Back then I loved the video. My greatest musical heroes had turned into worst enemies and finally became the closest of friends once again. How romantic! Like the happy ending of a good old Hollywood-movie. The couple´s in love again and forever. Honestly, I nearly cried. And Mixed Emotions sounded so very stonesy, I was happy until I heard the complete album, which was quite a shock after the excellent albums Undercover and Diry Work. Better than Mick´s solo-efforts of course but all in all very disappointing. But the Glimmers were twins again.

DIRTY WORK was essentially (and has remained so) really really bad poorly done graffiti; music written by a cliff and the sonicsphere of a garbage truck crushing a bunch of tin at 3AM in a city. Thankfully the horrendous album cover was not scratch and sniff.

Mixed Emotions single-handedly covered it up. Sad Sad Sad, Hearts For Sale, Almost Hear You Sigh, Break The Spell and Slipping Away (as well as Fancy Man Blues) solidified the brilliance of STEEL WHEELS and made 1986 disappear from the minds of true Stones fans.

Mixed Emotions, Hold On To Your Hat, Sad Sad Sad, Break The Spell & Hearts For Sale are brilliant indeed, but the other half of the album is boring or sounding like the songs had been taken directly from one of Mick´s solo-albums. So you have about 20 minutes of enjoyable music, of course better than having nothing at all or another useless solo-album.

But it was at least five steps down from the rough brilliance of DW. And unfortunately this story continued on the albums that were to follow. DW is the last full-length-glorious-brilliant Stones-album until today. DW benefitted from their struggle, Steel Wheels suffered from their new established friendship, half of it was too tame and lame.

This said, Mixed Emotions is still a favorite of mine, you hear the very first seconds and you are immediately in a "Stones mood".

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DandelionPowderman
I think they pulled it off nicely in concert. I like this version better than the studio version:

[www.youtube.com]

Well, it's not bad, I admit that. But better than the original? No. And I still think it's not much of a riff.

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GasLightStreet
DIRTY WORK was essentially (and has remained so) really really bad poorly done graffiti; music written by a cliff and the sonicsphere of a garbage truck crushing a bunch of tin at 3AM in a city. Thankfully the horrendous album cover was not scratch and sniff.

Mixed Emotions single-handedly covered it up. Sad Sad Sad, Hearts For Sale, Almost Hear You Sigh, Break The Spell and Slipping Away (as well as Fancy Man Blues) solidified the brilliance of STEEL WHEELS and made 1986 disappear from the minds of true Stones fans.

You have followed HMS off the cliff ?

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GasLightStreet
DIRTY WORK was essentially (and has remained so) really really bad poorly done graffiti; music written by a cliff and the sonicsphere of a garbage truck crushing a bunch of tin at 3AM in a city. Thankfully the horrendous album cover was not scratch and sniff.

Mixed Emotions single-handedly covered it up. Sad Sad Sad, Hearts For Sale, Almost Hear You Sigh, Break The Spell and Slipping Away (as well as Fancy Man Blues) solidified the brilliance of STEEL WHEELS and made 1986 disappear from the minds of true Stones fans.

True!

"A good song this, but it's very hard to do onstage. You go from the really hard verse to the very melodic chorus, which I like, but you always feel like you're not going to pull it off, like it's speeding up"
MJ, 1993

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Turner68

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GasLightStreet
DIRTY WORK was essentially (and has remained so) really really bad poorly done graffiti; music written by a cliff and the sonicsphere of a garbage truck crushing a bunch of tin at 3AM in a city. Thankfully the horrendous album cover was not scratch and sniff.

Mixed Emotions single-handedly covered it up. Sad Sad Sad, Hearts For Sale, Almost Hear You Sigh, Break The Spell and Slipping Away (as well as Fancy Man Blues) solidified the brilliance of STEEL WHEELS and made 1986 disappear from the minds of true Stones fans.

You have followed HMS off the cliff ?

What, you don't get it? How can you not get it? SW is brilliant compared to DW. Hell, ANYTHING they've done is brilliant compared to DW.

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KRiffhard
"A good song this, but it's very hard to do onstage. You go from the really hard verse to the very melodic chorus, which I like, but you always feel like you're not going to pull it off, like it's speeding up"
MJ, 1993

Perhaps he intentionally sped up Doom And Gloom to fit how he felt about Mixed Emotions...

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HMS
Mixed Emotions, Hold On To Your Hat, Sad Sad Sad, Break The Spell & Hearts For Sale are brilliant indeed, but the other half of the album is boring or sounding like the songs had been taken directly from one of Mick´s solo-albums. So you have about 20 minutes of enjoyable music, of course better than having nothing at all or another useless solo-album.

