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treaclefingers

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Hairball

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treaclefingers

Lead singles since Start Me Up:

1982: Goin' to a Go-Go
1983: Undercover of the Night
1986: Harlem Shuffle
1989: Mixed Emotions
1994: Love is Strong
1997: Anybody Seen My Baby
2002: Don't Stop
2006: Streets of Love/Rough Justice
2012: Doom and Gloom/One More Shot
2016: Just Your Fool
2020: Living in a Ghost Town (included but not actually a lead single)

That's a pretty weak lineup. I think Undercover of the Night knocks it out of the park but maybe not the 'anthemic' quality you like to see to help sell an album. After that...I mean maybe Doom and Gloom, but come on. That's the last 40 years. Also interesting side note, 30% of their lead singles are covers.

Yes weak, and aside from Undercover, and maybe Love is Strong, the best lead singles are covers imo. Ghost Town would have ranked right up there with Undercover if it was an actual lead single.
And don't forget that the weak *Anybody Seen My Baby owed alot to KD Lange which she received credit for (along w/another co-writer), so not sure if that can be considered completely original.
Still hard to fathom how Streets of Love was a lead single, or even a Rolling Stones song at all; nothing about it except Micks vocals says Rolling Stones - not the studio version, nor any live version.

OK...and so here's taking it one step further, what were the alternative choices for lead single? I've left off the live albums/greatest hits.

1983: Undercover of the Night - hard because this is a great song, and probably best cut on the album but clearly not a strong lead single. She Was Hot or Too Tough maybe?
1986: Harlem Shuffle .... One Hit to the Body (easy choice)
1989: Mixed Emotions .... Rock and a Hard Place
1994: Love is Strong ... as is?
1997: Anybody Seen My Baby ... Saint of Me
2006: Streets of Love/Rough Justice ... She Saw Me Coming

Those seem fair enough choices, but as with various elections, some of those choices come down to the lesser of evils. In other words, no matter which wins or is chosen, we're left with something that's less than desirable.
Is Rock and a Hard Place that much better than Mixed Emotions? Maybe a little, but it's still a turd imo. Same with She Saw Me Coming. I wouldn't consider Saint of Me completely turd-like, in fact I've always liked it quite a bit, and it's definitely better than Anybody Seen My Baby. That said, it's still less than desirable when considering it as a lead single - especially when compared to a truly big lead single such as Start Me Up which eventually became a massive warhorse. The bottom line is, they haven't written/recorded any material of the same high quality as they used to in the glory days, and what we've been left with is a less than desirable version of the band.

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

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treaclefingers


Lead singles since Start Me Up:

1982: Goin' to a Go-Go
1983: Undercover of the Night
1986: Harlem Shuffle
1989: Mixed Emotions
1991: High Wire/Sex Drive
1994: Love is Strong
1997: Anybody Seen My Baby
2002: Don't Stop
2006: Streets of Love/Rough Justice
2012: Doom and Gloom/One More Shot
2016: Just Your Fool
2020: Living in a Ghost Town (included but not actually a lead single)

That's a pretty weak lineup. I think Undercover of the Night knocks it out of the park but maybe not the 'anthemic' quality you like to see to help sell an album. After that...I mean maybe Doom and Gloom, but come on. That's the last 40 years. Also interesting side note, 30% of their lead singles are covers.

The percantage of covers justs strengthens if we count "Like A Rolling Stone" from 1995. The single actually is the best charting single in UK charts since "Undercover of The Night", making #12. It also achieved top ten in many countries, even number one in Sweden, if memory serves. They couldn't find a more obscure cover number...

Looking at the UK single charts, they had no problem getting top 20 with most leading singles all the way to "Streets Of Love" that made #15 (quite good, huh?). Then dramatical fall ("Doom And Gloom" #61, "Living In A Ghost Town" #61), reflecting the tendency happened earlier in the US Charts. Actually, the last UK number one is "Honky Tonk Women" and the last making Top Ten being "Start Me Up" that - probably surprisingly - made 'only' #7.

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-05-03 18:50 by Doxa.

What's the basic message?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-05-03 18:55 by TheflyingDutchman.

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TheflyingDutchman
What's the basic message?

Hang in there, soon it'll be a memory you're trying to remember to forget



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-05-03 19:24 by NilsHolgersson.

Really hope it's "soon" going to be a memory, but I have my doubts. Still love the song though.

