This album is still one of my favorites. A classic Dtones album. I remember very well ir's release and the joy I had, listening to it again and again.
Their last studio album with own compsitions, that counts.
I was 34 years and playing theatre, having a real great lifetime!

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RisingStone
Decent album if not classic. When it came out, though, I was puzzled by the artwork. Still I am. A lion with the Tower of Babel (or something) under the chin? .

it's an assyrian styled beard, see: [www.fotocommunity.de]

Isn't there an album talk we can tread on?

Yes, Out of Control and Saint of Me are great songs. Saw them in Albuquerque and twice in Oakland on this tour. I seem to remember they played Starfrigger at one of the Oakland shows as a song vote choice, first time I'd heard them play that in many a year, and never since. I was very happy when that was announced as the choice, but seem to remember that it was only OK when they played it. And in Oakland, we were on the floor a distance away from the B stage, but when they came out there, the floor kind of emptied around us of folks who wanted to get near it and we did the same and got quite close, the closest I'd been to them in many a tour. I think they were playing Little Queenie and Keith and Ronnie were just so powerful executing those Berry licks. Exciting.


plexi

Wish they'd have gone with the
Blessed Poison title ...it may have
even changed the direction of the album ....



ROCKMAN

For me this is the best album since Tattoo You! I can play it from start to finish and only get slightly annoyed by listening to "Always Suffering"! The best songs are Flip The Switch, Out Of Control, Might As Well Get Juiced and Too Tight for me!

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RisingStone
A lion with the Tower of Babel (or something) under the chin? What it represents is beyond me.

Classic Babylonian art.
[www.alamyimages.fr]
Nothing to do with the Biblical (hence imaginary) Tower of Babel.

Agreed! It's a great album worthy imo of an expanded re-release.

As a collection of songs – an album – B2B is very uneven, imo. There are highs and lows, and the album doesn't flow.

Some fantastic songs in there, though: Anybody Seen My Baby, Saint Of Me, Out Of Control, How Can I Stop.

Gunface must be the ultimate clunker in the Stones's catalog, though.

There are songs with potential that never came to life: Might As Well get Juiced, Always Suffering, Too Tight.

I'm not one of them who dislike the Dust Brothers-production of Juiced, though. It's the vocal melody I don't like. It's too easy, almost lazy, too predictable for me.

The rockers are good, but not great, imo, although I like the drive of Flip The Switch. Lowdown is Stones by numbers, but they manage to make it interesting with some cool parts (slide, horns). Too Tight starts out promising, but falls flat when the bridge comes in. By the chorus it's enough for me.

Keith's songs are good, but all of those songs are laidback in a similar fashion. It's interesting that he presents three different musical genres with his three songs, though (Blues/gospel, soul and reggae).

Incidentally, I gave the vinyl a couple of spins the other day. Lots of good stuff to enjoy, but as an album – a piece of art – it's too fragmental for me.

One deep sigh and a desperate Moan..

Too Tight is a good-'un, though I'd wager it's probably one of the most obscure Stones tracks

- "Flip the Switch" 7/10. They should have worked it a bit more.
- "Anybody Seen My Baby?" 7/10. Not bad at all.
- "Low Down" 6/10. Filler, but nice.
- "Already Over Me" 5/10 Meh.
- "Gunface" 5/10. Doesn't work for me, mediocre
- "You Don't Have to Mean It" 6/10 okayish
- "Out of Control" 7/10. Good,but not very original.
- "Saint of Me" 8/10. Good, rather fun
- "Might as Well Get Juiced" 5/10 mediocre
- "Always Suffering" 5/10 Meh
- "Too Tight" 4/10 Bad filler.
- "Thief in the Night" 9/10 Highlight of the album, maybe even 10/10
- "How Can I Stop" 7/10. Okay.

All in all, an okay "latter day" album. Would have been better without the 4/10 and 5/10. It's better than Voodoo Lounge and ABB, but not as "together" as Steel Wheels. Obviously better than Dirty Work. Compared to all albums before DW, it's not very good and only better than Between the Buttons and - maybe - Their Satanic Majesties Request. TSMR has more absolutely terrible songs, but also a number of songs that are miles better.

