Jagger/Richards, so this counts in some ways as the first 'proper' Rolling Stones album from a creative viewpoint. There's a funny little piano snatch of 'Let's Spend The Night Together' at the start of 'Flight 505'. It may not even be intentional. To round it all off we get the 11+ minute long 'Goin' Home' a blues ramble of the first order. The longest song they ever did apparently and perhaps a sign of nascent experimentalism.
Side 1
Paint It Black (UK Version - Mother's Little Helper)
Stupid Girl
Lady Jane
Under My Thumb
Doncha Bother Me
Think (on Side 2 on UK Version)
Side 2
Flight 505
High And Dry
It's Not Easy
I Am Waiting
Goin' Home (On end of Side 1 on UK Version)
Take It Or Leave It (UK Version only)
What To Do (UK Version Only)
BETWEEN THE BUTTONS (1967)
It's apparent when you listen to the early albums of the bands that formed the bedrock of British Rock and Pop in the sixties that they were on the cusp of two worlds. The record company execs who were still calling the shots were probably mostly from the previous era of entertainment, possibly going back to the music halls, and so whenever you hear this early output there is a sprinkling of that kind of thing throughout. The Beatles, Bowie and especially the Kinks mined this more traditional sound, later on the Small Faces built most of their career on it (see 'Miss Amanda Jones' for a Small Faces-ey style song), the Bonzos took it to the extreme and even the likes of Blur have used it. The Stones are no exception, especially on this album and so 'Cool, Calm And Collected' (note the 'I'll Take The High Road' guitar snippet) and 'Something Happened To Me Yesterday' are fair examples of the kind of traditional English light entertainment style.. Some of the songs also have a narrative, musical theatre feel to them. Bill Wyman imposes himself more on this. There are some interesting and probably groundbreaking bass guitar sounds that crop up here and there. He rumbles away in the background on 'She Smiles Sweetly', sounding almost like a thick rubber band stretched around a shoebox and buzzsaws on 'My Obsession'. We're still on the US versions here, so this particular album is a vehicle for 'Let's Spend The Night Together' and 'Ruby Tuesday', which did not appear on the UK version, replacing 'Back Street Girl' and 'Please Go Home'. 'Lets Spend The Night...' is familiar and more than the sum of it's parts, but 'Ruby Tuesday' is very Stones-ey indeed. Kind of coarse and delicate all in one serving. The cover picture was taken on Primrose Hill and caused consternation about the condition of Brian Jones. For someone of my age, Jones is simply The One That Died, and I haven't noticed anything remarkable about his contribution up to now. Rhythm guitarist is a pretty thankless task I guess. When I did The Beatles I found that Harrison often wrote the standout songs on many albums, but his role as third guitar banana (albeit Lead) probably held his reputation back. I'm guessing it's the same for Jones. Also in the cover photo, Noel Gallagher has travelled back in time, locked Keef in the recording studio basement and photobombed the rest of them. Uncanny.
Side 1
Let's Spend The Night Together (US Only)
Yesterday's Papers
Ruby Tuesday (US Only)
Back Street Girl (UK Only)
Connection
She Smiled Sweetly
Cool, Calm and Collected
Side 2
All Sold Out
My Obsession (Side 1 on UK Version)
Please Go Home (UK Only)
Who's Been Sleeping Here?
Complicated
Miss Amanda Jones
Something Happened To Me Yesterday
THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES REQUEST (1967)
There are probably two ways in which you can take Their Satanic Majesties Request. It is either a witty and inventive riposte to Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, or it is an utter mess. Since The Rolling Stones didn't really have any beef with The Beatles, it seems more likely that the messy option is the one to go for. Background reading suggests that getting the band together in a room, and even inside their own heads, was a challenge and no-one was really bothering to try and marshal the talent anyway. It does seem to have some quite strong resonance with what The Beatles were up to, but then that's also kind of the point. LSD was supposed to send you in this creative direction. Bill Wyman contributes his own take on the whole situation with 'In Another Land'. That's Wyman snoring at the end apparently. So it's a shambles, but that's not to say it's hopeless. If nothing else it is of its time and '2000 Man', '2000 Light Years From Home' and 'She's a Rainbow' are two and a half good songs. The 8:33 of freeform improvisation that is 'Sing This All Together (See What Happens)' tries the patience a tad. There's a dalliance with sitars on the pretty awful 'Gomper'. A Google search of "What is a gomper?" tells me it's not a very complimentary term for a person. OK. Maybe it is all a bit hopeless after all, but they quickly saw the error of their ways and got back on track for Beggars Banquet. The Pepper pisstake cover also ushers in the Stones as pioneers of creative album packaging. In this case it was a lenticular picture, so since I do not have a lenticular screen on my laptop I cannot comment on it's effectiveness.
