I promise, this will be the last time. Then I'm going to let you off the hook.
Too many good songs here to pick only ten. Better to rank the albums then. Which are:

- Beggars Banquet (1968)
- Let It Bleed (1969)
- Sticky Fingers (1971)
- Exile on Mains St. (1972)

Here is my ranking as of today (tomorrow I may think differently...). And some short notes:

1) Sticky Fingers. Not a bad track on this album. Plus iconic artwork and the tongue introduced for the first time.
It doesn't get better than this.
2) Let It Bleed. Not a bad track on this either. And it has Gimme Shelter which makes a difference.
3) Beggars Banquet. The first of the big four. A merit in itself. Hardly a bad track here either.
4) Exile on Main St. You never grow tired of listening to this one. A very soulful album.

So, will you give this one more shot?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2019-09-24 20:32 by Stoneage.

1. Let it Bleed -- The most accessible of these great albums and the best introduction to the Stones. A guitar tour de force, great sound. Their best song, Gimme Shelter; country and blues.
2. Exile on Main Street -- Described somewhere on these boards as the Stones grand tour through Americana music.
3. Beggars Banquet -- The birth of the Stones as we know them. No longer a blues cover band, a pop band, a psychadelia band ... in the midst of drug busts and Brian Jones' collapse, Mick and Keith create the sound of the world's greatest rock and roll band.
4. Sticky Fingers -- Fourth on my list, but no doubt a great album. A couple of songs on Side 2 are a bit mannered for my taste. But BS and MM are two of their top 5-10 songs.

Have to say my rankings of these vary on an almost daily basis, but as of this minute it's the exact opposite of what Stoneage posted:

Exile - double whammy of excellence start to finish - masterpiece! -though Ventilator Blues might be the weakest link imo.
Beggars - JJF, Sympathy, No Expectations, and the rest - wow! -though it falters a bit with Jigsaw Puzzle.
Let it Bleed - Gimme Shelter and Midnight Rambler - whoa nelly! - near perfection through and through, though Country Honk seems an afterthought (I still love it though).
Sticky Fingers - always falls at the bottom of my list for some reason - probably due to You You Gotta Move - not one of their better covers imo.

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

Oh boy. This is the toughest conversation for any Stones fan but here are my Golden Four:

1) Let It Bleed - LET IT BLEED was the perfect end to the harrowing dark 1960's. Gimme Shelter screams of war and death, while Let It Bleed tells us of how we all need someone to lean on with affection and mocking at the same time. It has my favorite side to any Stones album, and for that matter any album I've ever listened to by any artist. Side 2 is a 4 song masterpiece (Midnight Rambler, You Got The Silver, Monkey Man, YCAGWYW). It's the first Stones album that showed just how nasty, raunchy and sexual they could be. It's the album that came out at the same time they were titled, "the greatest rock and roll band in the world."

2) Sticky Fingers - The Stones at their nastiest and dirtiest. Brown Sugar and Wild Horses make the album, but it's other tracks like Sway, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, Bitch and closer Moonlight Mile that could make the case for the top spot as well. The Stones were beginning to live in a more comfortable rock life style, until they were Exiled to the South of France. Here though, they never sounded so tight on an album.

3) Exile On Main Street - Often regarded as the best Stones album, it comes in at #3 for my Golden Four. The most wild mix of genres on maybe any album ever in the history of music. Exile takes you on an 18 song journey through the jungles of rock 'n roll, boogie, country, calypso, blues and gospel. Even the filler tracks on this album work to make it the definition of the greatest rock album of all time.

4) Beggars Banquet - Coming in at #4, BEGGARS BANQUET was made after the Stones took a trip into psychedelia. Going back to their roots, The Stones sounded brand new again. Sympathy For The Devil drives for a top powerful samba piece, with many acoustically played numbers like No Expectations, Street Fighting Man, Prodigal Son. The album touches country, folk and blues that made the Stones feel like they were something more than the pop Beatles. BEGGARS BANQUET was the one that started it all. The start of a streak that no artist has ever come close to surpassing and probably never will.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019-09-24 01:31 by JordyLicks96.

Well-written, Jordylicks96!

i like these surveys, we need more of them but also we need to keep them running longer to get a full appreciation of the result, instead they fizzle out and folk lose interest. so get them bumped, and we can keep going. not as if its off topic.
and we need someone to log the results and give feed back and make it official.

my top 4 would be

beggars banquet

exile

let it bleed

sticky

I can’t. It’s like asking a parent to pick their favourite child!

