Universal Music Group has begun its rollout of the Rolling Stones albums released from 1971 forward starting with the albums released on Rolling Stones records, an attempt by the Rolling Stones to launch their own record label which would then be distributed by a major record company. This is the third attempt to release the Stones catalog from Sticky Fingers forward, so the question is, does the Stones switching distribution (and manufacturing) of their portfolio create any new value for Stones fans to justify buying these remastered CD’s. We can simply say, with some definite qualifications, MAYBE.
This month, Sticky Fingers (1971), Goats Head Soup (1973), It’s Only Rock & Roll (1974) and Black and Blue (1976) were reissued. Absent from the sequence is the Stones’ masterpiece, Exile on Main Street (1972), which supposedly will get its own special launch later this year.
The first CD release of these albums by CBS/Sony, Columbia records was generally an outright disaster. The audio quality was terrible and the packaging incomplete. Listeners who have these recordings and enjoy the albums would be well advised to replace them. In 1994, in support of their Voodoo Lounge tour, the Rolling Stones had signed over their catalog to EMI/Virgin. Much effort was put into upgrading these CD’s. The project team apparently consulted with Stones’ fans and carefully poured over both US and European LP’s to get a feel of the albums’ sound and worked to recapture the feel of these records. The results paid off. The new CD’s were at least as good or improved over their vinyl equivalents. Any weakness in the overall sound would go back to the original studio recordings prior to the phase a digital master would be created. Such annoyances as the RIAA curve were eliminated, tape noise kept at a minimum, and the overall resolution much clearer. The 1994 releases also provided much better packaging giving the customer most of the original albums’ goods. The EMI/Virgin recordings are at very least satisfactory so replacing them is more problematic. The CBS/Sony discs should absolutely be replaced. If the CD has red on white print on the sides of the jewel cases for these albums, they’re the inferior first generation CD’s. They’ll also be indentified on the side spine as either CBS or Columbia.
The Universal releases are definitely louder than the EMI/Virgin recordings, but the EMI/Virgin releases weren’t exactly soft or washed out sounding. Generally, the instruments, especially acoustic instruments, guitars, and bass seem clearer. However, some keyboard tracks seem at least as buried as they did on the 1994 releases – case in point, Nicky Hopkins’ piano on “Fool to Cry” from Black and Blue. How much of the improvement is from the initial sense of brighter sound from being louder is hard to tell, but the acoustic guitars have much more presence. Electric guitars have more bite. The listener can actually detect a true bass guitar playing on many more cuts rather than just a thud-thud-thud in the low register. Drums might sound slightly more percussive. As far as saying we hear more nuances and expression in Jagger’s singing, do we really need to go there? Stones fans have learned to put up with him or love him through the ages. He’s always the same old Mickster. For his most emotive singing – the vote goes to “Wild Horses,” for pure Mick madness – “Fool to Cry” or “Melody” from Black and Blue.
Assuming the listener is already familiar with these four albums and has some fondness for them, if you’ve never purchased these albums on CD, what are you waiting for? They are not maximum priced albums any longer. If you have the CBS/Sony CD’s, replace them even if you think you’ve tired of those albums over the years, it could be because those horrible CD’s just didn’t have the punch you remember from the old days especially if you listened to LP’s not crappy cassettes, or God forbid, 8-tracks. Those owning the 1994 EMI-Virgin recordings, it’s all a matter of how much of a perfectionist you are with one big caveat. If you’re a fan of “Star Star” on Goats Head Soup, be forewarned that Universal, for some inexplicable reason in the error of “gangsta rap” where anything goes lyrically, they hauled out the original American LP master of this song which has a stupid overdub to obscured the “lick your pussy clean” line from the same song which repeats on and on “Star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star….” Sure, the song is called “Star Star” but you’d have to be a naïve idiot to think dirty old Mick with his lips so thick is singing, “Star fah, star fah…etc.” Yes, there’s too much vulgarity and all that in pop music, but then look at all the Republican looking yuppie baby boomers with their eight year old children and grandchildren at Stones concerts. The bad boys of rock & roll had to do some silly things to live up to their reputation back in the day, right?
Reviewing the original albums briefly, there’s no question Sticky Fingers is the true masterpiece in this collection. Critics and long-time fans describe the four album run from 1968’s Beggar’s Banquet, through Let it Bleed (1969), this album in 1971, and finally Exile on Main Street as the Stones “classic” phase. Any serious rock music collection will include all four albums and the listener will be familiar with just about every track.
The Stones never do a concert without playing “Brown Sugar” the first single from the album which along with “Bitch” are the two genuine rockers on the album. “Wild Horses” could be the best ballad the Stones ever recorded. It has a country feel without resorting to any kind of gimmicks or pandering reflecting their association with country pioneer, Gram Parsons. Maybe showing some influence of Carlos Santana, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” is one of the few Stones’ songs through the years that features an extended instrumental jam. The song opens with signature rough Keith Richards riffs set to a slightly Latino beat. Jagger screams out some silly lyrics. “Ya gat cocaine eyes…., Ya gat speed freak jive…” so many drug references on this album as a document of its time. Soon the song transitions into its instrumental phase with great solos from Keith Richards, Billy Preston on organ, Bobby Keys on sax, and finally a timeless beauty of a guitar solo that Ronnie Wood has been struggling to capture for decades from Mick Taylor. The sax solo and Taylor’s guitar are what make this song an everlasting classic.
