No way Stoneage, ER is full of fun:
Summer Romance = Fun
Send it 2 Me = Fun
Let Me Go = Fun
She's So Cold = Big Fun

A decent album but as good as Some Girls..............NO WAY!

So who plays marimbas on this? What a melange of influences. I hear Johnny Cash 'Ring of Fire' horns and country & western.

[www.youtube.com]

This to me is the beginning of the decline, there are no memorable songs to me (same for any album that came after, except Tattoo You), and some songs are pretty bad, which I cannot say of any song until and including Some Girls.

well, it's a bit sad that you seem to forget the very good and only one song by Keith on ER album, All About You.
I don't like Dance, I prefer Emotional Rescue as a disco song.
I like Where The Boys Go, She's So Cold for the rock part
And a special mention to Down In The Hole, very nice blues song.

Love "All About You". Keith was still using his "high sweet" voice.

I like ER way better than some girls

Feel The Fear
And Do It Anyway

Some Girls by miles. Some Girls was their big comeback with Ronnie. And a concept album in many ways about New York and Divorce. Everyone is playing fantastic and the songs are all strong. Great lyrics, and a punchy production. And some wonderful guitar. Charlie and Bill are locked in tight and often propel the songs to a high notch. ER is a fun album. But was a disappointment after SG.

Some less highly rated albums work because they include a few strong tracks and some work because, despite the absence of really noteworthy individual tracks, they come across well as a unit.

As far as I’m concerned, neither is the case with ER.

Quote
stones78
This to me is the beginning of the decline, there are no memorable songs to me (same for any album that came after, except Tattoo You), and some songs are pretty bad, which I cannot say of any song until and including Some Girls.

I’d say ER was more like falling off a cliff than the beginning of a decline (I do however like a few of the songs from their later albums)!

SG is much stronger than ER, in my humble opinion. but i like ER a lot and consider it better than most of the latter stuff (with the exception of TY and Undercover).

My personal favorites: She´s so cold, for me a classical stones song, the title track, Summer Romance, and Down in the hole.

Indian girl i consider like many of you one of the most embarassing stones songs of all times, in the first place because of the way mick sings....

My thoughts on Emotional Rescue:

Emotional Rescue – 1980 (US #1; UK#1)
Dance (Pt.1) • Summer Romance • Send It To Me • Let Me Go • Indian Girl •
Where The Boys Go • Down In The Hole • Emotional Rescue • She’s So Cold •
All About You

Stones Fan – ***
Casual Listener - **

After the tremendous commercial and artistic success of Some Girls, any follow-up would have had a lot to live up to. Commercially, Emotional Rescue was a huge hit, topping the UK album chart (the first Stones UK topper since Goats Head Soup) and topping the US album chart for 7 weeks, a Stones milestone. But artistically, one couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed.

Woody gets a co-writing credit on the opener Dance (Pt. 1), one of the funkiest dance grooves the Stones have ever done. It’s a totally fun, upbeat opener as Jagger talk sings with Keith chiming in on background vocals. Horn accents, lots of percussion along with tasty guitar fills keep the groove flowing. When Mick sings “Get up to something new”, he’s saying this is something new for The Stones, and it works. They finally played this live on the Licks tour club shows, and it worked there too.

Summer Romance starts off with Stones trademark guitar jousting. Charlie rolls in and the band kicks starts as Mick starts singing about “Just a few days and you’ll be back in your school”. Although the band rocks hard and Jagger sings a classic line “I’m a serious man with serious lusts”, Summer Romance never attains the power of Whip Comes Down or Respectable from Some Girls.

A very tasty guitar intro segues into the pseudo-reggae Send It To Me. Jagger’s vocals are fun and the band plays a nice groove. The highlight of the song is when the band breaks down carried along by some funky Wyman bass licks, as Jagger guesses what kind of girl she could be. Unfortunately, the song never reaches any great heights as there’s no great chorus to catch on to, and it fades out before it overstays its welcome.

