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Nikolai


It's also Exile On Main Street's older, sleazier, wealthier cousin.

LIke your quote! Weathier perhaps, but sleazier than Exile? Gotta consider that one!

Some Girls is what drew me to the Stones in '78....my grandmother took me shopping and always bought me records. I was a teenager, having heard Miss You on the radio, I was looking for the single, didn't even know what SG was.
In the record store, the clerk helped me find SG as they were out of the single.

The cover made me immediately buy it. So glad I did. After SG I bought HR, then SF, followed by ER (not my fav) and TY in the following years.

Yeah, that is great writing there Nikolai with the Exile analogy! Hats off fine Tsar!

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marchbaby

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Nikolai


It's also Exile On Main Street's older, sleazier, wealthier cousin.

LIke your quote! Weathier perhaps, but sleazier than Exile? Gotta consider that one!

Nikolai is correct. Case in point - Far away eyes would fit nicely on EOMS. Of course, unnecessary.

Well, one remark must be made: Some Girls is absolutely not the Rolling Stones back to basics. It's much rather the contrary.

Some Girls was the first Stones studio album I bought just when it was released.
Still love listening to it,great album including great tracks.

If you don´t like it....bad luck for you !

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Chris Fountain

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marchbaby

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Nikolai


It's also Exile On Main Street's older, sleazier, wealthier cousin.

LIke your quote! Weathier perhaps, but sleazier than Exile? Gotta consider that one!

Nikolai is correct. Case in point - Far away eyes would fit nicely on EOMS. Of course, unnecessary.

How true,
this quote will stay with me all day. I love it!

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Chris Fountain

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marchbaby

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Nikolai


It's also Exile On Main Street's older, sleazier, wealthier cousin.

LIke your quote! Weathier perhaps, but sleazier than Exile? Gotta consider that one!

Nikolai is correct. Case in point - Far away eyes would fit nicely on EOMS. Of course, unnecessary.

A fair old point Chris, but I don't think it would. Faraway Eyes is a parody of a country character. They were still playing 'straight', reverential country around Exile. I do think Faraway Eyes could have slotted in very easily on Emotional Rescue, because there were how many Jagger parodies on that album? Two obvious ones - Indian Girl, which Jagger sings in that ridiculous 'Latino' accent, and Where The Boys Go, which he does in his best impersonation of a Sowff Lahndun taxi driver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-01 17:02 by Nikolai.

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Nikolai

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Chris Fountain

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marchbaby

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Nikolai


It's also Exile On Main Street's older, sleazier, wealthier cousin.

LIke your quote! Weathier perhaps, but sleazier than Exile? Gotta consider that one!

Nikolai is correct. Case in point - Far away eyes would fit nicely on EOMS. Of course, unnecessary.

A fair old point Chris, but I don't think it would. Faraway Eyes is a parody of a country character. They were still playing 'straight', reverential country around Exile. I do think Faraway Eyes could have slotted in very easily on Emotional Rescue, because there were how many Jagger parodies on that album? Two obvious ones - Indian Girl, which Jagger sings in that ridiculous 'Latino' accent, and Where The Boys Go, which he does in his best impersonation of a Sowff Lahndun taxi driver.

Nikolai, you've opened my eyes up to SG in a way I've never thought, I just love what you wrote about the older, wealtheir, sleazier cousin! what an eye opener!
Guess I'll be listening to Exile and SG today....

maybe the best sounding album. i like many songs but there are others which are really terrible.

i have to skip through the album, can´t listen to it all the way through.

first Stones record I heard in entirety was Goats Head Soup in 73, but it didn't really resonate then as I was only 13.. but now at 50 it still stands for some reason as a favorite Stones record of mine

next I heard Love You Live at 16 or thereabouts and it really did register and I love it, no matter how sloppy the playing or indecipherable Jagger's singing is..

in 77 I heard Some Girls next and at this point do not regard it as a favorite, and some songs I am completely bored of (Shattered for instance).

