Post Sticky Fingers Rolling Stones

[WytchCrypt]

I grew up with and have always loved the Stones (I remember seeing them perform Ruby Tuesday with Brian Jones on flute, probably on the Sullivan show) though Undercover is the last studio album that I own. As far as the post Sticky Fingers catalog, here's how I rate the one's I have...

A : Exile on Main Street, Grrr! (I have the super deluxe 5CD version), Happy Birthday Keith 12/18/81*
B : Goats Head Soup, Emotional Rescue
C : Undercover, Some Girls
D : It's Only Rock and Roll
E : Tattoo You

"Happy Birthday Keith 1981" was a radio broadcast I recorded of a 12/18/81 concert in Hampton Roads Virginia. The band is in top form and the setlist is fantastic (Shattered, Neighbors, Black Limousines, Waiting on a Friend, She's So Cold, Let it Bleed, etc...) and it's my fave live Stones "album" with "Get Your Ya-Ya's Out" a close 2nd.

[cavgator]

For me, the Mick Taylor years represent the Stones at their very best. And I am not alone in thinking this, it seems:


When interviewed by Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone magazine in 1995, Mick Jagger stated that Taylor never explained why he had left, and surmised that "[Taylor] wanted to have a solo career. I think he found it difficult to get on with Keith." In the same interview Jagger said of Taylor's contribution to the band: "I think he had a big contribution. He made it very musical. He was a very fluent, melodic player, which we never had, and we don't have now. Neither Keith nor Ronnie Wood plays that kind of style. It was very good for me working with him ... Mick Taylor would play very fluid lines against my vocals. He was exciting, and he was very pretty, and it gave me something to follow, to bang off. Some people think that's the best version of the band that existed". Asked if he agreed with that assessment, Jagger said: "I obviously can't say if I think Mick Taylor was the best, because it sort of trashes the period the band is in now."

Charlie Watts stated: "I think we chose the right man for the job at that time just as Ronnie was the right man for the job later on. I still think Mick is great. I haven't heard or seen him play in a few years. But certainly what came out of playing with him are musically some of the best things we've ever done". Another statement, made by Keith Richards, is: "Mick Taylor is a great guitarist, but he found out the hard way that that's all he is."

[JJ88]

I think the Mick Taylor years were their peak as a live band. There was much more emphasis on music, less on posing/strutting around and big gimmicks.

Ron Wood was certainly a better match personality-wise, and I think *did* give them a shot of adrenaline for a few years- certainly 'It's Only Rock And Roll' with Taylor is a pretty flaccid record, suggesting that line-up was running on empty.

Having said that, I do rather like the 'Steel Wheels' album! The production is horribly shiny in that 80s way, but as Mister Triscuits says, they were at least writing good songs again. 'Mixed Emotions' and 'Almost Hear You Sigh' wouldn't disgrace anything they did in the 60s and 70s.

I also agree that this is a band that is terribly served by the official live albums. Then again most of them are from big stadium rock shows which I scarcely find interesting to listen to on record.

[spellbound]

The only Rolling Stones studio album I have not heard all of is Dirty Work.

I rank the Stones' post-Sticky Fingers albums in this order.

Necessary for a fan:

Exile On Main Street
Goats Head Soup
Some Girls
Tattoo You
It's Only Rock 'N' Roll

The best of their "dancing days" albums (skip them if it's only rock 'n' roll you are after):

Under Cover
Emotional Rescue

For live music, you are better off seeking bootleg concerts, as the Stones have a habit of not playing their best on their officially released live albums, with the exception of Get Your Ya-Yas Out, which is pre-Sticky Fingers). I liked Stripped when it came out, but I don't feel inclined to play it any more.

[Trane]

Stones were a decent 60s band for me.nearly everything after that was plodding bar band mediocrity and the less said about the forays into country influenced stuff the better.

Yup, that country shit that infected Sticky Finger (and onwards) really turned me partially off

For me, the Mick Taylor years represent the Stones at their very best. And I am not alone in thinking this, it seems:

Mmmhhh!!!... Indeed, Mick wasn't a Stone at heart.... but neither were some of his competition at the time: can you imagine The Stones with Rory Gallagher or Roy Buchanan??

I think the Mick Taylor years were their peak as a live band. There was much more emphasis on music, less on posing/strutting around and big gimmicks.

Ron Wood was certainly a better match personality-wise, and I think *did* give them a shot of adrenaline for a few years- certainly 'It's Only Rock And Roll' with Taylor is a pretty flaccid record, suggesting that line-up was running on empty. But certainly by the 80s I think their best years had passed- like most of their generation.

Can't say much about the Taylor yeaers (too young) and I'm still waiting to see the Ya-Ya's out footage...

However yes, I saw the Stones in Oshawa (east of Toronto) for that free concert for the blind (Keith's condemnation for durgs)... Ron Wood seems like he was born to be a Stone

[JJ88]

^I'm 'too young' as well- by a long way!- but from the film that's out there, I meant.

[Jerjo]

Here's a gem buried in the rubble. A long ballad by Keith which has this incredible sax work by Wayne Shorter



Just found the video for that Hampton '81 gig. Apparently this is the show where a fan got onstage and Keith creamed him with his guitar.

