Just realized that this year is the 30th anniversary of "Under Cover" and in just 3 short years we'll be celebrating the 30th anniversary of "Dirty Work".

How do you plan on celebrating? Do you think the Stones will do a special tribute to "Under Cover" in their USA tour this year, playing 3-4 of the best tracks off of it?

I will play "Dirty Work" Once every 30 years is good enough.

I'll play Exile and forget that they ever recorded Dirty Work! Haha..

Wow, that definitely means we are getting old! Can't believe they are 30 years old. And no, I think they will still be ignored as they rightfully should.

How about the ridiculous MTV video that went along with "UnderCover"? It's on youtube.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-04-21 18:52 by triceratops.

"(Undercover) Of The Night", "Too Tough", "One Hit (To The Body)" and "Fight" were all featured on Monday Night Football last season, that should be good enough. More exposure than I ever expected those two albums to get. I had a sneaking suspicion that the bulk of those songs for MNF were chosen based on which albums they had a surplus of, as 10 of the 16 songs chosen came from the post-Tattoo You era, and only 2 songs from the Taylor era.

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NoCode0680
"(Undercover) Of The Night", "Too Tough", "One Hit (To The Body)" and "Fight" were all featured on Monday Night Football last season, that should be good enough. More exposure than I ever expected those two albums to get. I had a sneaking suspicion that the bulk of those songs for MNF were chosen based on which albums they had a surplus of, as 10 of the 16 songs chosen came from the post-Tattoo You era, and only 2 songs from the Taylor era.

I've heard that when it's up to the Stones as to which song is used for promotional reasons, they'll pick the one that has the best royalty structure for them. E.g. avoid songs with ex-band members, from the ABKCO era, etc. Doesn't exactly explain this MNF choice as they would have had to pay Wyman a royalty.

I haven't listened to UnderCover in about 20 years, I think I will give it a spin. I remember the debut of the video for "Under Cover of the Night", it was reasonably creative for the time, and definitely played off the Mick/Kick friction. The guitar effects and drum machine kind of ruined the track for me though.

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sonomastone

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NoCode0680
"(Undercover) Of The Night", "Too Tough", "One Hit (To The Body)" and "Fight" were all featured on Monday Night Football last season, that should be good enough. More exposure than I ever expected those two albums to get. I had a sneaking suspicion that the bulk of those songs for MNF were chosen based on which albums they had a surplus of, as 10 of the 16 songs chosen came from the post-Tattoo You era, and only 2 songs from the Taylor era.

I've heard that when it's up to the Stones as to which song is used for promotional reasons, they'll pick the one that has the best royalty structure for them. E.g. avoid songs with ex-band members, from the ABKCO era, etc. Doesn't exactly explain this MNF choice as they would have had to pay Wyman a royalty.

I haven't listened to UnderCover in about 20 years, I think I will give it a spin. I remember the debut of the video for "Under Cover of the Night", it was reasonably creative for the time, and definitely played off the Mick/Kick friction. The guitar effects and drum machine kind of ruined the track for me though.

Well, I knew there wasn't going to be any ABKCO songs on MNF as the deal was between ESPN and UM. Many writers/bloggers seemed pretty hung up on the fact there was no ABKCO material, but I understood the reality of the situation, as Stones fans we all know the difficulties with ABKCO. I was more surprised by the song choices from within the window they were allowed to use though.

It might make some sense, from a business side, to choose songs that would result in not having to pay so and so for royalties. But one can't help but wonder if they wouldn't have moved more copies of Exile, GHS, or whatever, and made more money, by picking more quality tracks. Somebody might run out and buy one of the more popular albums by playing quality tracks from it, I can't imagine too many youngsters ran out and bought "Dirty Work" on the strength of hearing "Fight" set to some NFL highlight reel though.

In concert they don't roll out too many deep album cuts, or cuts from a deep album, they seem to stick to what they think we'll know. Like they don't trust the public at large to open themselves up to something they don't already know. Then they flipped the script and rolled out mostly unknown songs when they had an audience of 15 million people a night. Of course, they're pretty much a captive audience as they're there for the game and not the music. Maybe the thinking was they can play whatever the hell they want, as nobody is going to change the channel because they don't like a song, and hoped that something would stick and some people would pick up copies of these albums.

Thanks for bumming me out with a reminder of two of their absolute worst albums. What's depressing is that Dirty Work is actually the better of the two. Undercover Of The Night is a great song and shouldn't have to live with the albatross of that wretched album.

24FPS - Undercover is much better than DW. I like One Hit and Harlem Shuffle the rest of it is awful IMO. DW is really the only Stones album that I can NOT listen to. There will be no note of either albums on their thirtithe anniversaries. She Was Hot or Undercover could possibly be played. Other than that these two albu,s will be rightfully ignored.

Undercover isn't really all that bad--it's only half bad. Half of it sounds like a worthy follow-up to Tattoo You, and the other half, with the tuneless muddle of awkward 80s (over)production values, sounds like a prequel to Dirty Work. In its time, Undercover should have been an EP rather than an LP.

Undercover is really pretty good. I like Undercover of the Night, She Was Hot, Wanna Hold You, Too Much Blood, Tie You Up, Too Tough, Pretty Beat Up and All the Way Down. Though there are many other songs I'd rather see and hear live.