But Miss You is fabulous, and I never get tired of Respectable, Beast of Burden, When The Whip Comes Down and Before They Make Me Run

other songs to me are non-remarkable - Some Girls, Far Away Eyes, Lies, Just My Imagination

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stones77
first Stones record I heard in entirety was Goats Head Soup in 73, but it didn't really resonate then as I was only 13.. but now at 50 it still stands for some reason as a favorite Stones record of mine

next I heard Love You Live at 16 or thereabouts and it really did register and I love it, no matter how sloppy the playing or indecipherable Jagger's singing is..

in 77 I heard Some Girls next and at this point do not regard it as a favorite, and some songs I am completely bored of (Shattered for instance).

But Miss You is fabulous, and I never get tired of Respectable, Beast of Burden, When The Whip Comes Down and Before They Make Me Run

other songs to me are non-remarkable - Some Girls, Far Away Eyes, Lies, Just My Imagination

If you think of Far Away Eyes as country-comedy, then you'll be laughing in the wings. (Maybe) I prefer the longer, unedited take of Just My Imagination (released on a couple of studio session boots) which is closer to the 1978 tour version and way more interesting. It can't touch the original, but I do like the way they take the song into new territory. I think it was meant to echo/ape the irreverent readings the Sex Pistols were giving Substitute et al at the time. The trouble is, The Stones were way better musicians than the Pistols and don't quite get away with it.

Some Girls is another song you really can't take at face value, lyrically, Jagger seemingly boasting about his status as an international cocksman in one line and then moaning about the same woman taking him for everything they can take get (money, jewelery, clothes, a house in Zuma beach, and - in the case of black women - all his 'jam'). I do think it's the last album where Jagger actually thought about his lyrics before he wrote them. Apart from Lies, that is - which is pure filler, musically and lyrically. Go to hell/ you ... Jezebel. Please!

Really pleased to hear you like Miss You. It's one of my favourites. I think the 12" version is the definitive one. You get more of Jagger's forlorn rap - 'girls will come and go/they're just like streetcars' - for a start, and loads more bluesy harmonica. Jagger obviously has a thing about casting himself as the rejected lover-as-obsessive-stalker creep: Anybody Seen My Baby and Love Is Strong mine exactly the same territory, lyrically, although they're not as much fun. If only his friends had phoned him, offering him wine and an orgy with some Puerto Rican girls ....

Next to Exile their best album.

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Nikolai

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stones77
first Stones record I heard in entirety was Goats Head Soup in 73, but it didn't really resonate then as I was only 13.. but now at 50 it still stands for some reason as a favorite Stones record of mine

next I heard Love You Live at 16 or thereabouts and it really did register and I love it, no matter how sloppy the playing or indecipherable Jagger's singing is..

in 77 I heard Some Girls next and at this point do not regard it as a favorite, and some songs I am completely bored of (Shattered for instance).

But Miss You is fabulous, and I never get tired of Respectable, Beast of Burden, When The Whip Comes Down and Before They Make Me Run

other songs to me are non-remarkable - Some Girls, Far Away Eyes, Lies, Just My Imagination

If you think of Far Away Eyes as country-comedy, then you'll be laughing in the wings. (Maybe) I prefer the longer, unedited take of Just My Imagination (released on a couple of studio session boots) which is closer to the 1978 tour version and way more interesting. It can't touch the original, but I do like the way they take the song into new territory. I think it was meant to echo/ape the irreverent readings the Sex Pistols were giving Substitute et al at the time. The trouble is, The Stones were way better musicians than the Pistols and don't quite get away with it.

Some Girls is another song you really can't take at face value, lyrically, Jagger seemingly boasting about his status as an international cocksman in one line and then moaning about the same woman taking him for everything they can take get (money, jewelery, clothes, a house in Zuma beach, and - in the case of black women - all his 'jam'). I do think it's the last album where Jagger actually thought about his lyrics before he wrote them. Apart from Lies, that is - which is pure filler, musically and lyrically. Go to hell/ you ... Jezebel. Please!

Really pleased to hear you like Miss You. It's one of my favourites. I think the 12" version is the definitive one. You get more of Jagger's forlorn rap - 'girls will come and go/they're just like streetcars' - for a start, and loads more bluesy harmonica. Jagger obviously has a thing about casting himself as the rejected lover-as-obsessive-stalker creep: Anybody Seen My Baby and Love Is Strong mine exactly the same territory, lyrically, although they're not as much fun. If only his friends had phoned him, offering him wine and an orgy with some Puerto Rican girls ....

