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treaclefingers
Respectable vs. Tops - Winner: Tops
.....
Shattered vs. Waiting on a Friend - Winner; Waiting on a Friend.

are you cereal?

I have to agree with treaclefingers... I love Tops more than Respectable much more... well Respectable, Lies, Summer Romance, Where boys go - are pretty much the same song really. Shattered I love live at Hampton more that the studio version, the Stones could never match Waiting On Friend live with the studio version - I mean just Sonny Rollins sax makes the song better than Shattered ... amazing. I am not cereal.

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LeonidP

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treaclefingers
Respectable vs. Tops - Winner: Tops
.....
Shattered vs. Waiting on a Friend - Winner; Waiting on a Friend.

are you cereal?

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pagodapete
don't understand the comparison but I love some girls.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Some Girls 269th and Tattoo You 211th on its list of the greatest 500 Albums of all time.

Tattoo is a more interesting record regardless of the collage of songs from different eras... Bob Clearmountain did an incredible job mixing it. The weakest tune on the album is Neighbors... Take Neighbors out of your Ipod and listen to it through without it... perfect Stones.

TATTOO YOU IS INCREDIBLE....
SOME GIRLS IS AMAZING.......

Both albums are good but Some Girls gets my vote

TY and SG are probably the 2 best albums, except for Exile.

Yeah, I do prefer TY 'cause of Hang Fire, SMU and Worried About You.

But it's such a close call.

Both are great albums, probably my 2 favourite Stones albums. Only 1 weaker track on each: Lies and Neighbours. Really like side 2 of both albums.
The start of TY is smashing with the intro of Start me up, and the end of SG is equally great with the last notes of Shattered. Can't decide which one is better!

Pete.

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brianwalker

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stones78

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brianwalker

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stones78
Not a fair comparison since Some Girls was an all-new album and
for Tattoo You they had the chance to revive outtakes as old as 72'.

Why does this matter at all when comparing albums? Oh yeah it doesn't.

Can we have a ban on anyone ever bringing this point up again, ever..

It annoys me everytime. It doesn't freaking make one bit of difference when the songs were written.

Anyone else you want to ban?

Sure..Proclaiming that 1981 was the last great rock and roll tour, despite the Stones obviously playing Rock and Roll in 1989 and every tour after. and blowing 1981 Stones out of the water. That would be good.

Plus posts with pictures of pills that say Chill Pill on them.

But if you think my complaint doesn't make sense, then someone please explain why it matters one bit when a song is written and started when rating the song. Oh yeah, it doesn't make any difference, or any sense to even bring it up. Yet everytime someone asks for opinion about TY someone brings it up, and explains that you really can't rate the album because some of the songs were from an earlier time. Of course making no sense. They are being asked to rank what is on the CD. Period.

not apples-to-apples, since 1981 was the rolling stones and 1989 was the vegas stones lol.

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LeonidP

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treaclefingers
Respectable vs. Tops - Winner: Tops
.....
Shattered vs. Waiting on a Friend - Winner; Waiting on a Friend.

are you cereal?

Yes, I'm Captain Crunch!

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retired_dog

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treaclefingers
Let's go Side by Side taste test (we'll delete Neighbours for comparison as there are 11 songs on Tattoo You and it is the 6th song on side 1):

Miss You vs. Start Me Up - winner, Start Me Up
WTWCD vs. Hang Fire - winner, WTWCD
Just My Imagination vs. Slave - winner, Slave (original, and SO good)
Some Girls vs. Little T & A - Winner, Little T & A, (but oh so close!)
Lies vs. Black Limosine - (good gawd, no comparison...even Neighbours beats Lies)
Far Away Eyes vs. Worried About You (Winner: Worried About You)
Respectable vs. Tops - Winner: Tops
Before They Make Me Run vs. Heaven - Winner BTMMR
Beast of Burden vs. No Use in Crying - Winner the BEAST
Shattered vs. Waiting on a Friend - Winner; Waiting on a Friend.

Tattoo You wins 7 of the 10 battles = Tattoo You Wins.

In a side battle, Keith vs. Keith
BTMMR vs Little T & A, Winner: BTMMR I think, but this one is close to a toss-up.

