First of all: I'm not one of those who despise Dirty Work. True, it's not among my favourite Stones album but I like some parts of it.

Maybe it's have been discussed already on this message board.
I was reading lyrics to Dirty Work recently (as I'm not English native speaker I don't usually pay much attention to the lyrics unless I read them) and it struck me how much anger and hate is in them.

So what if we said that Dirty Work is a concept album about conflicts, fights etc. In the light of Jagger-Richards feud that was on then, we could treat it as a concept album about their (jagged) relationship. All of the lyrics (apart from two covers) give some clues:

One Hit: (it starts easy)

Oh your love is just sweet addiction
I can't clean you out of my veins
It's a life long addiction
That has damaged my brain

Fight: (now that's brutal)

Going to pulp you to a mass of bruises
Cause that's what you're looking for
There's a hole where your nose used to be
Going to kick you out my door
(and so on...)

Hold Back: (may be about Mick's urge to go somwhere else)

Hold back, you'll regret it some day
Choke on that, don't let it pass you by
Hold back, you better seize the hour
I've been climbing this tree of promises for over 40 years
The visions get broken and bust on the ground


Winning Ugly: (no comments)

I want to be on top, forever on the up
And damn the competition
I never play it fair, I never turn a hair
Just like the politicians

Back To Zero: (may be about Stones' situation of that time)

Back to zero, that's where we're going
Back to nothing, that's where we're heading
Straight to meltdown, that's where we're going
Back to zero, yeah, right now, right now

Dirty Work: (another "I-hate-you-Keith" song?)

While you're out having all the fun
They'll take the blame when the trouble comes
Let somebody do it, do it

It's beginning to make me angry
I'm beginning to hate you
You're a user, you're a user
I hate you

Had It With You: (this song is one big hatred bomb!)

It is such a sad thing
To watch a love all dry
I've had it up to here, baby
I've got to say goodbye

Sleep Tonight: (Keith's song. Soothing ballad. Nice summary and comment)

You better get some sleep tonight (I interpret it as: just relax, take your time we will find a solution, don't overreact)

I wish you, baby, all the best
If you turn out like all the rest (you can leave us, but still you're my friend)

Well they robbed you of your dignity
They even steal your heart from me
It ain't revenge, you understand
Baby I just want to know who dealt this hand, baby

Nice said. Very beautiful song which is in contrast to the rest of album (did you notice that Mick used yelling more often on that album) and a ray of hope.
Overall Dirty Work is quite interesting album, especially when it comes to lyrics.

Good points, franzk.

Hate - what a concept!

interesting

Yes it's interesting, but it's also a well-known subject.
I see some excellent stuff on Dirty Work too. If it consisted of 6 songs, instead of 10, and was mixed differently (especially the drums), it would be a real Terrific album.

It's a concept album about hate, therefore it makes sense that most people hate it. But not me, I actually like most of the songs on there. But then again I'm contrary like that.

Where the hell is Harlem Shuffle and Too Rude?


I always thought Exile would have been a good concept album.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-11-06 00:53 by it's_all_wrong.

Harlem and Too Rude are cover-songs

Erik_Snow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes it's interesting, but it's also a well-known
> subject.
> I see some excellent stuff on Dirty Work too. If
> it consisted of 6 songs, instead of 10, and was
> mixed differently (especially the drums), it would
> be a real Terrific album.

you can make every mediocre album into great EP by cutting the songs which are bad, Erik! magic is to have a terriffic album with 10 tracks. Dirty Work has too much filler stuff and just not enough substance. even fabled outtakes are really not that good. so there was not so much substance in recording sessions.

alimente Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> you can make every mediocre album into great EP by
> cutting the songs which are bad, Erik! magic is to
> have a terriffic album with 10 tracks. Dirty Work
> has too much filler stuff and just not enough
> substance. even fabled outtakes are really not
> that good. so there was not so much substance in
> recording sessions.


I know, that's why Dirty Work is not a terrific or magic album.
I'm just saying that some songs are great on Dirty Work.

Dirty Work publically demonstrated the estrangement between Mick & Keith. Yeah, it's a tired subject, but I think the separation did both of them some good.