I really like the Handsome Girls disc 1 version of Miss You from 78. It's about 9 minutes long or something and the back and forth between richards and wood, for me at least - this was an example of the pinnacle of those two guys playing off each other

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Bimmelzerbott
Terribly overrated. One of my least fav Stones albums, along with turds like Dirty Work and Undercover. Songs like Miss You, Lies, Shattered and Respectable belong to the worst crap that was ever written.

A very very bad album.

Will you ever mention something good or nice about them ?
You´re hard to please,aren´t you ?

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stones77

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Nikolai

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stones77
first Stones record I heard in entirety was Goats Head Soup in 73, but it didn't really resonate then as I was only 13.. but now at 50 it still stands for some reason as a favorite Stones record of mine

next I heard Love You Live at 16 or thereabouts and it really did register and I love it, no matter how sloppy the playing or indecipherable Jagger's singing is..

in 77 I heard Some Girls next and at this point do not regard it as a favorite, and some songs I am completely bored of (Shattered for instance).

But Miss You is fabulous, and I never get tired of Respectable, Beast of Burden, When The Whip Comes Down and Before They Make Me Run

other songs to me are non-remarkable - Some Girls, Far Away Eyes, Lies, Just My Imagination

If you think of Far Away Eyes as country-comedy, then you'll be laughing in the wings. (Maybe) I prefer the longer, unedited take of Just My Imagination (released on a couple of studio session boots) which is closer to the 1978 tour version and way more interesting. It can't touch the original, but I do like the way they take the song into new territory. I think it was meant to echo/ape the irreverent readings the Sex Pistols were giving Substitute et al at the time. The trouble is, The Stones were way better musicians than the Pistols and don't quite get away with it.

Some Girls is another song you really can't take at face value, lyrically, Jagger seemingly boasting about his status as an international cocksman in one line and then moaning about the same woman taking him for everything they can take get (money, jewelery, clothes, a house in Zuma beach, and - in the case of black women - all his 'jam'). I do think it's the last album where Jagger actually thought about his lyrics before he wrote them. Apart from Lies, that is - which is pure filler, musically and lyrically. Go to hell/ you ... Jezebel. Please!

Really pleased to hear you like Miss You. It's one of my favourites. I think the 12" version is the definitive one. You get more of Jagger's forlorn rap - 'girls will come and go/they're just like streetcars' - for a start, and loads more bluesy harmonica. Jagger obviously has a thing about casting himself as the rejected lover-as-obsessive-stalker creep: Anybody Seen My Baby and Love Is Strong mine exactly the same territory, lyrically, although they're not as much fun. If only his friends had phoned him, offering him wine and an orgy with some Puerto Rican girls ....

I really like the Handsome Girls disc 1 version of Miss You from 78. It's about 9 minutes long or something and the back and forth between richards and wood, for me at least - this was an example of the pinnacle of those two guys playing off each other

Sublime isn't it?

I hate the panto version they've been playing since 1989. Hideous. Ripping the guts out of the song and reducing it to a 'whooop-along-with-The-Stones' number while they get their stair lift to the B Stage.

Eggcellent, from beginning to end. The song: Some Girls has got to be in my top 5 all-time Stones tracks. The guitar licks on the harder/faster songs are, imo, amazing. And Charlie's drumming is superb thru-out.

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kleermaker
I won't spoil all the fun here.

Just some questions to Doxa and Tele.

Doxa, you said: "Let's just say that it [Some Girls] is the BEGGARS BANQUET of the 70's - it saved their career and gave them a new life."

Could/Would you explain that and what "new life" do you exactly mean? And how long did it last? Any opinions on the title of this album?

Tele, you actually said: "SG is smart and fun at the same time". Really? Smart? Smart music?

