Re: Dirty Work
Date: February 18, 2008 01:11
People who've been here for a year or more know from previous DW threads I always defend this album: despite some production froth, it's a fascinating and honest record, angry, fractious, a statement about the state of the Stones that's more than that. Keith & Ron teamed up, what with Mick & Keith either rarely in the same room, or at each other's throats. Ron had been addicted to freebasing for years, Charlie didn't look dapper on the cover, strung out on heroin & speed. And Bill, got himself, at age 46 in 1983, a 13 year old girlfriend - and, as in the past when Keith proved 'difficult' during Goats Head sessions, remained aloof, absent from sessions, audible on maybe 3 or 4 tracks. Then there's Mick - a year after his pleasent, well produced funk/dance solo debut, which is about nothing and on which he oversings to compensate his difficulty finding a convincing 'solo' persona. 'She's The Boss' I sort of like, but it's utterly unlike UC or DW. Pissed off or considering his options as he may have been, his writing and 'singing' on DW has a committment and immediacy - he has something to say, and he "means" it - the frustration, anger, and awareness the band's falling apart leads to a unique absence of 'distance' & 'irony' (which had long helped define his and the Stones' sensibility i.e. Street Fighting Man, Brown Sugar, Salt of the Earth, etc), and whether that's intentional or because he was conflicted or distracted, the record expresses the Stones' state of crisis, including an unprecedented disruption in their rigid internal balance of power (i.e. only 3 Jagger/Richards credits). Like "Undercover" violence and anger are everywhere, but on "U" a surreal mix and gory, harsh, bleak themes of sex-as-power, pain, & humiliation pervade an album bookended by two songs with 'political' themes that are just as brutal as the rest, (until those last lines, '...we are heaven bound...') DW is filled with anger and conflict but it's cut with a little more light and air. It's hard to know what to make of Mick here - he never comes as mannered, and as on 'Undercover' he's not 'sexy' - confused, uncertain, maybe, but his words and the ways he (barely) sings them (often shouting) resonate - 'Life is passing you by / choke on that' or 'I'm looking to the future / I keep on looking back' are lines from 2 "political" songs, but they're just as appropriate a description of the ambivilance and confusion he might have felt, and that helps make this an angry and state-of-the-culture record as well as a state-of the-stones report. The "artlessness" of Jagger's vocals add to DW's astringent feel and its fleet immediacy, matched by great, dense, hard, guitar-driven rock 'n' roll (especially the Keith/Ron songs) from the band & their supporting cast, and there's nothing embarassing about the edgy attacks on 80s excess. If Mick let himself off the hook the record would be far slighter, but on 'Winning' and 'Dirty Work' he's seems willing to implicate himself. I always loved the return to classic early '60s r&b on 'Harlem Shuffle', a top 5 hit, given a sleek new finish but with Don Covay and Bobby Womack helping out - the song debuted, as I recall, along with Ralph Bakshi's video when the RS received the Grammy's Lifetime Achievment award. I know some people inexplicably dislike it, but 'Hold Back' sounds 'true' in its intent (unaffected), and has relentless drive & plenty of guitar action, Ivan Neville's bass providing funk underneath. Only 'Sleep' a great song, is imo marred by Ron's drumming and the overdone b.v.'s near the end. We all know the Stones made strong, unflinching records in the midst of crises, but Stu's death right before DW's completion....Nick Kent believed it would likely finish them. Yet they never sound self absorbed on DW. I know it's got some unnecessary keyboard gloss and too many (Patti Scialfa?) backing vocalists on, say,'Sleep', but I really don't see why this one is so generally considered among their worst. o