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noughties
I just had a listen to the studio version of "When The Whip Comes Down" after all these years, on Youtube. I found very little in that song for me. It would have been a commercial disaster if played live.

That's my problem with Some Girls - a really great Album that contains the two musical styles I hardly appreciate: Disco and Punk...

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JJHMick

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noughties
I just had a listen to the studio version of "When The Whip Comes Down" after all these years, on Youtube. I found very little in that song for me. It would have been a commercial disaster if played live.

That's my problem with Some Girls - a really great Album that contains the two musical styles I hardly appreciate: Disco and Punk...

+ country blues (Some Girls), rock/pop (BTMMR), soul/pop (BO, country (Far Away Eyes) and soul (Imagination).

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DandelionPowderman
Where is kleerie when we need him?

I have tried to smoke him out and bring him to justice. Without succes.

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TheflyingDutchman

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DandelionPowderman
Where is kleerie when we need him?

I have tried to smoke him out and bring him to justice. Without succes.

Tell him we miss him

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DandelionPowderman

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JJHMick

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noughties
I just had a listen to the studio version of "When The Whip Comes Down" after all these years, on Youtube. I found very little in that song for me. It would have been a commercial disaster if played live.

That's my problem with Some Girls - a really great Album that contains the two musical styles I hardly appreciate: Disco and Punk...

+ country blues (Some Girls), rock/pop (BTMMR), soul/pop (BO, country (Far Away Eyes) and soul (Imagination).

Those are reasons why it is a great album to me (though I prefer others). Of course, Miss You and the fast ones are examples of the Stones' "Anything they can do we can do better" approach to styles.

#MeToo.

I only count here the original studio recordings - so I don't care had they bettered them by playing live (I think the live version of "When The Whip Comes Down" in SUCKING IN THE 70's is clearly better than the studio original. "Imagination" is another one really discovering a new dimension while played live from 1978 to 1982) or played them to death (you all know which song in particular...)

1. Miss You - one of their very best tracks ever, the way the Stones transform their guitar-lead natural groove to a disco beat is simply outstanding. Hooks me everytime I listen to it, especially the long Maxi single version.
2. Beast of Burden - another true, shining Stones classic, right there in the mighty class of "Angie","Wild Horses" and "Ruby Tuesday"; probably the very last time Mick and Keith really contributed together to create something magical. Add there probably nicest recorded piece of 'ancient art of weaving' ever.
3. Respectable - punk-inspired Stones at their best - bare to the bones without a shame or any 'by-the-numbers' feel; most fresh-sounding rocker since EXILE tracks (and ever since).
4. Before They Make Me Run - after "Happy" Keith's best uptempo number ever, a beautifully written song. A clever use of his image, which gives the album some street-credibility to balance Jagger's ironic use of his own public persona in most of the songs in the album.
5. Faraway Eyes - a nice little country&western song, but it is especially Jagger's tongue-in-a-cheek attitude, which makes it memorable for me (who doesn't really appreciate or even stand mainstream C&W).
6. Shattered - an interesting, but not probably that well working attempt to test how slow the Stones can play their natural groove without falling apart.. drags, drags but Jagger with one of his strongest deliveries (and lyrics) saves the song.(This is the oddest piece in the album for me, and I have never really been sure what to think about it.)
7. Some Girls - a basic blues-based number but played with a passion (Charlie!) and Jagger's loureedish half-spoken delivery adds the rest to make it sound unique piece in their catalogue.
8. When The Whip Comes Down - another number the Stones answer to the punk challenge by going to the very 'basics'. The simplicity doesn't work so well as it does in "Respectable" though (but still well).
9. Imagination - a well-oiled, jamming garage band deconstructing a beautiful soul number. Works for me, but I guess one needs to be a helluva hardcore Stones and especially Pathe Marconi era fan to really appreciate the result.
10. Lies - a filler, but a filler fitting nicely to the context. The only number in the album does sound like the Stones both musically and lyrically are trying to copy punk rock, not just being inspired by it. And the result is not that good. For the groove-based The Stones rhythm section the tempo is way too straight-forward and fast, especially Charlie sounds lost. Jagger overdoes his shouting and doesn't sound convincing.

Anyway, judging SOME GIRLS song by song does not really do the album justice. It is the whole attitude, freshness, drive and focus in all over it that makes the album as a whole such a huge and important work. For undertanding the 'punk influence' in SOME GIRLS for that one needs a whole new, looong post of its own...

- Doxa

Doxa, I think you're mostly spot on in your song by song evaluation, however I don't think you do Just My Imagination justice.

I think that is a stellar reading and their ability to take an absolute classic and make it their own is herculean.

I hesitate to say it, but this LP never did it for me. There's not a song on it that I ever feel the need to hear. When it came out, everyone was enthusing about how the Stones were back, baby, so I tried my best to like it, to no avail. Emotional Rescue has better songs, really.

If only it had some bottom end to it like EMOTIONAL RESCUE or TATTOO YOU I'd probably like it better. It's just a bit too tinny, too crisp in a lot of places. ER has that crispness but with some bottom to it, which helps round it out better.