[davis]

I've been getting back into them since I'm reading Keith's autobiography. I like pretty much everything from the first album through GHS. For me, IIR&R is the beginning of filler, though there songs I like on each album from then on.

[JJ88]

^'Goats Head Soup' is the first one to have filler, I think- not too much, but it's there. Some of the lesser-known ones like 'Silver Train' are good, but the rest is just Stones-by-numbers. 'It's Only Rock N Roll' was similar. I don't like some of the stuff on the 2nd side like 'Short And Curlies' and 'Luxury'. But some nice songs on it.

I'd agree that for them, the mid 80s was a nadir in terms of output. The albums from 'Steel Wheels' onwards have all suffered from the same problem of being over-long. I just wish their producers could tighten them up, get them to focus on the better songs and create one killer 40-minute or so album. The length always seems to be leading to a 'new Exile On Main Street' claim.

[spellbound]

some of the lesser-known ones like 'Silver Train', just Stones-by-numbers.

A more energetic version of Silver Train can be found on Johnny Winter's Still Alive And Well LP.

[davis]

^'Goats Head Soup' is the first one to have filler, I think- not too much, but it's there. I'm not crazy about 'Dancing With Mr D' or some of the lesser-known ones like 'Silver Train', just Stones-by-numbers. .

call those 2 songs whatever you wish; I love 'em & I agree to disagree.

[mogrooves]

Mick Jagger stated that Taylor never explained why he had left, and surmised that "[Taylor] wanted to have a solo career.

I have no reason to doubt this. But in recent years Taylor has said that being a Stone (i.e., living "the life") was killing him. Apparently there were business issues as well. I saw the Stones in '69, a week or so before Altamont. A good player......

[davis]

I've heard that for one thing, he had enough of the 'closed door' policy of 'Jagger/Richards' songwriting credits when he and others contributed to the composition of songs.

[GuitarGeek]

I grew up with and have always loved the Stones (I remember seeing them perform Ruby Tuesday with Brian Jones on flute, probably on the Sullivan show) though Undercover is the last studio album that I own. As far as the post Sticky Fingers catalog, here's how I rate the one's I have...

A : Exile on Main Street, Grrr! (I have the super deluxe 5CD version), Happy Birthday Keith 12/18/81*
.

What's in the 5 disc version? Is it still available?

[WytchCrypt]

What's in the 5 disc version? Is it still available?

Everything I liked that it had a lot of things I'd always heard about but had never actually heard (Dandelion, We Love You, Child of the Moon)...it's really a 4 disc best of that does a good job of representing the entire career and bonus CD#5 has 5 demo tunes from 1963 that they shopped around hoping to get a contract. It also includes a 7" vinyl of some BBC recordings from 1964. It also includes a recent (at the time) great live cover of "Like a Rolling Stone". I don't know if it's still available but apparently there were 3 versions sold: 40, 50, & 80 tracks.

This link will tell you exactly what's on the version I have...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRRR!#80_track_version

[Jerjo]

Wow, five discs and the best they can do is three songs from Exile? And a couple major works from Sticky Fingers are missing as well.

[WytchCrypt]

^ that's one of the reasons I like Grrr! so much...it's more a collection for those who already have the well known albums...

[Jerjo]

As to the absence of 'Exile' material, I've always gotten the impression Jagger is rather cool towards that album. I'd have put something like 'Let It Loose', 'Loving Cup' or 'Sweet Virginia' on there.

or "All Down the Line", the song that usually delineated the point in the set list that the first two thirds of the concert were over and from there on it was a nonstop onslaught of rockers, with the sound into the red line.

[Zeuhlmate]

Stones were a decent 60s band for me.nearly everything after that was plodding bar band mediocrity and the less said about the forays into country influenced stuff the better.

My thoughts too.
Let it Bleed was the last album I found musically valid.

[GuitarGeek]

^ that's one of the reasons I like Grrr! so much...it's more a collection for those who already have the well known albums...

That's exactly what such sets should be. No casual fan is going to buy a big, expensive boxset, just so they can have the gaggle of songs that get played on the radio regularly. Those people buy the less expensive one or two CD best of.

The boxset should be reserved for the die hard fan who wants to hear obscure outtakes, B-sides, previously unreleased live tracks, etc.

[cavgator]

Wow, five discs and the best they can do is three songs from Exile? And a couple major works from Sticky Fingers are missing as well.

Tell me about it. Any greatest hits package without "Can't You Hear Me Knockin' " on it is a fail...

Sounds like Keefers don't want Mick Taylor to sound TOO prominent...

[Sean]

The run from Some Girls thru Emotional Rescue is some of my favorite work of theirs. <shrugs>

[GuitarGeek]

The run from Some Girls thru Emotional Rescue is some of my favorite work of theirs. <shrugs>

Two albums?

[Sean]

I forget the sequence, but I mean Some Girls, Emotional Rescue, Tattoo You and Undercover.

[bob_32_116]

I basically lost interest in the Rolling Stones after about 1967.

I did think there was a smattering of good songs scattered across their later albums, but nowhere near enough to tempt me to purchase. Things were perhaps not helped by the fact that I once had a housemate who loved the Stones and had the endearing habit of listening to them through headphones and singing along, while drunk.

Tattoo You was a decent album, from what I heard.