Some Girls - I was four going on 5. Used to sing the Miss You Chorus.
Emotional Rescue - I don't remember anything about this album at the time. I do remember lots of other stuff being released by other artist (I was a musical sponge working things out on our family piano at a very early age), but I don't recall hearing a single track of this played back in the day. In fact, I was completely unaware of its existance until I rented an old copy of Rewind from the local video store in '87 (grade 9).
Tattoo You, now I DO remember this being played on cottage turntables ALL SUMMER LONG! I was taking tennis and golf lessons as a kid in Muskoka, lots of swimming, lots of boats, and lots of Stones that year! My first real introduction to this other group my sister obsessed over next to The Beatles (whom I loved more than the Stones right until grade 10).
Still Life - yes, I do remember this coming out. I remember knowing the (snicker) Hot Rocks 'versions' of the songs (hey, I was little) Under My Thumb and Let's Spend the night together. First live album I ever can remember hearing from start to finish. I was really surprised at the spped and energy of the live material - and it clicked... bands don't always have to play their songs just like their records if they didn't want to!!
Undercover - I only remember the 3 videos. My oldet sister had left the house, along with her huge vinyl collection. All those young years soaking up The Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Floyd came to an end in '83, and wouldn't continue until I started agressively buying tapes of my own in '87. She Was Hot was my favourite!
Dirty Work - I remember the video for Harlem shuffle and the laughbly ugly album cover. That's it. I'd thought they'd broken up the year before since I vivdly remember Dancing in the Streets and hearing 'Just Another night a LOT on the radi othe year before. Mick was the Stones for me. I didn't even know the names of the others until '87 or so (I knew one of them was called Keith). I remember picking it up in the record store and the guy saying... I wouldn't buy that, it's horrible. The Stones are, like, so over.
Steel Wheels - I was 15 going on 16. I`d concluded that I had a new favourite band! I was collecting tapes at the time, and some vinyl. I`d bought every Stones tape I could put my hands on (from what I could afford), and I was already getting vinyl bootlegs! Let`s face it, `89 was about the tour, and Steel Wheels was my first large-scale concert ever. I couldn`t believe tickets were
thirty five dollars!!! But I`ll never forget that concert for the rest of my life. I even cried a bit in joy. I`d hopped a train for Montreal to visit camp friends, and after partying in the pubs (this was Quebec where the legal drinking age is just a suggestion) we found a store selling Steel Wheels 3 days before the street date!!! We went to my friends house to put it on...
It was... okay. There was something missing though. It didn`t sound cool & dangerous like the earlier stuff. Too glossy. Adults were hailing it like the holy grail. The was me, Gen-Xer, developing a distrust for myopic opinions of the Baby Boomer Rock Press.
Flashpoint - I think I liked this better than the Steel Wheels album. The vocal overdubs on JJF & Satisfaction were very, very obvious. Highwire and Sexdrive we so-so, but unimportant.
Voodoo Lounge - it`d been a big five years for me, I was 20 now. Grunge ruled rock. Wandering Spirit kicked anything the Stones had done for years. I was in my first Stones cover band! We'd taped Love is Strong off the radio and played it at a gig before the LP came out! Now I was really pumped for the `return to their rock sound`. All the review clippings had only 4 of them pictured. Why wasn`t Daryll in the shots? Oh well. Love Is Strong was getting a lot of play... and we all thought it sounded a bit too close to 'Wicked As it Seems'. The rest of the album sounded over-all better than Steel Wheels, and there are some tracks I still really like. But it was a bit too long with some stinkers on it (I'm looking at you, Sweethearts Together). Still, Thru and Thru was Keith's shining moment! I remember the tour hype was HUGE!
Stripped - an over-all pleasant listen, but too many ballads, and a lot of it was too underplayed, especially on Jagger's part.
Bridges to Babylon - my (now ex) wife called me to the radio, they were about to play the new single. My stomach dropped. This sucked balls - hard. A rap part? Really??? Thank goodness for Saint of Me and Out of Control... the rest sounded contrived and stale with a layer of over-production.
No Security - I was drooling over the tracklist - I'd first joined an online community that posted it. I was impressed! I though in all cases the Bridges stuff sounded better live than on the album (especially Out of Control).
The 4 new `Licks`. A bunch of buddys and I smoking up after a comedy performance. Don`t Stop comes on. `Generic`` was the term. I bought the compilation for the new songs... Key`s to You Love was the last straw, and I admit jaded me to a lot of Boomer acts cranking out stuff past their prime.
Live Licks - Disc One was bland, with better versions of all songs found elsewhere. Disc 2, however, has some of their best live stuff they`ve put out in a long time. Still... why was each disc so short?? Surely they could have crammed on more stuff on each disk! The glaring flaw of disc 2 is that akward edit in Rocks Off. I thought "what the hell? Why??"
A Bigger Bang - no longer amount of time between albums had ever happened. This was their 'return to their roots' album (haven't we heard this before). I was driving in the car when I heard 'Rough Justice'. Meh... sounded an awful like 'You Got Me Rocking'. I think I've heard the whole album no more than 5 times. I thought 'well at this rate it's probably their last album'. Rain Fall Down was my favourite, but the rest just didn't resonate.
Shine a Light - eesh! Um... there`s a 3 song sweet spot on Disc 1, but this was the first time I seriously thought they should re-think their approach to songs. Still... I found the version of Paint It Black better than the Flashpoint one.
Now the Stones are and likely always will be my favourite group. But, having been bron in 1973, I`m well aware that they were at their very, very best before I was born. Such is the dilema of most Gen-X classic rock lovers.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-10-14 02:01 by jamesfdouglas.