Bridges to Babylon is probably their last ambitious album - not everything on it is great, yet it was a good time to be a fan when it came out. I really enjoyed the tour in 98 and 99. Keith Richards was on top of his game then. Many grooves on the album still work very well, and Mick Jagger's performance is elegant, as are the beats by Charlie Watts.

My most poignant memory of this album and tour is trying to get over Voodoo Lounge. I remember upsetting someone at a gig with my opinion. They were all for Babylon. To me this is a record that divides Mick and Keith songs. I did love the title and stage set though. It was golden times.

Was Bridges to Babylon the last truly epic, grand-scale Stones tour? In terms of performance, set-lists, stage setup and show production, perhaps it was. No Security was musically as good, though it was small-scale in comparison. Licks was magnificent, with a tremendous concept, but the stadium shows from '02 onwards have lacked the grandeur of the Voodoo Lounge and Bridges to Babylon Tours.

ABB was big as well, and they tried to mix up the setlists for a while, but ended up with setlists like we know today on the third leg of the tour.

I'd say the first leg of ABB was somewhat as big as the B2B-tour, but the playing wasn't really as good.

Many of the shows were still good, though (saw them in Bergen 2006 and in Oslo 2007).

After ABB they have scaled down their productions big time.

Mediocre album. bad production. A song like Flip the Switch or Gunface would have sound so much better with a different producer. It sounds so..shallow.. But Might as well get juiced on the other hand is way over-produced..

I like Saint of Me, You don't have to mean it, Thief in the night and Flip the Switch, but the rest...meh.

Probably a unpopulair opinion, but I prefer Dirty Work

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DandelionPowderman
ABB was big as well, and they tried to mix up the setlists for a while, but ended up with setlists like we know today on the third leg of the tour.

I'd say the first leg of ABB was somewhat as big as the B2B-tour, but the playing wasn't really as good.

Many of the shows were still good, though (saw them in Bergen 2006 and in Oslo 2007).

After ABB they have scaled down their productions big time.

I saw them a handful of times during the A Bigger Bang Tour, but there's not a huge amount of nostalgia there for me, really. I found them to be disappointing in comparison to the Licks Tour. Bridges to Babylon is a few years before my time, but I've always thought it to be an absolute top-notch tour; at least, going by the official releases. I read people exclaim that Ronnie was missing-in-action at times, but that doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment. Keith was certainly on fine form, despite a, very slight, continuing dip in his abilities. The effort was all there, for sure.

Fantastic album. How can I stop is in my top 2 of favorite Stones tracks. I love Flip, Low Down, Already Over Me, Saint, Juiced, and the great Too Tight.

Last great album by the Stones.

Mathijs

I've been playing this album quite a bit in the past year. Friend gave it me years ago, saying it wasn't really a Stones album....
I actually love the whole sound and feel of Might as Well Get Juiced - hard to understand why it is so often dismissed.
Too Tight was much better sung by Keith, in that tranche of outtakes, with the violinist, and different - totally different - lyrics and feel to what Mick came up with. Ditto Lowdown. I have grown to really like the country ballad Always Suffering, and the closing two from Keith are great - the last bit is one of the great endings for Stones album IMO.

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VoodooLounge13
The last great album.

I think I'd agree to that to a certain extent. The tour & No Security were certainly good. Out of Control & Saint of Me were both great live. On a good night they would certainly lock in the groove on those. Anybody Seen My Baby not so much, both album & live.

This album and tour was how I first learned about IORR. I was working in Sydney and we had one computer that was set up so that staff could access the internet. It was dial-up so it was really, but every afternoon after work I would get on that computer to try to get info about the album and the tour - and I discovered IORR! I booked a ticket to the Edmonton show, and then flew to Seattle first, then was in Vancouver when the album came out - then a couple of days later I flew to Edmonton for the show. Awesome gig, I particularly remember how good Keith was - really active and animated, playing his red 335 (on Bitch if I remember correctly). And Crazy Mama on the B- stage was cool. At that gig they didn’t have the bridge yet so they had to walk across a much lower divider….. great days, great tour

Outstanding:

Out of Control
Saint of Me
Thief
How Can I Stop?

