Do the old timers of the board remember what their first impressions were when they listened to it for the 1st time?

yep - I remember thinking that the "magic" was gone...by that I mean that the magic M&K had as song-writers had clearly ebbed.

Not sure I'm an "old-timer", but it was the first one I bought on the first day of release( and every one since). I always liked it. People on here trash it because it doesn't have a slow song on it.

Loved Too Much Blood and Too Tough from the first listen.

T@A qualifies as an "old-timer". He's much older than Stonestod.

Bought it the week it came out...really liked it then, really like it now. Wish ABB sounded more like Undercover. Sound is fuller and rounder.
cuz Im Pretty Beat up..

I loved all of it.
The packaging with the stickers was bizarre but great, too.

I did like the album at the time of release, though. But, I distinctly remember having that "uh oh" feeling about the songwriting...that feeling of concern would be further heightened on subsequent '80's releases, of course...

Got it the same day it was released, biting my fingernails all day at work until I could head over to the recordstore and pick it up. I really like it, played it to death at the time, but that goes more or less for any Stonesrelated release....

Vilhelm
Nordic Stones Vikings

I've had the CD for about 6 years but I never really listened to it. I'm not crazy about it so far.

micwer Wrote:
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> I've had the CD for about 6 years but I never
> really listened to it. I'm not crazy about it so
> far.


Yeah, well try Dirty Work. Now that's punnishment to listen to.

Undercover was my first Rolling Stones album. I'd only heard songs on the radio up until it came out. So it was like this hidden, secret side of the Rolling Stones that I'd never heard before. Loved it then, love it now.

Great guitar album, it's tight and rough.

Solid album. I thought it was a little commercial at the time but at least they got some video's aired.

Guitars sound really good, snare sound could be better though (it's got that '80 wooshy sound to it. Would like to hear it re-mixed)

I think Bill Wyman said it was the last great Stones album.

smile: maybe you'd like it better if you tried listening to it, Micwer? just a thought ... that's what it's for ... :E

but back to the question: i was living in obscure places when Undercover first came out, so it was a while before i heard it, but i thought it was pretty good.
i dig it a lot now.


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

with sssoul Wrote:
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> smile: maybe you'd like it better if you tried
> listening to it, Micwer? just a thought ... that's
> what it's for ... :E
>
Ah ah, I know, but some albums are easier to listen than others.

A weird experience. Stones' have gone stark mad I thought, gearing toward the dance floor or politics. Watched the video on 'Rewind' some months later. I like the intro and mid guitar synth? in Undercover and side two. Revisited it when Keith played "Wanna hold you" on '97 tour, me think.

Great Album.

it remembers me when I was younger, 12 at the time...

Remember the Promotional posters in Lisbon with the naked girl, everyone was talking about it.

And I still love the 3 videos and all the songs!!

Great album indeed!

Thanks for asking micwer. I was just a couple of years into a career at the time. I made a cassette copy from a friend (that's right, I didn't buy the album), played it in my car very loudly while driving all over the highways of the southeastern US, and loved it.

I was especially hooked on Too Much Blood. I think the album is thought provoking and good musically. The other night I was playing the old tape at my house, loudly of course, with my girlfriend who had never heard it before, and we danced around the house grooving on it. I totally forgot how much I loved the album (CD, tape, whatever). What a coincidence that I would be asked about the album a few days later.

Y'all take care.

Bought it the day it came out as usual

I'd heard and bought the single which had been released a week or so earlier and thought it was excellent (as was the 'Feel On Baby' dub that was on the 12-inch version)

was never crazy about the mix of the album. Thought it was a significant step down from Tattoo You. Was surprised by how violent and explicit the lyrics were.

Liked it more on the first few listens than I did later, however.

Gazza Wrote:
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> Bought it the day it came out as usual
>
> I'd heard and bought the single which had been
> released a week or so earlier and thought it was
> excellent (as was the 'Feel On Baby' dub that was
> on the 12-inch version)
>
> was never crazy about the mix of the album.
> Thought it was a significant step down from Tattoo
> You. Was surprised by how violent and explicit the
> lyrics were.
>
> Liked it more on the first few listens than I did
> later, however.


Hey Gazza,
I remember reading an interview with Keith, in Rolling Stone magazine, in which he said it was a very violent album.

I remember how I could not help but peal off the stickers to see the girl's cootchie. Also how the guitar solo on She Was Hot rocked, as well as the use of guitar feedback. First time (only time?) I could recall hearing that on a Stones studio album.

Yep. Sure do. 10.00 in the morning, 78Records in Perth. Bought the vinyl (still have it) and a cassette version for the car (still have it too...and could NOT wait to get home to tape the vinyl myself!).

Driving up Barrack Street in my green LC Torana 6 cyl, Undercover playing. Warm sunny day, remember it like yesterday.

The music, well it was the Stones, and some of the songs like Undercover, Pretty Beat Up, Too Much Blood were ok...but overall the album sounded like the Stones were simply trying too hard to sound like... The Stones. Sort of forced.

And the production was a little underwhelming too. It sounded tired and flat then and it hasn't aged at all well.

But then, playing it, I got to It Must be Hell. Well...this one song made it all worthwhile. NOT a classic, mind you, and a Soul Survivor rip-off, but gee, what a great song by this album's standards.

Listening again recently, and again I don't like the production, I still like Undercover as a song. It coulda been one of their greats...and Wanna Hold you grooves along quite nicely, but It Must be Hell is still the record's centrepiece.

Has it ever been played live, anyone? And NOT the Soul Survivor version... ;-))

Rgds
Rod

Totally passed this by. I was about 15 when it came out. Had gotten into Stones a couple years earlier with Hot Rocks, Some Girls and Emotional Rescue (first new release I was aware of). Discovered some 70s Stones albums during the 1980s but did not pay attention to new release until Talk Is Cheap and Steel Wheels. Have been paying attention ever since, for good or bad.

Was into punk and metal at time of Undercover. My friends and I were under the conclusion that The Stones now sucked--only the old stuff was good. Did not get Undercover until about '95. It's okay. My favorite is All The Way Down. Sounds the most Stones-ish to me.

Chas Wrote:
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> > My favorite is All The Way Down. Sounds the most
> Stones-ish to me.


Good call - a true unheralded classic

First song I heard on the radio was "she was hot" and I was hooked.

It's an OKAY album. Nothing more, nothing less.

The coolest thing about this release is that I was born in 1983. It'd be even better if it was released in September.

One of the highlights around that time was when the video for "Undercover of the Night" got banned and Mick and Julien Temple went on live TV ("The Tube") to face an "inquisition" by that jumped up twerp Muriel Gray who decided that she was going to make a name for herself by publicly humiliating a world famous rock star by getting all-PC on his ass about an "explicitly violent" video

Mick saw her agenda for what it was and absolutely tore her to shreds (as did Julien). His performance was so brilliant I was actually cheering him. Had she been a dog (not actually far from the truth to be honest), she probably would have been put down to spare her any further suffering.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-02-03 01:11 by Gazza.

Bought it the day it came out. I distinctly rememebr listening to it the first time. I was moving into a new place and had it cranked. I was still getting high at the time and I was loaded. Also recall that. So I was digging "Feel On Baby: a lot. Also the drumbreak in "Tie You Up" and the piano in the chorus of "She Was Hot".
I liked it a lot.

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."

Undercover is when i lost interest in the Stones studio material up until Voodoo Lounge when i regained interest

After a few days of rotation, I can't really say I like it. Interesting violent lyrics, but really horrible 80's production.
Some good songs though, All the Way Down for instance.