Although I really didn't know it @ the time, Some Girls was a really big deal. And not just me- check out the first (1 & 2) of the blogs I instantly check out when I get online. When "Some Girls" was out that summer of '78, it was just the hit LP out @ the time. It was good, and one heard it all the time on the radio or, as we see, SNL.But what I learned about the LP later was that it was a comeback LP of sorts. I know that there are other sides, but the Stones had a real down time in their career after their super-acclaimed 'best lp' "Exile on Main Street". My first LP, "Goats Head Soup", was the follow up and it was terrible. Ditto the even worse "It's only Rock 'n Roll". Then "Black and Blue", which was more of a rehearsal for a replacement guitarist for Mick Taylor. Many people compare "Some Girls" to Dylans "Blood on the Tracks" for good reason- supreme artists from the 1960's who had years of below average work now reclaiming the heights.
Now, not to go too far. "Hand of Fate", "Time Waits for no one", "Hot Stuff", "Dancing with Mr. D. " etc are all great songs......but I'd never be put to write an "Aftermath" type love letter to any of them. "Some Girls", however, was special. Maybe not the greatest of Stones LP's, but it's definitely one of their best. "The Rolling Stones", "Out of our Heads", "Aftermath", "Between the Buttons", "Beggars Banquet", "Let it Bleed", "Sticky Fingers", "Exile" - Looking back, I've always loved it simply because people responded to it after the dreggs of the earlier few LPs. I was a fan of the Stones, and just like reading about the Black Hawks championships of the 1930's, I feel good for the home team to be successful- even if I really couldn't fully share in that "comeback". For me, there was no 'comeback'- I came into to the Stones scene 'round "Some Girls", with the songs on the radio all the time, they were in the news all the time- even the Sun Times and Trib ran special "Stones" sections for their summer tour: so from the beginning, the really were "The Greatest Rock and Roll Group in the World".
Man, what an LP. Think it's just me and the critics that tout this work? How many rock LP's have, generally, ALL their songs played on the radio. Some are, of course, famous rock songs= "Shattered", "Miss You", "Beast of Burden", "When the Whip comes down", "Before they make me run" ( a New Barbarians version- watch it !!) and "Just my imagination" are all 'classic rock' staples to this day, and one often hears the odd playing of "Respectable" and "Far Away Eyes". One really doesn't have to play this LP often because it's on the radio so often. And if one hears them still a lot to this day, the summer of 1978 was replete with these songs. All the time summer soundtrack sorta deal.
And it was such a great LP. Like "Aftermath", it totally fit to-gether as a complete work. But, again, @ the same time the songs were so different and distinct. "Shattered" ? Man, what a sound. Where did that come from. And the solo! "Miss you" was a disco-y sounding song that really sounded great. I remember that was one of the first songs where there appeared tonnes of different mixes and extended versions. "Whip" and "Lies" were all out rockers. The country of "Eyes", a Temptations cover ("Imagination"), and the ache of "Burden" showed them the masters of many styles. The group sounded perfect to-gether. Some of Charlies best drumming comes on this LP. And they pulled off all these styles perfectly. Mick often can sound........ disingenuous, but there is conviction through the whole work. Mick believes, Keith believes, I believe, we all believe. Nice piece of work.
By the time 20 June, 1980 came around, I had my record collection rolling. I'm too lazy to undue all that blocks up a closet that contains my skeletal diaries from this period that contains the necessary information, but I probably had 15-20 LP's @ this point- mine, my sisters, or borrowed from frenz. I was branching slitley from the Stones, but they were the center of the musical universe. So much Stones stuff to explore @ this point as well - I'd barely touched their catalouge @ this point - when I got the breathless call 20 June 1980 from the New Association's guitarist JJK-
"TURN ON THE LOOP- THEY JUST RELEASED THE NEW STONES LP AND THEY ARE PLAYING IT !!! "
Instantly -I think it was Chemical Man who was over that day- we turned on the radio and listened all day as the d.j. would play a song from the new "Emotional Rescue" ....talk for 10-15 minutes, play some commercials, play an old song, talk some more, play another new song....etc etc etc all day. Late that day they started over again, and other stations did the same. It was different time, when a new Stones could actually stop rock radio for a day. It was an all day carnival that was only duplicated twice in my life, and then not with the radio play*.