Understand, I love Some Girls but I do think it is a little overrated.

Best Single: Start Me Up

You forgot to mention that these ratings are your personal opion.

I didn't think I needed to state the obvious, but for you, I will certainly.

It is my opinion...and fact ><

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StonesTod

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Loudei

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StonesTod
after the big four, i consider sg-er-ty as the big 3 of the woody era...i guess you could sorta toss b&b in there and you've got something of the "carter era" as the answer to the big four/nixon era - well, close enough.

I like Tattoo You better than Beggars Banquet

that's not the question. the question is whether you liked carter more than nixon.

well...carter is more affable, but on the other hand, nixon is more laffable.

Tattoo you is better:

Worried bout you alone is one of their best songs ever. Nothing on Some Girls comes near. Slave is one of their best grooves and riffs. One of thier best jams, I prefer it to Cant you hear me knockin (cant stand the rock part of "...knockin"). Tops is one of their best songs. Waiting on a friend is a modern Dead flowers, not great but good and with that fantastic sax solo...Little T&A is a highlight on the 1981 tour. Listen to the T&A demos, outtakes. Great playing.



Some Girls: I love the album sleeve, Miss you, Shattered (underrated), BTMMR, BoB but Some Girls is not a great album. It's good, it comes in a really great package, sometimes great sound but way too many crap songs. I never listen to it. Shattered is a real gem though.

shattered is a gem although the studio version isnt great, the still life(live version) is brilliant.

I think Tattoo you is a great album, the last great one the Stones did, but my vote goes to Some Girls. Just a classic album, and really re established the Stones after Black and Blue being a let down.

Like them Both...pity Lies is on SG otherwise it I might choose SG as a better one

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lies gets slagged alot here. why, why, why????

SOME GIRLS has the feeling of freshness; a band finding an inspiration again: "we have something to say again!" There is nothing repitive in its nature; there is nothing that sounds like using an old cliche - no, they found a new gear in everything they do. Even the basic rockers - "The Whip", "Lies", "Respectable" - they sound nothing like they did before. Then there is a real experiment that is probably one of their most succesfull ever: "Miss You". That is probably the last time they could try something totally new and different and sound absolutely awesome, original and convincing. "Shattered" is another experiment in sound and style. They also have new approach to their old familiar styles: the soul of "Imagination", the blues of "Some Girls", the c&w of "Faraway Eyes" - each of them sound fresh. That is the last album the Stones were able to re-invent totally their sound. And you can still hear how the vitalness and novelty go hand in hand when listening to the album.

TATTOO YOU, by contrast, is a mature perfection in the style they have already mastered. Stylistically, it didn't surprised anyone at the time - only surprise is the funny contrast of its two sides between rockers and ballads. In some cases, they sound probably better than ever. I think the big single of the album, "Start Me Up" is a good example of that. It is a "retro" a classical Stones-sounding song in the good old syle of "Brown Sugar" but shit, sounding probably better than anything they have done ever. The ballads of B-side has probably more depth they ever have had. "Black Limousine" is their best blues piece since EXILE. All in all, I think the geatness of TATTOO YOU is that they don't even try to enlarge their musical scope but to make it deeper what they already know. The result is a mature-sounding album.

So both albums are wonderful in their own rights. I would say SOME GIRLS has slightly more highlights. "Miss You", "Beast of Burden" and "Before They Make Me Run" are songs that can be called 'classic songs' - belonging to highest class of Rolling Stones songs. TATTOO YOU has two of them: "Start Me Up" and "Waitin On A Friend". (By comparison, I would say there is no song ever since, or in EMOTIONAL RESCUE, or even in BLACK&BLUE, to make that category.) But I think TATTOO YOU over-all has slightly stood the test of time better, while SOME GIRLS has more flavor of the month nature in it.

My vote will go to SOME GIRLS. It has a bigger significance in the Stones story, it is the BEGGARS BANQUET of the 70's (giving them a new life, and buying the future), and I like its cohesive, contemporary, still forward-looking/going nature; I would say it is their fifth best album ever (after the big four), while TATTOO YOU making the position between ##6-9, competing with AFTERMATH, GOATS HEAD SOUP and their first album.

