what next...sticky fingers as a trainwreck on purpose?

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marcovandereijk
1986 was the year with no masterpieces. There were quite a bunch of old dudes proving the world
that 1986 was indeed a lousy year that'd better be soon forgotten.

Eric Clapton - August
Paul McCartney - Press to play
John Fogerty - Eye of the Zombie
Alice Cooper - Constrictor
Black Sabbath - 7th star
Rod Stewart - Every beat of my heart

Now tell me, which of these do you like better than Dirty Work?

Don't forget
Neil Young - Landing on Water

[thepowergoats.com]

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DandelionPowderman

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jamesfdouglas
Dirty Work a completely guitar-driven album?
Harlem Shuffle, Too Rude, Winning Ugly, Back to Zero, Sleep Tonight.

There's half the album - which of those are guitar-driven?

I'd say all of them, except Sleep Tonight.

Even on Back To Zero there are really funky playing by Keith and Bobby. The song is horrendous, but the playing is fine. That goes for Winning Ugly as well, even though that one, as well as BTZ has too much keyboards for my tastes.

Harlem Shuffle and Too Rude are classic soul and reggae tracks with prominent guitars.

Well my question was for MrMonte (he did say it in his blog). "Driven" is what drives the hook(s) of a song.
Harlem Shuffle - keyboard driven
Too Rude - bass driven (as a lot of reggae is)
Winning Ugly - bass and keyboard driven
Back to Zero - Chuck driven
Sleep Tonight - keyboard driven

So I guess by the album being "completely guitar driven" he means "half guitar-driven". Lesson class? Don't drink and blog.

[thepowergoats.com]

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WeLoveToPlayTheBlues
...Obviously they thought Winning Ugly would be a hit. They were ugly wrong about that.

If not for Back To Zero, Winning Ugly would qualify as the worst song that I've ever heard.

It's interesting how people either love or hate this album. I know it got great reviews in several magazines when it came out although I conceed that reviews don't count for much. Exile got some pretty bad reviews when it first came out. But I think the tension between Mick and Keith fueled some smokin' angst driven rock. One Hit rocks. Fight kicks down the doors with a fury that reminds me of Street Fighting Man. Keith says he wrote the venemous lyrics directed towards Mick when Keith was really pissed about Mick leaving the sessions to promote his solo album. Mick came back and recorded the vocal with equal fury. I wonder if he even knew he was singing Keith's diatribe against HIM? Hold Back rocks with great guitar and passionate vocals. The only songs I don't care for much are Winning Ugly and Back to Zero. They sound too much like something from She's The Boss. Someone mentioned that they were too lazy to bother putting a bass on Had it With You. Keith has said that was deliberate. He wanted to capture the sound of old radio broadcasts of blues shows where the limitations of the audio made the bass inaudible and what carried the bass function was the bottom end on the guitars. I know a lot of people hate it. What can I say? It rocked me when I first heard it and I still love a lot of it's songs. Also, on Had it With You, I wonder if Mick knew he was singing lyrics (written by Keith) that were directed at him? I think the feuding created some great angry rock.

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stonesdan60
... Fight kicks down the doors with a fury that reminds me of Street Fighting Man...

Sorry, once I hit this statement i have to stop reading...

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LeonidP

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stonesdan60
... Fight kicks down the doors with a fury that reminds me of Street Fighting Man...

Sorry, once I hit this statement i have to stop reading...

i stopped after "love"

Well written blog article and some interesting arguments put forward; to each their own, even though I like some of the 'Dirty Work' tracks I probably would rate it as the Stones' poorest album.

I feel 'Undercover' and 'Steel Wheels' are far better albums; in the case of the latter, it may be over-produced but any album with the likes of the magnificent 'Almost Hear you Sigh' & 'Slipping Away' has something magical. '..Wheels' isn't a truly great album, but it does contain some truly great Stones songs, something 'Dirty Work' certainly doesn't have in my opinion.