We're not allowed to rank things anymore, stoneage. It might make sensitive Lem cry.

On second thought...

1. Let It Bleed
2. Sticky Fingers
3. Exile On Main St.
4. Beggar's Banquet

1-3 are flawless and almost interchangeable depending on my mood. Beggar's is the only one I'm not totally over the moon for.

One way to look at it is through the lens of warhorses. (I'll give JJF to BB and HTW to LIB, if there's no objection, your honors.)

1) LET IT BLEED: GS, MR, YCAGWYW, HTW
2) BEGGARS BANQUET: JJF, SFTD, SFM
3) STICKY FINGERS: BS
4) EXILE ON MAIN ST: TD

STICKY ranked ahead of EXILE since it produced one (1) warhorse out of 10 tracks, while it took EXILE 18 tracks to generate one (1) warhorse.

Quote
Scooby
I can’t. It’s like asking a parent to pick their favourite child!

yeah...so what's the problem?!

Sticky
Exile
LIB
BB

but I, like everyone else do this with reservations.

They are like the musical 4 pillars of the Rolling Stones, virtually equal in quality and contribution to their legacy in every way.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-09-24 15:46 by treaclefingers.

EXILE - IMO it is the greatest rock'n roll album ever done. The supposed "weaker" cuts are what makes it special. Lyrics are stellar.

STICKY - It is lean and mean. Not one bad wasted note on the album. It is hard to put this at #2 because it is perfect and also has that monster single
Brown Sugar/Bitch. Plus two of the greatest Stones ballads. The insane jam of CYHMK; soul and Blues and Country. I think I just slightly prefer the sheer decadence of "Exile".

BANQUET - The acoustic album. What I love about the album among other things, is how they created massive sound using imagination. Or "Thinking outside the box" as they say. The engineering of SFM. And "Sympathy" - the power of that song is fueled only by Piano, Bass and congas, shaker and drums. Plus a scorcher of a guitar solo.

BLEED - It opens with Gimme Shelter" and ends with YCAGWYW. Incredible bookends. The slight drawback IMO is the studio versions of Rambler.

1. Exile on Main Street
2. Let It Bleed
3. Sticky Fingers
4. Beggars Banquet

Quote
Palace Revolution 2000
EXILE - IMO it is the greatest rock'n roll album ever done. The supposed "weaker" cuts are what makes it special. Lyrics are stellar.

STICKY - It is lean and mean. Not one bad wasted note on the album. It is hard to put this at #2 because it is perfect and also has that monster single
Brown Sugar/Bitch. Plus two of the greatest Stones ballads. The insane jam of CYHMK; soul and Blues and Country. I think I just slightly prefer the sheer decadence of "Exile".

BANQUET - The acoustic album. What I love about the album among other things, is how they created massive sound using imagination. Or "Thinking outside the box" as they say. The engineering of SFM. And "Sympathy" - the power of that song is fueled only by Piano, Bass and congas, shaker and drums. Plus a scorcher of a guitar solo.

BLEED - It opens with Gimme Shelter" and ends with YCAGWYW. Incredible bookends. The slight drawback IMO is the studio versions of Rambler.

It took me a long time, but I've come to really appreciate the studio version of "Midnight Rambler." Sure, it's nothing compared to the live versions. It's a song that was made to play on stage, but the studio version is bluesy, simplistic and dark. Plus it was the last song Brian Jones played on with the Stones. I think You Got The Silver was recorded before MR.

Sticky Fingers
Exile on Main Street
Let It Bleed
Beggars Banquet

All great, but Beggars is a distant 4th for me in this grouping.

I enjoy Some Girls and Tattoo You more than BB and Goats Head Soup just as much.

But that’s just me.

1. Let It Bleed
2. Exile on Main Street
3. Beggars Banquet
4. Sticky Fingers

... Just swollow 'em as they come ….
……. Beggars … Bleed.... Sticky …….. Exile …….. what a dose .......



ROCKMAN

Quote
Rockman
... Just swollow 'em as they come ….
……. Beggars … Bleed.... Sticky …….. Exile …….. what a dose .......

This is how it is in my head also. Can’t rank one over the other. So I listen to em in the order of release a lot.