Side 1
Sing This All Together
Citadel
In Another Land
2000 Man
Sing This All Together (See What Happens)
Side 2
She's A Rainbow
The Lantern
Gomper
2000 Light Years From Home
On With The Show
BEGGARS BANQUET (1968)
My modus operandum is proving a huge benefit when it comes to the Stones. Not least because I've been through this period with some of their contemporaries. That means that it begins to become apparent how The Rolling Stones took a subtly different path from wannabe Bluesmen to Rock Aristocracy. The other bands who started with a fairly standardised blues sound, maintained a kind of careful respect for the source. The Stones respect it, but they're adding a twist all the time and so are creating modern rock music. Beggars Banquet seems to me like their first proper classic album. Their Satanic Majesties Request was certainly notable, and some fans clearly rank it highly, but for The Rolling Stones it seemed to represent a dead end out of which they quickly backed. There is also the less tangible, but culturally important factor of their cultivation of Being Controversial. The title of their last album was a plucky move, and opening this one with a song called 'Sympathy For The Devil', delivered from El Diabolo's POV was taking them into areas which meant they probably would never really be popular rivals to the supposedly cleaner-cut end of the market (despite what those bands might actually be doing in private). If you liked the Stones in 1968, then you could guarantee your Dad would not approve. Jagger's vocal performance, and Richards' squealing guitar twiddles on 'Sympathy...' are unlike anything else at the time. There is tenderness too. 'No Expectations' and 'Salt Of The Earth' are both sad and thoughtful. However the falsettos on 'Dear Doctor' do nudge it a little too close to a novelty song for comfort. 'Jig-Saw Puzzle' is well-named, it's a complex melange of all the band's talents. If 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' had appeared on a studio album, it would have been this one, so it's not surprising to hear echoes of it on 'Street Fighting Man', which also subverts the lyrics of 'Dancin' In The Street', a song that Jagger would later revisit with Bowie for Live Aid (for the record, it may have been a shambles, but it was a fun shambles done for the right reasons). You can also compare and contrast the semi-improv style of 'Stray Cat Blues' to some of the ramblier stuff on the previous album to see that they were well back in control of themselves on this album. Loved the folky tone of 'Factory Girl' too. Clearly our old mate Bruce must have taken some inspiration from the song. Two possible covers to consider, which are very different. I prefer the graffiti-ed karzey.
Side 1
Sympathy For The Devil
No Expectations
Dear Doctor
Parachute Woman
Jig-Saw Puzzle
Side 2
Street Fighting Man
Prodigal Son
Stray Cat Blues
Factory Girl
Salt Of The Earth
LET IT BLEED (1969)
By all accounts we are now in the middle of The Rolling Stones great run of classic albums, starting with Beggars Banquet through to Exile On Main Street and possibly beyond (remember, I'm coming to a lot of this fresh). Certainly the sound here is very mature for 1969. It is also bracketed by two contenders for the greatest rock intro of all time. 'Gimme Shelter' and 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' both grab you immediately with something that hadn't really been heard before. If I had to choose, then the intro to 'Gimme Shelter' would take the honours. That creaky percussion in the background and the development into a song that is almost a piece of musical expressionism - the lyrics are secondary to the emotion - make it a standout statement of intent for the whole album. There's also 'Country Honk', a preliminary drawing of 'Honky-Tonk Woman' that comes across as having been recorded in a shack in the Ozark Mountains and is therefore considerably more interesting that its better known counterpart. "I got nasty habits" snarls Jagger at the start of 'Live With Me' and there's no shirking from some lyrical themes that would have attracted a Parental Advisory sticker in a later age (maybe it does get one these days, who knows?). Certainly most of the lyrics of the title track cannot be reproduced in a family blog post. The centrepiece of the whole thing seems to be yet another freeform composition, 'Midnight Rambler', but they know what they're doing with this stuff now, so it serves as a good bridge into Side 2. Richards provides the vocal on 'You Got The Silver'. Jagger almost literally goes ape on 'Monkey Man' and they round it off with the contrast between the liquid purity of the choirboys and the cracked, parched voice of Jagger on 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'. Jones was gone now, pushed just before he died, and Mick Taylor had come in as replacement and would hang around for the next 5 years. Not keen on the artwork. Wikipedia alleges that Delia Smith made the cake.
Side 1
Gimme Shelter
Love In Vain
Country Honk
Live With Me
Let It Bleed
Side 2
Midnight Rambler
You Got The Silver
Monkey Man
You Can't Always Get What You Want
GET YER YA YA'S OUT! (1970)
Rules are made to be broken. And if you're going to break the rules then The Rolling Stones are the ones to break them with. Normally live albums are banned. Studio recordings only. However I have good reasons for including this.
1. I like the title
2. It reputedly cements the current string of four albums that represent the Stones in their all-conquering pomp and brings their work to date together.
3. The Stones are a massive undertaking anyway, so one more won't hurt.
4. A trusted adviser told me I should include it.
The great thing about live albums is that they generally tend to work as a kind of less formal 'Best Of' and yet you also get to hear how the band cope with the differences between studio and stage. You also get a bit of between-song chit-chat which can often be fun.
Now I dunno if there is an echo in Madison Square Garden or the band are announced about 5 times at the beginning. They do not appear to be the only band on the bill either. Wikipedia hints that Terry Reid, B.B. King and Ike and Tina were supporting them, which in itself tells you how far they had come. When it starts with 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' there's a suspicion that Richards' guitar is slightly out of tune, but the remarkable thing about these performances is that they are both as tight as one of Charlie's snares and as loose-limbed as Jagger's dancing. Mick suffers a wardrobe malfunction after JJF, threatening to treat the crowd to some unplanned kecks-dropping. This may still be heavily blues-influenced music but it is also modern, hard rock that hundreds of bands have copied ever since. I'm tempted to say that 'Midnight Rambler' is better than the version on Let It Bleed, and they dispense with the "woo-woos" in favour of a searing guitar performance from Keith on 'Sympathy For The Devil' which they play just after a Noo Yoik woman has requested "Paint It Black. Paint It Black, y'devil!". That's Charlie on the cover. With a donkey.
