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Bunch of junk - either you like a record or you don't. I happen to like pretty much everything the Stones have ever done, and I don't feel the need to prove my good taste by sh*tting on quality albums. Goats Head Soup isn't as good as Let It Bleed, but I still love it and listen to it.

This article is pretentious rock critic wanking.

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This article is pretentious rock critic wanking.

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Edward Twining
Very good article in my opinion which i agree with in the main. I'm not so sure i would have put such a strong division between 'Tattoo You's quality in relation to sides 1 and 2, yet there may be a small glimmer of truth to what he's saying. Some of those rockers do perhaps sound a little forced, 'Neighbours', especially, and perhaps signify what the Stones would become in later years. However 'Tattoo You' to my ears has a much fuller sound and is better produced, and not underdeveloped, sketchy etc. His analysis of 'Goats Head Soup' and 'Their Satanic Majesties Request' is something i agree with completely. It is the fact that these albums are a little unfocused, and less than perfect, that makes them so compelling. The Stones are attempting something which perhaps isn't completely successful, yet in many ways they were at the time at the peak of their powers.

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Doxa

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Edward Twining
By contrast, Jagger lost that wit and edge later, and some of his stuff like "You Got Me Rocking" or "I Go Wild", etc are simply so generic that they are pathetic and embarressing. Like he has lost his intellect. Don't ever try to compare them to refential richness and playfulness of "She's So Cold" or "Let Me Go" when the words stil had a kind of connection to the real life, or simply, had a significance. Besides, Jagger has a long ago lost the balls to start a song with an opening like "In the sweet old country where I come from, nobody ever works, nothing gets done..."

- Doxa

Amen. Let me go (studio) is one of the underrated "simple" rockers. Shes so cold is one of their best songs.

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Doxa

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Edward Twining
Very good article in my opinion which i agree with in the main. I'm not so sure i would have put such a strong division between 'Tattoo You's quality in relation to sides 1 and 2, yet there may be a small glimmer of truth to what he's saying. Some of those rockers do perhaps sound a little forced, 'Neighbours', especially, and perhaps signify what the Stones would become in later years. However 'Tattoo You' to my ears has a much fuller sound and is better produced, and not underdeveloped, sketchy etc. His analysis of 'Goats Head Soup' and 'Their Satanic Majesties Request' is something i agree with completely. It is the fact that these albums are a little unfocused, and less than perfect, that makes them so compelling. The Stones are attempting something which perhaps isn't completely successful, yet in many ways they were at the time at the peak of their powers.

I like the article very much too (thanks for the link!). To say it in a "humble" way, I very rarely find the reviews - outside the realm of IORR, of course - considering The Stones stuff very - or at all - insightful; that they somehow offer me something 'new', or some novel angles that I haven't seen or thought yet. This one does (and of course, it doesn't hurt at all that I seem to agree with the most of the opinions...) Some of the things he says, like the definition of "great bad albums", and using this in analyzing albums like GOATS HEAD SOUP and BLACK & BLUE, or the way he distinguishes those alums from the post-TATTOO YOU ones, are clever and interesting. That is sort of kind of thing I have sometimes tried to do, like finding the right terms, but most likely and generally, failed. There is not just a big bullshitter but a little academian in me too who really joins people finding suitable terms and definations to apply...

One of those things that was a new interpretation to me was the point Edward here also picked up: the nature of the A-side of TATTOO YOU giving like a model of the post-TATTOO YOU albums to come. I haven't ever thought that way (well, that might be true some of the stuff in UNDERCOVER but I take that to be the general feeling of the 'Pathe Marconi-era' that started in SOME GIRLS and ended in UNDERCOVER.) I wouldn't call these songs "stupid" either. I think the writer makes generally a common "intellectual mistake" in thinking too much the songs solely on the base of their explicit lyrics. Even inside the lyrics department, he doesn't seem to appreciate the implicit self-irony they contain. I think some of the best Pathe Marconi stuff is actually lyrically wit and clever - especially the stuff in EMOTIONAL RESCUE; Jagger found a new gear from his repertuare during this era, and I think with this 'stupid' stuff he already had made a kind of move by which to distance himsef from the idiocy and vanity of the life and game he is involved (the way he does in "Waitin' On A Friend", greatly interpreted here by the writer, is just another way to put it.). He just made novel kind of fun of it that was ónly possible for a man who was in his position and had lived that life (and, yeah, 'seen it all'). By contrast, Jagger lost that wit and edge later, and some of his stuff like "You Got Me Rocking" or "I Go Wild", etc are simply so generic that they are pathetic and embarressing. Like he has lost his intellect. Don't ever try to compare them to refential richness and playfulness of "She's So Cold" or "Let Me Go" when the words stil had a kind of connection to the real life, or simply, had a significance. Besides, Jagger has a long ago lost the balls to start a song with an opening like "In the sweet old country where I come from, nobody ever works, nothing gets done..."

Musically, the A-side of TATTOO YOU is almost if not totally perfect. The songs are so full, so well produced, so vital, so tasty. Most of all, the songs sound like they were thought through, finished properly (I think only "Neighbours" is a weak link). They never would sound so coherent again when trying to "rock". Like Edward pointed out, that's a huge difference to the post-TATTOO YOU stuff. I mean, just listen to "Black Limousine" - can a white blues band sound any more authentic and original as they do here? The Stones sound nothing but themselves. The guitar licks, the big back beat, the distinguished nasty voice. I miss that "no hostages" attitude that is captured there. Jagger "over-interprets" here but shit it works wonderfully. Simply nailing the form. I think any try of a 'blues song' try ever since is quite lame compared to it. They lost some balls to nail the genre authentically.

I think the A-side of TATTOO YOU is more like fulfilling the sound they had gone trough during the last years (since the sessions for SOME GIRLS), and the band sound relaxed and self-secure. It is a bit like EXILE does to all the experiments they have done prior that in creating BEGGARS BANQUET, LET IT BLEED, and STICKY FINGERS. The rockers of UNDERCOVER sound like the rockers of GOATS HEAD SOUP to EXILE's - a bit tired and repitive and not finding the inspiration again. But still the band having the groove that cannot make mistakes.

Funny though, he have here at IORR talked a lot about the b-side of TATTOO YOU - it is good that the A-side is done sometimes as well!

- Doxa