Um, do you think Jagger's "Let's Work" and the Stones' album "Dirty Work" are an ironic pairing of titles by design? Wasn't one released just a year or two before the other?
Dirty Work is pretty piss-poor. Good songs: Harlem Shuffle, Sleep Tonight, One Hit and Winning Ugly. Everything else is either throwaway or complete and utter fcuking shit. Dreadful. Get the bootlegs instead to hear what might have been a fairly decent album.
Common logic would dictate that the album was so bad because Jagger was off making "She's the Boss", and devoting his best songwriting efforts to that. Wrong! "She's the Boss" was even worse than "Dirty Wank".
In short, "Dirty Work" is a dud - dull, barely together, throwaway, crap.
It's STILL not their worst though. Those honours are lavished upon the shining, polished, digital turd that was "Bridges To Bullshitsville".
here's a nice can of worms to open:---DW would have been much better had mick taylor been in the band (roaring laughter)..WOW! what a mind-melting concept!!!
STONES JAM!! MICKEYS RULES!!! (burp) NADER IN 2016!!!!! GO GIANTS!!
I think Dirty Work gets bashed way too much. Keith and Ron were VERY tight on that album with some really great guitar playing. Dare I use the word "weaving" but they really were on that album. DW has a tough, no bullshit sound. It is a very angry album. IMO Back To Zero should have been left out and Mick could have changed his vocal style from song to song. Too much screaming and growling. Keith said he wrote the album for the road, to be played live. The Jagger/Richards/Wood was a slap at Mick for using "Lonely At The Top" on his She's The Boss. Notice how not ONE song from Dirty Work has been played live since 89/90 (One Hit) or released on a compilation containing a Jagger/Richards/Wood credit.
Keith came up with a great riff/lick on Winning Ugly One Hit is solid all the way thru Fight is just a straight out balls to the wall rocker Dirty Work has great guitars...lyrics could have been stronger Had It With You is a underated hidden Stones gem.
"Notice how not ONE song from Dirty Work has been played live since 89/90 (One Hit) or released on a compilation containing a Jagger/Richards/Wood credit."
Harlem Shuffle was also played fairly regularly on the 1989-90 tour.
Milo Yammbag Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think Dirty Work gets bashed way too much.
Milo, agree with everything you said. DW is much better than Undercover or B2B. Has some great lyrics:
"Living high, sitting in the sun Sit on your ass till your work is done You lazy mother, your hands are clean You pull the strings and you got the clout There’s something filthy living in your mouth Pushing your buttons you get away free"
And, although Mick does growl way too much, he sounds like he means every word! Agree also that it is one of the best KR-RW discs.
karl
'Don’t forget, if you’re on your bike, wear white'
DandelionPowderman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > <DW is much better than Undercover or B2B. Has > some great lyrics:> > > Better than B2B? Yes. Undercover? No way! > >
Way! :-)
I may be a little biased against Undercover because of Too Much Blood (how did Keith let this slip by?) and Soul Survivor II (It Must be Hell). Really embarrasing IMHO. But then again so is Back to Zero...
All this talk about Dirty Work and what songs are good and suck has made me think what if they toured behind this album. Some of these songs could have worked very well live since many of them are stripped down to just guitars, bass and drums. I wonder if they had toured behind this album if people would have different thoughts about it. They have never done too many of these songs live. Harlum Shuffle was the only one that was played regularly. I think Dirty Work, Fight and Had It With You could have been great live songs. One Hit didn't sound too great when they played but I think they should try it again.
I think the Hold Back would have been great live as well. The more I listen to this disc and the outtakes, the more I really like it. The outtakes disc has some great stuff from Keith. He really seems on his game on this one. I don't think you can compare it to other discs like you could BB, SF, or LIB and some of the really older stuff like 12x5 and December's Children. Dirty Work stands alone. I thinks it's a good view into the harsh feelings between Mick and Keith. Knowing what we know now, it would seem that the song Dirty Work is about Keith. I don't know about songs sucking on this disc. I like them all. I always thought that Lonely At The Top and Winning Ugly were similiar.
lunar!!! Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > here's a nice can of worms to open:---DW would > have been much better had mick taylor been in the > band (roaring laughter)..WOW! what a mind-melting > concept!!!
yeah I can imagine how brilliant the songwriting would have been (rolls eyes)
------------------------------------------------------- > "Notice how not ONE song from Dirty Work has been > released on a > compilation containing a Jagger/Richards/Wood > credit."
simple reason behind that. Royalties.
DW was the only post-1970 studio album not represented on 40 Licks. It was also the only album in that period where the first single was a cover. So, they can make more money by excluding it in favour of something like "Shattered", even though its one of 3 songs from "Some Girls" on the album.
They also left "Rooster" off 40 Licks presumably for the same reason - yet it was a UK number one!
Someone said it above...it's a stripped sound.......guitars, bass and drums. Yes some other tasty flourishes...but they are the basic ingredients.
That is why it is so good. Direct Rock. Direct Lyrics. Owes a lot to punk too, (Hold Back, Fight, Had It With You, DW). But it's pure Stones......similar sixties approach ....... straight at you, no messing. (Do we complain about the sound or mix on 19th Nervous Breakdown or on Have You Seen, I Wanna Be Your Man etc?