But it was at least five steps down from the rough brilliance of DW.

That's laughable at the very least. Even the worst songs on SW are better than anything on DW. I bet you think the brilliant and excellent WANDERING SPIRIT sucks. That if it had Mick's grunting on the toilet vocals and bad songs like DW has you'd like it.

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GasLightStreet

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Turner68

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GasLightStreet
DIRTY WORK was essentially (and has remained so) really really bad poorly done graffiti; music written by a cliff and the sonicsphere of a garbage truck crushing a bunch of tin at 3AM in a city. Thankfully the horrendous album cover was not scratch and sniff.

Mixed Emotions single-handedly covered it up. Sad Sad Sad, Hearts For Sale, Almost Hear You Sigh, Break The Spell and Slipping Away (as well as Fancy Man Blues) solidified the brilliance of STEEL WHEELS and made 1986 disappear from the minds of true Stones fans.

You have followed HMS off the cliff ?

What, you don't get it? How can you not get it? SW is brilliant compared to DW. Hell, ANYTHING they've done is brilliant compared to DW.

Of course it is. But still the stench of DW remains.

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Turner68

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GasLightStreet

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Turner68

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GasLightStreet
DIRTY WORK was essentially (and has remained so) really really bad poorly done graffiti; music written by a cliff and the sonicsphere of a garbage truck crushing a bunch of tin at 3AM in a city. Thankfully the horrendous album cover was not scratch and sniff.

Mixed Emotions single-handedly covered it up. Sad Sad Sad, Hearts For Sale, Almost Hear You Sigh, Break The Spell and Slipping Away (as well as Fancy Man Blues) solidified the brilliance of STEEL WHEELS and made 1986 disappear from the minds of true Stones fans.

You have followed HMS off the cliff ?

What, you don't get it? How can you not get it? SW is brilliant compared to DW. Hell, ANYTHING they've done is brilliant compared to DW.

Of course it is. But still the stench of DW remains.

HA HA! I know. Awful, innit. Like an empty garbage can that had fish in it.

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GasLightStreet

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Turner68

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GasLightStreet
DIRTY WORK was essentially (and has remained so) really really bad poorly done graffiti; music written by a cliff and the sonicsphere of a garbage truck crushing a bunch of tin at 3AM in a city. Thankfully the horrendous album cover was not scratch and sniff.

Mixed Emotions single-handedly covered it up. Sad Sad Sad, Hearts For Sale, Almost Hear You Sigh, Break The Spell and Slipping Away (as well as Fancy Man Blues) solidified the brilliance of STEEL WHEELS and made 1986 disappear from the minds of true Stones fans.

You have followed HMS off the cliff ?

What, you don't get it? How can you not get it? SW is brilliant compared to DW. Hell, ANYTHING they've done is brilliant compared to DW.

You now owe us all an in-depth comparison between DW and Sing This All Together (See What Happens).

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matxil

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GasLightStreet

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Turner68

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GasLightStreet
DIRTY WORK was essentially (and has remained so) really really bad poorly done graffiti; music written by a cliff and the sonicsphere of a garbage truck crushing a bunch of tin at 3AM in a city. Thankfully the horrendous album cover was not scratch and sniff.

Mixed Emotions single-handedly covered it up. Sad Sad Sad, Hearts For Sale, Almost Hear You Sigh, Break The Spell and Slipping Away (as well as Fancy Man Blues) solidified the brilliance of STEEL WHEELS and made 1986 disappear from the minds of true Stones fans.

You have followed HMS off the cliff ?

What, you don't get it? How can you not get it? SW is brilliant compared to DW. Hell, ANYTHING they've done is brilliant compared to DW.

You now owe us all an in-depth comparison between DW and Sing This All Together (See What Happens).

Oh HELL NO! Although Sing This All Together is better than anything on DW.

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GasLightStreet
Even the worst songs on SW are better than anything on DW. I bet you think the brilliant and excellent WANDERING SPIRIT sucks. That if it had Mick's grunting on the toilet vocals and bad songs like DW has you'd like it.

You CANT be serious. Subpar material like Terrifying (oh my god those lyrics, "friendly as a bear, horny as a hog" or whatever nonsense), the awful Blinded By Love, the absolute boring Cant Be Seen, the dreadful @#$%& In A Dry Place just to name a few stinkers from Steel Wheels better than One Hit, Dirty Work, Harlem Shuffle, Had It With You, Winning Ugly, Sleep Tonight just to name a few shining jewels from the marvelous DW-album? No, you cant be serious.