One of the album’s most interesting songs is sandwiched between “Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses,” “Sway” is the first Stones song which specifically credits Mick Jagger playing guitar. Keith is reduced to a cameo roll on backing vocals. The song opens with Jagger pounding out the power chords on his guitar, raspy and rocking. His singing provides some of his most dramatic and emotional singing for a Stones hard rocker even though after four decades we still haven’t a clue what the lyrics are supposed to mean. This is the only track on the album on which pianist, Nicky Hopkins makes an appearance as he was off on the west coast and Hawaii with Quicksilver Messenger Service, but his keyboard work on this tune gives it the texture to smooth it out and help bridge the rough rocking opening to the virtuosic finale with another brilliant guitar solo from short-term prodigy, Mick Taylor, made even bolder with the orchestration explosion from Paul Buckmaster, most noted for his work on the most orchestra-laden tunes of Elton John’s early albums. What concluded side one back in the old LP days is a fine attempt at blues authenticity, playing Robert McDowell’s “You Gotta Move’ with absolutely dynamite blues slide guitar, Keith on acoustic and Mick Taylor on electric. “Bitch’ then opens side two with one of the most memorable and powerful horn riffs ever in rock music with the combo of Jim Price and Bobby Keys at their best perhaps foreshadowing their work on Exile on Main Street. Before Otis Redding’s untimely death in 1968, the soul of soul music and the British bad boys seemed to have a transatlantic love affair for each other’s music where Redding did a marvelous version of the Stones’ classic, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” While the Stones performed songs that Otis Redding made famous like “That’s How Strong My Love Is,” “Pain in my Heart” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” Perhaps as tribute to their soul inspiration, the Mick and the boys produced a tune almost as faithful to an Otis original as any band short of Booker T and the MG’s could perform with their original composition, “I Got the Blues” so evocative of “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” with Price and Keys playing note for note the exact same kind of soulful horns of their brethren, the Memphis Horns, while Billy Preston and the band faithfully emulate Cropper, Dunn, and Jackson. Mick Jagger fans will proclaim his soul-singer style pure genius while Jagger cynics might see this as pure Jagger excess.
“Sister Morphine” is the most blatantly controversial song on the album. The instrumental arrangement with Keith Richards on acoustic guitar, and guest performers, Ry Cooder on slide guitar and Jack Nietzsche on piano lay down a haunting and eerie nightmare soundtrack quite befitting the title of the song. The vocals, performed in full melodramatic mode, provide a horrific narrative of what truly sounds more like a bad acid trip than what one might experience from an opiate, but is this a song that shakes a scolding finger at the dangers of hard drugs, dramatizes them, or is just another example of Jagger being Jagger, we’ll gladly try to keep the debate fired up.
The Stones transition into a more fun mode approaching the home stretch on this fine album with a playful up tempo country influenced gem, “Dead Flowers,” a witty little ditty about a spurned lover but in keeping with the times has a naughty drug line, “I’ll be in my basement room with a needle and a spoon…” Is that what it takes to make a great beer drinking/pot smoking anthem?
Sticky Fingers concludes with a dreamy dramatic ballad “Moonlight Mile” that with its yearning lyrics, haunting strings, and gentler tempo almost serves as a much deserved lullaby after a busy day of work and play exhibited on the rest of the album. If you’re between 30 and 70, and somehow missed this album, what’s your excuse? If you’re under 30 and have not hung with the crowd who’d turn you on to good classic rock, here it is. Listen up and enjoy. This is the music that guys like Guns and Roses and White Stripes cut their adult teeth hearing. It’s a timeless classic despite some of the druggy lyrics that seem so cliché in the new century.
Goats Head Soup took a pounding for not living up to the Stones’ previous four albums, but it’s not half bad, in fact, most of it’s pretty darned good. If the druggy stuff on Sticky Fingers wasn’t way out there, can anyone explain the album’s opener, “Dancing with Mr. D?” We’ll assume that Mr. D. is not Mr. Dylan as in Bob Dylan. Could “D” stand for devil? Oh, by then the moralists of the planet knew with certainty Mick and Keith were Satan’s dynamic duo of earthly disciples. After the tragedy at Altamont and all the excesses of their summer 1972 backing the release of Exile on Main Street, Goat Head Soup could be seen as a feckless attempt to cash in on that image. Keith Richards and Mick Taylor on guitar with Nicky Hopkins on piano lay down a familiar formula from the previous album from which to build their standard rockers handing the rest off to Sir Mick to do the rest, vintage Jagger on display.
“100 Years Ago” is an overlooked Stones classic which blends a country type mood with some true funk essentials best demonstrated by Billy Preston’s electric clavinet which paces the instrumental arrangement. There’s no way this song could be used as documentation the Stones are slipping a little on this album. In fact, most of what was side one on the album could be a 5th Stones masterpiece as they cover much ground and the songs are all solid in their own way, but the next tune is surely the refrigerator or potty break tune to those who don’t appreciate the Keith Richards tunes on Stones albums. “Coming Down Again” is a strange one which anyone who claims to understand the lyrics is lying, but egads, what an incredibly fine haunting tune which, on one hand, highlights a certain musical style and mood Nicky Hopkins carries with him to work with other artists including “I’ll Take a Melody” with the Jerry Garcia Band or “Long Haired Lady” by Quicksilver. Add to that some very strange sax exchanges between Bobby Keys and Jim Horn and slippery spacey rhythm guitars, the recipe is served as an offbeat creative joy.
“Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” is Stones rocker refitted to the hit making sound of 1973 with its blatant attempt to incorporate funk from its electric keyboards, wah-wah guitars, and fat horn section. Jagger matches some urban crime drama lyrics to finish off the effort. This doesn’t make it a bad tune, quite the contrary. Mick Taylor contributes a soaring, sharp guitar solo that alone sets this song apart.
Side one concludes with the classic ballad, “Angie,” which has for decades been subject to speculation on the identity of the real Angie, thought to be Angela Bowie as in the former Mrs. Angela Bowie while rumors abounded she, David, and the Mickster maintained a three way bisexual relationship, but didn’t Mick marry Bianca during the recording of Exile as if any of this soap opera stuff matters aside from the conversation it helps build about the albums of the time. “Angie” is a nice tune. Opening with one of Keith Richard’s finest in a long line of acoustic intros, the song builds into a strings and piano driven ballad typical of the era perhaps developed best by Elton John. Lover boy Mick is all over the place from dramatic whispers to all out bold pleading in his vocal delivery while Nicky Hopkins accompanies with neoclassical piano styling interlocked with Keith’s acoustic guitar work.