Happy Anniversary Undercover!

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uhbuhgullayew
Happy Anniversary Undercover!

really liked that. way better than the studio version. not really a stonesy song the way they arranged it, but a lot of fun and definitely keith. thanks for posting.

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sonomastone

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uhbuhgullayew
Happy Anniversary Undercover!

really liked that. way better than the studio version. not really a stonesy song the way they arranged it, but a lot of fun and definitely keith. thanks for posting.

Keith played it at Texas Motor Speedway in '97 and it saved his set from being a disaster. He first played "All About You", which killed the crowd. I felt terrible for Keith, everybody sat down, people were heading out for beer/bathroom, having conversations, etc. It looked like intermission or pre-show. Then he played "Wanna Hold You" and got everybody back on their feet. They weren't rocking out THAT hard, like it was JJF or something, but they got off their asses and stopped acting like a bunch of ungrateful knob-jobs.

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NoCode0680

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sonomastone

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uhbuhgullayew
Happy Anniversary Undercover!

really liked that. way better than the studio version. not really a stonesy song the way they arranged it, but a lot of fun and definitely keith. thanks for posting.

He first played "All About You", which killed the crowd.

Lol... Although I love "All About You" - it's a great tune I still listen too - I can't imagine it doing anything but killing the crowd. Some ballads don't go over well live unless the audience knows it well, and I think it's asking too much for your average audience member at a circo 1997 stones crowd to know All About You. Kudos to him for even trying, and for doing one for the serious fans.

Steely Dan had a big 70s hit called Dirty Work.

I rate undercover as one of their best. It's raw, loud, aggressive. It has great lyrics and Jagger's best singing. It is their last album where they still had that smell of sex and danger.

Mathijs

I really don't know why so many regard this album as weak? My guess is that they are sort of fooled by the contemporary-sounding singles (Undercover and Too Much Blood).

It doesn't get bluesier and darker than this. Probably one of Keith's best lead guitar (and bass) moments as well:





The demo version:

like some other Stones albums I have bittersweet memories associated with Undercover. when I listen to it all those associations are always ther for me, from that time in my life. I still don't love but really like the album, memories aside. I just love the grooves and the dumbness of some of the songs..(Wanna Hold You) ..

its a Stones album that tries really hard, and gets it a few times.

Dirty Work to me is just forgettable..not very compelling, although there are a few good moments on it.

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Mathijs
I rate undercover as one of their best. It's raw, loud, aggressive. It has great lyrics and Jagger's best singing. It is their last album where they still had that smell of sex and danger.

Mathijs

I agree, in my top 3,

Thanks for posting that Tie You Up demo. It has a Slave vibe to it. But I can also see why Mick may have bored with the basic track. Their demos with scratch lyrics from the era all sound the same to me. Too bad Mick chose to go with production trickery and faster tempo over better lyrics/vocals.

Just my opinion. Tie You Up is still one of my favorites off this not so great album.

Undercover was the first new release from the Stones I ever bought and I was SO pumped. At the time I LOVED IT and also bought the Too Much Blood and Undercover remixes. Talk about overproduction! YIKES!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-04-22 14:27 by punkfloyd.

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Mathijs
I rate undercover as one of their best. It's raw, loud, aggressive. It has great lyrics and Jagger's best singing. It is their last album where they still had that smell of sex and danger.

Mathijs

Literally:

The smell of sex, the smell of suicide....

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punkfloyd
Thanks for posting that Tie You Up demo. It has a Slave vibe to it. But I can also see why Mick may have bored with the basic track. Their demos with scratch lyrics from the era all sound the same to me. Too bad Mick chose to go with production trickery and faster tempo over better lyrics/vocals.

Just my opinion. Tie You Up is still one of my favorites off this not so great album.

Undercover was the first new release from the Stones I ever bought and I was SO pumped. At the time I LOVED IT and also bought the Too Much Blood and Undercover remixes. Talk about overproduction! YIKES!!!

Well...

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Mathijs
I rate undercover as one of their best. It's raw, loud, aggressive. It has great lyrics and Jagger's best singing. It is their last album where they still had that smell of sex and danger.

Mathijs

damn right

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TheGreek

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Mathijs
I rate undercover as one of their best. It's raw, loud, aggressive. It has great lyrics and Jagger's best singing. It is their last album where they still had that smell of sex and danger.

Mathijs

damn right

DOUBLE Damn Right!

I think it suffers from being 'less commercial' after the huge success of Tattoo You (although that isn't a bad thing) and from the proximity to the disaster of Dirty Work.

They are not comparable albums in my opinion.

Undercover needs to be remixed by someone like Rick Rubin.

Guys, er, I'm pretty sure the "Monday Night Football" songs were chosen because of their titles — Tough, Hit, Fight, etc. Contact sport, and all.

Hard to believe it's been thirty years. I remember buying the lp and peeling off the stickers. Not a bad album.

"Lyin' awake in a cold, cold sweat. Am I overdrawn, am I going in debt?
It gets worse, the older that you get. No escape from the state of confusion I'm in.

Bring on the Kinks!