And I do believe that Wandering Spirit is a decent album, compared to MJ´s other solo-efforts it seems to be brilliant indeed. But then again, it is not really brilliant, it is a decent album with some outstanding highlights and some suckers as well. It could have been a much better album if they had excluded Out Of Focus, I´ve Been Lonely, Handsome Molly and Angel In My Heart. But I can live with 4 stinkers out of 14 songs. I like Wandering Spirit, it has some great moments although DW is a much better album of course.

At least half of the tracks on DW are good and for that reason it edges SW with it's horrid, sterile production.

Wandering Spirit the best album between DW and Bridges.

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Moonshine
At least half of the tracks on DW are good and for that reason it edges SW with it's horrid, sterile production.

Wandering Spirit the best album between DW and Bridges.

What's better, an album of OK written songs with sterile production (Steel Wheels) or an album of poor, unfinished songs with awful lyrics and OK production (Dirty Work)?

Such is the dilemma of being a Stones fan when considering the mid and late 80s.

Correct Answer: go back and listen to EOMS and try to forget about both SW and DW. Be sure to put your headphones on so you don't hear HMS blasting DW in the other room. Hope that the Stones stay alive long enough to tour without playing anything from either album (mission accomplished!)

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Turner68

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Moonshine
At least half of the tracks on DW are good and for that reason it edges SW with it's horrid, sterile production.

Wandering Spirit the best album between DW and Bridges.

What's better, an album of OK written songs with sterile production (Steel Wheels) or an album of poor, unfinished songs with awful lyrics and OK production (Dirty Work)?

Such is the dilemma of being a Stones fan when considering the mid and late 80s.

Correct Answer: go back and listen to EOMS and try to forget about both SW and DW. Be sure to put your headphones on so you don't hear HMS blasting DW in the other room. Hope that the Stones stay alive long enough to tour without playing anything from either album (mission accomplished!)

Sound advice my friend!

Don't forget that what many consider as awful Stones albums are pretty good albums. It's just that the Stones have released so many good albums.

I put on DW now and again, and I like it

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Turner68

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Moonshine
At least half of the tracks on DW are good and for that reason it edges SW with it's horrid, sterile production.

Wandering Spirit the best album between DW and Bridges.

What's better, an album of OK written songs with sterile production (Steel Wheels) or an album of poor, unfinished songs with awful lyrics and OK production (Dirty Work)?

Such is the dilemma of being a Stones fan when considering the mid and late 80s.

Correct Answer: go back and listen to EOMS and try to forget about both SW and DW. Be sure to put your headphones on so you don't hear HMS blasting DW in the other room. Hope that the Stones stay alive long enough to tour without playing anything from either album (mission accomplished!)

That is probably the wisest option.

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DandelionPowderman
Don't forget that what many consider as awful Stones albums are pretty good albums. It's just that the Stones have released so many good albums.

I put on DW now and again, and I like it

I put on "One Hit" now and again (on YouTube). The rest is at best tolerable but mostly intolerable.
I do listen occasionally at SW, and I am able to listen to it all without suffering, but also without much enjoyment.

I don't suffer at all, not even through Back To Zero – as there is always something to enjoy in Stones songs. The licks that Keith and Bobby play on Back To Zero are nothing but lovely, for instance.

Even on Hold Back there is some ace guitar playing and vocal phrasing I find interesting.

And Harlem Shuffle, Had It With You, Too Rude and Sleep Tonight are all good

PS: I also like the title track.

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DandelionPowderman
I don't suffer at all, not even through Back To Zero – as there is always something to enjoy in Stones songs. The licks that Keith and Bobby play on Back To Zero are nothing but lovely, for instance.

Even on Hold Back there is some ace guitar playing and vocal phrasing I find interesting.

And Harlem Shuffle, Had It With You, Too Rude and Sleep Tonight are all good

PS: I also like the title track.

I put on Harlem Shuffle now and then.

I'm just going to ignore your last sentence though, or I will lose my dreams, and then lose my mind....

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Turner68

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DandelionPowderman
I don't suffer at all, not even through Back To Zero – as there is always something to enjoy in Stones songs. The licks that Keith and Bobby play on Back To Zero are nothing but lovely, for instance.

Even on Hold Back there is some ace guitar playing and vocal phrasing I find interesting.

And Harlem Shuffle, Had It With You, Too Rude and Sleep Tonight are all good

PS: I also like the title track.

I put on Harlem Shuffle now and then.

I'm just going to ignore your last sentence though, or I will lose my dreams, and then lose my mind....

As a guitar player, and a Stones fan, I'm bound to like some of the title track. A guitar sound to kill for and some really interesting stuff going on there.

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DandelionPowderman
I don't suffer at all, not even through Back To Zero – as there is always something to enjoy in Stones songs. The licks that Keith and Bobby play on Back To Zero are nothing but lovely, for instance.