And do not forget that opinions changes with time. Therefore the first hand impression (the one you got when listening to it for the first time) is often the most valid one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-01-27 21:49 by Stoneage.

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GasLightStreet

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TheflyingDutchman

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His Majesty

LIB is honest in that it reflects the fact the band no longer had Brian or a distinctive third man/voice. But, that's what I don't like about it. There's something missing. The sound and feel of The Rolling Stones as a four piece... with guests.

That pretty much nails it. Some kind of emptiness

Which allowed Keith to focus and deliver some of his most fantastic work.

Sure, but still Yaya's was the right album at the right time to me. A refreshing live/ Frankenstein rehash of BB and LiB. Keith is not the kind of guitarist that can do an entire album on his own, in a convincing way. There's more variety required. Exile was his best party though-imo.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-01-28 00:34 by TheflyingDutchman.

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TheflyingDutchman

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GasLightStreet

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TheflyingDutchman

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His Majesty

LIB is honest in that it reflects the fact the band no longer had Brian or a distinctive third man/voice. But, that's what I don't like about it. There's something missing. The sound and feel of The Rolling Stones as a four piece... with guests.

That pretty much nails it. Some kind of emptiness

Which allowed Keith to focus and deliver some of his most fantastic work.

Sure, but still Yaya's was the right album at the right time to me. A refreshing live/ Frankenstein rehash of BB and LiB. Keith is not the kind of guitarist that can do an entire album on his own, in a convincing way. There's more variety required. Exile was his best party though-imo.

I don't agree that Keith couldn't carry an entire album on his own, his chosen style is to weave but if he did a Chuck Berry style album he'd be unreal, tomorrow. The style of successful music that you've chosen doesn't mean that you can't go & make a Roy Buchanan disc, or a Rory Gallagher, it's a choice to optimize audience that has been unbelievably successful, being half the partnership that propelled The Stones to the status of G.R.N.R.B.I.T.W. would seem like a good career choice.

He did pretty good on Aftermath, Between The Buttons, Satanic, BB and LIB - all albums where he is practically alone in the guitar department..

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treaclefingers
Doxa, I think you're mostly spot on in your song by song evaluation, however I don't think you do Just My Imagination justice.

I think that is a stellar reading and their ability to take an absolute classic and make it their own is herculean.

Probably I did sound a bit too hard there.

True true that they really make the song their own, which I guess is the point of doing covers. It has a lot of charm, there is so much pathemarconian jam-based groove there; funny, loose guitar playing, a jazz-man Charlie especially enjoying the tempo changes, and Mick having that punk-inspired, many-faced self-ironical delivery of his typical for the album. But I still can't help that this time a great song is somehow destructed in the process (which I think is intentional and gives a reason why it is included in the album), like some kind of musicality is lacking there to really do justice for its fine melodic nuances. It could be that if "Imagination" would be their original, and I wouldn't really know how the song supposed to 'really' go, I would see it as a great Jagger/Richards number, probably even some of the highlights in the album. But now the original and other more 'orthodoxic' versions are just too much shadowing their interpretation in my mind. My experience also has been that the Stones version is generally not much appreciated by anyone knowing the song.

But still it is very good!

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-01-28 09:48 by Doxa.

Imagination came into life when it became Just My Imagination on stage

My wife thinks this verbatim "Why Would Mick Jagger ever sing a song saying, "It Was just My Imagination Running Away With Me"", she thinks it actually emasculates The Stones, "why would they beg". I've tried to tell her that we all have moments, She doesn't think Mick would have ever had a moment and doesn't like him singing this song....

So I obviously agree, Happy Wife, Happy.....

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SKILLS
My wife thinks this verbatim "Why Would Mick Jagger ever sing a song saying, "It Was just My Imagination Running Away With Me"", she thinks it actually emasculates The Stones, "why would they beg". I've tried to tell her that we all have moments, She doesn't think Mick would have ever had a moment and doesn't like him singing this song....

So I obviously agree, Happy Wife, Happy.....

And why can't he get no satisfaction...

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DandelionPowderman
Imagination came into life when it became Just My Imagination on stage

Haha yes indeed... "In reality, she DOESN'T F.... KNOW!"....

One of the show highlights during 1978-82 tours.

- Doxa

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DandelionPowderman
He did pretty good on Aftermath, Between The Buttons, Satanic, BB and LIB - all albums where he is practically alone in the guitar department..

Maybe I expressed myself in the wrong way. Keith is a good player of course, but in his own words: "I don't like to be the only guitar player in a band". I think that he knows his limitations, good musicians do. On EOMS and SF I think that he was at his peak. And prior to that lots of ace playing of course.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-01-28 12:01 by TheflyingDutchman.

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TheflyingDutchman

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DandelionPowderman
He did pretty good on Aftermath, Between The Buttons, Satanic, BB and LIB - all albums where he is practically alone in the guitar department..

Maybe I expressed myself in the wrong way. Keith is a good player of course, but in his own words: "I don't like to be the only guitar player in a band". I think that he knows his limitations, good musicians do. On EOMS and SF I think that he was at his peak. And prior to that lots of ace playing of course.