Let Me Go was a highlight on the 1981 tour, as Jagger would head into the crowd to sing it. But it was Mick’s performance that really put this song over, as Let Me Go is a fairly basic Stones rock track propelled by solid edgy rhythm guitar but never taking off to any great heights. The lead guitar solo break is too basic. In an attempt to lift the song and add some dynamic, Charlie stops/starts some drum fills, with Mick singing “Let Me Go”. But without any major hook, Let Me Go never goes beyond a pedestrian Stones rock track.

Indian Girl starts off with a beautifully strummed acoustic guitar accented with nice piano touches. Jagger’s vocals and story about a poor Indian Girl’s missing parents in war-torn Masaya is an overlooked gem. Jagger sings “life goes on and on getting harder and harder” and it sounds believable, as The Stones play tasty and reserved. The mariachi horn touches almost overwhelm, but don’t. Without a great chorus, Indian Girl, doesn’t reach the heights of great Stones ballads, but it’s a highlight on Emotional Rescue nevertheless.

Side two starts with the roaring punk rock of Where The Boys Go. Similar in style to Respectable, the song works really well as the band is rocking hard and Jagger sings in an effective cockney punk style. Even the guitar solo breakdown is great as Charlie lets rip on some drum rolls building up to the climax as Jagger screams Where The Boys Go. Unfortunately, suddenly female voices start answering “And The Girls All Know” creating a jarring effect which detracts from the song immediately cutting away much of its power. A fine rocker that gets marred by a disappointing ending.

As that song fades out, we’re immediately faded into the ongoing blues jam Down In The Hole. It’s a nice change, as we haven’t heard a basic Stones blues jam in many years. Jagger’s vocals sound like a live take one and it’s effective in its rawness. The band plays well and Sugar Blue’s harp fills in the background add substantially. Unfortunately, the songs structure doesn’t waver at all and at the almost four minute mark, we’re ok to see it fade away. Without any additional dynamics, Down In The Hole is a flat listening experience.

Which leads us to the title track, Emotional Rescue, one of the most unique tracks The Stones have ever cut. It’s almost bazaar structure and Jagger’s falsetto almost throughout the track, makes it a fairly uncommercial and difficult listen, yet it was a surprise smash (#3 US and #9 UK). Charlie’s drums and Bill’s bass are excellent throughout with their jerky offbeat highlights. Bobby Key’s sax lends a nice fluid melody over the top. The highlight is when Jagger sings in regular voice “Yea I was dreaming last night”, taking the song into another realm. Overall, Emotional Rescue will never be a favorite Stones track (I imagine Keith must despise it), but credit Jagger for trying something so unique. When he sings at the end “I will be your knight in shining armor coming for your Emotional Rescue”, with the sax and guitars answering each other, well you can’t help but smile.

She’s So Cold was the 2nd US single peaking at disappointing #26 US and #33 UK. In the scheme of the album, it really was the only other potential single. Opening with a great guitar intro highlighted by Charlie’s china crash, She’s So Cold opens up very tasty. As Jagger sings “I’m so hot for her and she’s so cold”, the song works well. Jagger’s lyrics are fun and he sings them as only he can. The guitar solo break comes in and Keith and Woody jostle each other nicely. But the song just never takes off, it’s almost purposely sedate, as we’re waiting for it reach higher, but never does. At four minutes, the song is fun, but overall seems like a lost opportunity to something that could’ve been greater.

The album ends on a unique note at the time, as Keith turns balladeer and croons a love song. His voice is smooth and believable as he sings “I’m so sick and tired of hanging around with chicks like you”. With lovely horn accents throughout and a nice chorus “Who’ll tell me those lies and let me think they’re true”, All About You was a nice change of pace for Keith. Unfortunately, he repeated this formula over the years to come to lesser and lesser effect. All About You is a low-key finale, to a relatively low key Stones album.

Emotional Rescue is an average album, and especially coming after Some Girls, leaves a disappointing taste. What’s perhaps most unique about the album is it’s flatness as a listening experience. There’s no terrible lows, but it never reaches any great heights either. The title track is a great unique song, but it’s not a Stones track I’d want to listen to often. In fact, there’s not a classic track on the album. Of its ten tracks, the Stones have only played four live, and not very often. We want more from the Stones than a solid album, we want highs and dynamics and that’s what’s lacking on Emotional Rescue.