This allowed Keith to participate in the Chuck Berry film, form the X-Pensive Winos, and sharpen his guitar-playing.

Good post.
Dirty Work is a hard disc to crack....there are some great songs...but more it suffers from such glitzy production and it is obvious Jagger was not invested in taking time in production and his singing. He seems to bark his lyrics saying "let's get this over with so I can do what I really care about, my solo shit". But there are some great thoughts on this disc and the concept of hate, anger and relationships. Would be a great disc to revisit with different production, singing and editing.

I was always suprised by how much screaming Jagger did on this album. If it weren't for the 80s drum sound production and Mick's constant yelling and screaming, the album could've been much more solid. Very interesting read...

-Drake

whitem8 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good post.
> Dirty Work is a hard disc to crack....there are
> some great songs...but more it suffers from such
> glitzy production and it is obvious Jagger was not
> invested in taking time in production and his
> singing. He seems to bark his lyrics saying
> "let's get this over with so I can do what I
> really care about, my solo shit". But there are
> some great thoughts on this disc and the concept
> of hate, anger and relationships. Would be a great
> disc to revisit with different production, singing
> and editing.


right - if we could change the production, the singing, the editing, the songwriting and the coverart - boy that coulda been one HELLUVAN album!

StonesTod Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> if we could change the production, the
> singing, the editing, the songwriting and the
> coverart - boy that coulda been one HELLUVAN
> album!

I think it was called Let It Bleed.

I would think that since those were more Keith songs that the lyrics would have been as much Keith's as Mick's.
Definitely Mick's disinterest hurt this album, but I think that also they were trying to make an 80's harder rock album in response to what was big at the time. Maybe similar to how Some Girls was influenced by what was big in the late 70's.
This was taking some of what they had done on Undercover and pushing it further. I think Mick's screaming lyrics was intentional to try to fit this style more than any other reason.
Whatever the intent, it was not all that successful but I like it because they were pushing the boundaries and trying something different than sounding just like the Stones. Some good moments in with the not so good.

-



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-29 08:43 by cirrhosis.

Agreed with the comments, 6 tracks on 10 are good,and "back to zero" the worst song ever wrote...
Btw, does someone knows the real deal with the tribute to Stu at the end which is sad obviously,but in the same time a very good choice IMO.
I'd always thought it could have been an obscur tape recorded by STU...

HMN

yeah, it was a concept album - with the concept being: let's make the biggest piece of sh*t possible.

Fight, Dirty Work, Hold Back, Back To Zero, & Winning Ugly are all amongst their worst tracks ever. And it's funny to hear how much people say how great Had It With You is ... it's just not. And to me, Sleep Tonight is Keith's worst ever Stones track. The rest is not bad but way too many poor tracks. The album plain & simply sucks, no other way around it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-08 04:42 by LeonidP.

Just think about when DIRTY WORK came out. What the heck was really light years better.

Eh, I thought Winning Ugly was cleverly written and performed. But then again, to each his own. This album completed their double album to nowhere. The first disc being the excrement on wax, Undercover. There might be 3 or 4 Stones level songs between the two albums. Yes, it is good they took a break after this. (Although it was only 3 years of studio vacancy. It was 5 years between SW and VL and 8 years between BTB and ABB. Not counting those 4 pieces of new steaming crap on 40 Licks.)

This relates to another current thread - Beatles vs. Stones: The Beatles took adversity, bad feeling, recrimination and still managed to turn it into compelling art against all odds - the "Let It Be" album, roof performance, some great songs. The Stones were fractured at the time of Dirty Work, and made a fractured-sounding album with little, if anything, to recommend it (though I know it has a few fans here). There is very little feeling in any of these songs except anger. Anger can make for great songwriting (see Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" or "Idiot Wind" ), but not even the Stones' anger with each other added up to even one song of any emotional depth. Maybe Sleep Tonight had some real feeling to it. No guitar sheen or drum sound could save these songs.

Never had a Stones album so failed to engage me emotionally, so much so that I literally walked away for a while from the band I had obsessed over for the previous 15 years. I needed to breath, and so apparently, did they.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-08 05:59 by 71Tele.

ah, Dirty Work resurfaces for its ritualistic, biweekly pounding ... the most eagerly-discussed bad album on the internet.

next up: "Which tracks would you cut from ABB?"