I'm with you, Kleermaker, i can't warm to 'Some Girls' however many times i listen to it. There is no denying, however, that it's a very well presented album, certainly in terms of the actual sequencing, maybe in that regard it can be compared with Beggars Banquet, where all the pieces fit together perfectly. There is a remarkable freshness to it, but at the same time it does sound incredibly facile and lacking in any real depth. I really don't think it's aged that well in many ways, and the feeling i have is that it is Jagger trying very hard to emulate the attitude of punk. Certainly 'Some Girls' isn't the first time the Stones have been influenced by contemporary sounds, they have spent their career being so, but it is perhaps the first time they have been influenced by a youth culture generation much younger than themselves, who are in many ways out to make a fresh start, by blowing away all those 'tired' old musical dinousaurs. In that regard there are many punk like elements within Jagger's phrasing which sounds incredibly contrived, and songs like 'Lies' for example, sound so derivative from the punk attitude, it is almost laughable in terms of one being expected to be swallowed up with them coming from Jagger's mouth. That's not to say everything with Some Girls contains that punk vibe - i think the element of disco with 'Miss You' works well, in addition to 'Beast Of Burden', and 'Faraway Eyes' is a country novelty song, a while after the Stones had dispensed with that genre on a large scale. I believe in the late seventies the Stones has several optons, because in many ways punk was in danger of making them seem irrelevant. I give them credit in the fact that they rose to the challenge. As Doxa has indicated, Some Girls was the dawning of a new age for the Stones because punk inspired them to shake things up a little, when it appeared their relevance was fading fast. Stripping their sound down and becoming a little less heavy really saw them through to the 81-82 tour, and gave Ronnie a role in the band's sound, apart from just trying to emulate the members that have gone before him.

However, whether Some Girls really touches me is a very different matter, like many of their previous albums tend to do, in terms of stimulating the senses so to speak. Had it not been for the punk explosion, it is doubtful the Stones would ever have envisaged recording such an album. In those terms i'm doubtful Some Girls is really a truly genuine Stones album, at least with regard to it being the group's preferred style (maybe apart from what i read concerning Jagger's view). It's certainly of it's time, for sure, but whether it can transcend time like the big four, i seriously have my doubts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-02 10:01 by Edward Twining.

Couldn't find any track-ratings here so now:

1."Miss You" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 4:48//
2."When the Whip Comes Down" (Jagger, Richards) - 4:20//
3."Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" (Barrett Strong, Norman Whitfield) - 4:38//
4."Some Girls" (Jagger, Richards) - 4:36//
5."Lies" (Jagger, Richards) - 3:11//
6."Far Away Eyes" (Jagger, Richards) - 4:24// Top-number of this album
7."Respectable" (Jagger, Richards) - 3:06//
8."Before They Make Me Run" (Jagger, Richards) - 3:25//
9."Beast of Burden" (Jagger, Richards) - 4:25//
10."Shattered" (Jagger, Richards) - 3:47//

1978 Bowie released 'Heroes' and Dylan 'Street Legal'..but it was all the Punk-bands that counted...

I first heard SG in the very early 80's. At the time I was really into the Taylor days, and was "slightly" turned off by the lack of that warm acoustic "bed" (piano and guitar) that somehow softend the sound of Fingers to IORR (and Bleed and Banquet before them), by the absence of solos, by those apparently simple structures, etc. etc. The Stones for me could only be the Stones of bursselles Affaire.

Almost 30 years later it is probably one of the albums I've played more and that more I love.

What truly hit hard were those first boots of the 78 tour. They made me see the light. It's as if suddenly I understood what the hell SG was all about. Then all the outtackes ...

What an album!

C

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Come On
Couldn't find any track-ratings here so now:

1."Miss You" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 4:48//
2."When the Whip Comes Down" (Jagger, Richards) - 4:20//
3."Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" (Barrett Strong, Norman Whitfield) - 4:38//
4."Some Girls" (Jagger, Richards) - 4:36//
5."Lies" (Jagger, Richards) - 3:11//
6."Far Away Eyes" (Jagger, Richards) - 4:24// Top-number of this album
7."Respectable" (Jagger, Richards) - 3:06//
8."Before They Make Me Run" (Jagger, Richards) - 3:25//
9."Beast of Burden" (Jagger, Richards) - 4:25//
10."Shattered" (Jagger, Richards) - 3:47//

1978 Bowie released 'Heroes' and Dylan 'Street Legal'..but it was all the Punk-bands that counted...

The late 70s were about more than punk, you're right - Lou Reed released Street Hassle and Take No Prisoners, Iggy Pop put out The Idiot and Lust For Life, the who made their last album with Keith Moon, and then there were all those great albums ...