“Silver Train” opens side two sounding like an outtake from Exile on Main Street. The tune is anchored with Mick Jagger on rhythm guitar, Keith playing more melodic bass than what Bill Wyman would generally contribute, and some fine boogie-woogie piano from their long-time sidekick, Ian Stewart. All this and even Jagger’s frolicking vocals serve to showcase Mick Taylor’s workout on slide guitar, a style he perfects during his brief tenure with the Stones.
“Hide Your Love” is filler that helps pull the album down from potential classic status. It’s formulaic blues and nothing more driven by Mick Jagger on piano demonstrating clearly why the Stones utilized their buddy Ian Stewart or hired Nicky Hopkins or Billy Preston to do the honors on their records. Sure Mick Taylor plays some scorching lead guitar riffs, but it’s all wind up and play purely mechanical stuff the Stones, individually or collectively could play in their sleep.
The album ascends back into high gear on another ballad, “Winter,” which perhaps builds from the “Moonlight Mile” template with much more artful and complex piano from Nicky, gorgeous guitar leads, while ol’ Mick perhaps exhibits a trick or two from the school of Van Morrison. It’s a great tune perhaps a little underrated because of where this album fits into the Stones’ overall repertoire.
“Can You Hear the Music” is another lesser tune anchored by a lead guitar enhanced by a Leslie tone cabinet while flutes, congas, and bongos attempt to create a “world” music feel. The horn and piano breaks provide what could have been a great building block for a better song, but at best this tune sounds awkward and contrived.
The album ends with one of the Stones most controversial tunes that Universal has lots of explaining to do for censoring it all of a sudden in the permissive age of 2009. “Star Star” is Rolling Stones excess through and through celebrating the decadent rock superstar lifestyle calling out and ridiculing groupies while namedropping show biz big shots who might be on Sir Mick’s celebrity calling list. It’s dirty, naughty, but generally harmless because mama if you don’t know it, kids talk this kind of talk by the time they first spend some time in the locker room in middle school. By 2009, parents should be wise enough to know they don’t have to cover their children’s ears for this one. Why Universal would dig up a miserable censored recording only issued on the US Atlantic records distributed release of this album sure seems odd so anyone who replaces this album for better fidelity which at times is noteworthy should definitely keep the EMI/Virgin release of this disc hoping that Universal will correct its error as EMI did when releasing the Beatles, The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2 containing some unfaithful mono recordings that were simply flattening the stereo version not releasing the original mono master. If EMI would replace a four CD boxed set, Universal should recall and replace a single CD!
It’s Only Rock & Roll could be the weakest of these four albums. It has some great songs but just does not hold together well as an album and fades more and more into Stones obscurity over the ages despite being quite popular at the time. The album also marks Mick Taylor’s swan song as a band member and his work is highlighted throughout. The album opens with “If You Can’t Rock Me” a formula driven rocker if there ever was one though it has become one of Keith’s favorites to play in concert since it surely does have some nice guitar chops. It’s followed by a nice but way too predictable cover of the Temptations’ mighty classic, “Ain’t to Proud to Beg” In the Stones’ hands, it is likeable but forgettable.
The next track is the second of two Stones’ anthems in this four album release played in every concert they’ve ever done, or at least so it seems. “It’s Only Rock & Roll” started with the tape of a jam they recorded with Ronnie Wood and Kenny Jones never knowing that Ronnie Wood would be the 5th Stone within the year. The song perhaps is more appealing to the casual fan than the real Stones’ junky. It has that nice “sing and stomp along” feel for a concert classic, but its pretty predictable and about as unique as a Big Mac from the Golden Arches.
“Till the Next Goodbye” is a fine ballad perhaps obscured by its placement in song sequence on this album. Keith Richards shines again on acoustic guitar, the driving instrumental engine for the song. Great Nicky Hopkins piano and powerful Mick Taylor guitar solos fill out the song.
“Time Waits for No One” is one of the most artistically sophisticated songs the Rolling Stones, so much so, it hardly sounds like the Rolling Stones at all. Vaguely borrowing the formula of “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” starting off with Keith’s licks and Mick’s vocal passages then it evolves into extended instrumental territory. This number also has a slight jazz feel to it as well, but goes as close as the Rolling Stones would ever go toward the art rock that was starting to peak in popularity around that time – a song that would be more compatible with Genesis or Yes than Muddy Waters or Otis Redding. The instrumental part of the song is truly Mick Taylor’s glorious swan song built around a soaring long guitar solo counterbalanced by elegant piano work from Hopkins again where the guitar solo eventually transitions into a powerful piano passage similar to but much more complicated than the finale from “Layla.”
The record version, side two opens with one of the album’s most appealing songs, “Luxury,” that takes the basic Stones rock formula adding some Caribbean and Mexicali influences centered on two lead guitars and piano interlacing to provide a lively romp for Jagger to develop a song loosely based on Latino immigrant exploitation.
A gorgeous but familiar sounding ballad is sandwiched between two assembly line Stones numbers. “Dance Little Sister” is the simple Stones rocker formula and nothing more built on Keith Richards tempo setting guitar riffs and elevated with lively lead and solo slide work from Mick Taylor. “Short and Curlies” better known as “She’s Got You by the Balls” is more a boogie woogie number that benefits from Ian Stewart’s laid-back always likable piano playing, where like “Little Sister” is the music equivalent to “paint by numbers.”