Side 1
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Carol
Stray Cat Blues
Love In Vain
Midnight Rambler
Side 2
Sympathy For The Devil
Live With Me
Little Queenie
Honky Tonk Woman
Street Fighting Man
STICKY FINGERS (1971)
It has taken me a good while to get my head around Sticky Fingers. At first it just didn't grab me, but now I've been listening to it for about a week non-stop and it eventually becomes apparent that beneath the superficial nastiness (a contender for the first punk album, especially with the vinyl-damaging Warhol artwork) is an astonishingly complex and important album. Because, I put it to you, that while others may claim to have invented Rock Music, on this album, the Stones, take it, mould it, polish it and hone it into, well not even the prototype for everything that came after, but the finished, straight-to-market final product. You can break this down into a number of genres and cultural phenomena. They mine their natural tendency to controversy by opening up with 'Brown Sugar' and chucking in bleak echoey tales of drug taking with 'Sister Morphine'. They invent the Power Ballad with 'Wild Horses' - my favourite track from an album with no bad ones. Richards buzzes and fuzzes the riffs on 'Can't You Hear Me Knocking' before it develops into a purer sound and wanders off down a jazzier musical route. Charlie Watts clearly letting his influence show. If you had to pin them down to a style, then it's predominantly southern country blues - at it's most extreme on 'You Gotta Move', but even then they mix it up with the harrowingly goofy C&W styled 'Dead Flowers'. It must have been easy to dismiss the Stones as being rather coarse and, overall, a bad influence, but some of their lyrical themes show a sharp knowledge and intelligence at play. A song called 'Bitch' might well give you a low expectation, but "When you call my name, I salivate like a Pavlov dog" is a superb lyric (sung over the dirtiest blues riff you're ever likely to hear). And they have form too. See 'Sympathy For The Devil'. That's I'll-turn-up-on-every-major-artist's-work-unless-Rick-Wakeman-is-about Billy Preston giving it loads on the organ on 'I Got The Blues'. At the very last, they even find time to show all those MOR acts that came after how to do it with 'Midnight Mile'. If you ever end up contemplating the prospect of winding up on a desert island and need to pick one quintessential rock album to take with you, then you could do a lot worse. Mind you, I haven't heard Exile On Main Street yet.
Side 1
Brown Sugar
Sway
Wild Horses
Can't You Hear Me Knocking
You Gotta Move
Side 2
Bitch
I Got The Blues
Sister Morphine
Dead Flowers
Midnight Mile
EXILE ON MAIN STREET (1972)
Danger! Danger! Double album alert! My standard opening gambit on double albums is that they are symptomatic of having too much material and not enough ruthlessness. In many cases that can mean that it all evens out and the dross gets camouflaged by the good stuff. Your alternative is a simultaneous release of two single albums and let the punters decide which is the turkey and which is the masterpiece. In reality, double albums often pull it off, but it helps if you have a theme (The Wall, Tommy and War Of The Worlds for example). The River could be easily trimmed but London Calling and ELO's Out Of The Blue make good use of the four sides. We can forgive the White Album for almost anything. So the Stones primary contribution to the canon sort of fits the cliché, although the quality is good throughout, you wonder whether they could have left some stuff off. For example both 'Tumbling Dice' and 'Happy' are great songs, but do you need both? The superior 'Tumbling Dice' kind of renders 'Happy' redundant. Having said that, I'm not sure you could cut it down from 18 tracks to 9 or 10 without causing great sorrow and deprivation to the world at large. A word on the cover of Slim Harpo's 'Shake Your Hips'. It's a song I hold in great affection. In my past I have been a halfway decent Rock and Roll dancer, and one of the tunes I learned to was a version of this song (although not the Stones, nor the original) which is pretty much a perfect, blood pumping six-beat rock and roll song. They cheekily tap into gospel with 'Shine a Light', which Jagger executes magnificently. That's the authentic voice of a sinner right there (although repentance might not yet be on the agenda), and then Keef suddenly takes it into a full blown screaming guitar break. 'Ventilator Blues' is a grimy blues highlight too. Kind of like Pink Floyd on a day when they couldn't get the pigs to inflate. As the last in a legendary run of 4 albums this is a step down from Sticky Fingers for me, more of a holding position while they are at a peak, bit it's still a brilliant rock and roll album. I would have found a different title for side 3 track 2 though.
Side 1
Rocks Off
Rip This Joint
Shake Your Hips
Casino Boogie
Tumbling Dice
Side 2
Sweet Virginia
Torn And Frayed
Sweet Black Angel
Loving Cup
Side 3
Happy
Turd On The Run
Ventilator Blues
I Just Want To See His Face
Let It Loose
Side 4
All Down The Line
Stop Breaking Down
Shine A Light
Soul Survivor
GOATS HEAD SOUP (1973)
Side 1 of Goats Head Soup is one of those sequences of songs that perfectly characterizes both the artist and the wider musical and cultural environment. From the sleaziest sleazy blues of 'Dancing With Mr D' to the bruised tenderness of 'Angie', it's pretty much perfect. Which was a little surprising to me because I had got it into my head that this marked the end of the Stones in their pomp. This is every bit as good as Exile On Main Street and Sticky Fingers and benefits from having a single album's tightness and purpose that sometimes eluded Exile. If Dancing With Mr D is sleazy, then 100 Years Ago is easy. It rolls along and changes feel and tempo near the end, but listen to all the musical business that's going on in the background. I DO keep hearing "laser bombs" instead of "lazybones" however. 'Coming Down Again' is gentle and reflective before we get the astonishing Hendrixian acid-infused, wah-wah-tastic 'Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)'. So does Side 2 live up to it? Well, pretty much yes. 'Silver Train' becomes a chaotic rock-out. 'Hide Your Love' is an echoey, chugging blues and there's a touch of Van Morrison rambliness about 'Winter'. 'Can You Hear The Music' could do with a bit more pep and the F-bomb-a-rama of 'Star Star' is a bit much - trying too hard to shock? Mind you we all though the Sex Pistols invented that kind of thing, and they were tame in comparison. And the cover? Intentionally or not, the image of Mick wrapped in chiffon gives the impression of his face above an - ahem- lady's front bottom. Unedifying.