It was a very exciting day. All that had gone on before in the Stones history relly didn't contain me. The glory of "some Girls" came @ a time before I really i.d'd myself as a music fan. But June of '80 I was fully in the gang- I was a Glimme twin.
And, I will admit, it wasn't quite as good as "Some Girls". It's a great LP,no doubt; but it's definitely "Some girls" lessor. Now this isn't some sorta Plan A type disillusionment with the Rolling Stones, but there was the bit of a let down. Where "Some Girls" was a deeply distinctive work from the first track on, "Rescue" wasn't. Oh, there were some great Stones songs. The third of my "All time favourite Rolling Stones", for example is on this LP -- " She's so Cold". Nothing to that point in their career sounded like this song. I loved the crisp clean beats by Charlie, the 'lead' bass, and, of course, Keith. The title track is something else, although when it originally came out, I didn't quite know what to make of it. That falsetto was strange, but it's pretty unique. Personally, I like "Let me go", "Send it to me", and "Dance", but it's kinda thin after that. OK; but no "Some Girls". Unlike the grandly arching 1978 LP, this LPs songs like "Where the boys go"and "Summer Romance" sound more or less like toss offs- actually, they sorta sound like the same toss off. "Indian Girl". Another toss off. "All about you" is one of the worst Keith tracks ever, and "Down in the hole" sounds ....disingenuous... Again, I really like this LP, but its certainly a comedown from the last one, a masterpiece. Sorta like "Daydream Nation" after "Sister". Yes, I basically just dissed the LP, but I do place it in the Stones "resurgence" time. "Emotional Rescue"- as slite as it is- is way better than the three before "Some Girls".
The next LP was "Tattoo You", another very good mega hit that contained lots of radio songs. A pretty good LP, a #1 single "Start me Up", and another world tour put the Stones back on top of the charts and news cycles. It was received a lot better than "Rescue", and many songs became radio staples, though not to the extent of "Some Girls"; "Waiting on a Friend", "Hang Fire", "Neighbours", and "Little T & A" are all gret songs, but that beat kept popping up 2-3x every LP now- "Respectible" beget "She's so cold" and "Let me go" and "Hang Fire" and "Neighbours" and "Litle T & A". There were too many songs beginning to sound not all that distinctive.
The next LP, considered by some a disappointment- "Undercover" -is pretty good. I like it more than "Rescue" and "Tattoo", and I like those two a lot. But again, that sound krept in: "She was Hot", "Too Tough" (my favourite song on the LP), and Keith's "Wanna hold you" all had that crisp clicky soundalikesound. "Too much Blood" was great- nice beat and funny Mick lyrics and delivery. But also clicky. I think it was their last GREAT LP. The next LP, "Dirty Work", I'm not sure I even own. I do have "Steel Wheels", but.....
The Stones as new music makers had left my mind. Generally, they represent a classic songs machine to me nowadays, although I'll still give a listen to anything they still put out. Since "Undercover" LP, they have had @ least two excellent songs- "Mixed Emotions" and the 'sounds good in a stadium live' "You got me Rockin". But a new Stones LP doesn't send me into daylong celebrations where the uppermost thought in my mind is "THE NEW STONES IS OUT" !!
But by this point, summer of 1983-I'd become a real music fan. The Stones and Beatles were joined by Zepplin and Public Image and the Yardbirds and the Clash and the June Brides and Selector and the Jam and the Buzzcocks and the Undertones and etc... I was just on the advent of the Smiths revolution and my university years and etc etc etc... My interests had expanded, like all of us, and things I never woulda thought I'd like- DISCO??- I came to adore.
But the Stones were to come back and fairly dominate again my turntable and consciousness in the late 1980's. It's a weeklong lenght of stories for another time, but the confluence of one of my favourite jenkenites with Keith's solo tour in December of 1988 (my favouite single concert show of all time) sent me and many other off in a Stones frenzy for several more years. It's funny- when I was into my heavy Beatle period 2 years ago, I looked to the Stones career and thought "Man, strange" Although I was not in any sorta Stones mood when I started these columns now ended (I had one long story on tap, and decided to cut and expand)- I find myself kinda obsessed again....
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*=in the fall of 1987 with the release of the Smith's "Strangeways here we Come" and in Spring of 1988 with the release of Morrissey's "Viva Hate".
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