In between is a glorious ballad that will leave most listeners thinking, “Haven’t I heard this before?” The answer is pretty much yes, “If You Really Want to be my Friend” is more or less a sequel to “Let it Loose” from Exile on Main Street. The classy horn arrangement is replaced by the rich soul harmonies of Blues Magic, but it also draws from a similar Telecaster played through a Leslie system propelling the song supplemented and supported by similar Nicky Hopkins’ piano techniques.
The album finishes with a song that has not aged well, “Fingerprint File.” This is a number that tries to draw on the political paranoia of the era, surveillance, wiretaps, and other such intrusion with lots of keyboards mostly electric and synthesized, wah-wah and disco-funking guitar work. All supporting some of the silliest vocals the Mickster has ever performed. It’s also one of the longest studio tracks the band ever recorded.
It’s Only Rock & Roll is an album that never really captures fire surrendering the raw power of recent predecessors for sheer professionalism. While most of the songs are relatively likeable, they are equally forgettable. Alas, as the title opines, it’s only rock & roll but we like it. Of the four albums, this is the one that benefits the most from the remastering treatment. The sound is much more direct and clearer where previous versions sound unfortunately washed out and muffled.
About a year and a half later, Black and Blue hit the racks with a new attitude and a new band member. As much as this album would seem on the surface to have plenty of reasons to be labeled a real stinker right down to only having eight songs, it’s actually a very likeable album even though it captures a band in transition from having had to work fast to find fill-in’s for the recently departed Mick Taylor to finally integrating Ronnie Wood as the new #2 guitarist taking that role in a very different direction than the stoic, detached approach of Taylor.
The Stones were bracing for a fight for raw meat rock & rollers with the opening track on the album, “Hot Stuff,” which would be far more at home at Studio 54 and the disco dance floor than good old rockin’. The rhythms are pure funk with Keith Richards and guest guitarist, Harvey Mandel cranking out the guitar jams while Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts assimilate the four on the floor rhythm expertly.
Track two, “Hand of Fate,” is the album’s true all out rocker. It follows the classic elements of Stones rockers from this era but exchanges Nicky Hopkins for Billy Preston and Mick Taylor for studio whiz, Wayne Perkins who cranks out absolutely wicked guitar solos that stand up among the best on any Stones’ album. Ol’ Mick adds some new vocal tricks practically growling some of the lyrics.
Up until Black and Blue, the Stones flirted with reggae and Caribbean sounds such as “Under My Thumb” and “Sweet Black Angel” but here they cover a genuine reggae classic, Eric Donaldson’s “Cherry Oh Baby.” It’s silly and cheesy but real reggae, a fun listen as long as listeners take it for fun and don’t get too serious.
The first half concludes with a long epic ballad about life on the road by a band that’s starting to tack on some miles. The instrumental arrangement of Mick playing a simple acoustic piano, Keith Richards on electric piano, Billy Preston on synthesizers, and the hired guns, Perkins and Mandel on guitars, Harvey Mandel getting the leads creates just the right atmosphere for a tune that Mick and Keith swap singing solo with some great four part harmonies adding Ronnie and Billy for the breaks. It’s a powerful song, the real production number for the album.
Act two starts off with a rather offbeat goofy rocker, “Hey Negrita,” which fully integrates Ronnie Wood into the band sliding all over the soundscape with his slippery Stratocaster lead slide guitar with Billy Preston doing the setup work on piano. Jagger’s singing is the kind of silliness only the Mick can perform so slick.
“Melody” is Billy Preston’s showcase through and through playing lively piano and Hammond B-3 organ singing a foot-stomping, toe-tapping, duet opposite Mick the quick. Another song not to be taken too seriously, it’s pure fun theatrics and can be enjoyed accordingly.
“Fool to Cry” on the surface seems just too damned silly not to be an automatic activation of the skip button on the old CD player, but skipping this tune would be the listener’s big mistake as it is actually one of the best songs from all four of these albums. On one level, it’s another entry into country territory albeit including string synthesizers. It could be a soul number too. What makes it is the creative instrumental arrangement, a mixture of guitars and keyboards, to accompany Jagger’s melodramatic yet genuinely passionate vocals right up to the “boo-hoo” or whatever it is segments. The song’s over 33 years old and will still grow on a good Stone’s fan with each listen.
“Crazy Mama” closes out the album as its second real hard rocker with layers and layers of guitars galore creating a wall of jamming guitars much like from Exile on Main Street. Instrumentally, this song is Keith’s show place right down to a fine rhythmic piano, simple, direct, and forceful. Over top of it all, mean old Mick snarls, growls, and generally pumps out pure attitude before the song ends with an all out guitar barrage with one guitar part coming one right after another creating another long classic Stones’ fade.
No one would call Black and Blue one of the Stones’ masterpieces as in the big four from 1968-1972 or Some Girls, their next effort, nevertheless, it’s always a good listen that for this reviewer is his second most played Stones’ album second only to Exile on Main Street. With so much left to loosely constructed songs centered on jams and riffs, and a sense of incompleteness awaiting on Ronnie Wood getting his bags unpacked and fully integrated into the band, it might not have seemed nearly the effort of its predecessor, It’s Only Rock & Roll, however, over time, Black and Blue stands up much better always worth a quick spin even if the listener chooses to skip a track or two. Regardless, “Hand of Fate” is one of those addicting tunes that almost certainly tempts the listener to crank it up just as “Fool to Cry” forever prompts more curiosity.
These four albums covering 1971-1976 mark the transition from the Stones being the dark and devilish true bad boys of pop music into true showmanship though some of Mick Jagger’s antics on stage were still along way off from the kind of family entertainment their concerts are today. Unquestionably, Sticky Fingers is the best of the bunch and belongs in all rock libraries. The remaining three albums are sure essentials for even a casual Stones’ fan, but for other listeners it’s more a pick and choose proposition from the dark indulgence Goats Head Soup to the last stage of the Mick Taylor era with It’s Only Rock & Roll or to the riffs and rhythms that dominate Black and Blue. In the five years measured here minus their epic Exile on Main Street, we see the Stones go from flipping off the establishment to becoming the establishment. Such are the burdens of the label, “The World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band.”