- Doxa



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011-10-30 00:11 by Doxa.

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StonesTod
lies gets slagged alot here. why, why, why????

As far I know, I'm they only one that slagged Lies ...it's a stupid monotone song nothing happen and has no feel

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Doxa
SOME GIRLS has the feeling of freshness; a band finding an inspiration again: "we have something to say again!" There is nothing repitive in its nature; there is nothing that sounds like using an old cliche - no, they found a new gear in everything they do. Even the basic rockers - "The Whip", "Lies", "Respectable" - they sound nothing like they did before. Then there is a real experiment that is probably one of their most succesfull ever: "Miss You". That is probably the last time they could try something totally new and different and sound absolutely awesome, original and convincing. "Shattered" is another experiment in sound and style. They also have new approach to their old familiar styles: the soul of "Imagination", the blues of "Some Girls", the c&w of "Faraway Eyes" - each of them sound fresh. That is the last album the Stones were able to re-invent totally their sound. And you can still hear how the vitalness and novelty go hand in hand when listening to the album.

TATTOO YOU, by contrast, is a mature perfection in the style they have already mastered. Stylistically, it didn't surprised anyone at the time - only surprise is the funny contrast of its two sides between rockers and ballads. In some cases, they sound probably better than ever. I think the big single of the album, "Start Me Up" is a good example of that. It is a "retro" a classical Stones-sounding song in the good old syle of "Brown Sugar" but shit, sounding probably better than anything they have done ever. The ballads of B-side has probably more depth they ever have had. "Black Limousine" is their best blues piece since EXILE. All in all, I think the geatness of TATTOO YOU is that they don't even try to enlarge their musical scope but to make it deeper what they already know. The result is a mature-sounding album.

So both albums are wonderful in their own rights. I would say SOME GIRLS has slightly more highlights. "Miss You", "Beast of Burden" and "Before They Make Me Run" are songs that can be called 'classic songs' - belonging to highest class of Rolling Stones songs. TATTOO YOU has two of them: "Start Me Up" and "Waitin On A Friend". (By comparison, I would say there is no song ever since, or in EMOTIONAL RESCUE, or even in BLACK&BLUE, to make that category.) But I think TATTOO YOU over-all has slightly stood the test of time better, while SOME GIRLS has more flavor of the month nature in it.

My vote will go to SOME GIRLS. It has a bigger significance in the Stones story, it is the BEGGARS BANQUET of the 70's (giving them a new life, and buying the future), and I like its cohesive, contemporary, still forward-looking/going nature; I would say it is their fifth best album ever (after the big four), while TATTOO YOU making the position between ##6-9, competing with AFTERMATH, GOATS HEAD SOUP and their first album.

- Doxa

Damn, of course you got a point here. Maybe Im wrong about TY... OK, so my opinion is this: the album Some Girls is, and I forgot Respectable, as a whole, a better product and more important, yes. But I never listen to it, why? Because some of the songs on TY are so good. They are better, simple as that. Miss you is really a better song imo, than Start me up - a song I hate although I hear the potential. Some Girls is a brave album and 1978 was a PR year for the band after 1977. Yes, the did it again, the re invented themselves and even made us believe Keef had come clean. Which makes 1980 an interesting year. Keef does come clean for real and what happened next?

Great post Doxa, thank you for you valued points. What has made me listen to TY more than SG for so long , is probably that TY has no place or time or motive... Its a polished gem found somewhere.... Enigmatic maybe? no punks, no disco... Just music.

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Doxa
SOME GIRLS has the feeling of freshness; a band finding an inspiration again: "we have something to say again!" There is nothing repitive in its nature; there is nothing that sounds like using an old cliche - no, they found a new gear in everything they do. Even the basic rockers - "The Whip", "Lies", "Respectable" - they sound nothing like they did before. Then there is a real experiment that is probably one of their most succesfull ever: "Miss You". That is probably the last time they could try something totally new and different and sound absolutely awesome, original and convincing. "Shattered" is another experiment in sound and style. They also have new approach to their old familiar styles: the soul of "Imagination", the blues of "Some Girls", the c&w of "Faraway Eyes" - each of them sound fresh. That is the last album the Stones were able to re-invent totally their sound. And you can still hear how the vitalness and novelty go hand in hand when listening to the album.