Side 1
Dancing With Mr. D
100 Years Ago
Coming Down Again
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
Angie
Side 2
Silver Train
Hide Your Love
Winter
Can You Hear The Music
Star Star
IT'S ONLY ROCK AND ROLL (1974)
I've spent most the of the week while I've been listening this to trying to come up with a way of phonetically representing the way Jagger pronounces 'wine' on 'Till The Next Goodbye'. I've finally plumped for WHYURN, but I'm not particularly happy with it. And so this continues the run of pretty remarkable albums to 6. It must break soon right? Although the quality is slipping a notch on this. The urgency of the first three tracks, 'If You Can't Rock Me', 'Ain't Too Proud to Beg' and the title track come at you like Mick himself, grabbing your coat lapels and thrusting his mouth in your face. Scary, exciting and a little bit repellent all at once. There's some good thrumming basswork by Wyman on 'If You Can't Rock Me' and overall the Stones dispense with any lyrical nuance in favour of creating a mood of tightly controlled chaos. The title track is familiar enough, although the intro nearly matches 'Gimme Shelter', but it seems to have slightly odd structure, being Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Chorus, Chorus, Chorus, Chorus, Chorus, Chorus. There's also a touch of T-Rex about the whole thing. They end Side 1 with the Santana-ish meander of 'Time Waits For No-One'. 'Luxury' is a somewhat jokey sub-reggae offering. Good fun, but somehow not quite right. More heads-down rock-out on 'Dance Little Sister', and lush Preston organ on the otherwise slightly humdrum 'If You Really Want To Be My Friend'. The soulful backing vocals are from Blue Magic - most famous for the song Sideshow. 'Short And Curlies' is a good title in want of a better song. And at the death of this album, Keith reconnects the wah-wah pedal and they attempt to create an Isaac Hayes/Shaft type sound. It's a bit odd, because it is miles from the style of the opening songs, but they do manage to put their Stones-ey stamp on it. After this Mick Taylor slung his hook and Ronnie Wood became the best paid wage-slave in history.
Side 1
If You Can't Rock Me
Ain't Too Proud To Beg
It's Only Rock And Roll (But I Like It)
Till The Next Goodbye
Time Waits For No-One
Side 2
Luxury
Dance Little Sister
If You Really Want To Be My Friend
Short And Curlies
Fingerprint File
BLACK AND BLUE (1976)
OK. I'm going to stop waiting for a bad album to come along. It may never happen. I'm indebted to a friend for pointing me to
which was carried out just after the release. The interviewer, Jeff Griffin is manfully fighting against his good diction by upping the glottal stop quota and comes across as both somewhat chippy and matey at the same time. Wyman, Jagger and Wood all interview well. They aren't lairy and seem happy to discuss whatever Jeff brings up, including a little bit of politics around playing in post-Franco Spain and communist-lite Zagreb. The recent Leicester gig was clearly a stormer, but Jeff seems overly concerned that the stage in Glasgow was cramping their style. Wood's voice is yet to have gained the 'character' that forty years of Jack Daniels, Capstan Full Strength and possibly more serious forms of self-medication confers. The album is strong from start to finish. 'Hot Stuff' is, as Wyman asserts, an upbeat disco-funk strut which has Watts tapping away subtly in the background. My favourite on the album is definitely 'Hand Of Fate', an accomplished rock song of the highest order. There's some reggae with a cover of Eric Donaldson's 'Cherry Oh Baby', which does feel a bit unnecessary to me. Incidentally on the Radio 2 early breakfast show this week, hosted by Vanessa Feltz, her song on weekly feature 'David Rodigan's Roaring Reggae Friday' was Jagger and Peter Tosh doing 'Don't Look Back', so I don't think we can accuse Mick of being a reggae dilettante. And he achieves a level of authenticity without ever having to resort to mimicking a Jamaican accent. The centrepiece is the magnificent 7 minutes of 'Memory Motel'. Billy Preston is all over the keyboards on this album and a good thing too. 'Melody' is a cool, rolling piece of jazz-rock which was led by him. He imposes quite a lot of structure over the Stones usual controlled chaos. And there's some ear-grabbing horn arrangements in it too. But it's Mick himself who takes to the electric piano for probably the best known song on this, 'Fool To Cry'. Tender and sad. Maybe not what you'd expect from the Rolling Stones. However reassurance is at hand in the closing track 'Crazy Mama'. As Stones-ish a thing as you are ever likely to hear. I've put up the opened gatefold sleeve, which shows Charlie looking like he could be Jools Holland's dad.