Nice:

Seen My Baby
Flip
Gunface
Lowdown
Mean It
Over Me

No thanks:

Too Tight
Always Suffering
Juiced

IORR has been running for more than 25 years, so there are many links and pages related to Bridges To Babylon here.

I posted this album page during the summer of 1997, the page name is still "blessed.htm":

The new Rolling Stones album
Bridges To Babylon

The IORR 1997 news pages with many links:

IORR News Jan-August 1997

ALBUM TALK: Bridges To Babylon (IORR Tell Me Forum pages)

The press conference report:

The Brooklyn Bridge press conferences

I was seated on row one at the press conference, with Jane Rose on my one side, and the Sprint Manager (tour sponsor) on my other side. As Mick drove the car, and parked it right in front of me, just 5-6 feet away, I had front row position to make a roll of pictures with my cheap pocket camera.





Bjornulf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-28 18:32 by bv.

Great photos, Bjornulf! How exciting that must have been to have a front row seat and next to Jane Rose.

Karen & Bill

Although I liked a couple of the songs when it came out, I never find myself wanting to listen to the album. It's a weird one. Not bad, like Undercover, or a lot of Dirty Work, just strange for a Stones album. Like they were trying to sound current, with up to date production, but it didn't really work.

I first heard Anybody Seen My Baby on vacation in Amsterdam. My god, it's been 25 years? I saw them on the BTB tour, and found it okay. But when they came back in '99 they were on fire. Out of Control worked really well on the No Security Tour, which by then, just two short years, was the only cut from BTB they were still doing. Which, excepting a few performances of You Don't Have To Mean It (which sounded great) is the only song they still perform from BTB. (I hope I'm correct on that).

Love it, though it’s too long. The standard for a RS album should be 10 songs. Cut some of the fillers for a kick ass album. Same goes for SW, VL and ABB.

JumpingKentFlash

I somehow liked it when it was released. In 23 years that followed I rarely listened to it. For me it's a 'we need a new album to tour'-album… I like(d) Voodoo Lounge much more.

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24FPS
Although I liked a couple of the songs when it came out, I never find myself wanting to listen to the album. It's a weird one. Not bad, like Undercover, or a lot of Dirty Work, just strange for a Stones album. Like they were trying to sound current, with up to date production, but it didn't really work.

I first heard Anybody Seen My Baby on vacation in Amsterdam. My god, it's been 25 years? I saw them on the BTB tour, and found it okay. But when they came back in '99 they were on fire. Out of Control worked really well on the No Security Tour, which by then, just two short years, was the only cut from BTB they were still doing. Which, excepting a few performances of You Don't Have To Mean It (which sounded great) is the only song they still perform from BTB. (I hope I'm correct on that).

I saw a show that was kind of tacked on the end of the BTB tour in Portland. It was in an arena & it was really like a preview of No Security. Fantastic show! I had a ticket behind the stage (open stage) & Mick was 10 feet away from me at times including the beginning. One of my favorite Stones shows I saw. Out of Control totally smoked that show. They hit the magic groove...

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slewan
I somehow liked it when it was released. In 23 years that followed I rarely listened to it. For me it's a 'we need a new album to tour'-album… I like(d) Voodoo Lounge much more.

Same for me. Whether VL is better than B2B is a moot point, though.

And these days, ‘It’s okay to tour without a new album.’

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ribbelchips
Mediocre album. bad production. A song like Flip the Switch or Gunface would have sound so much better with a different producer. It sounds so..shallow.. But Might as well get juiced on the other hand is way over-produced..

I like Saint of Me, You don't have to mean it, Thief in the night and Flip the Switch, but the rest...meh.

Probably a unpopulair opinion, but I prefer Dirty Work

Oh.

Well then, that says it all.

Interesting how you came to that conclusion.