TATTOO YOU, by contrast, is a mature perfection in the style they have already mastered. Stylistically, it didn't surprised anyone at the time - only surprise is the funny contrast of its two sides between rockers and ballads. In some cases, they sound probably better than ever. I think the big single of the album, "Start Me Up" is a good example of that. It is a "retro" a classical Stones-sounding song in the good old syle of "Brown Sugar" but shit, sounding probably better than anything they have done ever. The ballads of B-side has probably more depth they ever have had. "Black Limousine" is their best blues piece since EXILE. All in all, I think the geatness of TATTOO YOU is that they don't even try to enlarge their musical scope but to make it deeper what they already know. The result is a mature-sounding album.

So both albums are wonderful in their own rights. I would say SOME GIRLS has slightly more highlights. "Miss You", "Beast of Burden" and "Before They Make Me Run" are songs that can be called 'classic songs' - belonging to highest class of Rolling Stones songs. TATTOO YOU has two of them: "Start Me Up" and "Waitin On A Friend". (By comparison, I would say there is no song ever since, or in EMOTIONAL RESCUE, or even in BLACK&BLUE, to make that category.) But I think TATTOO YOU over-all has slightly stood the test of time better, while SOME GIRLS has more flavor of the month nature in it.

My vote will go to SOME GIRLS. It has a bigger significance in the Stones story, it is the BEGGARS BANQUET of the 70's (giving them a new life, and buying the future), and I like its cohesive, contemporary, still forward-looking/going nature; I would say it is their fifth best album ever (after the big four), while TATTOO YOU making the position between ##6-9, competing with AFTERMATH, GOATS HEAD SOUP and their first album.

- Doxa

To echo Doxa - 1978, punk and disco are the predominant music of the time. The Rolling Stones, The Who etc are boring old farts. However, the Stones roar back with Some Girls it is a vital part of their catalog at the time it was fresh and inspired. Also Ronnie plays extremely well here its really his first album he only plays on Hey Negrita on Black and Blue. SG was a statement from the band. They sound like they area actually having fun and are inspired as if there is something left in the tank. Therfore I have to give the nod to SG. TY is leftovers albeit damn good ones and has stood the test of time. Its close but Some Girls is to me the last really relevant album the Stones put out. Not the last good album but relevant to the times.

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Loudei
What has made me listen to TY more than SG for so long , is probably that TY has no place or time or motive... Its a polished gem found somewhere.... Enigmatic maybe? no punks, no disco... Just music.

Exactly. TATTOO YOU is an oddity in many sense. It is almost a miracle how it turned out to be such a graet album. In theory, it was just an album they rushed together from the b-material from the vaults (not good enough relaesed before) - Jagger just finishing them quickly in the studio. But somehow, all of it clicked so wonderfully - it is a incredible musical statement of their greatness. And still, not "saying" anything or having a "motive" or "point". Just, as you say, being "music".

Personally, I have a weak spot to TATTOO YOU since it is my first Stones album, the album I have most listened in my sweet short life... And even after getting known all the classical albums etc. it still has a special place in my heart. It is great to read all these positive accounts here since I think my judgment will always be very subjecive towards it. It is great that people who might not have such a close relationship to it, can view it even better than SOME GIRLS that "officially" is rated a classical album. Wheraes with TATTOO YOU it has always been a bit difficult how to locate in the canon.

I think the reason why TATTOO YOU has stood the test of time so greatly - besides its sound being incredibly great by today's standards - is that it is a retro album that is done wihout the intention to be retro. The "retroness" happened because the material they took from the vaults was the like it was. They just wanted to sound it better. The result is as I said abve "exercise in perfecting the style". It didn't go further (in styles/trends) but deeper. By contrast, UNDERCOVER and DIRTY WORK were still albums that tried to go further to new musical horizons, to cope with the times (like with SOME GIRLS, but not being such convincing anymore). TATTOO YOU didn't. It just looked back. Or 'inside'.