Gotcha

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DandelionPowderman

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SKILLS
My wife thinks this verbatim "Why Would Mick Jagger ever sing a song saying, "It Was just My Imagination Running Away With Me"", she thinks it actually emasculates The Stones, "why would they beg". I've tried to tell her that we all have moments, She doesn't think Mick would have ever had a moment and doesn't like him singing this song....

So I obviously agree, Happy Wife, Happy.....

And why can't he get no satisfaction...

He throws a punch, glancing blow... countered by an uppercut followed by straight right, left hook waiting, not needed

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DandelionPowderman

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TheflyingDutchman

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DandelionPowderman
He did pretty good on Aftermath, Between The Buttons, Satanic, BB and LIB - all albums where he is practically alone in the guitar department..

Maybe I expressed myself in the wrong way. Keith is a good player of course, but in his own words: "I don't like to be the only guitar player in a band". I think that he knows his limitations, good musicians do. On EOMS and SF I think that he was at his peak. And prior to that lots of ace playing of course.

Gotcha

Never argue with the Keith Police



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-01-28 12:26 by TheflyingDutchman.

Truly can't believe the little love Imagination studio version gets here: it is a fantastic track!

I don't even see it as a proper cover. God knows what was on Whitfield/Strong's original papers? Temps (and the Funk Brothers) gave us one version, the stones another one.

Genius move by the Temps to release a ballad as a single (what the stones later did with Angie), genius move by the stones to reinvent a hit soul ballad as a rock anthem.

Love the groove, love Bill reinventing Jamerson great line, Keith the same with Willis' opening licks, Mick "fu@k you" delivery, Charlie's drum crescendo, Ronnie's dynamite finale, the orchestration of bu vocals, the guitar tones, the air.

Should I go on?

C

Doxa said:

. Shattered - an interesting, but not probably that well working attempt to test how slow the Stones can play their natural groove without falling apart.. drags, drags but Jagger with one of his strongest deliveries (and lyrics) saves the song.(This is the oddest piece in the album for me, and I have never really been sure what to think about it.)




Elmo says: One of their oddest pieces ever. I love it. It sounds like NOTHING else.

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SKILLS

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DandelionPowderman

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SKILLS
My wife thinks this verbatim "Why Would Mick Jagger ever sing a song saying, "It Was just My Imagination Running Away With Me"", she thinks it actually emasculates The Stones, "why would they beg". I've tried to tell her that we all have moments, She doesn't think Mick would have ever had a moment and doesn't like him singing this song....

So I obviously agree, Happy Wife, Happy.....

And why can't he get no satisfaction...

He throws a punch, glancing blow... countered by an uppercut followed by straight right, left hook waiting, not needed

face it SKILLS...you were backgammoned on that one.

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liddas
Truly can't believe the little love Imagination studio version gets here: it is a fantastic track!

I don't even see it as a proper cover. God knows what was on Whitfield/Strong's original papers? Temps (and the Funk Brothers) gave us one version, the stones another one.

Genius move by the Temps to release a ballad as a single (what the stones later did with Angie), genius move by the stones to reinvent a hit soul ballad as a rock anthem.

Love the groove, love Bill reinventing Jamerson great line, Keith the same with Willis' opening licks, Mick "fu@k you" delivery, Charlie's drum crescendo, Ronnie's dynamite finale, the orchestration of bu vocals, the guitar tones, the air.

Should I go on?

C

The stones have done a lot of fabulous covers...and this is one of them.

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treaclefingers

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liddas
Truly can't believe the little love Imagination studio version gets here: it is a fantastic track!

I don't even see it as a proper cover. God knows what was on Whitfield/Strong's original papers? Temps (and the Funk Brothers) gave us one version, the stones another one.

Genius move by the Temps to release a ballad as a single (what the stones later did with Angie), genius move by the stones to reinvent a hit soul ballad as a rock anthem.

Love the groove, love Bill reinventing Jamerson great line, Keith the same with Willis' opening licks, Mick "fu@k you" delivery, Charlie's drum crescendo, Ronnie's dynamite finale, the orchestration of bu vocals, the guitar tones, the air.

Should I go on?

C

The stones have done a lot of fabulous covers...and this is one of them.

Agree 100%

"No Anchovies, Please"

By 1978, The Stones was no longer an obvious choice like in the Beatles era. Bee Gees, Barbra Streisand (Woman In Love), Dionne Warwick (Heartbreaker) and The Saturnight Fever Soundtrack sweeped the masses. When the influence was as strong as this, The Stones fell in miscredit, despite a song like Miss You. People (the silent majority) turned against them. I was there. I remember.

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noughties
By 1978, The Stones was no longer an obvious choice like in the Beatles era. Bee Gees, Barbra Streisand (Woman In Love), Dionne Warwick (Heartbreaker) and The Saturnight Fever Soundtrack sweeped the masses. When the influence was as strong as this, The Stones fell in miscredit, despite a song like Miss You. People (the silent majority) turned against them. I was there. I remember.

They turned against them after buying the album then, obviously?

The Stones became a word of abuse because it was so contrary to said "recording values". Maybe they heard it on the radio.