The Rolling Stones' Studio Albums

[Slim]

As I've mentioned a few times I'm listening to the Rolling Stones' studio albums in chronological order this year. Rather than posting brief notes in other threads I thought I'd collect my impressions in a dedicated thread. Note: I listened to the UK releases.

1. The Rolling Stones (April 1964)

Sharp, spiky R&B covers in the main; Route 66 and similar. Not brilliantly recorded but the studio hardware wasn't so good back then (American studios were a couple of years ahead of the UK at this time). There's one Jagger / Richards composition, Tell Me. It's a deviation from the Blues tunes elsewhere on the album. Sounds a bit like The Hollies. Unexceptional.

2. The Rolling Stones No. 2 (January 1965)

Very similar to their debut, maybe a bit more light and shade. Definitely better recorded. But pretty basic R&B covers. It was released at the beginning of 1965. They were light years behind The Beatles in terms of imagination, songwriting, production, ambition, everything. All covers, no originals.

3. Out of Our Heads (September 1965)

Mostly R&B covers again. No original tunes. Certainly no recognisable Stones classics. They certainly took a while to find their voice (although to be fair I think they'd already recorded Satisfaction by this time, but that was released only as a single).

4. Aftermath (April 1966)

An extraordinary creative breakthrough after their first three albums of R&B covers. Their previous album, released less than a year earlier, had consisted entirely of other peoples' tunes but everything on Aftermath is a Jagger / Richards original. Equally importantly it's a much more eclectic and interesting record than the first three, with some really strong songs. Reminds me of The Kinks in places.

5. Between the Buttons (January 1967)

Really a very interesting, eclectic album. Definitely not a rock'n'roll record. Folky pop and ballads sit among the more uptempo efforts. All the tunes are written by Mick and Keith. Cool, Calm and Collected again sounds a lot like The Kinks - it has the cod-upper-class-English vocal and old-time music hall feel that McCartney was also fond of.  Who's Been Sleeping Here reminds me of The Animals. Dylan, even.

Certainly no household name songs on this one either.

[Thenop]

From those early albums ( and I admit I am not the biggest conaisseur) I find the whole UK/US release thing very confusing. I understand why, but it's just very annoying. 
Anyway, the fact that (like many other ands) they started out as a cover band, playing the music they liked is fascinating. I like "I Just Want to Make Love to You" being so upbeat as oppose to the version(s) best known.
I have a healthy dislike for "The Last Time", it just whining on. But I love "Play With Fire" in this version. I see now these are not on the UK version - see? Confusing. Anyway, brilliant song.

Might just take the plunge and listen to these albums in full then.

[Slim]

6. Their Satanic Majesties Request (December 1967)

This is the Stones' attempt to jump on the psychedelic bandwagon. There are a couple of good songs on it. I like 2000 Man, which was covered by Kiss on Dynasty. But mostly it's terrible. If nothing else it serves to illustrate the massive gulf in creative vision and songwriting talent between Mick and Keith, and John and Paul. They throw in loads of little touches nicked from Sergeant Pepper - the dissonant orchestral snatches, the Indian percussion.  But they don't know what they're doing and it sounds comical.

7. Beggar's Banquet (December 1968)

From the ridiculous to the sublime - this is a good record indeed. Starts off with Sympathy For The Devil which is one of their best tunes ever - elevated by Charlie Watts' latin rhythm on the percussion - how many bands would have thought of that? But Charlie was a proper jazz drummer. Elsewhere it's proper rock'n'roll like Street Fighting Man and Stray Cat Blues, that rootsy C&W / Americana folk thing they were fond of (Dear Doctor and No Expectations) and some very authentic-sounding acoustic Blues (Prodigal Son) .

8. Let it Bleed (November 1969)

More countrified Americana here and there and I'm not that fond of it, but this is the best one so far. Opens with the brilliant Gimme Shelter; what a powerful tune. Midnight Rambler is on this one as well, another classic. Monkey Man and the title track have plenty of the signature swagger. And You Can't Always Get What You Want brings matters to a satisfying conclusion. Strong songs, lots of poise and attitude.

Girlschool covered a tune from this album, Live With Me.

[Thenop]

These albums I know a bit, need to give them a proper listen again. The Satanic request album also has 2000 light years from Home which was covered by Monster Magnet on their 2007 4 Way Diablo album.
2000 Man is a staple of any Ace Frehley show, the Kiss version does add a bit of much needed spark.

Gimme Shelter is my favourite Stones song and 1 look at Spotify shows me I am not the only 1. 522 million streams, the most listened to song followed by Sympathy for the Devil.
Really like Prodigal Son as well.
It's quite clear by the time they released the latter 2 here, they were in their peak.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Looks like the Stones have placed a very clever, none too cryptic ad in a local London newspaper for a glass repair company. The advert for the Hackney Diamonds firm makes reference to classic tracks and is thought to be the title for their upcoming album release. Article is on Musicradar which I can't seem to share.