In a way many Stones albums since STEEL WHEELS are more like repeating the nature of TATTOO YOU. Especially VOODOO LOUNGE and A BIGGER BANG. But the difference is that they didn't have tha "depthness" in their method. They were just copying the form without really mastering the substance. Probably in 1981 The Stones really didn't need to rethink the form or 'copy' it - it was in their DNA at the time - they could put all the energy to the substance - to develop it. In 1994 Don Was - trying to reacpture the magic of EXILE - just studied the form: the style of the songs. And him/they couldn't reach any deeper, under the surface. Thereby most of the songs sound 'thin': 'stylistically correct' but without the depth magic that is common to their best works (partly, because Mick and Keith couldn't be creatively inspired any longer within such schemes they had perfected already; their 'new' songs turned to be crafty one-dimensional autopilot stuff). With TATTOO YOU the miracle happend because "let's try to sound like EXILE/Stones" wasn't any motive. The retro nature of the projcet came out naturally from the material they had in their hands.

In a way TATTOO YOU - like the world tour 1981/82 - would have been a perfect way to end the story in a high note.

- Doxa



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2011-10-30 11:38 by Doxa.

Without any doubt I prefer Tattoo You on Monday, Some Girls on Tuesday and both on Sunday.

I listen to SMU on Monday, Miss You on Tuesday and to both on Sunday.

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Doxa

In a way TATTOO YOU - like the world tour 1981/82 - would have been a perfect way to end the story in a high note.

- Doxa[/quote]

Exactly my point, this is something I always felt. Maybe the best would have been to tour 1981 and not 1982 leaving on a high note (Keith at least) and Mick could have gone off trying his solo thing and Keith would have maintained a great, no huge respect as an artist, solo artist, icon, man, God or whatever. His image 100% intact. I feel Keith is the one who lost on the 1989 deal. He earned money but IMO he lost something. The band?
I know 80%, no make that 93%, of the ioorians dont agree.

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slew
To echo Doxa - 1978, punk and disco are the predominant music of the time. The Rolling Stones, The Who etc are boring old farts. However, the Stones roar back with Some Girls it is a vital part of their catalog at the time it was fresh and inspired. Also Ronnie plays extremely well here its really his first album he only plays on Hey Negrita on Black and Blue. SG was a statement from the band. They sound like they area actually having fun and are inspired as if there is something left in the tank. Therfore I have to give the nod to SG. TY is leftovers albeit damn good ones and has stood the test of time. Its close but Some Girls is to me the last really relevant album the Stones put out. Not the last good album but relevant to the times.

+ Crazy Mama

Nice read, everyone. Always felt that Some Girls continued the legacy, and Tatoo You explained it, if that makes sense.

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mgguy
Always felt that Some Girls continued the legacy, and Tatoo You explained it, if that makes sense.

Really nicely put! Some people can put the point in one sentence where I need 500 of them!

- Doxa

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Doxa

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mgguy
Always felt that Some Girls continued the legacy, and Tatoo You explained it, if that makes sense.

Really nicely put! Some people can put the point in one sentence where I need 500 of them!

- Doxa

It is very nicely put...I think my opinion on it differs though. I saw it as "We need to reinvent ourselves vs. we are the stones, nothing else matters".

Tattoo you seems more self-assured and mature.

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treaclefingers

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Doxa

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mgguy
Always felt that Some Girls continued the legacy, and Tatoo You explained it, if that makes sense.

Really nicely put! Some people can put the point in one sentence where I need 500 of them!

- Doxa

It is very nicely put...I think my opinion on it differs though. I saw it as "We need to reinvent ourselves vs. we are the stones, nothing else matters".

A good description as well, but with respect, I don't quite agree with the expression "need to" - that's sounds being forced, that the reinvention does not happen naturally (caused by own muse). By contrast, I hear the band actually being inspired and the change in sound happening naturally. Yeah, there is some artificiality in "Lies" - trying too hard to sound current - but that is an expection. By contrast, I see in albums like UNDERCOVER and DIRTY WORK the band trying to reinvent themselves but does not happen so naturally and convincingly as it does in SOME GIRLS.

- Doxa

Yeah but after all SG is more Stonesy

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