My thoughts on Some Girls:

Some Girls – 1978 (US #1; UK#2)
Miss You • When The Whip Comes Down • Imagination • Some Girls • Lies •
FarAway Eyes • Respectable • Before They Make Me Run • Beast Of Burden • Shattered

Stones Fan – *****
Casual Listener - *****

The Rolling Stones dominated the summer of 1978 and it made you proud. After the relatively disappointing commercial successes of the last two studio albums, The Stones came back in a huge way and it felt so good. We know the theory that perhaps it was punk rock that pushed the Stones to work harder so that they weren’t labeled obsolete. With Ron Wood firmly entrenched in the lineup (Some Girls was his first full length studio Stones album), The Stones and especially Mick Jagger, as he clearly spearheaded this album, truly had a fire lit under them and they delivered in a monster way.

The album starts off with Miss You, which was inescapable on the radio in June of 1978, peaking all the way at the top of the US singles chart (the last US chart-topper, #3 in the UK). The critics claimed the Stones had gone disco. I never really saw it that way. True, Charlie’s four of the floor drumming and Wyman’s awesomely funky bass lines have a disco influence. But Miss You maintains a more R&B feel than disco, as the song has none of the glossy production or synth textures that was a disco trademark at the time. Miss You may be a bit dated today, or overplayed, but Jagger’s vocals, lyrics along with Sugar Blues dynamic harp work still sounds great.

Make no mistake that Some Girls is Jagger’s album and his response to any perceived threat from punk rock. When The Whip Comes Down features Jagger on electric guitar along with Keith and Ronnie, creating a hard driving song. This is powerful rock music that can easily compete with the younger punk generation. Jagger’s vocals and lyrics are powerful and raw, and the band is truly burning by the end fadeout.


Like they did with Ain’t Too Proud To Beg two albums earlier, The Stones take on The Temptations again. And like they did before, they totally reinvent a Motown classic into a truly classic Stones take. Just My Imagination is a completely different song from the Temp’s version. The song starts off with a nice groove and has it builds, starts to rock harder and harder. Jagger’s vocals with Keith kicking in on harmony vocal, are fantastic. No unnecessary polish or gloss, just some serious rock with a great groove and powerful guitar interplay with Jagger adding the third electric guitar to the mix.

The title track, Some Girls, is one of the great relatively unknown Stones tracks. They finally played it live on the No Security tour 11 years later, and what a treat it was. Jagger’s lyrics were (and still are) controversial and he relates his woes on what Some Girls do to him, as well as describing what various ethnic girls want. But this is classic Stones fun, set to fantastic driving bloozy music aided by additional great Sugar Blue harp.

Lies closes out side one in 3 minutes of raucous punk rock abandon. Beyond Jagger yelling Lies, who knows what he’s yelling, but it’s great fun. Lies would not be out of place on the Sex Pistols album. It’s raw guitar punk rock and although on first listen, it may sound like a throwaway, it sounds great in the context of the album.

After what came before, FarAway Eyes sounds almost shocking as we’re greeting by the sweet lilting sounds of Ron Wood on pedal steel guitar and Jagger talk singing about his tale with the girl with FarAway Eyes. It almost sounds like a goof at first, but when the chorus kicks in with “when you’re down on your luck”, you realize this is seriously great country music and catchy as hell. In fact, this Miss You B-side was getting flipped and seriously played on country stations.

Respectable repeats the formula of side one, except rocks even harder than When The Whip Comes Down. The Stones 3-guitar army is in full flow on this edgy hard rocking song. Jagger’s singing, and the band’s playing, is harder than ever before. Jagger’s sneering about being respectable and pillars of society is fierce and powerful. Respectable easily matches the best punk rock at that time and The Stones were definitely making a statement by releasing this track as the 2nd UK single to show they could compete. The fact that it peaked at UK #23, didn’t matter. The Stones put down the gauntlet that they weren’t going anywhere.

Keith hadn’t really done a solo lead vocal track since Happy from Exile, so it was a treat to hear Keith’s lead vocal kick in after another classic opening riff. When Keith, sings “I’m gonna find my way to heaven, because I did my time in hell” and “I wasn’t looking too good but I was feeling real well”, you realize this is prime Stones. In fact, after Happy, Before They Make Me Run is the greatest Keith lead vocal Stones track in the cannon, filled with great lyrics and catchy riff music.