Side 1
Hot Stuff
Hand Of Fate
Cherry Oh Baby
Memory Motel
Side 2
Hey Negrita
Melody
Fool To Cry
Crazy Mama
SOME GIRLS (1978)
The received wisdom is that this represents a return to form following the supposed doldrums following Exile On Main Street. But that's like saying that Roger Federer achieved a return to form when he won his 18th Grand Slam title. What's more, I would respectfully suggest that there are one or two problems with this album. Not least the title track, a kind of meaner spirited version of The Beach Boys 'California Girls', which, despite Jagger's protestations that it was just a joke, does put a foot wrong with it's suggestion of what black girls like. Also, if there is one area where the Stones, or more specifically their lead singer sometimes fails to convince, it's when they attempt the full-on Country and Western sound. O
n Sticky Fingers they get away with 'Dead Flowers' because the juxtaposition of the dark lyrical content and the jokey delivery works. But here, 'Far Away Eyes' just sounds like Mick is, well, taking the Mick. But these are still just niggles when you consider it also contains the two slices of fried gold that are 'Miss You' and 'Beast Of Burden'. The album was recorded against the backdrop of Keef facing a lengthy jail term for heroin possession (he got off lightly in the end) and the oncoming twin horsemen of the rock apocalypse that were Disco and Punk. If not ahead of it, the Stones had already shown themselves to be at least riding the crest of the curve on both of those movements, so it's hardly surprising that they drew inspiration from both on this album. The punk side in particular owes a lot to the likes of The Ramones, New York Dolls and The Cars. See 'Lies', 'Respectable' and 'Shattered'. The inclusion of a noisy, freeform version of The Temptations 'Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)' is a surprise and you'd be hard pressed to recognize it until the chorus kicks in. As an added bonus, we get treated to Keith Richards' reedy whine on 'Before They Make Me Run'. In artwork news, the original cover had to be withdrawn since they hadn't got the permission to use the images of the various personalities that were used. In the new version only George Harrison survived.
Side 1
Miss You
When The Whip Comes Down
Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
Some Girls
Lies
Side 2
Far Away Eyes
Respectable
Before They Make Me Run
Beast Of Burden
Shattered
EMOTIONAL RESCUE (1980)
Everyone can do a Mick Jagger impression. You stand pigeon chested, raise your chin and pout your lips. Now raise your hands to the side of your left ear and give a double clap. Mince about (a lot) and shout in a parody of the most extreme cockney accent, with just a hint of public school poshness, things like "Keef. Keef. C'mere!" (for a masterclass just Google "Trip To Italy Mick Jagger'). But from whence did this grotesque emerge? Well it's a fair bet that Mick's fully established stereotype was finally completed on Emotional Rescue. In fact the opening track here, 'Dance (pt 1)', (of course there is no pt 2 - at least on this album, there never is), sees him executing all of the above (no - I really can hear him doing all the physical stuff too). Anyway, he just about gets away with the whole act since the song itself has a good soulful groove of the Nile Rogers variety. The monkey sounds really push the envelope of acceptability though. If possible, the whole thing is a gutsier sound than what has gone before. Sometimes this strays too far, 'Where The Boys Go' is more Sham 69 than anything else. Nothing wrong with that but it sounds like they're trying too hard. But elsewhere it's a good thing, like on the inevitable reggae entry 'Send It To Me' or the rockabilly rumble of 'Let Me Go'. 'Down In The Hole' is a weird mix of swampy blues and Mick's more bizarre vocal tics, but it works despite that, not least because of the spiralling guitar-work. Musically the title track is led by Wyman and Watts, with Jagger cranking up the falsetto. It's a standout track if only for its unusualness. We're treated to Richards on lead vocals again on the final track, 'All About You'. No one is going to claim he has the greatest voice, but there is a pleasing world-weary quality to it. The cover photos are some kind of thermal images thing of the band. It's not the best they've done.
Side 1
Dance (pt.1)
Summer Romance
Send It To Me
Let Me Go
Indian Girl
Side 2
Where The Boys Go
Down In The Hole
Emotional Rescue
She's So Cold
All About You
TATTOO YOU (1981)
Credit to the Rolling Stones, most major artists wait until at least 25 years into their careers before they start fobbing us off with their musical toenail clippings. Apparently this was cobbled together from offcuts from the last 10 years to give them something to tour off the back of, since Mick and Keef were having a minor tiff and so weren't inclined to get in the studio together. As a result a couple of the tracks even have Mick Taylor on them. So it should be a disaster right? Or at the very least a second-string album? Well it isn't. My main gripe is that the production is a little to clean, like the material has been slightly over-polished, but it opens with 'Start Me Up' and crashes and clatters forward through Side 1 of an album which is supposedly split into a side of rockers and a side of ballads. A fair indication of the standing of a song in an artist's oeuvre is to look at their most popular tracks on Spotify, 'Satisfaction' is number one, but 'Start Me Up' comes second (then 'Sympathy For The Devil'), and it does amount to a distillation of everything the Stones stand for - brash, loud, bluesy rock pumped up with sexuality and danger. 'Hang Fire' is a rather cheesy, it almost sounds like it could be from Grease, but 'Slave' is an excellent slow, jazzy groove. My favourite on the album is the deleriously catchy, Keith-sung 'Little T&A'. He manages to come across as a tuneful, more energetic Dylan. While they don't really stretch themselves on 'Black Limousine', the deceptively blandly titled 'Neighbours' (maybe the theme tune to a Rolling Stones soap opera - someone should pitch it to Netflix) is a load of fun where both Mick and Charlie appear to be having a whale of a time. Mick revisits his 'Emotional Rescue' voice for the opening slowie on Side 2, 'Worried About You'. There's a soulful Drifters-ish feel to 'Tops'. And right in the middle of Side 2 is 'Heaven', probably the closest the Rolling Stones will ever get to an ambient soundscape - and really quite brilliant. They finish up with the fairly unremarkable 'No Use In Crying' and 'Waiting On A Friend' where Mick reels in the C&W parody to good effect. Nice artwork. Looks a bit like Bowie.