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Come On

1978 Bowie released 'Heroes'

"Heroes" was released in '77...

some girls is ok I guess; probably deemed 'important' since they've released nothing to top it since

kleermaker, give up already. I understand you don't like Some Girls. I have explained in several posts (quite well I think!) why I think it was career-saving album. Yes, I think it was smart. New York savvy, with some good (and humorous) social commentary. You have expressed the view that you don't think fun and music go together. That explains much about why you don't like the record. I can accept that, but you need to understand that you will not bring those of us who love Some Girls along to your perspective. Cheers.

I understand the appeal of SG. It is an imminently accessible record. And after the previous band releases anything that had some focus was welcome. But it is a record without secrets. You "get it" right away and when you tire of it you are done with it. It's musical fluff. It gave rise to two concert lowpoints for me: Miss You and Imagination. The latter song is as musically tedious as the band ever got while trying to be exciting. Still it was a fun record, for a while a guilty pleasure, but I am never in the mood to hear it again.

You tell him Tele!

I always thought a sense of humour was a pre-requisite for being a Stones fan, from Emotional Rescue onwards.

Anyway, back to the track per track review ...

1). Miss You - the album's first highlight; a clever fusion of The Stones sound with then then vogueish four to the floor beat. A deserved hit. 5/5

2). When The Whip Comes Down - lyrically a Lou Reed pastiche, musically a fairly run of the mill Stones album track that wouldn't have been out of place on Black & Blue or IORR, only it was played a little faster. 3/5

3). Just My Imagination - this really shouldn't work, especially if you love the original, but it does. Unfortunately it fades out just as it's getting interesting. The unedited bootleg version is better. 3/5

4). Some Girls - a song which would probably STILL cause a furore if they played it live and didn't reverse the original racial stereotypes. More misogynistic than racist, but the biggest target is the singer himself. Brilliant. 4/5

5). Lies - tosh. 1/5

6). Faraway Eyes - was this Jagger belatedly taking the piss out of Gram Parsons? Probably not. Does he even like country music? Pastiche and irreverence was the order of the day here. Maybe it was an ode to Jerry Hall, a Texan? Either way it's hilarious and a great singalong. 4/5

7). Respectable - Jagger joins the punk ranks and mocks the Stones's status as establishment figures, but then he vents most of his ire on Bianca. Great. 4/5

8). Before They Make Me Run - On the surface, Keith in full on defiant mode, but the defiance has an undertow of regret to it. "Another goodbye to another good friend". 4/5

9). Beast of Burden - Keith's kiss-off to Anita (reputedly). One of The Stones greatest ballads. The album's second masterpiece. 5/5

10). Shattered - After what's come before, Shattered is something of an anti-climax. An anti-love song to the city which fired Jagger's muse, but not really a fitting send off for a great album. 3/5



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-02 18:49 by Nikolai.

Bubble gum music. Not an authentic sounding song on the entire album. For me, it's the demarcation of when the Stones were great, and when they tried a little too hard to please others.

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gimmelittledrink
Bubble gum music. Not an authentic sounding song on the entire album. For me, it's the demarcation of when the Stones were great, and when they tried a little too hard to please others.

You don't think "Beast of Burden" or "Before They Make Me Run" are "authentic sounding"?

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pmk251
I understand the appeal of SG. It is an imminently accessible record. And after the previous band releases anything that had some focus was welcome. But it is a record without secrets. You "get it" right away and when you tire of it you are done with it. It's musical fluff. It gave rise to two concert lowpoints for me: Miss You and Imagination. The latter song is as musically tedious as the band ever got while trying to be exciting. Still it was a fun record, for a while a guilty pleasure, but I am never in the mood to hear it again.

Finally someone who can say in a nutshell where I have to use too many words. His comment is spot on.

it was then and remains the bands biggest seller

it opened the band to a whole new, massive record buying demographic; I was one of those people..

I am sure the band must love the record for that reason alone


and I was one of those who then back-surfed and bought up their whole back catalogue .. in multiple formats.. vinyl, remastered vinyl, cd.. remastered cd.. etc etc etc

(still think vinyl sounds best)

anyway it was their last 'great' record..depending on how loosly you apply the term 'great'