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Doxa

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treaclefingers


Lead singles since Start Me Up:

1982: Goin' to a Go-Go
1983: Undercover of the Night
1986: Harlem Shuffle
1989: Mixed Emotions
1991: High Wire/Sex Drive
1994: Love is Strong
1997: Anybody Seen My Baby
2002: Don't Stop
2006: Streets of Love/Rough Justice
2012: Doom and Gloom/One More Shot
2016: Just Your Fool
2020: Living in a Ghost Town (included but not actually a lead single)

That's a pretty weak lineup. I think Undercover of the Night knocks it out of the park but maybe not the 'anthemic' quality you like to see to help sell an album. After that...I mean maybe Doom and Gloom, but come on. That's the last 40 years. Also interesting side note, 30% of their lead singles are covers.

The percantage of covers justs strengthens if we count "Like A Rolling Stone" from 1995. The single actually is the best charting single in UK charts since "Undercover of The Night", making #12. It also achieved top ten in many countries, even number one in Sweden, if memory serves. They couldn't find a more obscure cover number...

Looking at the UK single charts, they had no problem getting top 20 with most leading singles all the way to "Streets Of Love" that made #15 (quite good, huh?). Then dramatical fall ("Doom And Gloom" #61, "Living In A Ghost Town" #61), reflecting the tendency happened earlier in the US Charts. Actually, the last UK number one is "Honky Tonk Women" and the last making Top Ten being "Start Me Up" that - probably surprisingly - made 'only' #7.

- Doxa

ha! Missed that too. What can say, the 90s were a blur. Thanks for catching that Doxa.

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Doxa
Looking at the UK single charts, they had no problem getting top 20 with most leading singles all the way to "Streets Of Love" that made #15 (quite good, huh?). Then dramatical fall ("Doom And Gloom" #61, "Living In A Ghost Town" #61), reflecting the tendency happened earlier in the US Charts. Actually, the last UK number one is "Honky Tonk Women" and the last making Top Ten being "Start Me Up" that - probably surprisingly - made 'only' #7.

- Doxa

Streaming took off in early 2010's, now it's impossible to get a Top 40 hit without good/great numbers on streaming.

Living In A Ghost Town reached #5 on UK sales, #15 on Radio Airplay but not Top 200 on streaming so the result was #61 on the main chart.

In the US was #5 on sales too, not Top 200 on streaming, limited airplay only on rock/AAA radio (almost non-existent for mainstream audience) so the result was #106 on the Hot 100/Bubbling Under Hot 100.

The current #1 rock song in the US ranks at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100, that's the importance of rock music for the main audience nowadays.

Back in 1981, Start Me Up was the #1 rock song during 13 weeks, it reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Harlem Shuffle was #2 on Rock, #5 on the Hot 100

Mixed Emotions was #1 on Rock, #5 on the Hot 100

Living in a Ghost Town was #3 on Rock, #106 on the Hot 100/Bubbling Under

Times have changed.

Interesting, georgelicks. So, basically, the U.S. ‘rock chart’ means little. Living in a Ghost Town bombed on the chart, essentially; in the States, anyway.

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TheflyingDutchman
What's the basic message?

Well, a classical story of optimism that there is a light in the end of the tunnel: the shit happens, and everything is fvcked up, one's mind finally going so crazy that it starts to fill it with conspiracy theories like Van Morrison does. But then "everything's gonnna be eaaaasy..."

I mean, didn't they tell a similar story in "Jumpin' Jack Flash". "I was born in a crossfire hurricane... But it's aaaaallright now...."

Pretty much a living philosophy of The Rolling Stones. Probably they picked up from the blues tradition: you are feeling blue, miserable and what else, but you turn that into music, and you feel great. You even have a party going on soon...

- Doxa



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2021-05-04 13:03 by Doxa.

Trash.

Trash. Garbage….

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chevysales
Trash. Garbage….

Wrong song. That's what When The Whip Comes Down is about.

What's the basic message?

Mick cleans the kitchen sink !!!!!


Love ta see footage of Mick snortin'
some Ajax then dancin n groovin' with a steel wool scourer ......



ROCKMAN

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GasLightStreet

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chevysales
Trash. Garbage….

Wrong song. That's what When The Whip Comes Down is about.