This month, Sticky Fingers (1971), Goats Head Soup (1973), It’s Only Rock & Roll (1974) and Black and Blue (1976) were reissued. Absent from the sequence is the Stones’ masterpiece, Exile on Main Street (1972), which supposedly will get its own special launch later this year.
The first CD release of these albums by CBS/Sony, Columbia records was generally an outright disaster. The audio quality was terrible and the packaging incomplete. Listeners who have these recordings and enjoy the albums would be well advised to replace them. In 1994, in support of their Voodoo Lounge tour, the Rolling Stones had signed over their catalog to EMI/Virgin. Much effort was put into upgrading these CD’s. The project team apparently consulted with Stones’ fans and carefully poured over both US and European LP’s to get a feel of the albums’ sound and worked to recapture the feel of these records. The results paid off. The new CD’s were at least as good or improved over their vinyl equivalents. Any weakness in the overall sound would go back to the original studio recordings prior to the phase a digital master would be created. Such annoyances as the RIAA curve were eliminated, tape noise kept at a minimum, and the overall resolution much clearer. The 1994 releases also provided much better packaging giving the customer most of the original albums’ goods. The EMI/Virgin recordings are at very least satisfactory so replacing them is more problematic. The CBS/Sony discs should absolutely be replaced. If the CD has red on white print on the sides of the jewel cases for these albums, they’re the inferior first generation CD’s. They’ll also be indentified on the side spine as either CBS or Columbia.
The Universal releases are definitely louder than the EMI/Virgin recordings, but the EMI/Virgin releases weren’t exactly soft or washed out sounding. Generally, the instruments, especially acoustic instruments, guitars, and bass seem clearer. However, some keyboard tracks seem at least as buried as they did on the 1994 releases – case in point, Nicky Hopkins’ piano on “Fool to Cry” from Black and Blue. How much of the improvement is from the initial sense of brighter sound from being louder is hard to tell, but the acoustic guitars have much more presence. Electric guitars have more bite. The listener can actually detect a true bass guitar playing on many more cuts rather than just a thud-thud-thud in the low register. Drums might sound slightly more percussive. As far as saying we hear more nuances and expression in Jagger’s singing, do we really need to go there? Stones fans have learned to put up with him or love him through the ages. He’s always the same old Mickster. For his most emotive singing – the vote goes to “Wild Horses,” for pure Mick madness – “Fool to Cry” or “Melody” from Black and Blue.
Assuming the listener is already familiar with these four albums and has some fondness for them, if you’ve never purchased these albums on CD, what are you waiting for? They are not maximum priced albums any longer. If you have the CBS/Sony CD’s, replace them even if you think you’ve tired of those albums over the years, it could be because those horrible CD’s just didn’t have the punch you remember from the old days especially if you listened to LP’s not crappy cassettes, or God forbid, 8-tracks. Those owning the 1994 EMI-Virgin recordings, it’s all a matter of how much of a perfectionist you are with one big caveat. If you’re a fan of “Star Star” on Goats Head Soup, be forewarned that Universal, for some inexplicable reason in the error of “gangsta rap” where anything goes lyrically, they hauled out the original American LP master of this song which has a stupid overdub to obscured the “lick your pussy clean” line from the same song which repeats on and on “Star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star….” Sure, the song is called “Star Star” but you’d have to be a naïve idiot to think dirty old Mick with his lips so thick is singing, “Star fah, star fah…etc.” Yes, there’s too much vulgarity and all that in pop music, but then look at all the Republican looking yuppie baby boomers with their eight year old children and grandchildren at Stones concerts. The bad boys of rock & roll had to do some silly things to live up to their reputation back in the day, right?
Reviewing the original albums briefly, there’s no question Sticky Fingers is the true masterpiece in this collection. Critics and long-time fans describe the four album run from 1968’s Beggar’s Banquet, through Let it Bleed (1969), this album in 1971, and finally Exile on Main Street as the Stones “classic” phase. Any serious rock music collection will include all four albums and the listener will be familiar with just about every track.
The Stones never do a concert without playing “Brown Sugar” the first single from the album which along with “Bitch” are the two genuine rockers on the album. “Wild Horses” could be the best ballad the Stones ever recorded. It has a country feel without resorting to any kind of gimmicks or pandering reflecting their association with country pioneer, Gram Parsons. Maybe showing some influence of Carlos Santana, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” is one of the few Stones’ songs through the years that features an extended instrumental jam. The song opens with signature rough Keith Richards riffs set to a slightly Latino beat. Jagger screams out some silly lyrics. “Ya gat cocaine eyes…., Ya gat speed freak jive…” so many drug references on this album as a document of its time. Soon the song transitions into its instrumental phase with great solos from Keith Richards, Billy Preston on organ, Bobby Keys on sax, and finally a timeless beauty of a guitar solo that Ronnie Wood has been struggling to capture for decades from Mick Taylor. The sax solo and Taylor’s guitar are what make this song an everlasting classic.