Even on Hold Back there is some ace guitar playing and vocal phrasing I find interesting.

And Harlem Shuffle, Had It With You, Too Rude and Sleep Tonight are all good

PS: I also like the title track.

You're right that some of the guitars on Fight or even Back To Zero (or Winning Ugly for that matter) are kind of interesting. But I don't listen to music like that: I can't separate one thing from the other. Had It With You would have been fine without that stupid bridge, Dirty Work sounds terrible, and Too Rude could have been great but it's just a huge bore.
It's like Wandering Spirit by Jagger. I can see there is musically a lot of good things going on, but there is too much annoying things in it too, and I find it unbearable.
In that way, SW wins, because there's nothing overly annoying on it. It's just mellow pop-rock "Robert-Cray armchair blues", middle of the road. You can listen to it, shrug your shoulders and forget about it.
So, in this respect HMS has a point: DW at least is an impressionable album, although it's a very bad impression, like getting mugged in a dead-end street. SW is more like a busride from home to work.

«But I don't listen to music like that»

That's interesting. We might say that DW contains lots of interesting musical stuff, but that the wholeness and the songs aren't really well-crafted pieces that stand on their own.

On Wandering Spirit, however, the wholeness is excellent. But the interesting musical stuff glimmer with its absence. The instrumentation is classic session men-sounding, making it a brilliant vehicle for Mick to shine.

I love WS, but it is indeed Mick and the songs that shine, not the band, imo.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-12-03 11:55 by DandelionPowderman.

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DandelionPowderman
«But I don't listen to music like that»

That's interesting. We might say that DW contains lots of interesting musical stuff, but that the wholeness and the songs aren't really well-crafted pieces that stand on their own.

On Wandering Spirit, however, the wholeness is excellent. But the interesting musical stuff glimmer with its absence. The instrumentation is classic session men-sounding, making it a brilliant vehicle for Mick to shine.

I love WS, but it is indeed Mick and the songs that shine, not the band, imo.

For me the enthusiasm so many people feel for WS is a mystery. It's especially Mick's way of singing, so over the top, trying-too-hard, that grates me. Besides that, the guitars and the keyboards all sound wrong. I'm sure some of the songs are great, I actually like Sweet Thing (on which Mick sings fine) but even there the keyboard annoys me. And I really tried liking this album.

Back To Zero might be the "weakest" track on the outstanding DW, but it is still some sort of great, much better than most of the Steel-Wheels-album and much better than most of his solo-work (although it smells very much like a Mick-solo-effort).

Musicaly I like the part that starts with

"A monkey living on my back. I can feel my spine begin to crack. I'm looking to the future,I keep on glancing back."

very much. Simply irresistable. If you listen to that song a couple of times, you just learn to love its groove.

Unfortunately two real gems are very underrated - Fight & Hold Back, both rock til hell freezes over, maybe not everyone´s cup of tea but pure delight.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-12-03 16:10 by HMS.

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DandelionPowderman
Don't forget that what many consider as awful Stones albums are pretty good albums. It's just that the Stones have released so many good albums.

I put on DW now and again, and I like it

DIRTY WORK is no where near anything resembling "pretty good". They should've called it CRINGE.

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HMS

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GasLightStreet
Even the worst songs on SW are better than anything on DW. I bet you think the brilliant and excellent WANDERING SPIRIT sucks. That if it had Mick's grunting on the toilet vocals and bad songs like DW has you'd like it.

You CANT be serious. Subpar material like Terrifying (oh my god those lyrics, "friendly as a bear, horny as a hog" or whatever nonsense), the awful Blinded By Love, the absolute boring Cant Be Seen, the dreadful @#$%& In A Dry Place just to name a few stinkers from Steel Wheels better than One Hit, Dirty Work, Harlem Shuffle, Had It With You, Winning Ugly, Sleep Tonight just to name a few shining jewels from the marvelous DW-album? No, you cant be serious.

I don't waste my time with shit tracks like Winning Ugly. Sure, the guitar playing is nice in it but it's irrelevant because of that keyboard and some of the worst lyrics Jagger has ever written. Terrifying indeed has awful lyrics. However, they're funny and musically it's fantastic - which therefor even Terrifying blows anything from DIRTY WORK away.

If given a choice between Winning Ugly and the horrible RAAHPlace I'd pick RAAHP.

And that's a horrible thing to say.

They wished they had something as good as Blinded By Love on DIRTY WORK.

DIRTY WORK has been reduced to a 5 track EP on my music player: Harlem Shuffle, Too Rude, Dirty Work, Had It With You, Sleep Tonight (and Key To The Highway).

WANDERING SPIRIT is brilliant - for Mick Jagger as a solo artist.