Hey, Forligan, I love your description of the summer of '78. My great summer was '81 when Tattoo You came out. I was 21, the last Stones album was the mediocre Emotional Rescue, and people were again questioning whether the Stones still “had it”. Then, all of a sudden, Start Me Up comes blasting out of the radio, and obliterates the current musical crop like The Clash, B-52's, Devo, et cetera like they never existed! Then the tour: San Fransisco- an insane all-night party in the parking lot, mad rush for festival seating, lots of pot, coke, bear, debauchery! The Stones came out and put on an awesome show! The guitars were gloriously loud. Keith's leads in particular cut through the swingin' rhythm like a chain saw through butter. Mick running around like a madman. Best concert I ever saw. Although I do agree that Some Girls is a better album, that whole summer of '81 holds magical memories for me, as '78 does for you. It takes me back in time whenever I put Tattoo You on...

The summer of 78 was indeed the summer of Some Girls.... Wore several tape copies of the album out going back and forth to the beach with my best friend, on the beach, getting drunk in various locales, rocking to that album. I never bonded with anyone over an album like that, before or since.... Fell in love with Some Girls as the sound track.... I haven't heard from him in twenty years and still think of him whenever I hear/see/think about this album.

On a personal, emotional level I guess that just about trumps every other Stones album in existence, for me!

*********************************
And the queen is bravely shouting,
"What the hell is going on?"

pmk251 Wrote:
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> Some Girls may be a classic of the Woody period,
> but that is not saying much. It's a fun record.
> It has a feel. It is slickly produced, but
> musically there is less going on there than most
> people credit. It is the band re-inventing itself
> to a younger audience in the post-punk era. I
> like the record better than its live performances.
> "Just My Imagination" live is for me a band low
> point. Another guitarist could have made this
> record something that it isn't...interesting.
**********************************************************************************
pmk251, nice analysis as always. I always wondered why Some Girls is such a fan favorite. A lot of folks on this board even rank it up there with the big 4.
I've known a lot of rock/classic rock aficionados who don’t know the Stones at all but recognize tunes from Some Girls. At bars, I've seen people instinctively sway their hips and tap their feet to Miss You, Beast of Burden and even Shattered.

I decided to revisit Some Girls and heard the whole album today on noise canceling Bose headphones. I think that you're dead right. The Stones try to cover lots of different genres but there's nothing particularly musically innovative or adventurous. Lyrically though, this album is a LOT OF FUN. Jagger’s swagger is back - Keith again poses as an outlaw in Before they make me run. The misogyny (which previously was rather threatening) is all tongue in cheek, self deprecating and downright funny. Overall, the album sounds rather kitschy-cool to me.

I like Some Girls but am not particularly excited by it and don't listen to it a lot. This album is all about timing. Punk was on its way out and the Stones came roaring back because such little was expected from them (having been the target of so many criticisms especially from the Clash and Sex pistols).

Some Girls followed Black and Blue (which I consider a lack luster effort) and is a success because it is a "Master of Low Expectations". However, by Stones standards, it is hardly a timeless classic - rather it is stuck in it's time - and is popular because of the 70's retro coolness factor. My guess - a lot of "Some Girls" fans today were teenagers or in their college years then - hence it gets overrated because of sheer nostalgia.

pmk251, I wonder what you think of "Undercover" - I think: great album but wrong timing – followed the extremely successful Tattoo You and a huge tour - too much was expected from the Stones but it was released and NOT followed by a tour. Also the Stones were becoming completely irrelevant in the MTV/Duran Duran era.

In contrast to Some Girls, I find Undercover very musically ambitious, expansive, adventurous, dangerous, in your face and exceptionally underrated. [nevertheless, I must admit, I was a teenager when it came out :-) ]



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2007-01-31 22:38 by wanderingspirit66.

A true story from 1978 -

We were on our senior trip to Panama City Beach, FL, and "Miss You" had just came out. I had heard it 3 or 4 times.

On Day 2 of a marathon Keef-Out session, MY came on the radio. I jumped up and hit my head on a TV the was bolted to the wall. I passed out briefly (a few seconds) and when I came to everybody was laughing at me. I thought someone had hit me and begin trying to fight evertybody in the room. They finally convinced me of what had happened.

Ah, the memories ....

This is not "Just My Imagination"!

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A true story from 1978 -
>
> We were on our senior trip to Panama City Beach,
> FL, and "Miss You" had just came out. I had heard
> it 3 or 4 times.
>
> On Day 2 of a marathon Keef-Out session, MY came
> on the radio. I jumped up and hit my head on a TV
> the was bolted to the wall. I passed out briefly
> (a few seconds) and when I came to everybody was
> laughing at me. I thought someone had hit me and
> begin trying to fight evertybody in the room. They
> finally convinced me of what had happened.
>
> Ah, the memories ....
>
> This is not "Just My Imagination"!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes..definitely not just your imagination running away. But as I looked through many of the above posts, it does seem like Some Girls is mostly about "good times" and "good memories" and less about ground breaking music.

@wandering spirit66

nice analysis, wandering spirit66, but i can´t totallly agree with you. i agree to you regarding what you wrote about undercover, but i can´t regarding what you wrote about SG.

I don´t think it´s only popular becuase of the timing; there are so many songs on it which even after almost 30 years rank among their most popular ones, and not without reason: Miss you, Beast and Shattered. And there are many fans you love Whip, Respectable, BTMR, Imagination. So - 7 songs from 10, which are (more or less) regulary played by the stones life, and not without resason. Just give me another Stones-record where this is the case!

But as I looked through many of the above posts, it does seem like Some Girls is mostly about "good times" and "good memories" and less about ground breaking music.


A little bit of both really.

absolutely the soundtrack of '78 for me and the album still holds up today...whip, shattered, sg, etc,.. all great songs. I rank it with the "top 4"

Great album, def in the top 5, the title song sould be played more often along with When The Whip Comes Down