Pile it up! ON THE PLATTER!! (oops, another wrong one)

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hopkins
Courtney Love, whatever heiniosity, well, just
"Malibu" and One other, again, despite her errant heiniousity, eclipses everything David Grohl has emitted, imo. Which is everything.

Belinda Carlisle's solo career post Go His, is more significant in a historical context.
Mick, get Belinda!!

I was totally at that time of the month
I don't usually Read me.
Whoa. Let's just say it's that second shot of expresso. And uh....

yeah well it’s always the coffee’s fault innit.

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chevysales
Trash. Garbage….

Dude...why so hard on yourself?...easy...buddy...there's hope

Mick put the damn thing on iTunes!!!!!!

OK.

Just listened to this again. Still love it. I think more than the first time I heard it.

Just fantastic and out of all the Stones-related purchases I've made recently, why couldn't this have been one of them. 7" red vinyl, 10" clear vinyl, 12" extended remix splatter vinyl with etching on the back, CD single with 4 different mixes, Blu-Ray Audio 5.1 version complete with video.

Is that too much to ask?

...... 78rpm version woulda been ace



ROCKMAN

still good yes, even gooder if I don’t watch the lyrics.

might have to myo vinyl copies…

[www.vinyl-pressing.com]

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Natlanta
still good yes, even gooder if I don’t watch the lyrics.

might have to myo vinyl copies…

[www.vinyl-pressing.com]

If you don't I will...someone should be bootlegging it!

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Rockman
...... 78rpm version woulda been ace

But only if they went with a shellac pressing. Me 78 needle would tear the hell out of a vinyl copy!

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treaclefingers
OK.

Just listened to this again. Still love it. I think more than the first time I heard it.

Just fantastic...

Indeed.

Listen to is WEEKLY. Killer tune.

I loved Love Is Strong as the lead single. Can’t envision another. I also thought Rough Justice was a good choice, had a sleazy classic Stones sound to it but can you imagine if they’d led with Driving Too Fast!?!? That woulda hit right between the eyes like Whoa what is THIS!?!?

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VoodooLounge13
I loved Love Is Strong as the lead single. Can’t envision another. I also thought Rough Justice was a good choice, had a sleazy classic Stones sound to it but can you imagine if they’d led with Driving Too Fast!?!? That woulda hit right between the eyes like Whoa what is THIS!?!?

Ha...I didn't really like Driving Too Fast. Maybe it was just a case of coming too late at the end of a too long album?

On the other hand still love Dangerous Beauty, but not really 'single' material.

I think the problem with ABB is that it's polarizing for a lot of fans. It's hard to agree on what the good tracks are. For me, what turns me off to so many modern Stones songs is Mick's over pronunciation and nasally drawl. It absolutely drives me nuts and detracts from a lot of their material. This Eazy-Sleazy doesn't really have either of those elements, and it's great. It just rocks and has a great rhythm. I wish he'd just go with it more and not try to 'act' out his singing.

I do think that ABB has held up, overall, relatively well over time. I just listened to it a couple weeks back and was pleasantly surprised. Are there some duds? Yes, absolutely. But I think that so much time had passed since their last album, maybe they felt compelled to fill up the space, IDK. I could see them doing that again with a new release - maybe a double disc at this point! I think Crosseyed Heart proved that an album doesn't have to be super long to be acclaimed. Blue & Lonesome, too, for that matter, though I found that one to be a tad too short....45-60 minutes is ideal I think.

....The Grohling Stones....still like the tune

ABB is just too long. Some good tracks for sure but the sequencing is off. To me I hope the stones have 18 great tracks releasing the first with 9 songs this year and another album next year. I thought Eazy Sleazy was a good song and the energy is great in it. I say scrap the 2021 tour and finish the music in the studio. ES was released, no CD single or vinyl. I’m hoping they’re viewing Ghost town and ES as subpar to what they have down. Yes I can dream

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Bashlets
ABB is just too long. Some good tracks for sure but the sequencing is off. To me I hope the stones have 18 great tracks releasing the first with 9 songs this year and another album next year. I thought Eazy Sleazy was a good song and the energy is great in it. I say scrap the 2021 tour and finish the music in the studio. ES was released, no CD single or vinyl. I’m hoping they’re viewing Ghost town and ES as subpar to what they have down. Yes I can dream

Well I hope so too, but it seems more like, "Hey, we got something?! GET IT OUT NOW!".