One of the album’s most interesting songs is sandwiched between “Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses,” “Sway” is the first Stones song which specifically credits Mick Jagger playing guitar. Keith is reduced to a cameo roll on backing vocals. The song opens with Jagger pounding out the power chords on his guitar, raspy and rocking. His singing provides some of his most dramatic and emotional singing for a Stones hard rocker even though after four decades we still haven’t a clue what the lyrics are supposed to mean. This is the only track on the album on which pianist, Nicky Hopkins makes an appearance as he was off on the west coast and Hawaii with Quicksilver Messenger Service, but his keyboard work on this tune gives it the texture to smooth it out and help bridge the rough rocking opening to the virtuosic finale with another brilliant guitar solo from short-term prodigy, Mick Taylor, made even bolder with the orchestration explosion from Paul Buckmaster, most noted for his work on the most orchestra-laden tunes of Elton John’s early albums. What concluded side one back in the old LP days is a fine attempt at blues authenticity, playing Robert McDowell’s “You Gotta Move’ with absolutely dynamite blues slide guitar, Keith on acoustic and Mick Taylor on electric. “Bitch’ then opens side two with one of the most memorable and powerful horn riffs ever in rock music with the combo of Jim Price and Bobby Keys at their best perhaps foreshadowing their work on Exile on Main Street. Before Otis Redding’s untimely death in 1968, the soul of soul music and the British bad boys seemed to have a transatlantic love affair for each other’s music where Redding did a marvelous version of the Stones’ classic, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” While the Stones performed songs that Otis Redding made famous like “That’s How Strong My Love Is,” “Pain in my Heart” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” Perhaps as tribute to their soul inspiration, the Mick and the boys produced a tune almost as faithful to an Otis original as any band short of Booker T and the MG’s could perform with their original composition, “I Got the Blues” so evocative of “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” with Price and Keys playing note for note the exact same kind of soulful horns of their brethren, the Memphis Horns, while Billy Preston and the band faithfully emulate Cropper, Dunn, and Jackson. Mick Jagger fans will proclaim his soul-singer style pure genius while Jagger cynics might see this as pure Jagger excess.
“Sister Morphine” is the most blatantly controversial song on the album. The instrumental arrangement with Keith Richards on acoustic guitar, and guest performers, Ry Cooder on slide guitar and Jack Nietzsche on piano lay down a haunting and eerie nightmare soundtrack quite befitting the title of the song. The vocals, performed in full melodramatic mode, provide a horrific narrative of what truly sounds more like a bad acid trip than what one might experience from an opiate, but is this a song that shakes a scolding finger at the dangers of hard drugs, dramatizes them, or is just another example of Jagger being Jagger, we’ll gladly try to keep the debate fired up.
The Stones transition into a more fun mode approaching the home stretch on this fine album with a playful up tempo country influenced gem, “Dead Flowers,” a witty little ditty about a spurned lover but in keeping with the times has a naughty drug line, “I’ll be in my basement room with a needle and a spoon…” Is that what it takes to make a great beer drinking/pot smoking anthem?
Sticky Fingers concludes with a dreamy dramatic ballad “Moonlight Mile” that with its yearning lyrics, haunting strings, and gentler tempo almost serves as a much deserved lullaby after a busy day of work and play exhibited on the rest of the album. If you’re between 30 and 70, and somehow missed this album, what’s your excuse? If you’re under 30 and have not hung with the crowd who’d turn you on to good classic rock, here it is. Listen up and enjoy. This is the music that guys like Guns and Roses and White Stripes cut their adult teeth hearing. It’s a timeless classic despite some of the druggy lyrics that seem so cliché in the new century.
Goats Head Soup took a pounding for not living up to the Stones’ previous four albums, but it’s not half bad, in fact, most of it’s pretty darned good. If the druggy stuff on Sticky Fingers wasn’t way out there, can anyone explain the album’s opener, “Dancing with Mr. D?” We’ll assume that Mr. D. is not Mr. Dylan as in Bob Dylan. Could “D” stand for devil? Oh, by then the moralists of the planet knew with certainty Mick and Keith were Satan’s dynamic duo of earthly disciples. After the tragedy at Altamont and all the excesses of their summer 1972 backing the release of Exile on Main Street, Goat Head Soup could be seen as a feckless attempt to cash in on that image. Keith Richards and Mick Taylor on guitar with Nicky Hopkins on piano lay down a familiar formula from the previous album from which to build their standard rockers handing the rest off to Sir Mick to do the rest, vintage Jagger on display.
“100 Years Ago” is an overlooked Stones classic which blends a country type mood with some true funk essentials best demonstrated by Billy Preston’s electric clavinet which paces the instrumental arrangement. There’s no way this song could be used as documentation the Stones are slipping a little on this album. In fact, most of what was side one on the album could be a 5th Stones masterpiece as they cover much ground and the songs are all solid in their own way, but the next tune is surely the refrigerator or potty break tune to those who don’t appreciate the Keith Richards tunes on Stones albums. “Coming Down Again” is a strange one which anyone who claims to understand the lyrics is lying, but egads, what an incredibly fine haunting tune which, on one hand, highlights a certain musical style and mood Nicky Hopkins carries with him to work with other artists including “I’ll Take a Melody” with the Jerry Garcia Band or “Long Haired Lady” by Quicksilver. Add to that some very strange sax exchanges between Bobby Keys and Jim Horn and slippery spacey rhythm guitars, the recipe is served as an offbeat creative joy.
“Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” is Stones rocker refitted to the hit making sound of 1973 with its blatant attempt to incorporate funk from its electric keyboards, wah-wah guitars, and fat horn section. Jagger matches some urban crime drama lyrics to finish off the effort. This doesn’t make it a bad tune, quite the contrary. Mick Taylor contributes a soaring, sharp guitar solo that alone sets this song apart.
Side one concludes with the classic ballad, “Angie,” which has for decades been subject to speculation on the identity of the real Angie, thought to be Angela Bowie as in the former Mrs. Angela Bowie while rumors abounded she, David, and the Mickster maintained a three way bisexual relationship, but didn’t Mick marry Bianca during the recording of Exile as if any of this soap opera stuff matters aside from the conversation it helps build about the albums of the time. “Angie” is a nice tune. Opening with one of Keith Richard’s finest in a long line of acoustic intros, the song builds into a strings and piano driven ballad typical of the era perhaps developed best by Elton John. Lover boy Mick is all over the place from dramatic whispers to all out bold pleading in his vocal delivery while Nicky Hopkins accompanies with neoclassical piano styling interlocked with Keith’s acoustic guitar work.