'Undercover' is the work of a working band, some of the experiments didn't come to fruition and there is some filler but overall it just has that Stones raunch and it feels like a real band playing together. When it gels, it does so brilliantly with inspired tracks like 'Undercover of the Night', ' Tie you up', 'Too much Blood', 'Feel on Baby'.

'Dirty Work' is the sound of a band falling apart, professionally and creatively. While it does show signs of life in the very good 'One Hit' and both of Keef's tracks, the rest veers from the passable to the very disappointing. Some good ideas but a lot of missed opportunities.

Killing Joke's "Brighter Than A Thousand Suns" was released in 1986.

www.rsundercover.eu

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LeonidP

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WeLoveToPlayTheBlues
...Obviously they thought Winning Ugly would be a hit. They were ugly wrong about that.

If not for Back To Zero, Winning Ugly would qualify as the worst song that I've ever heard.

I agree with you mostly. It's almost non-debatable. The reason I say almost is because of Streets Of Love and to a lesser extent Sweet Neo Con, Gunface and Might As Well Get Juiced, although the last two are not nearly as bad as WU and SOL.

Winning Ugly vs Streets Of Love

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KeithNacho
In 1985 we had Jagger's She's the boss; in 1987 we had jagger's Primitive cool.
What had happened if Jagger should have released an album in 1986?? Could it be worse??

Yes.

As much as I hate BTZ, I've always liked WU - it has a nice Motowny vibe (early Marvin Gaye such as Ain't That Peculiar) .

Damn the competition, indeed!

The worst of The Stones is in Dirty Work. I never listen to it anymore for years. Skip it and you miss nothing.

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LeonidP

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WeLoveToPlayTheBlues
...Obviously they thought Winning Ugly would be a hit. They were ugly wrong about that.

If not for Back To Zero, Winning Ugly would qualify as the worst song that I've ever heard.

They only seemed to think Winning Ugly would be a hit in Canada, as that's the only place they actually released it as a single. They were wrong even on that count.

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WeLoveToPlayTheBlues

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KeithNacho
In 1985 we had Jagger's She's the boss; in 1987 we had jagger's Primitive cool.
What had happened if Jagger should have released an album in 1986?? Could it be worse??

Yes.

Yes, worse...it would have been the Mick cuts leftover from She's the Boss that didn't quite make the grade for Dirty Work.

always loved dirty work my man,only 2 songs i dont like are winning ugly and back to zero,rest is raw,slash and burn greatness.

Dirty Work is an accident alright!!

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treaclefingers

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LeonidP

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WeLoveToPlayTheBlues
...Obviously they thought Winning Ugly would be a hit. They were ugly wrong about that.

If not for Back To Zero, Winning Ugly would qualify as the worst song that I've ever heard.

They only seemed to think Winning Ugly would be a hit in Canada, as that's the only place they actually released it as a single. They were wrong even on that count.

That's because it was used on a TV show up here about racing. When i finally picked the DW album (used on cassette), my friend and I were laughing that we were listening to the show's theme - and that it was by the Stones!
It's a $#!t song on a $#!t album.

[thepowergoats.com]

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phd
The worst of The Stones is in Dirty Work. I never listen to it anymore for years. Skip it and you miss nothing.

skipping it is giving it too much credit. it needs to be taken out to the woodshed and soundly and thoroughly beaten to a bloody pulp. it needs to be taught a lesson that it will never ever forget.

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jamesfdouglas

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treaclefingers

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LeonidP

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WeLoveToPlayTheBlues
...Obviously they thought Winning Ugly would be a hit. They were ugly wrong about that.

If not for Back To Zero, Winning Ugly would qualify as the worst song that I've ever heard.

They only seemed to think Winning Ugly would be a hit in Canada, as that's the only place they actually released it as a single. They were wrong even on that count.

That's because it was used on a TV show up here about racing. When i finally picked the DW album (used on cassette), my friend and I were laughing that we were listening to the show's theme - and that it was by the Stones!
It's a $#!t song on a $#!t album.

That's wild Jamie...I'd never heard that. You don't happen to remember the name of the TV Show do you?

