One Hit (To The Body): 10/10
Fight: 10/10
Harlem Shuffle: 9/10
Hold Back: 10/10
Too Rude: 10/10
Winning Ugly: 7/10
Back To Zero: 7/10
Dirty Work: 7/10
Had It With You: 7/10
Sleep Tonight: 8/10

I give Dirty Work a "B" grade. Go ahead and trash me in the comments for saying this but while the album is in my bottom 5 Rolling Stones albums it isn't the worst one to me. Yes, there are a few heavily outdated 80's songs like Back To Zero and Winning Ugly, but there hasn't been a Stones album since DIRTY WORK that captured the ferocity and aggression the band was capable of performing.

I LOVE Dirty Work. Those guitars...

One Hit (To The Body): 9/10
Fight: 5/10
Harlem Shuffle: 6/10
Hold Back: 5/10
Too Rude: 5/10
Winning Ugly: 7/10
Back To Zero: 7/10
Dirty Work: 7/10
Had It With You: 5/10
Sleep Tonight: 8/10

Not a bad album, but probably the worst Stones studio album, at least if not counting the first few 60s albums.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-03 10:41 by yeababyyea.

One Hit (To The Body): 9/10
Fight: 8/10
Harlem Shuffle: 6710
Hold Back: 5/10
Too Rude: 8/10
Winning Ugly: 4/10
Back To Zero: 0/10
Dirty Work: 10/10
Had It With You: 10/10
Sleep Tonight: 9/10

Quote
deardoctor
I love DW.
...
But: needs a good remix to get rid of the bad production

Agree, it should be remixed to all "silence", then I would listen to it more.

Quote
LeonidP

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deardoctor
I love DW.
...
But: needs a good remix to get rid of the bad production

Agree, it should be remixed to all "silence", then I would listen to it more.

That's funny...but the hidden track should remain untouched...

What's a Dirty Work thread without HMS? ...(Nothing, if you ask me).

I like on this album
One Hit
Harlem Shuffle
Dirty Work
Sleep tonight

Also Too Rude and Winning Ugly are good.

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Stoneage
What's a Dirty Work thread without HMS? ...(Nothing, if you ask me).

Relax.

It's nothing without him, too.

In fact, it's nothing.

NOTHING.

Except hilarity about THE worst Rolling Stones album ever.

One Hit (To The Body): 7/10
Fight: 4/10
Harlem Shuffle:8/10
Hold Back: 4/10
Too Rude: 6/10
Winning Ugly: 5/10
Back To Zero: Obviously 0/10
Dirty Work: 9/10
Had It With You: 5/10
Sleep Tonight: 8/10
Stu's Song: 6/10

10's are reserved for GS, JJF, etc.

I really like the song Dirty Work - great guitar work (weaving)

This was a better album than most of the other drivel being released around that time (Phil Collins or Billy Ocean, anyone?)

Quote
Elmo Lewis
One Hit (To The Body): 7/10
Fight: 4/10
Harlem Shuffle:8/10
Hold Back: 4/10
Too Rude: 6/10
Winning Ugly: 5/10
Back To Zero: Obviously 0/10
Dirty Work: 9/10
Had It With You: 5/10
Sleep Tonight: 8/10
Stu's Song: 6/10

10's are reserved for GS, JJF, etc.

I really like the song Dirty Work - great guitar work (weaving)

This was a better album than most of the other drivel being released around that time (Phil Collins or Billy Ocean, anyone?)

Good point Elmo. It proves once again that a bad Stones album is still way better than most anything else.
I've had some times when it was hard standing up for the Stones; when they were really on the outs. The 80's was hard on all the rockers.

It's not really better than The Smiths, or Husker Du, or Kate Bush, or Jesus and Mary Chain, or REM etc

Quote
Elmo Lewis
This was a better album than most of the other drivel being released around that time

It wasn't. Of course. Remember Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, Bruce Hornsby, Steve Winwood, Van Morrison, REM, Lionel Richie, or... a couple of other albums.
To give Dirty Work more than a 3 overall on a 1-10 scale is questionable in my mind. It simply wasn't a good album. Anyway you look at it.

Quote
Stoneage

Quote
Elmo Lewis
This was a better album than most of the other drivel being released around that time

It wasn't. Of course. Remember Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, Bruce Hornsby, Steve Winwood, Van Morrison, REM, Lionel Richie, or... a couple of other albums.
To give Dirty Work more than a 3 overall on a 1-10 scale is questionable in my mind. It simply wasn't a good album. Anyway you look at it.

For me, it was better then, and now, than many of those. Most of these artists had a soundscape on par with Back To Zero and Winning Ugly, which wasn't really representative of the sound of DW.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-10 15:34 by DandelionPowderman.

Remember Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, Bruce Hornsby, Steve Winwood, Van Morrison, REM, Lionel Richie,

….Nah …



ROCKMAN

Comparative lessons from 1986:

Bruce Hornsby, The way it Is: [www.youtube.com]
Peter Gabriel, Don't Give Up: [www.youtube.com]
Stevie Winwood, Higher Love: [www.youtube.com]
Pretenders, Don't get me Wrong: [www.youtube.com]
Van Morrison, One Irish Rover: [www.youtube.com]

One Hit, Harlem Shuffle and Dirty Work are good songs the rest in my opinion is dreadful. Fight, Hold Back, Back To Zero and Winning Ugly flat out suck!

