STEEL WHEELS



Pre-production:

Mid-August 1988: Mick Jagger's castle, Loire Valley, France; & London, England
Mid-January 1989: Blue Wave Studios, Barbados
January 29-February 6, 1989: Blue Wave Studios, Barbados
February 13-March 22, 1989: Blue Wave Studios, Barbados

Recorded:

March 31-May 2, 1989: Air Studios, Montserrat, Virgin Islands

Overdubbed & mixed:

May 15-June 29, 1989: Olympic Studios, London, England
June 16-17, 1989: Palace of Ben Abbou, Tangiers, Morocco

Producers: Chris Kimsey & The Glimmer Twins
Chief engineer: Christopher Marc Potter
Mixer: Michael H. Brauer
Released: August 1989
Original label: Rolling Stones Records (on CBS)

Contributing musicians:

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Ron Wood, Chuck Leavell, Matt Clifford, Phil Beer, Luis Jardim, the Kick Horns, the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Bachir Attar Farafina, Bernard Fowler, Lisa Fischer, Sarah Dash, Tessa Niles, Sonia Morgan.


Sad Sad Sad
Mixed Emotions
Terrifying
Hold on to Your Hat
Hearts for Sale
Blinded By Love
Rock and a Hard Place
Can't Be Seen
Almost Hear You Sigh
Continental Drift
Break the Spell
Slipping Away

What are your thoughts on this album?

Sad Sad Sad
Mixed Emotions
Blinded by Love
Almost hear you sigh
Slipping Away.....WOW what a Midi-album...

2 1 2 0

Quote
Come On
Sad Sad Sad
Mixed Emotions
Blinded by Love
Almost hear you sigh
Slipping Away.....WOW what a Midi-album...

That would have been something...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-10-02 14:50 by DandelionPowderman.

Simply the worst.

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
Come On
Sad Sad Sad
Mixed Emotions
Blinded by Love
Almost hear you sigh
Slipping Away.....WOW what a Midi-album...

That would have been something...

They've never been afraid of embracing cutting-edge technology.

Quote
1962
Simply the worst.

Everything can't be the worst?

A little gem that is often forgotten is Break The Spell. A nice little ditty that rolls on. It's wonky and unsteady, but swings like the 60s Stones. Ronnie's bass playing is a little crazy, but I like the descending guitar riffs, Micks vocals, the harp and Charlie's beat. Good track

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
1962
Simply the worst.

Everything can't be the worst?

Slippin Away is really great.
I love Blinded By Love, too.
But the rest whole album is 80's shit, sounds like not my band.

Steel Wheels 1989, well. Just happy Mick n Keith were getting on again. And after the mediocre Undercover and Dirty Work which I feel both lacked some good ballads, we got Almost Hear You Sigh (Beast Of Burden part 2?) and Blinded By Love. I quite like both songs. Keith of course has 2 lead vocals again.
First single Mixed Emotions was their last top 10 single in the US. Shame they have played it only live on the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tours. It hasn't been performed live since.
Terrifying's proof they could still take a riff around the block. Not so fond of Rock And A Hard Place though. It's too 80s for me. Fancyman Blues and/or For Your Precious Love should have been on the album instead.
Probably the last Stones album that was sequenced with the A and B side (LP)format in mind.

Pete.

Quote
1962

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
1962
Simply the worst.

Everything can't be the worst?

Slippin Away is really great.
I love Blinded By Love, too.
But the rest whole album is 80's shit, sounds like not my band.

How is Break The Spell «80s shit»? Sad Sad Sad?

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
1962

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
1962
Simply the worst.

Everything can't be the worst?

Slippin Away is really great.
I love Blinded By Love, too.
But the rest whole album is 80's shit, sounds like not my band.

How is Break The Spell «80s shit»? Sad Sad Sad?

That awful sound. Very weak tracks

Quote
1962

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
1962

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
1962
Simply the worst.

Everything can't be the worst?

Slippin Away is really great.
I love Blinded By Love, too.
But the rest whole album is 80's shit, sounds like not my band.