Side 1
Start Me Up
Hang Fire
Slave
Little T&A
Black Limousine
Neighbours
Side 2
Worried About You
Tops
Heaven
No Use In Crying
Waiting On A Friend
UNDERCOVER (1983)
Now, I must have heard this one back in the day because my elder brother had it on cassette. I also remember the title track very well, so I went into this expecting to be reintroduced to, if not an old friend, then at least something that held memories for me. However, my recall resolutely refused to ring the slightest ping of a bell on anything but 'Undercover Of The Night' - which was a pretty successful single anyway, with a video with 'adult themes' in the heyday of MTV. So let's start there as the Stones plunge us into a sweaty, sultry tale of state oppression and crime. That fading-in-and-out guitar seems very new and exciting and it is a good memorable song. No-one else was doing anything remotely like it at the time. Just like on Tattoo You, the most straight-out enjoyable track for me is when Richards takes the microphone on 'Wanna Hold You'. He does a nice line in vacuous, well-within-my-abilities catchy rock-pop. This one is almost surf-rock. Mick flexes his reggae muscles again on 'Feel On Baby', although it may actually be closer to dubstep (when it comes to these genres of music I do have to turn my BS-O-Matic up to 11). In the middle of it all is the rather perplexing 'Too Much Blood'. A kind of freeform ramble built around a Wyman bass riff and some horn stabs. Mick sings a bit and talks a lot. Starting in an American accent going on about Japanese guy in Paris chopping up his girlfriend, keeping her in cold storage before eating her. He (Mick) then lapses back into his probably just as false English accent and sarkily muses on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and how in fact, manics with heavy lumberjack equipment are actually pretty thin on the ground in the Lone Star State. Eventually he gives it the Full Mick and starts going on about how he prefers "somefink more rom-aaa-ntic. Y'know like Officer and A Gennelman or somefink. Somefink you can take the wife to, y'know what I mean?". I would slag it off but I found it quite enjoyable really. Some of the rest does count as filler for me, but the riff on the closing 'It Must Be Hell' does sound like it, ahem, 'inspired' Michael Jackson's 'Black Or White'. The cover is trying just a tad too hard to shock and ultimately is a little messy and dissatisfying.
Side 1
Undercover (Of The Night)
She Was Hot
Tie You Up (The Pain Of Love)
Wanna Hold You
Feel On Baby
Side 2
Too Much Blood
Pretty Beat Up
Too Tough
All The Way Down
It Must Be Hell
DIRTY WORK (1986)
You come across all kinds of stuff getting pushed your way if you keep putting the same words into a Google search, and recently my searches have featured the words 'Stones' and 'Rolling' quite frequently. Thus I happened on this
with a rundown of all 25 Stones albums ranked in order. Guess what is at number 25? Mind you, they put Exile On Main Street at number 1 and I reckon there are at least two or three that are better than that. Anyway, even before I've listened to it all, it seems that the opening 'One Hit (To The Body)' was good enough for Neil Young to lift wholesale and recycle four years later for 'Rockin' In The Free World', so it can't be all bad can it? It's reputation for being a Stones stinker seems to be built on tensions between Jagger and Richards at the time. Jagger had released his solo 'She's The Boss' album (a rather good effort from what I recall) and Richards thought he should be making more effort for the team. 'Fight' lives up to it's name and is a bit of a raucous clatter. 'Harlem Shuffle' had some kind of Roger Rabbit/Ralph Bakshi video, which papered over the cracks of a pretty weak song to curry favour with MTV. And they do make quite a lot of bad calls on this, not least handing lead vocals to Keith on this album's reggae outing 'Too Rude'. At risk of mangling my proverbs, why keep a reggae dog like Jagger and then bark yourself? It's overproduced too. The cleanliness of Tattoo You was not much of a problem because the material was good, but in the mid-eighties, producers and their shiny new toys sometimes swamped the essence of the band, and the Stones are suffering here. Songs like 'Back To Zero' and the title track are toothless, and that's a BIG problem. "It's beginning to make me angry" sings Mick on 'Dirty Work', but you're not entirely convinced he's anything more than moderately nonplussed, and the song almost completely falls apart at the end. They absently trot through a blues number with 'Had It With You' and then Keith puts us out of our misery with 'Sleep Tonight'. So yes. Certainly the worst since Beggars Banquet. The early albums are hard to compare with it, they're so different and not really designed as a single offering. Even the artwork has an air of can't-be-arsedness about it. One and a half listens and I'm moving on. I'm certain Steel Wheels will represent the fabled 'return to form'.
Side 1
One Hit (To The Body)
Fight
Harlem Shuffle
Too Rude
Side 2
Winning Ugly
Back To Zero
Dirty Work
Had It With You
Sleep Tonight
STEEL WHEELS (1989)
That rarest of things. A 'return to form' that really does represent a recapturing of what the band is really about following a low period. In fairness to the Stones, it was only Dirty Work that was truly slovenly. Undercover had plenty of merits and Tattoo You is a fine album. After all, it took a 10-year lay-off and the threat of imminent death for Bowie to regain his mojo after Tin Machine and his succession of alleged RTFs. I was advised when listening to this that I should take note of the guitar interplay between Richards and Wood, which is really more of a tribute to my ability to give the impression that I have a discerning musical ear than anything to do with actual fact. But, I do get the point. The Stones are at their best when they sound rough and ready, but are in fact as tightly interwoven as, well, a very tightly interwoven thing. The album feels like it's built around the twin singles of 'Mixed Emotions' and 'Rock And A Hard Place'. They all sound energized and listening to it energizes you, which is the ultimate point of Rock and Roll. Mick's voice is loud and savage, and even Keith is giving it some vocal welly on his two leads. It's interesting to think that in 1989, the Rolling Stones represented the epitome of creaky old geezers who really should have given it up by now - at least according to the know-it-all new wave of indie rock artists coming off the second summer of love in 1987. And yet Mick Jagger was only 45 at the time. The Stones crime in this respect was that they had kept going and stayed relevant when virtually everyone else had fallen by the wayside. Anyway, I suspect the impressive guitar work on the punky, flat out 'Hold On To Your Hat' is the kind of thing I should be pointing out. If I might be so bold as to use the word 'coruscating' you might get the idea. And it stops dead when it's all done, no messing around. Jagger even effortlessly pulls off the country ballad 'Blinded By Love'. Listen to 'Rock And A Hard Place' again. You know it already, but it almost sounds
organic.