Although I understand why older, hardcore Stones fans...most of whom came of age in the '60s and '70s...hate the '80s, with its garish fashion sense and reliance on synths and drum machines, it's an unfairly maligned musical decade.

EVERY decade has good and bad music. You may have preferences, but to assign any ten-year period as either "great" or "garbage" is short-sighted.

What undoubtedly was painful in most cases were '60s and '70s rockers awkwardly try to adapt to a period wholly unsuited for them. At least the '90s freed older rockers to sound more like themselves, when the grunge/alt revolution made retro-sounding music cool again.

Generally speaking, I consider the '80's the "dark ages" of music, though no doubt there was some great stuff.
Off the top of my head can't think of anything worthy, but there really was!!!

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Why Jagger thought he needed to sound like the 80's and winning ugly sounds so much like Duran Duran. I listen for the dirty guitars - Fight and Hold Back I used to skip now I listen because of the guitars. Dirty work nasty guitars, Sleep Tonight a gem, Harlem Shuffle okay cover, One Hit To the Body okay, they really did not need JP for solo.

I think if we’re being honest with ourselves, the only reason we give this album any sort of chance is because it has the Rolling Stones’ name on it.

From the album cover down to the songs, everything seems like a yuppie’s idea of what the Rolling Stones should be. It’s really hard to believe this is the same band who wrote all those classic songs from the 60’s and 70’s that we all love.

Harlem Shuffle, Too Rude, Had It With You and One Hit are okay songs. I actually like the “London Mix” version of Winning Ugly - with its acoustic guitar, you can almost hear remnants of classic Stones.

But the band’s lack of cohesiveness and inspiration really show in the album. In retrospect, it was a necessary album in that the band had to reach some sort of rock bottom. Combine this album with Mick’s floundering solo career and Keith finding his inspiration with Talk is Cheap, and it helped set the stage for the Stones success and longevity over the last 30 years.

-Cam



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-10 19:25 by CamRS.

Good post, CamRS

Despite the strengths of "Rain Fall Down," "Biggest Mistake," "Laugh? I Nearly Died," and "Dangerous Beauty" which are songs of a calibre DIRTY WORK cannot hope to match, I actually prefer DIRTY WORK as an album to A BIGGER BANG.

DIRTY WORK has "Harlem Shuffle," "Had It With You," "Too Rude," and "Sleep Tonight" which are perfect as is. They may not be aiming very high, but they don't fall down in any way, either.

The title track is probably the next closest to coming out as well as it might have.

"Back to Zero" I always feel is harshly criticized. Ignore the lyrics and you've got a great swinging funk groove. Did it need a different set of lyrics? Sure, but it's not as bad as calling George Washington by his first name as Mick vomits the Delaware on "Hold Back."

Even "Hold Back" isn't without redemption. Primarily, it's in the closing seconds with Ivan Neville's funky bass groove which fades way too fast for my taste. Like "One Hit" and "Fight," it shows Keith and Ronnie in great form. Barking Mick phoning in lyrics he doesn't give a damn about and Charlie(?) pounding away on drums with nary a sense of rhythm does not make for The Rolling Stones and that's the problem with the album's rockers. Only the title track almost escapes the same fate.

That leaves "Winning Ugly." Admittedly, I think the album cut isn't very good. The 12" single extended mixes and the circulating studio outtake (which is close to the 12" single) show that the song had promise, but it was lost somewhere in its development. As it is, the song stands as a precursor to "Ruthless People" and you really don't want to be connected to the song that Weird Al Yankovic sold more copies of than Mick.

Lastly, "Stu's song" (though a hidden track) has a name. It's "Key to the Highway" and they even pay publishing royalties on it.

We've all heard plenty of DIRTY WORK outtakes (some of which should have become Winos tracks officially), but what was "Nobody's Perfect?" According to Bill German in September 1985, this was still short-listed for the album. It hasn't made it to bootlegs. What is this song? Is it another pinch-hitter like "Strictly Memphis" for "Harlem Shuffle" or "Your Love" / "You're Too Much" for "Sleep Tonight?" I've heard it suggested it was an alternate lyric for "Hold Back." Does anyone know for certain out there?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-10 21:26 by Rocky Dijon.

Quote
Elmo Lewis
Good post, CamRS

Thanks Elmo!

Sad sad sad is a reworked Fight. The verses are similar, but SSS got a proper (well...almost) chorus which Fight lacks.

Pretty awful album save Harlem Shuffle,Sleep Tonight and Too rude.
I only rank steel wheels as being even worst.

One of my guilty pleasures is Winning Ugly. I know it shouldn’t be. I’m not proud....

Quote
padre69
Sad sad sad is a reworked Fight. The verses are similar, but SSS got a proper (well...almost) chorus which Fight lacks.

And Fight has parts from Too Tough...

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JTHanis
One of my guilty pleasures is Winning Ugly. I know it shouldn’t be. I’m not proud....

No reason to feel guilty about it. It's potentially a very good song. It's only that awful 80's production that ruins it.

Quote
matxil

Quote
JTHanis
One of my guilty pleasures is Winning Ugly. I know it shouldn’t be. I’m not proud....

No reason to feel guilty about it. It's potentially a very good song. It's only that awful 80's production that ruins it.

Some of Keith's finest lead guitar playing is on it as well.