How is Break The Spell «80s shit»? Sad Sad Sad?

That awful sound. Very weak tracks

They sounded on Steel Wheels like a Stones wannabee 80' shitty pop band



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-10-02 15:54 by 1962.

I am not so keen on how this album sounds, however, not thinking in terms of '80s, which I am not especially opposed to.

One real gem is included in this album, too, "Continental Drift".

What a mixed bag this album is. Very few outstanding tracks, some really horrible ones and and an unbelievable bunch of boring stuff. Side one starts off not too bad, but then the record is fading fast. Plus, the album suffers from over-production. Probably the most unsatisfying Stones-album ever. Even the quite enjoyable songs are meaningless in the end. The only interesting songs are Hold On To Your Hat and Break The Spell. Keith´s songs are very disappointing.

Sad Sad Sad-------quite enjoyable
Mixed Emotions----quite enjoyable
Terrifying--------horrible
Hold on to Your Hat----very good
Hearts for Sale----quite enjoyable
Blinded By Love----horrible, so "awful bad" it can make "sharks cry"
Rock and a Hard Place-----horrible
Can't Be Seen----boring
Almost Hear You Sigh----boring
Continental Drift---good intro for shows, but otherwise not even a song at all
Break the Spell------best song on the album
Slipping Away-----boring

Quote
1962

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
1962

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
1962
Simply the worst.

Everything can't be the worst?

Slippin Away is really great.
I love Blinded By Love, too.
But the rest whole album is 80's shit, sounds like not my band.

How is Break The Spell «80s shit»? Sad Sad Sad?

That awful sound. Very weak tracks

Fair enough that you don't like them, but that has nothing to do with sound. There is nothing «awful» or «80s» about the sound on Break The Spell. It's a classic blues-sounding tune!

Quote
1962

Quote
1962

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
1962

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
1962
Simply the worst.

Everything can't be the worst?

Slippin Away is really great.
I love Blinded By Love, too.
But the rest whole album is 80's shit, sounds like not my band.

How is Break The Spell «80s shit»? Sad Sad Sad?

That awful sound. Very weak tracks

They sounded on Steel Wheels like a Stones wannabee 80' shitty pop band

On a few songs, yes they did. But don't confuse Rock And A Hard Place with Break The Spell, please and thank you.

No matter what you say
No matter what you do
......................

I get these strange strange strange desires

Strange strange strange desires


DANCE DANCE

WHAT A GOOD ALBUM

Quote
velonabolin
No matter what you say
No matter what you do
......................

I get these strange strange strange desires

Strange strange strange desires


DANCE DANCE

WHAT A GOOD ALBUM

Love Terrifying. Great song

The runner-up to Tattoo You in the eigthies with the gem Hold On To Your Hat, which represents Keith's fastest guitar playing if it is really Keith who plays the solo guitar. Another gem is the bluesy Break The Spell with Ronnie's brilliant bass lines. He plays the bass there as melodious as a guitar, great. One of the best ballads in the catalogue is Almost Hear You Sigh, In general a good album, especially against the background of the risk that the Stones journey comes to an end due to different solo efforts ...

A very good album but I don't like the cover of it.
Sad Sad Sad, Mixed Emotions, Can't Be Seen, Almost Hear You Sigh and Slipping Away are great tracks.

i have mixed emotions about this album, which can make me sad sad sad, some times im caught between a rock and a hard place trying to figure it out.

was my first stones release since i became a fan so was really happy the band were continuing to make records then tour, 1989 was a great year for me discovering the band, then hearing new stuff.

its much better than dirtywork in terms of song writing and structuring and despite there being good stuff on this album, it lacks real punch that we might have expected from the stones.

i dont like

mixed emotions
terrifying
hearts for sale
rock and a hard place
cant be seen

i do like

hold on to your hat
almost hear you sigh
break the spell
slipping away
continental drift
blinded by love

and sad sad sad is average.

the strength of this album is its diversity, something the stones best albums always have, but it just lacks a couple of real classics on it. its a good album though but nothing more.