Beast Of Burden is next and it’s simply one of the greatest Stones tracks ever. Opening with one of the Stones tastiest guitar intros and carried through with masterful drum licks, this is incredible music. It’s a ballad, yet it rocks and grooves. Again, Jagger’s lyrics and vocals are spot on. He never over-sings once. His voice is perfectly placed in the mix, sinewing along with the guitar fills, licks and drum grooves. This is classic rock and was the 2nd US single, peaking at number 8, although to me, this is #1 material.

Shattered, with that instantly recognizable guitar riff, closes Some Girls. The music is powerful and driving, yet overtime, the riff does become a bit monotonous. What makes Shattered a classic is Jagger’s incredible lyrics about NYC and fantastic vocals. If you’re a New Yorker, lyrics don’t come much better and Jagger’s phrasing is amazing here. And those “Shedoobies” are so catchy. Shattered is another classic Stones track. It was the 3rd US single from the album, peaking at #31, but it really wasn’t single material.

Overall, Some Girls is Mick Jaggers’ masterpiece. After his over the top singing on Black And Blue and feeling threatened by punk rock, he put it all together here. Punk, disco, R&B, country influences all abound here, but Jagger mixed all these ingredients together and created a rock masterwork. It was deservedly a huge success (topping the US charts, peaking at #2 in the UK). The Stones toured in June/July 1978 to promote the album, but it was a unique tour in that they only played 25 shows in about 7 weeks. They mostly played stadiums with some surprise theater shows mixed in. With the exception of a surprise NYC Palladium show and surprise Capitol Theater show in NJ, JFK Stadium in Philadelphia was the closest they played to the Big Apple. The live show focused on the music and not a show and they featured almost every song from the album. Every song has now been featured live in concert.

ER--Is a good album...Loved it when it 1st came out...The single was played in every bar in the Philly
area..A fun summer with a new Stones album..

BUT ITS NO--- Some Girls.....Sorry.

Gravityboy must be pulling our leg....As he has a GREAT sense of humor..Even he knows that Indian Girl is a really
bad song for 1980! I do like it more today...But it was a embarrassment when it was 1st played on the radio..

ER----Is better IMO Then Undercover and Dirty Works!

I like to think of ER as the outtakes disc for SG, rather than the official SG outtakes disc (from expanded SG album) which I'm not so keen on. Or just think of SG+ER as a double album

Quote
hot stuff
ER--Is a good album...Loved it when it 1st came out...The single was played in every bar in the Philly
area..A fun summer with a new Stones album..

BUT ITS NO--- Some Girls.....Sorry.

ER----Is better IMO Then Undercover and Dirty Works!

Agree 100%

"No Anchovies, Please"

Quote
hot stuff
Gravityboy must be pulling our leg....

Alcohol may have been in involved.

But anyway I'm really into ER at the moment.

And I do think some of Some Girls is overrated.

Indian Girl is no worse than Far Away Eyes. Far Away eyes was funny first time but it wears soon.

Hard to compare these two because they are quite different kinda albums. Both albums to me are top ten Stones LP's and both have excellent songs.

What if they never released SG and ER and a new LP from these two sessions were compiled to be released in 1980 (like EMOTIONAL GIRLS or SOME RESCUE, haha) what kind it would be? My suggestion:

Side A:
1) Miss You
2) When The Whip Comes Down
3) Let Me Go
4) Where The Boys Go
5) Some Girls

Side B:
1) Dance
2) Down In The Hole
3) Before They Make Me Run
4) She's So Cold
5) Shattered

BTW, Indian Girl isn't that bad song at all. The worst is definitely Back To Zero. But I laughed to the "Indian girl sucks" comment Very funny...

Nice review by Kammpberg, and I agree with most points. But didn't Ronnie play bass on 'Emotional Rescue'? I don't usually care for anyone but Bill playing bass on a Stones cut, but this was very a very interesting, Philly sound.