“Silver Train” opens side two sounding like an outtake from Exile on Main Street. The tune is anchored with Mick Jagger on rhythm guitar, Keith playing more melodic bass than what Bill Wyman would generally contribute, and some fine boogie-woogie piano from their long-time sidekick, Ian Stewart. All this and even Jagger’s frolicking vocals serve to showcase Mick Taylor’s workout on slide guitar, a style he perfects during his brief tenure with the Stones.
“Hide Your Love” is filler that helps pull the album down from potential classic status. It’s formulaic blues and nothing more driven by Mick Jagger on piano demonstrating clearly why the Stones utilized their buddy Ian Stewart or hired Nicky Hopkins or Billy Preston to do the honors on their records. Sure Mick Taylor plays some scorching lead guitar riffs, but it’s all wind up and play purely mechanical stuff the Stones, individually or collectively could play in their sleep.
The album ascends back into high gear on another ballad, “Winter,” which perhaps builds from the “Moonlight Mile” template with much more artful and complex piano from Nicky, gorgeous guitar leads, while ol’ Mick perhaps exhibits a trick or two from the school of Van Morrison. It’s a great tune perhaps a little underrated because of where this album fits into the Stones’ overall repertoire.
“Can You Hear the Music” is another lesser tune anchored by a lead guitar enhanced by a Leslie tone cabinet while flutes, congas, and bongos attempt to create a “world” music feel. The horn and piano breaks provide what could have been a great building block for a better song, but at best this tune sounds awkward and contrived.
The album ends with one of the Stones most controversial tunes that Universal has lots of explaining to do for censoring it all of a sudden in the permissive age of 2009. “Star Star” is Rolling Stones excess through and through celebrating the decadent rock superstar lifestyle calling out and ridiculing groupies while namedropping show biz big shots who might be on Sir Mick’s celebrity calling list. It’s dirty, naughty, but generally harmless because mama if you don’t know it, kids talk this kind of talk by the time they first spend some time in the locker room in middle school. By 2009, parents should be wise enough to know they don’t have to cover their children’s ears for this one. Why Universal would dig up a miserable censored recording only issued on the US Atlantic records distributed release of this album sure seems odd so anyone who replaces this album for better fidelity which at times is noteworthy should definitely keep the EMI/Virgin release of this disc hoping that Universal will correct its error as EMI did when releasing the Beatles, The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2 containing some unfaithful mono recordings that were simply flattening the stereo version not releasing the original mono master. If EMI would replace a four CD boxed set, Universal should recall and replace a single CD!
It’s Only Rock & Roll could be the weakest of these four albums. It has some great songs but just does not hold together well as an album and fades more and more into Stones obscurity over the ages despite being quite popular at the time. The album also marks Mick Taylor’s swan song as a band member and his work is highlighted throughout. The album opens with “If You Can’t Rock Me” a formula driven rocker if there ever was one though it has become one of Keith’s favorites to play in concert since it surely does have some nice guitar chops. It’s followed by a nice but way too predictable cover of the Temptations’ mighty classic, “Ain’t to Proud to Beg” In the Stones’ hands, it is likeable but forgettable.
The next track is the second of two Stones’ anthems in this four album release played in every concert they’ve ever done, or at least so it seems. “It’s Only Rock & Roll” started with the tape of a jam they recorded with Ronnie Wood and Kenny Jones never knowing that Ronnie Wood would be the 5th Stone within the year. The song perhaps is more appealing to the casual fan than the real Stones’ junky. It has that nice “sing and stomp along” feel for a concert classic, but its pretty predictable and about as unique as a Big Mac from the Golden Arches.
“Till the Next Goodbye” is a fine ballad perhaps obscured by its placement in song sequence on this album. Keith Richards shines again on acoustic guitar, the driving instrumental engine for the song. Great Nicky Hopkins piano and powerful Mick Taylor guitar solos fill out the song.
“Time Waits for No One” is one of the most artistically sophisticated songs the Rolling Stones, so much so, it hardly sounds like the Rolling Stones at all. Vaguely borrowing the formula of “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” starting off with Keith’s licks and Mick’s vocal passages then it evolves into extended instrumental territory. This number also has a slight jazz feel to it as well, but goes as close as the Rolling Stones would ever go toward the art rock that was starting to peak in popularity around that time – a song that would be more compatible with Genesis or Yes than Muddy Waters or Otis Redding. The instrumental part of the song is truly Mick Taylor’s glorious swan song built around a soaring long guitar solo counterbalanced by elegant piano work from Hopkins again where the guitar solo eventually transitions into a powerful piano passage similar to but much more complicated than the finale from “Layla.”
The record version, side two opens with one of the album’s most appealing songs, “Luxury,” that takes the basic Stones rock formula adding some Caribbean and Mexicali influences centered on two lead guitars and piano interlacing to provide a lively romp for Jagger to develop a song loosely based on Latino immigrant exploitation.
A gorgeous but familiar sounding ballad is sandwiched between two assembly line Stones numbers. “Dance Little Sister” is the simple Stones rocker formula and nothing more built on Keith Richards tempo setting guitar riffs and elevated with lively lead and solo slide work from Mick Taylor. “Short and Curlies” better known as “She’s Got You by the Balls” is more a boogie woogie number that benefits from Ian Stewart’s laid-back always likable piano playing, where like “Little Sister” is the music equivalent to “paint by numbers.”
In between is a glorious ballad that will leave most listeners thinking, “Haven’t I heard this before?” The answer is pretty much yes, “If You Really Want to be my Friend” is more or less a sequel to “Let it Loose” from Exile on Main Street. The classy horn arrangement is replaced by the rich soul harmonies of Blues Magic, but it also draws from a similar Telecaster played through a Leslie system propelling the song supplemented and supported by similar Nicky Hopkins’ piano techniques.