Quote
DandelionPowderman
A little gem that is often forgotten is Break The Spell. A nice little ditty that rolls on. It's wonky and unsteady, but swings like the 60s Stones. Ronnie's bass playing is a little crazy, but I like the descending guitar riffs, Micks vocals, the harp and Charlie's beat. Good track

+1

Dint tell anyone but Im really hooked on Mixed Emotions right now. I feel embarrassed because of the 80s refrain chord sequence.

Quote
pepganzo
A very good album but I don't like the cover of it.

Yeah, probably their worst cover art, and isn't this the one with the dumb "Dirty Workout" cartoon on inner sleeve? WTF?

I've never understood how Hold On To Your Hat gets dismissed...just the guitar work alone makes it an amazing rocker. There might not be much of a song there, but wow...some white-hot searing lead work from Keith.

I like 'Mixed Emotions', 'Sad Sad Sad,' 'Slipping Away,' and 'Break the Spell' is cute as noted above. 'Rock and Hard Place' is also OK. I've never liked 'Almost hear you sigh' as some others have. The word 'sigh' pretty much ruins it for me.


I don;t mind the cover art or the name of the album. I still feel 'Mixed Emotions' is the most memorable track on the album (it was the song featured at most of the pr events leading up to release, etc.) and sums up the whole Mick-Keith relationship saga. Also, Bill's last album with the Stones, thus worthy of a listen for that alone.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-10-02 17:46 by nightskyman.

The album has some brave experiments, even though they are not always brilliant.
Terrifying and Continental Drift fits in this category, and while the final results are mixed, it's always nice to see they are trying a different approach.
This should be noted by all those who only prefer their Stones as a band playing rock and sounding like AC/DC. And I would rather hear The Stones doing failed experiments, than hear them play by-numbers-tracks like Hold On To Your Hat.

I see this one with mixed emotions...

What a joy when Steel Wheels was released! Fresh and powerful. What a wow-effect when Hold On To Your Hat was blasting out of a pa-system at a CBS record release party. Pure happiness seeing Mick and Keith laughing together in the Mixed Emotions video. What a comeback with a recordbreaking tour. So many great memories.
Afterwards? SW didn`t stand the test of time. The production and songwriting ...
But it was a very important record to start again.

Listening to it right now. Didn`t it for a long time. Well not that bad...


Tom

Quote
DandelionPowderman
Pre-production:

Mid-August 1988: Mick Jagger's castle, Loire Valley, France; & London, England

???

Continental Drft, Almost Hear You Sig and Terrifying are pretty good

Mixed emotions, Sad Sad sad and Break the Spell are ok

The rest awful Rock and a Hard Place

Cheap 80's production....

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
velonabolin
No matter what you say
No matter what you do
......................

I get these strange strange strange desires

Strange strange strange desires


DANCE DANCE

WHAT A GOOD ALBUM

Love Terrifying. Great song

It is! Terrifying and Break The Spell are my favorites. Overall, still ranks low for me, possibly my 2nd least favorite, but I do enjoy the album for the most part.

Mixed Emotions is probably their weakest single, perhaps ever. Not a bad track but weak as a lead single. Rock & Hard Place, I could do without, a sub-par rocker. I don't get the love of Continental Drift ... it's okay but far from a great track. Hold On To Your Hat is the main one I have a hard time listening to. Yes it rocks, but not much melody, and poor lyrics, it does have a decent guitar solo.

Blinded By Love ... great!
Almost Hear You Sigh ... okay, but surely don't see how so many consider it a classic.

Keith ... Can't Be Seen, that one is below average ... likely my least favorite Keith rocker. But Slipping Away is great, it makes up for the lame Sleep Tonight (which brings to mind, the lyric issue on Dirty Work ... "you better get some sleep tonight, all you gotta do is close your eyes" , just horrible lyrics!)

Hearts For Sale ... overall a nice groove, but doesn't really do much for me.

5 out of 10.