Nice comments on 'Down In The Hole', which some people love but I completely agree that it's flat and doesn't have emotional resonance.

Quote
mandu
I like ER way better than some girls

me 2 generally.

Here's my Emotional Girls:

Side 1:

Shattered
Just My Imagination
Do You Think I Really Care
Love You Too Much
All About You
Emotional Rescue



Side 2:

So Young
She's So Cold
Miss You
No Spare Parts
Some Girls
Beast Of Burden

None of the "cookie-cutter" Stones (Respectable, Lies, Whip, Let Me Go, Boys, Summer, etc.). No "Dance" - already two dance sings and I like ER better. No "Indian Girl" or "Far Away" although I like them too. Several of my fave outtakes too.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2012-02-29 20:17 by Elmo Lewis.

I consider Some Girls to be an all-time classic, and it's #5 in my top 5 of Stones albums. To me the entire thing is amazing, including the Imagination cover.

Not so much w/ ER ... it seems they tried to re-do Some Girls, for the most part, i.e. all the harder/faster songs have similar beats etc. but they just aren't as good ... lyrically for me it is much worse than SG as well.

EMOTIONAL RESCUE isn't better than SOME GIRLS, but it is perhaps more interesting. I believe SOME GIRLS to be the most obvious Stones album, in terms of it containing nothing that wouldn't be acknowledged by the listener after a first listen. In other words i don't find SOME GIRLS particularly enduring over the longer period, because it isn't a very substantial musical Stones offering. However, it is a meticulously crafted piece of work in terms of its sequencing, and the Stones do seem to have rediscovered a remarkable freshness and vitality to their sound, which was perhaps beginning to fade a little on the the albums immediately prior to SOME GIRLS. EMOTIONAL RESCUE, in many ways has a little more scope, with regards to the Stones picking up more varied influences, and perhaps with the title track, the Stones are found to be a little more experimental and daring. However, the album as a whole lacks consistency and cohesion, which was perhaps SOME GIRLS biggest strength, and when EMOTIONAL RESCUE is uninspiring, it truly plumbs the depths to a much greater degree than ever SOME GIRLS, which retains a strong level of focus. However, the Stones on EMOTIONAL RESCUE, are more prepared to try out a greater variety of things, which i have always appreciated. Within the Stones catalogue SOME GIRLS is considered to be a saviour, of sorts, in re-establishing the Stones after Keith's arrest, and the advent of punk, which set out in part to make the Stones in addition to their contempories, sound irrelevant. SOME GIRLS re-established the Stones as a relevant force in popular music, but i'm not sure the album has aged quite so well. EMOTIONAL RESCUE by comparison, is often considered to be an after thought, but sometimes that viewpoint seriously undermines a few really interesting tracks.

As flawed as it is Emotional Rescue still holds up exceptionally well. had they just disposed of clunkers such as Summer Romance and Send it to me and tried developing songs dealing with a more serious subject matter , the album would have been significantly better.I guess at that point in time they didn't feel like they had anything left to prove so they went along with anything they came up with regardless of how the material might be perceived by the nitpicking critics. Had they made the entire album consisting of songs such as All about you, Emotional Rescue, Down in the Whole, gritty funk-disco hybrids such as Dance Pt1, I think the album would be more revered.As it is we still have to appreciate it for having aforementioned songs. She's so cold was also an excellent fun littler rocker that was fully realised only once they hit the stage (the same goes for Let me go)

I don't think it's on the same level as Some girls, mainly for the fact that SG basically had no filler at all but ER's best moments hold up just as well as anything on SG. All about you, is for instance infinitely better than a lot of other more well known Stones songs

Yep that's controversial since ER only have one 5/5-song namely 'Where the boys go' and SG has three: 'Just my imagination','Far away eyes' and 'Before they make me run'...

2 1 2 0

I am not very impressed by Where the boys go/Kind of sounds like The Stones by numbers. I wish they had recorded more experimental tracks much in the vein of the title track

ER is much like EOMS in one way and one way only - it's got a certain vibe to it. Although ER is not a "great" album I love it. It always sounds fresh. It must've been mixed to be played strictly in clubs. It has a crispness to it with bottom end no other album has.