I love the feel of It's Only Rock 'N' Roll, certainly the original studio version. I think Jagger camps up the mood of the song very well, which seems pretty much a feature of much of the Stones 1973-76 output. However, the lyric, and especially the chorus, seems an attempt by the Stones to reduce their position of importance to just being rock 'n' roll stars, which seems a prelude almost to the Stones own position in popular music in the decades that followed. Not that popular music has to be heavy and meaningful necessarily, but the song has always left a slightly sour taste in my mouth. That's pretty much representative of the It's Only Rock 'N' Roll album as well. Maybe it's the first indication of decline on the Stones part. I remember Jagger saying he was influenced by the sloganism found in many of the Slade songs of the time.

I took it as a response to reviews of Goat's Head Soup ( and early reviews of Exile ). I think that they thought it was over analyzing .... much like what goes on here on this board.

I think there's certainly some truth in your suggestions, especially in the last part, concerning Jagger's borrowings from glam rock. IMO there are clearly some similarities between IORR and certain Slade tracks. I started a thread about it some time ago. Allow me to repat my introductory post here:

IORR (the track)influenced by Slade?

It’s no big news that by 1972/73 the charms of Glam Rock were beginning to rub off on Mick Jagger – at least visually. But nevertheless, I was surprised to read the liner notes of Slade’s “Slade in Flame” soundtrack (the reissue), quoting Mick Taylor to the extent that on It’s Only Rock’n’Roll (the track) Mick Jagger was emulating the Slade approach. Listening to some Slade tracks afterwards the thought began to grow on me. Just imagine Noddy Holder belting out those lyrics “If I could stick a pen in my heart…Ahhh-know-it’s-only-Rock’n’Roll…” Would make a perfect Slade smash. Or take the beginning of Slade’s 1974 single “The Banging Man”. It’s not that far from the introduction of IORR, isn’t it? Certainly such influences were mutual, propably even bigger from the Stones side. But I’d really like to hear a Slade cover of IORR. At the time, it might have easily outperformed the original.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2010-07-02 10:39 by Greenblues.

Quote
Edward Twining
However, the lyric, and especially the chorus, seems an attempt by the Stones to reduce their position of importance to just being rock 'n' roll stars, which seems a prelude almost to the Stones own position in popular music in the decades that followed.

That's one of the points I love of this song and of the stones in general. They don't preach, they are no philosopers, politicians, anti-this or anti-that, they are part of no cultural trend ...

I see the meaning of It's only rock and roll in the same wave length of Jumping Jack Flash.

Truly a great song!


C

Perhaps because IORnR was written by Ronnie Wood.

IORR sounds a bit like Get It On / Marc Bolan.

Who sings back up vocals on IORR?

Quote
The GR
Perhaps because IORnR was written by Ronnie Wood.

Yes, and I like Charlie Watts his drumming on this track a lot...

Its a great song, the drumming is great and the guitar work is so simple but always gets me in a good mood. Is Kenny Jones drumming or was his part wiped out and the re-done by Charlie? I've heard conflicting stories on that.

I don't care for the song live most of the time. i like the studio version best.

I always read that too. That Kenny was doing a "Charlie" impression on the demo and Charlie refused to re-do it saying He couldnt have done it better...

Great song, great feel, also don't want to hear it live.
The album is a little bit of "Rolling Stones By Numbers", but I think they do it so well that they pull it off and it is a top tenner for me.

I remember reading at the time Mick Taylor saying "It's Mick and Keith trying to write a song in the classic Stones style". It does have a kind of forced quality to it. The record has its charms but it has never done anything for me live, especially with that tacked-on Chuck Berry intro.

Its the Chuck Berry intro I do not like it gives the son a whole other feeling.

the chuck berry style is what i like about the song

I always thought (for a single) that it was a bit long and drug a might until it hit the groove. I kinda like the live versions better because of the straight Chuck intro and BAM it kicks right into high gear (but thats just me!)

The studio version swings..nice rhythm

I like the little KR riff right at the start (guitar panned left), just after the first line MJ sings... a little riff twiddle

...what it was was a commercial stab...and it worked...a ton of radio play to this day.

love the song though they could never make it sound half as good live.

Quote
ghostryder13
love the song though they could never make it sound half as good live.

i heard a version that was 47% as good once - so that's pretty close

The song does have a "manufactured" feel to it. I am surprised that Charlie Watts didn't play this in the studio. He was sleeping at the time? Did he play on the rest of the album?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-07-02 20:02 by mitchflorida.

Quote
mitchflorida
The song does have a "manufactured" feel to it. I am surprised that Charlie Watts didn't play this in the studio. Did he play on the rest of the album?