A naturally occurring phenomenon rather than a mere rock song. Keith's first outing on voice is 'Can't Be Seen'. A straight on but smashy-crashy rocker, and he closes the album with the much more tender 'Slipping Away'. In the middle of all this on side 2 is something that approaches the avant-garde in 'Continental Drift'. All North African pipes and chants which shouldn't really work for the Stones but does. Jagger's voice has that whine (for want of a better word) that complements the traditional vocals and instruments. Maybe I've gushed too much about this one, a reaction to the relief of not getting another dose of Dirty Work, but I'll be going back to it when all this is over. Fly in the ointment? I'm not keen on the artwork. Never have been.
Side 1
Sad, Sad, Sad
Mixed Emotions
Terrifying
Hold On To Your Hat
Hearts For Sale
Blinded By Love
Side 2
Rock And A Hard Place
Can't Be Seen
Almost Hear You Sigh
Continental Drift
Break The Spell
Slipping Away
VOODOO LOUNGE (1994)
They may be continuing to produce high quality music, but the artwork has gone for a burton. Bananaman. It's a double, but the sides are pretty short, Side 1 has 3 tracks and barely exceeds 10 minutes. It slinks in with 'Love Is Stong'. Mick hisses and whispers menacingly and Keef and Ronnie match him with the guitar work. Wyman is now gone, putting his feet up in the south of France where il est no longer un rock star. His absence doesn't seem to have any significant effect on the guts and commitment of the output. 'You Got Me Rocking' rumbles and grinds and Jagger's voice is showing no indication of weakening. If anything it's stronger than ever. Interestingly for me this represents the Stones at approximately the age I am now. I have to tell you that I don't seem to have their vigour and I've led a blameless life. Jagger is possibly even more satyr-ish as well. I won't spell it out but listen to the lyrics of 'Sparks Will Fly'. And later, on 'Brand New Car', he sings "Jack her up baby, go on, open the hood, I want to check if her oil smells good, Mmmm, smells like caviar" (in fact the whole song is a rather lascivious double entendre). Dunno where he gets his energy. Side 2 seems to intentionally slow things down. It seems obligatory now that Keith gets at least one song to sing on every album and here there's a couple of ballads, the slidey, country-styled 'The Worst' and the grizzled 'Thru And Thru' near the end of Side 4 which builds from an almost a capella start to a crashing, relentless climax. Pretty amazing stuff. I particularly liked 'New Faces' with it's harpsichord. It feels like something they would have done at the end of the sixties. They could well be taking the piss with the cloying sentiments of 'Sweethearts Together', but it does seem to be a genuine attempt at a hopeful celebration of pure, young love. Anyway, they get back to much more unsavoury pursuits straightaway with 'Suck On The Jugular', which is a song where you can hear most clearly the touch that producer Don Was has brought to their sound. So we're pretty close to the end now, despite it only being 1994. They complete the album with the joyous rock-out of 'Mean Disposition'. Maybe the Stones didn't really feel like they had anything left to prove by now (rightly so), so there are only three more albums from here to the present. Bill could have stayed on for all the workload that was required.
Side 1
Love Is Strong
You Got Me Rocking
Sparks Will Fly
Side 2
The Worst
New Faces
Moon Is Up
Out Of Tears
Side 3
I Go Wild
Brand New Car
Sweethearts Together
Suck On The Jugular
Side 4
Blinded By Rainbows
Baby Break It Down
Thru And Thru
Mean Disposition
BRIDGES TO BABYLON (1997)
By now it seems that the Rolling Stones are actually just incapable of making a bad album. They are in what amounts to semi-retirement and therefore only make new material when they feel like it and can all agree to be in the same place at the same time. But that's not to say that they are going through the motions, they really do push the limits of their creativity even at this stage of their career. The best known song on here is probably 'Anybody Seen My Baby', where Mick almost goes silky smooth on the voice and they throw in some low-key hip-hop. Keith finally pulls off a credible reggae performance on 'You Don't Have To Mean It' and they distort Mick's voice just enough to make it interesting on 'Might As Well Get Juiced'. But there are also nods to their past. Perhaps my favourite on this is 'Already Over Me', where Jagger resurrects the singing style of 'Angie', but this time supported by a beautifully deep, cleanly picked guitar that reminds me of Neil Young at his best. And 'Saint Of Me' feels like a companion to 'Sympathy For The Devil' with it's first person approach and biblical references. Of course there's much of the same old tried and tested larks as well. 'Too Tight' is probably extremely rude, but is a fine punky rocker. 'Low Down' is what they do best, with either Keith or Ronnie using the guitar as a percussion instrument. Keith gets to usher the album out with a couple of ballads. 'Thief In The Night' is a kind of Clapton-esque slow blues and 'How Can I Stop' is a rather lovely gentle wistful piece which almost enters doo-wop territory. He seems genuinely regretful about his lack of self control (although if you've listened to his albums in succession like I have, you suspect that he's never really lost it at all). The artwork remains uniquely terrible.