Quote
cc
ah, Dirty Work resurfaces for its ritualistic, biweekly pounding ... the most eagerly-discussed bad album on the internet.

next up: "Which tracks would you cut from ABB?"

Ah, but there is so much badness on DW to discuss!

DW is better than Undercover, if that's saying anything. Once again the Stones were in uncharted territory. No significant rock group had stayed together as long as they had (and it wasn't even half as long as they've been together total). That they were able to basically split up and then come back together in triumph in 1989 was quite a feat. Unfortunately SW was their last decent studio foray, save for the odd track here and there over what is 3 albums and 4 odd tracks over 21 years. If you liberally count Paul and John's meeting in 1956 as the beginning of the Beatles, they only managed 14 years together.

the good thing about dw was i got the cassette release. rewritable media media baby. sure its a lotta coin for blank tape but hey at least i got some use out of it. god if i had bought the vinyl all id have is more plastic shit in the recycling bin. worthlessss unredeemable noise. makes iorr seem like lib.

Quote
71Tele
This relates to another current thread - Beatles vs. Stones: The Beatles took adversity, bad feeling, recrimination and still managed to turn it into compelling art against all odds - the "Let It Be" album, roof performance, some great songs. The Stones were fractured at the time of Dirty Work, and made a fractured-sounding album with little, if anything, to recommend it (though I know it has a few fans here). There is very little feeling in any of these songs except anger. Anger can make for great songwriting (see Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" or "Idiot Wind" ), but not even the Stones' anger with each other added up to even one song of any emotional depth. Maybe Sleep Tonight had some real feeling to it. No guitar sheen or drum sound could save these songs.

Never had a Stones album so failed to engage me emotionally, so much so that I literally walked away for a while from the band I had obsessed over for the previous 15 years. I needed to breath, and so apparently, did they.

Good post - as was the original too - I also think (or feel) that the anger or hate they had at the time didn't really turned out to be passionate music (as it could have). There is just boredom, frustration and hatred - no inspiration. The aggressive lyrics in some songs are just too artificial and childish to make any emotional effect. The example of this is the riduculous "One Hit" video where they tried to visualize the atmosphere. Thin and corny.

- Doxa



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-08 10:01 by Doxa.

By the way, 71 Tele, you had more history with the Stones to walk away for a while - I didn't. For me DIRTY WORK was the second new Stones studio album (I was caught by TATTOO YOU), and three yaers had convinced me that UNDERCOVER was not a kind of great follower of TATTTOO YOU as I thought it could have been. So there was a lot of expectations invested in DIRTY WORK - especially having heard the rumours of it being "Keith's album" and "EXILE-like". After the relative failures of UNDERCOVER and SHE'S THE BOSS (c'mon, no one love really like it, right?) it was the time to re-establish the greatness of the Stones. (Little we know what happened behind the scenes.)

So I have thrilled of hearing the first secounds of up-dated sounding "One Hit"... acoustic guitars, and then a massive Richards riff...Buuuuuuuuttttttt..... Hmmm..., I really tried to like the album and I listened it again and again - and kept on saying to myself "sounds great, best Stones yet, so current, so stadium hard rock like", but of course, after a while I needed to give up and confess that what a hit and a miss it was.

Anyway, it was a strange year indeed - 1986. Just look how obscure the whole Grammy thing is, starting from, of all people, Kenny Rogers, making them a speech, and then - oh my god - the condition of Charlie Watts - Keith needs to shut him up with his hand - no one thought there will be that day to be seen...





- Doxa

Charlie's a hoot .... There's no wheels on it ....



ROCKMAN

Quote
Rockman
Charlie's a hoot .... There's no wheels on it ....

No wheels....No wonder he's a bit... shattered? ><

- Doxa

I am not a fan of DW I think it is a poor album. It sounds unfinished to me. I can not stand the screaming vocals either. Mick seemed to not have his heart in it. I do like One Hit, Harlem Shuffle and Had it With You the rest I can not really listen to.