We can always console ouselves with that also Dylan made a disastrous LP record called 'Empire Burlesque' the year 1984...

2 1 2 0



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-02-15 08:11 by Come On.

Do you believe me if i tell you that my ever favourite Dylan is from 1979 to 1985???

Anyway i always have enjoyed Dirty Work, even it it is a suboptimal work. But i find it very difficult to enjoy if i hear it immediatly after hearing Sticky Fingers

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backstreetboy1
always loved dirty work my man,only 2 songs i dont like are winning ugly and back to zero,rest is raw,slash and burn greatness.

My sentiments exactly! Even the two songs I don't care for.

Do you believe me if i tell you that my ever favourite Dylan is from 1979 to 1985???



Yep, if you're born between 1963-1967..

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Come On
Do you believe me if i tell you that my ever favourite Dylan is from 1979 to 1985???



Yep, if you're born between 1963-1967..

June 6th 1965.....the day Satisfaction was released

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stonesdan60
... I wonder if [Mick] even knew he was ... Also, on Had it With You, I wonder if Mick knew ...

smile: ohh i think you'll find the Mick is pretty quick on the uptake most of the time, you know? besides, he cowrote the lyrics.

i love it when the Glimmer Twins sing love songs to each other, and that's what both those tracks - and Dirty Work - are
just like Sweethearts Together


meanwhile i'm glad to report that Dirty Work shakes my tailfeather just fine,
including Winning Ugly with that splendid guitar line that canters through it.
there's only a track and a half that i consider a misunderstanding.

Harlem Shuffle is a decent cover with a nice groove and Sleep Tonight is a pretty good solo Keith track that is barely a Stones recording. Other than that this record is an unmitigated disaster. Or maybe I mean mitigated disaster. But a disaster nonetheless.

The season for discussing Dirty Work is early this year. Now we can wait for Havo to start
praising Aftermath in a couple of days.

What I'd like to recommend to you all, is to rip all your CDs to your hard disk and play all these songs
in a random order. It's a nice way to be surprised about the quality of easily dismissed songs
if you suddenly hear them out of their context. A lot of the Dirty Work songs did that to me.

And listen to the outtake of Had it with you, while you're at it. That is a lot of fun too.

Just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away

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jamesfdouglas

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DandelionPowderman

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jamesfdouglas
Dirty Work a completely guitar-driven album?
Harlem Shuffle, Too Rude, Winning Ugly, Back to Zero, Sleep Tonight.

There's half the album - which of those are guitar-driven?

I'd say all of them, except Sleep Tonight.

Even on Back To Zero there are really funky playing by Keith and Bobby. The song is horrendous, but the playing is fine. That goes for Winning Ugly as well, even though that one, as well as BTZ has too much keyboards for my tastes.

Harlem Shuffle and Too Rude are classic soul and reggae tracks with prominent guitars.

Well my question was for MrMonte (he did say it in his blog). "Driven" is what drives the hook(s) of a song.
Harlem Shuffle - keyboard driven
Too Rude - bass driven (as a lot of reggae is)
Winning Ugly - bass and keyboard driven
Back to Zero - Chuck driven
Sleep Tonight - keyboard driven

So I guess by the album being "completely guitar driven" he means "half guitar-driven". Lesson class? Don't drink and blog.

Yeah, of course I agree on that, theoretically, but imo it's a rather narrow definition as Back To Zero and Winning Ugly both are loaded with guitars. Especially the former has plenty of busy rhythm guitars going. The fact that Chuck plays a stupid riff a few times during the song doesn't make the song keyboard-driven.

And Harlem Shuffle is not keyboard-driven at all. Obviously, it's the guitars carrying the rhythm in this tune, although some keyboard is used for marking the changes in the song.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-02-15 12:14 by DandelionPowderman.

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KeithNacho

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Come On
Do you believe me if i tell you that my ever favourite Dylan is from 1979 to 1985???



Yep, if you're born between 1963-1967..

June 6th 1965.....the day Satisfaction was released

I believe you!