Cannot begin to understand how any Stones fan cannot appreciate it. It's the return of the real Keith Richards to fighting, creative form, (most of lyrics are his I believe), and few of you seem to be interested/ or care for his strong presence. Since 1978 he'd basically been Mick's backing guitarist, albeit with his moments. But the last album he dominated so strongly, before DW, was Exile.
I much enjoy Too Much Blood. Great bass line. Yet tongue in cheek. Nice guitar effects yet that's all they are - effects. (Jagger using the rock medium without having a real message). Nothing To Say. "It Must Be Hell"! Oh yeah Mick, you really mean it.
Guitars on DW are uncompromising and used to devastating effect.
The album....... it's not about gestures and styles ..it's about content WITH ATTITUDE. Nothing false. Nothing mannered. No place to hide.
"It means a lot".
It certainly separates the Men (and Dames)from the Boys (and Shrimps)!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-01-25 22:25 by Deidre.
Hey sorry, but I gotta bring this up one more time....
Gave this another serious listen (that is, had a six-pack first), and shit, this album rocks! Throw Winning Ugly and Back to Zero out and this is the disc you want the 2005 Rollling Stones to put out. Seriously! Hard guitar, Jagger growls and pisses, and Watts rocks the bottom way out. Perhaps I'm a little too pissed, but "Hold Back" belongs right up there with the other warhorses. A Stones classic!
Also, as I type this I'm listening to some Hazel Dickens. If you like the real-deal Appalachia, Hazel is your girl!
karl
'Don’t forget, if you’re on your bike, wear white'
Hey sorry, but I gotta bring this up one more time....
Gave this another serious listen (that is, had a six-pack first), and shit, this album rocks! Throw Winning Ugly and Back to Zero out and this is the disc you want the 2005 Rollling Stones to put out. Seriously! Hard guitar, Jagger growls and pisses, and Watts rocks the bottom way out. Perhaps I'm a little too pissed, but "Hold Back" belongs right up there with the other warhorses. A Stones classic!
Also, as I type this I'm listening to some Hazel Dickens. If you like the real-deal Appalachia, Hazel is your girl!
karl
'Don’t forget, if you’re on your bike, wear white'
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-01-29 07:19 by KSIE.
Hey sorry, but I gotta bring this up one more time....
Gave this another serious listen (that is, had a six-pack first), and shit, this album rocks! Throw Winning Ugly and Back to Zero out and this is the disc you want the 2005 Rollling Stones to put out. Seriously! Hard guitar, Jagger growls and pisses, and Watts rocks the bottom way out. Perhaps I'm a little too pissed, but "Hold Back" belongs right up there with the other warhorses. A Stones classic!
Also, as I type this I'm listening to some Hazel Dickens. If you like the real-deal Appalachia, Hazel is your girl!
karl
'Don’t forget, if you’re on your bike, wear white'
I thought Too Much Blood was one of the very best songs on Undercover. I think Deidre makes some very valid points - Dirty Work is basic and raw overall and i don't mind Mick's rough vocals on many of the songs but many of the songs are incredibly weak. Mick sounds like he's trying to flog a dead horse on Hold Back although i do prefer this sound to the slick and polished sound from the later albums. Fight works better than most though -musically,vocally and lyrically it's one of the best songs.Sounds like punk ten years on. Winning Ugly could have been far better with different production values and lyrics.I also feel Mick's forced vocal is at odds with the song. These are typical late period Jagger lyrics which like Suck On The Jugular i hate.I do feel though amongst the mess is the makings of a really good song that failed to reach its potential. Had It With You and Dirty Work are insubstantial but at the same time enjoyable fillers.Keiths efforts Sleep Tonight and Too Rude actually works very well aside from maybe too much eighties production. Despite Mick and Keith falling out this is really the last album of the old Stones -starting with SteelWheels everything would be slick and polished with very few raw edges - more corporate - less real. For all its shortcomings this album still sounds genuine and real with a hint of spontaneity - the last time the Stones would ever truly sound this way. It marks the end of an era.
After going back and listening to Back To Zero i have changed my opinion. I think Deidre is right it's not one of worst Stones songs - a lot of the later songs are far worse.It is just that when i originally bought the album back in 1986 i thought it was but it actually sounds quite decent compared to Sex Drive, Rock And A Hard Place, Suck On The Jugular and nearly everything off Bridges To Babylon.
Yeah, I'm about to admit that drums on BTZ do sound a bit dated. But sod it (darling) - the percussion and guitars etc are just so inventive - who cares?
And DW track - when was the last time you heard such spontaneous interaction (other than Hold Back!) at the end of a Stones song? - or anywhere in a Stones song. Vocals, drums, Keith's guitar, and bass too. It's happening. Certainly 'happening' on the next track. Wow! that rhythm guitar. Not rocket-science - but more forceful/effective than a rocket! If rockets could rock it, could they out-rock that?
Now for Side One, (after "She's a Healer", Logie! - prioritiers)
Let the Good Times Roll.................!!!!!!
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2005-01-29 22:26 by Deidre.