1. Exile On Main St
2. Let It Bleed
3. Sticky Fingers
4. Beggars Banquet

Exile isn't just about the songs. It's about the album's entirity, even if it's a mix of different genres. And of course the albums atmosphere which is fantastic.

Exile on top and Beggars on the bottom (or preferably excluded from the conversation altogether), Let It and Fingers tied for second. There’s really only a Big Three IMO. Ask any kid on Sesame Street which of these albums doesn’t belong and the more astute among them would say Beggars – it just sounds different. Still lots of great songs on it of course but it should really be considered the best album of their early period rather than the weakest of the Golden Era.

I'm not even going to try... because I agree with everybody so far.

Beggars Banquet
Sticky Fingers
Exile On Main Street
Let It Bleed

Yeah...that's about right

....or perhaps the other way up ?

Sticky Fingers - sublime, supreme, lean and mean
Exile - all together, GREATNESS
Let it Bleed - Americana
Beggars - Big Britishness (apart from No Expectations)

Rod

1. Sticky Fingers
2. Let It Bleed
3. Exile
4. Beaggars

1. Let it Bleed
2. Sticky Fingers
3. Beggars Banquet
4. Exile on Main Street

Quote
JordyLicks96
Oh boy. This is the toughest conversation for any Stones fan but here are my Golden Four:

1) Let It Bleed - LET IT BLEED was the perfect end to the harrowing dark 1960's. Gimme Shelter screams of war and death, while Let It Bleed tells us of how we all need someone to lean on with affection and mocking at the same time. It has my favorite side to any Stones album, and for that matter any album I've ever listened to by any artist. Side 2 is a 4 song masterpiece (Midnight Rambler, You Got The Silver, Monkey Man, YCAGWYW). It's the first Stones album that showed just how nasty, raunchy and sexual they could be. It's the album that came out at the same time they were titled, "the greatest rock and roll band in the world."

2) Sticky Fingers - The Stones at their nastiest and dirtiest. Brown Sugar and Wild Horses make the album, but it's other tracks like Sway, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, Bitch and closer Moonlight Mile that could make the case for the top spot as well. The Stones were beginning to live in a more comfortable rock life style, until they were Exiled to the South of France. Here though, they never sounded so tight on an album.

3) Exile On Main Street - Often regarded as the best Stones album, it comes in at #3 for my Golden Four. The most wild mix of genres on maybe any album ever in the history of music. Exile takes you on an 18 song journey through the jungles of rock 'n roll, boogie, country, calypso, blues and gospel. Even the filler tracks on this album work to make it the definition of the greatest rock album of all time.

4) Beggars Banquet - Coming in at #4, BEGGARS BANQUET was made after the Stones took a trip into psychedelia. Going back to their roots, The Stones sounded brand new again. Sympathy For The Devil drives for a top powerful samba piece, with many acoustically played numbers like No Expectations, Street Fighting Man, Prodigal Son. The album touches country, folk and blues that made the Stones feel like they were something more than the pop Beatles. BEGGARS BANQUET was the one that started it all. The start of a streak that no artist has ever come close to surpassing and probably never will.

by 1968 the Beatles were not a pop group. Just listen the 1968 White Album

Quote
KeithNacho
by 1968 the Beatles were not a pop group. Just listen the 1968 White Album

I'm not the biggest Beatles fan, but I can't stand it when people try to dismiss them as a lightweight pop group. No, they never got as dark or as sleazy as the Stones (obviously) but they could rock out.

Quote
bitusa2012
Sticky Fingers - sublime, supreme, lean and mean
Exile - all together, GREATNESS
Let it Bleed - Americana
Beggars - Big Britishness (apart from No Expectations)

Great observation - about the Britishness of "Banquet". You'd think that with the Country influences, and the acoustic guitars it would be the opposite. But it is actually very British. so right.
That is an era, or style that I love - the acoustic UK Country. Like when Zep did their Bron-Y-Aur trip; or stuff like Fairport Convention, Richard & Linda Thompson, Faces and Rod at times, but even early Genesis, King Crimson, Van Morrison of course. Kevin Ayers, Nick Drake.
And I love that then within those groupings you can branch off into the Baroque stylings, or go with the Bluesy approach. Or go Irish. Now I;m starting to think about the Waterboys; time to stop.

Let it bleed
Exile
Beggars
Black n blue