I listened to this disc on my drive home last night and had a few thoughts:

1)Coming down again is keith at his best/worst. Great herion tune but he sounds like he was blasted when he sang it. I noticed the "Get Some Sleep" connection for the first time ( nice call on that Dandelion Powderman).

2) They were really trying to keep up with the soul sounds of that era.

#) Many people have been writing and have written that this was a Mick Taylor disc. Well if this was his chance to REALLY shine......he blew it. I mean, he could have done a hell of a lot more with the songs. His guitar work on Silver Train sounds like the solos he did on All Down the Line during the 72 tour.Great stuff but recycled. The solo on Winter could have been something great like on Time Waits for No One. Compared to solos and rythm work he did live, if this was "his disc", it dissapoints from that standpoint.

4) Someone said it earlier and I agree. Star Star could be the most fun 5 minutes in Rock and Roll ....ever. The other thing about Star Star is that it's just Chuck Berry's Carol re worked.

5) Dancing with Mr. D could have been great but except for the riff, it's a throwaway.

6) All in all , a grest disc if it isn't compared to any Stones Discs of that time.

Keith of course is completely straight

Liddas wrote:
What's so bad about the sound?
------------------------------
I find that GHS sounds somewhat muddy and/or dark, lacking the crispness (sp?), clearness or brightness (or however it's said in Shakespeare's language) that you can hear on SF or Black And Blue, as I said before. To my ears, I find SF as the album with the best sound mixing. Black And Blue, Let It Bleed, Some Girls and Tatoo You are other albums with a good mix. For example, IORR: I don't like it so much, it's too dry. (I insist I'm only talking about mixing and sound quality, not about musical content). But all in all it's a matter of taste.

[There'll be no wedding today...]

Taylor saves the day on this one!

Vilhelm
Nordic Stones Vikings

OK, let's jump in the "wayback machine". zzzzzzzzzppp---ping! It's 1973, and I'm 16 years old. I had yet to become a big-time Stones fan, which happened after the in-the-future radio broadcasts of the European Tour.

This was the year I got turned on to glam-rock and my faves were the NY Dolls, Lou Reed (in the midst of re-inventing himself), and Alice Cooper (Billion Dollar Babies had just come out).

To my young ears, the Stones sounded, um, complacent, maybe even tired. My instant favorite was "Star Star", which was, in a way, a catalyst, because I had yet to "discover" the Stones and all of their roots. I loved that chugga-chugga rhythm right away, even if it was too slow (they rectified the speed issue in live performance). Chuck Berry-inspired? Who the f*ck was Chuck Berry? Oh, yeah, that dirty old man that had a hit with "My Ding-A-Ling". A novelty act. Yuck.

Ok--back to the present---zzzzzzzppp--ping! (Yikes, my back hurts, and--my hair is gray! AAAGHH!)

I still don't have GHS on CD, so maybe it's time I did so and re-evaluated it.

(This is the best part of being a baby-boomer who hasn't completely disavowed his earlier life and become a puffed-up old fart. I suppose my 23-year musician life, which started when I was 17, has much to do with that LOL. )



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-01-15 02:37 by bassplayer617.

For starters just have one listen to some of Chuck's classic stuff like Carol, Lil Queenie, Deep Feeling or Baby Doll and I promise you'll never play Ding A Ling again...!!

ROCKMAN

Bassplayer,

Alice Cooper was good then. Much liked Bruce's playing. In the UK he was about the biggest contemporary thing from the States really.

for some reason the album sounds too short?
Perhaps it's my feeling after the double Exile album....

I like it though, it has a dark mood about it. But I always felt @#$%& was out of place on the album....

I think (as someone else mentioned earlier) it's at the top of the second-tier Stones albums, mainly due to 100 Years Ago, Winter & @#$%&.....all very under-rated Stones classics.

Esky

Rockman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For starters just have one listen to some of
> Chuck's classic stuff like Carol, Lil Queenie,
> Deep Feeling or Baby Doll and I promise you'll
> never play Ding A Ling again...!!
>
> ROCKMAN

Oh, yeah, Rockman. As I got older and started studying the roots of the Stones' sound, I picked up CB's "The Great 28" and realized how mistaken my teenage judgement was.

I've always thought that the greatest liability of
this often overlooked stones classic is that
it followed in the shadow of so much greatness.

I think GHS is one of their best albums, it definately has a different sound to it but i like it. I never understood why it was not regarded higher than it is. I listen to it as much as the big four. All of the songs on it are great, especially 100 yrears ago and coming down again. The same goes from Black and Blue, I have heard people say it is their worst album, but I think it is one of their best.

B&B has some great funk grooves to it too but
I don't think a lot of folks appreciated that
then or now. Still, it's an integral part
of the Stones catalogue, and remains, like GHS,
as one of my personal favourites.

Nice thing about perhaps lesser classics
like these is that they don't suffer over play
just keep on chugging along over the years
building up their own momentum.

If you asked most folks at the time, there
would have been a lot of dtractors, maybe
still are for both, but seem to me to
have overall won a lot of perhaps belated
apreciation respect,as we see here
in this forum.

GHS and B&B, both quality proiduct.

Both a bit glossy for the 'harder-edged' fan.

They went with the flow of the time.

If you consider GHS, IORR and B&B as a trilogy, then IORR is the uncomfortable cousin. Neither hard rock (though it tries to regain this territiory) or melodically mature (except one notable masterpiece). Jagger's singing becoming too stylised.

Spot on Davido...nice words.

ROCKMAN