Start Me Up has the same effect on me.

It was cobbled together from a recording Mick J. did with Ronnie from the "I've Got My Own Album..." sessions. Kenney Jones on drums and Andy Newmark (?) on bass. Keith then wiped some guitars and added his own. Don't know if Taylor is even on the track. What's weird is that what's bad about the recording (the kind of synthetic nature of it) is also what's cool, with the acoustics and Berryesque guitar overdubs. Live, they turn it into a straight-ahead rocker, which evidently works for some people, but always comes across like warhorse filler to me.

and in a secret, middle of the night transaction, ronnie gave this to the stones and took sure the one you need as compensation....

Quote
StonesTod
and in a secret, middle of the night transaction, ronnie gave this to the stones and took sure the one you need as compensation....

I think Ronnie got the short end of the stick on that transaction...Sure The One ended up more of a Keith solo track, even though it was on Ronnie's album.

The studio version is so over-produced (which rarely works but on this one it does) that IORR is the one song they have never been able to play live even remotely as good as the studio version.

Quote
MartinB
The studio version is so over-produced (which rarely works but on this one it does) that IORR is the one song they have never been able to play live even remotely as good as the studio version.

someone once did the math and it turned out to be something like 6 or 7 guitar tracks on it. i supposed they could hire a bunch more guitarists for the live version for that "authentic" iorr sound....

Jagger and Wood wrote IORR and I Can Feel The Fire together
and shared these songs then. They recorded IORR at The Wick
(Ronnie Wood's house in Richmond) with Wilie Weeks on bass
and Kenney Jones on drums. David Bowie was present at the
session as well, added probably backing vocals (or according
to a Keith-quote "only handclaps" ). Richards wiped Wood's
electric guitar and overdubbed some of his own guitar tracks.
Wood said in various interviews that his original acoustic
guitar is still on the released track (although he is not
credited on the IORR-album. Unlike Weeks and Jones...).

Sure The One You Need is a Keith-composition...

N

Quote
71Tele
[
It was cobbled together from a recording Mick J. did with Ronnie from the "I've Got My Own Album..." sessions. Kenney Jones on drums and Andy Newmark (?) on bass.

Newmark was the drummer on that album, although he worked together with Jones on a few tracks (like "Caribbean Boogie" that was used on Now Look). Willie Weeks was on bass.

from Zig Zag-magazine in 1974 (Keith-interview about IORR):
ZZ: There's a lot of you on that number, right?
KR: Yeah, three or four guitar overdubs at least.
Mick T.'s not on it at all. Mick J's playing one guitar
and I think Ronnie's playing an acoustic.

N

Quote
NeddieFlanders
Jagger and Wood wrote IORR and I Can Feel The Fire together
and shared these songs then. They recorded IORR at The Wick
(Ronnie Wood's house in Richmond) with Wilie Weeks on bass
and Kenney Jones on drums. David Bowie was present at the
session as well, added probably backing vocals (or according
to a Keith-quote "only handclaps" ). Richards wiped Wood's
electric guitar and overdubbed some of his own guitar tracks.
Wood said in various interviews that his original acoustic
guitar is still on the released track (although he is not
credited on the IORR-album. Unlike Weeks and Jones...).

Sure The One You Need is a Keith-composition...

N

that's right - it was so dark during that transaction, it looked like sure the one you need, but it sure wasn't.....

Quote
liddas
That's one of the points I love of this song and of the stones in general. They don't preach, they are no philosopers, politicians, anti-this or anti-that, they are part of no cultural trend ...

to be fair, they were quite trendy throughout the mid-'60s, and in the late '60s mick in particular was prone to political and at times philosophical statements. I agree with Edward Twining that this title seems intended to announce a change, shifting down a gear in significance--or recognizing that this has already happened and trying to make a virtue of it. In that sense, taylor's interpretation of them trying to write like themselves seems inaccurate.

I've commented on it before, but I still don't understand the patently unequal "trade" between mick and ron of this song for "Can You Feel the Fire." Wouldn't ron, as a second- or third-tier artist at the time (solo), be surely more in need of a single-worthy song than the prolific and established Stones? Why did he agree to this?

I also have a hard time imagining Bowie attending this session and only contributing handclaps and possibly backing vocals. Has he ever confirmed he was there?

Quote
71Tele

Quote
StonesTod
and in a secret, middle of the night transaction, ronnie gave this to the stones and took sure the one you need as compensation....

I think Ronnie got the short end of the stick on that transaction...Sure The One ended up more of a Keith solo track, even though it was on Ronnie's album.

The short end of the stick? Maybe that was the price he had to pay in order to get into the group.