The album finishes with a song that has not aged well, “Fingerprint File.” This is a number that tries to draw on the political paranoia of the era, surveillance, wiretaps, and other such intrusion with lots of keyboards mostly electric and synthesized, wah-wah and disco-funking guitar work. All supporting some of the silliest vocals the Mickster has ever performed. It’s also one of the longest studio tracks the band ever recorded.
It’s Only Rock & Roll is an album that never really captures fire surrendering the raw power of recent predecessors for sheer professionalism. While most of the songs are relatively likeable, they are equally forgettable. Alas, as the title opines, it’s only rock & roll but we like it. Of the four albums, this is the one that benefits the most from the remastering treatment. The sound is much more direct and clearer where previous versions sound unfortunately washed out and muffled.
About a year and a half later, Black and Blue hit the racks with a new attitude and a new band member. As much as this album would seem on the surface to have plenty of reasons to be labeled a real stinker right down to only having eight songs, it’s actually a very likeable album even though it captures a band in transition from having had to work fast to find fill-in’s for the recently departed Mick Taylor to finally integrating Ronnie Wood as the new #2 guitarist taking that role in a very different direction than the stoic, detached approach of Taylor.
The Stones were bracing for a fight for raw meat rock & rollers with the opening track on the album, “Hot Stuff,” which would be far more at home at Studio 54 and the disco dance floor than good old rockin’. The rhythms are pure funk with Keith Richards and guest guitarist, Harvey Mandel cranking out the guitar jams while Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts assimilate the four on the floor rhythm expertly.
Track two, “Hand of Fate,” is the album’s true all out rocker. It follows the classic elements of Stones rockers from this era but exchanges Nicky Hopkins for Billy Preston and Mick Taylor for studio whiz, Wayne Perkins who cranks out absolutely wicked guitar solos that stand up among the best on any Stones’ album. Ol’ Mick adds some new vocal tricks practically growling some of the lyrics.
Up until Black and Blue, the Stones flirted with reggae and Caribbean sounds such as “Under My Thumb” and “Sweet Black Angel” but here they cover a genuine reggae classic, Eric Donaldson’s “Cherry Oh Baby.” It’s silly and cheesy but real reggae, a fun listen as long as listeners take it for fun and don’t get too serious.
The first half concludes with a long epic ballad about life on the road by a band that’s starting to tack on some miles. The instrumental arrangement of Mick playing a simple acoustic piano, Keith Richards on electric piano, Billy Preston on synthesizers, and the hired guns, Perkins and Mandel on guitars, Harvey Mandel getting the leads creates just the right atmosphere for a tune that Mick and Keith swap singing solo with some great four part harmonies adding Ronnie and Billy for the breaks. It’s a powerful song, the real production number for the album.
Act two starts off with a rather offbeat goofy rocker, “Hey Negrita,” which fully integrates Ronnie Wood into the band sliding all over the soundscape with his slippery Stratocaster lead slide guitar with Billy Preston doing the setup work on piano. Jagger’s singing is the kind of silliness only the Mick can perform so slick.
“Melody” is Billy Preston’s showcase through and through playing lively piano and Hammond B-3 organ singing a foot-stomping, toe-tapping, duet opposite Mick the quick. Another song not to be taken too seriously, it’s pure fun theatrics and can be enjoyed accordingly.
“Fool to Cry” on the surface seems just too damned silly not to be an automatic activation of the skip button on the old CD player, but skipping this tune would be the listener’s big mistake as it is actually one of the best songs from all four of these albums. On one level, it’s another entry into country territory albeit including string synthesizers. It could be a soul number too. What makes it is the creative instrumental arrangement, a mixture of guitars and keyboards, to accompany Jagger’s melodramatic yet genuinely passionate vocals right up to the “boo-hoo” or whatever it is segments. The song’s over 33 years old and will still grow on a good Stone’s fan with each listen.
“Crazy Mama” closes out the album as its second real hard rocker with layers and layers of guitars galore creating a wall of jamming guitars much like from Exile on Main Street. Instrumentally, this song is Keith’s show place right down to a fine rhythmic piano, simple, direct, and forceful. Over top of it all, mean old Mick snarls, growls, and generally pumps out pure attitude before the song ends with an all out guitar barrage with one guitar part coming one right after another creating another long classic Stones’ fade.
No one would call Black and Blue one of the Stones’ masterpieces as in the big four from 1968-1972 or Some Girls, their next effort, nevertheless, it’s always a good listen that for this reviewer is his second most played Stones’ album second only to Exile on Main Street. With so much left to loosely constructed songs centered on jams and riffs, and a sense of incompleteness awaiting on Ronnie Wood getting his bags unpacked and fully integrated into the band, it might not have seemed nearly the effort of its predecessor, It’s Only Rock & Roll, however, over time, Black and Blue stands up much better always worth a quick spin even if the listener chooses to skip a track or two. Regardless, “Hand of Fate” is one of those addicting tunes that almost certainly tempts the listener to crank it up just as “Fool to Cry” forever prompts more curiosity.
These four albums covering 1971-1976 mark the transition from the Stones being the dark and devilish true bad boys of pop music into true showmanship though some of Mick Jagger’s antics on stage were still along way off from the kind of family entertainment their concerts are today. Unquestionably, Sticky Fingers is the best of the bunch and belongs in all rock libraries. The remaining three albums are sure essentials for even a casual Stones’ fan, but for other listeners it’s more a pick and choose proposition from the dark indulgence Goats Head Soup to the last stage of the Mick Taylor era with It’s Only Rock & Roll or to the riffs and rhythms that dominate Black and Blue. In the five years measured here minus their epic Exile on Main Street, we see the Stones go from flipping off the establishment to becoming the establishment. Such are the burdens of the label, “The World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band.”
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