Re: Its only rock n roll... the album
Date: June 27, 2013 14:53
This was my review of It's Only Rock n Roll:
It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll – 1974 (US #1; UK#2)
If You Can’t Rock Me • Ain’t Too Proud To Beg • It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll •
Till The Next Goodbye • Time Waits For No One
Luxury • Dance Little Sister • If You Really Want To Be My Friend •
Short And Curlies • Fingerprint File
Stones Fan – ****
Casual Listener - ***
Jimmy Miller had been producing The Stones since Beggars Banquet in 1968, but it was time for a change. It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll is the first Stones album produced by Mick and Keith a/k/a The Glimmer Twins. After the dark muddy mix of Exile and Goats Head Soup, they went for a completely different production sound here. And few Stones albums are as varied musically as this one.
Charlie kicks in as does a great classic sounding Keith riff and Mick starts singing “The bands on stage and its one of those nights”. The sound is brighter and more powerful than Goats as Mick threatens “If You Can’t Rock Me, Somebody Will”. The song has a nice bridge with Taylor playing a tuneful lyrical lead. But throughout the song, the lead sounds like it was overdubbed over the band playing live, and it’s slightly jarring. Overall, it’s a nice opening number but lacking that magical something.
Charlie does a nice opening fill, Keith slashes a great chord lick, Billy Preston kicks in a tasty piano lick and we’re into a classic Stones Motown cover. The Stones typically do great covers and this is prime. Keith does a great raw solo that you’d never hear in Motown. This is raw, tasty, rock with a Motown beat. If you’re going to do a cover, you should do it in your style. I can’t stand note for note covers, and The Stones are masters at taking a song (even a classic) and making it their own. They liked Ain’t Too Proud To Beg enough to release it as their 2nd US single, but it only peaked at #17. They still occasionally play it live and it still sounds good.
The title track was the initial single. It was the worst performing first Stones album single at that time. Especially after number ones from Brown Sugar and Angie, peaking at #16 in the US and #10 in the UK was extremely disappointing. But It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll is an offbeat listen. It started as a jam at Ronnie Wood’s house with Bowie and others – hence his “inspiration” credit on the album. Ronnie then gave it to Mick to work on (probably in exchange for the work on Ronnie’s solo album). The problem is you can hear the work on the song, how he formed a Chuck Berry’ish jammed song around a great anthem type chorus. The song kind of push and pulls and sort of fights with itself before it eventually takes off at the end. The Stones still play it live (the only live regular from the album), but I still find it lacking as a total song. It’s a classic chorus in need of a better song.
Till The Next Goodbye is another one of those beautiful unknown Stones ballads. It’s not single material. It’s slow, drawn out, not particularly hooky, yet the music sucks you in with the beautiful acoustic flourishes. The bridge when Mick sings how “he can’t go on like this” as the piano touches in is very effective. The Stones liked it enough to do a promo film for it along with the two singles for Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert.
Time Waits For No One is next and it is a masterpiece. Without a doubt, it is the greatest musical composition The Stones have ever done with matching lyrics magnificently sung by Jagger. The opening and closing rim shot, bass drum combo as the music enters in is so tasteful and unique. This is Mick Taylor’s greatest moment with The Stones, as throughout the song, his lyrical licks and accents are amazing. It also features his greatest lead guitar solos ever. I’ve been listening to this track for 35 years and never tire of it and still hear new things. It’s incredibly layered, amazingly produced and played. Listen to the end solo with Taylor weaving in and out with Charlie’s fantastic drums accents (hear those cymbals), piano coming in and finally the song fading away with just the rim shots and bass drum. This song should be played daily on radio and should’ve won a Grammy. This is simply a historic rock recording and a highlight of The Stones career.
Side two starts with the pseudo reggae of Luxury. What seems like a minor album track at first, becomes a real grower over time. Perhaps it could’ve used a stronger beat to help propel it, but it grooves so well as Jagger complains about working so hard to keep you in the luxury. This is another unique musical song from the Stones and it works really well.
With the exception of the opening track, Dance Little Sister is the only basic rocker on the album. But this track has little dynamic to it, except the really great bridge (“Jumped out of Africa”) followed by a killer guitar solo. The rest of the track does get monotonous and is fairly pedestrian for The Stones. The outtake version has the bridge a second time, which is an improvement.
If You Really Want To Be My Friend is a really tasty Philly style soul ballad. Blue Magic does fantastic backing vocal touches throughout the track. Jagger’s vocals are great as The Stones are really stretching themselves here. Another wonderful guitar solo mixed with keyboard touches highlight a great track. At over 6 minutes, The Stones are showing they’re not concerned with commercial concerns – you won’t hear this on the radio and that’s just fine. But with some editing, Hall & Oates could’ve taken this song to the top.
Short and Curlies sounds like a loose one take type bar-room jam song as Mick sings about how “it’s too bad that she’s got you by the balls”. It’s a fun listen, but certainly not essential, and probably could’ve cut it as a b-side somewhere.
Fingerprint File closes the album in unique style. This funky song barely sounds like The Stones (sounds like solo Jagger really as he’s playing the rhythm guitar). The break in which the song stops with “Superfly” style licks, bass solo notes, funky drums, wah wah rhythm guitar and Jagger whispering about paranoia is a really unique Stones experience. Then the song picks up again and you definitely want to get up and boogie. It was great live on the 1975 tour and it’s disappeared since. Bring it back I say.
With only two real rockers, a great Temptations cover, a long soul ballad, a weird wild funk excursion and a magnificent Santana styled true musical composition, It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll is a tremendously varied sounding record. It’s a very enjoyable musical journey. Yet with the exception of Time Waits For No One, it’s missing that intangible Stones magic. It’s also lacking a great single, which helps explain it’s relatively disappointing chart stats (#1 for only a week in the US, #2 in UK). Other bands in 1974 would envy an album of this quality, yet from The Stones, it just seems a little off. The writing was on the wall as this was Mick Taylor’s finale. It did feature one of my favorite covers though, courtesy of Guy Peelaert, who did even better with Bowie’s Diamond Dogs.