Flip The Switch
Anybody Seen My Baby
Low Down
Already Over Me
Gunface
You Don't Have To Mean It
Out Of Control
Saint Of Me
Might As Well Get Juiced
Always Suffering
Too Tight
Thief In The Night
How Can I Stop
A BIGGER BANG (2005)
At the time of singing, Mick Jagger is 62 years old, and yet he's still carrying on like a canine with twin sexual appendages. His opening salvo on 'Rough Justice' is "One time you were my baby chicken, Now you've grown into a fockssss. Once upon a time I was your rooster, Now am I just one of your cockssss". No time for subtlety at his age. But those lines are both beautifully crafted and shockingly blunt. As noted previously, the Stones are so accomplished and so utterly comfortable with what they are doing that they hardly put a foot wrong throughout. Everything fits together snugly like a jigsaw puzzle. This is a double and in fact the last, to date, of original material. While you couldn't accuse them of breaking new ground or changing the course of rock and roll, they still have some original ideas in the tank. The reggae chops of 'Rain Fall Down' are pleasingly bell-like and they are downright political on 'Sweet Neo Con' as they rip into the fundamentalist Christian Right. Mick seems to be weighing his enunciation of every word on the slow and roughly tender 'Streets Of Love'. I'm almost certain to have used the words slidey, slow, swampy and blues all together somewhere in the past, but I'm not earning a living at this so a bit of sloppiness should be forgivable. 'Back Of My Hand' is slow, swampy, slidey blues. Something I've never commented on so far, is the nature of Rolling Stones song titles. There's something very self aware about many of them, they play up the whole 'bad boys of rock and roll' thing with titles like 'Rough Justice', 'Back Of My Hand', 'Laugh, I Nearly Died', 'Look What Cat Dragged In' and 'Infamy', and they've done it throughout with both individual songs and album titles. Admittedly the content of many of these songs are also quite near the knuckle, but that just confirms their authenticity I guess. But you also know, that they know, that it's all a bit of a game. Of course a couple of Keith croons are now de-rigeur. Just try not to conjure any images in your mind when he sings "Come on, bare your breasts and make me feel at home" on 'This Place Is Empty'. There's still plenty of spike in the Stones lyrics too. "Oh no not you again, fucking up my life, it was bad the first time, I can't stand it twice", sings Mick on 'Oh No Not You Again'. It seems standard now that Keef gets the last word. So 'Infamy' plays on that old Carry On Cleo chestnut of confusing "infamy" with "in for me" ("Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me"). That they can get away with such a tired old joke probably tells you as much about their status as you need to know. They appear to be trying a touch of spot-welding on the cover art, and since it is merely quite bland, represents a considerable improvement on recent efforts. But honestly, who cares when it's this good?
Rough Justice
Let Me Down Slow
It Won't Take Long
Rain Fall Down
Streets Of Love
Back Of My Hand
She Saw Me Coming
Biggest Mistake
This Place Is Empty
Oh No, Not You Again
Dangerous Beauty
Laugh, I Nearly Died
Sweet Neo Con
Look What The Cat Dragged In
Driving Too Fast
Infamy
BLUE AND LONESOME (2016)
It's a fitting way to end this voyage of discovery for me. In a way we come full circle with an album of blues covers. I started this with the view that taking on the Stones was a risk for me. There are a lot of albums and I wasn't convinced I really understood what the Rolling Stones were all about. I understand now. It isn't just that they are technically good at what they do, but they have remained committed to giving of their best nearly all the way through (I'll forgive them Dirty Work). Despite the reported differences of opinion down the years, they also seem to know how to play to each other's strengths. Without turning it into a piece of corporate training blurb, they really are a team that delivers more than the sum of their considerable parts. This was knocked out in 3 days studio time, which is right and proper, and you can hear it all over the album. Even on Spotify there is a great analogue quality to the recordings which tells you that they are more interested in capturing the history and meaning of these songs than simply playing them. It's a labour of love and of hero worship, so there are songs from Howlin' Wolf, a couple from Willie Dixon and three from Little Walter. Clapton was collared from the studio next door to play on 'Everybody Knows My Good Thing' and 'I Can't Quit You Baby'. They're still touring and must have at least one more album outing within them mustn't they?
Just Your Fool
Commit A Crime
Blue And Lonesome
All Of Your Love
I Gotta Go
Everybody Knows About My Good Thing
Ride 'Em On Down
Hate To See You Go
Hoo Doo Blues
Little Rain
Just Like I Treat You
I Can't Quit You Baby
This one needs a footnote. I usually do these posts about a band or artist for whom I have some affection. I had little for the Rolling Stones, but they clearly deserve their reputation as the greatest rock and roll band in the world. The reason for that is that they've worked at it. They've lived the lifestyle too, and they've stayed relevant when so many others burned out quickly. The Beatles lasted less than 10 years and left an incredible legacy, but as individuals they never regained what they had (at least I think not, more on this soon). The Stones kept plugging away, getting better and better and even pulling themselves back from the brink of imploding in the mid-eighties. There is also a certain comedic value to the whole Mick and Keef thing which is grist to my particular mill. So I have to pay tribute to a remarkable group of, not just musicians, but Rock Stars!
Thanks to Brian Jones for getting the show on the road
Thanks to Mick Taylor for bridging the gap between Jones and Wood while incidentally being crucial to the one of the greatest runs of albums ever produced
Thanks to Ronnie Wood for fitting right in
Thanks to Bill Wyman for knowing when to quit gracefully
Thanks to Charlie Watts for carrying on when he probably would rather have done something else
Thanks to Mick Jagger for showing us all how to grow old, not disgracefully, but in a way that gives us all hope
And thanks to Keith Richards, just for hanging on this long.