[Thenop]

https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/23741938.rolling-stones-tease-new-album-ad-hackney-gazette/

[The Picnic Wasp]

Brilliant! Thanks for that. I think it's just amazing that a band at this stage of a legendary career are still interested in titillating their fan base with a bit of lighthearted fun.

[Slim]

9. Sticky Fingers (April 1971)

This is where the Stones hit their stride - the beginning of the definitive, peak period. Classic, driving rock'n'roll, swampy Blues and powerful American folk. Jagger's insistence on singing in the manner of someone brought up in the Deep South irritates, but this is consistently a very strong album - Brown Sugar, Wild Horses, Bitch, Sister Morphine - enough said.

Mick Taylor was in the band by this time and for sure he improves the guitar parts.

10. Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street (May 1972)

This is famously one of the great Stones albums - considered by some to be their peak - except that I don't really think that it is. I bought the remastered rerelease when it came out a couple of years ago and listened to it once. Then I forgot about it.

There's a lot of creditable, authentic (but somehow perfunctory) Blues on here and the usual rootsy countrified Americana. A bit of rock'n'roll. One bona-fide classic in the wonderful Tumbling Dice. That's it.

I don't think this album is a patch on Sticky Fingers, and definitely not the superb Goat's Head Soup (next up), which I've owned since I was a teenager and have listened to dozens of times. 

11. Goats Head Soup (August 1973)

Definitely the high water mark for me. Just so good. Consistently strong songs, lots of energy, lots of attitude, really powerful spirit, slick production. Highlights: Angie, Heartbreaker, Dancing with Mr D.

Interestingly Bill Wyman only plays bass on three of the tunes. Keith or Mick Taylor play on the others. Keith does a creditable job and Mick is excellent. There's an old joke that Ringo wasn't the best drummer in The Beatles, but Bill wasn't even the second-best bass player in the Stones at this point. Come to think of it that didn't change after Mick Taylor left either; Ronnie Wood was Jeff Beck's bass player for a while and I doubt Bill would have got that gig.

[Slim]

12. It's Only Rock'n'Roll (October 1974)

An interesting one. It's not edgy, for want of a better word, like some of their earlier stuff. It's good time, uptempo rock music. Party music even.

Everyone knows the title track of course but there's one brilliant tune on here - Fingerprint File. There's a brilliant phased rhythm guitar part, supposedly played by Jagger. It's like a soul / funk tune. It has a synth part. And as soon as I heard the bass, I said to myself - that's not Bill Wyman and it isn't, it was played by Mick Taylor.

It even has a rap section, or something akin to one. Pretty rad for 1974.

The title track, which many will remember for the video with the band in sailor suits being consumed by foam, is not really a Stones track at all though Mick and Keith perform on it, and mainly wrote it. It was recorded at Ronnie Wood's house. Willie Weeks plays bass, Kenney Jones plays drums. Ronnie, not yet in the band, plays acoustic guitar and helped to write it. David Bowie sings background vocals.

13. Black and Blue (April 1976)

This is a record once assessed by Keith Richards as "not very good" and I think he's right. In the main it feels lazy, limp even. But there's some good stuff on here - Hand of Fate has a bit of the classic Stones swagger and attitude. Fool to Cry would get onto any decent length "Best Of".

One thing you can say for this record is that they weren't resting on a formula. They had a go at reggae on Cherry Oh Baby but it's a painful listen, really flaccid and half-baked. Garbage. Hey Negrita is similar, a sort of miscarried reggae funk tune. Really grates.

Mick Taylor had left the band by this time and the band used several lead players - Harvey Mandel, Wayne Perkins and Ronnie Wood (who of course went on to sign up as a permanent member). Perkins plays a superb solo on Hand of Fate - really sharp and expressive. Beautiful phrasing.

I recognised Memory Motel when I heard it because a proto-feminist girlfriend of mine used to take massive offence at the line "she got a mind of her own and she uses it well". She must have had it on a compilation I think.

I remember seeing this album in the record racks in Hartlepool town centre back in '76, always thought it had a cool cover. Nice to listen to it finally after all these years, but I probably won't repeat the experience. Not all of it, anyway.

Listening to this record gives you a sense of why Punk had to happen. Bands like the Stones and their contemporaries like The Eagles were just putting out bland, tired easy listening snooze-ola or half-baked crap.

14. Some Girls (June 1978)

Another interesting one. Unlike the previous couple of albums it's pretty much the five members of the band, no added keyboards or other guest musicians. It's also produced by Mick and Keith and it feels really basic - almost like a set of soundcheck recordings. Some might see a certain authenticity and charm in the stripped-down, plug in and go ethos, but to me - it just feels underproduced and lazy. Probably because it is.

There are a couple of good tunes on here - hard not to like Miss You or Beast of Burden but if the record purchaser of 1978 was hoping to hear something as sharp and powerful as Gimme Shelter, Sympathy for the Devil or Heartbreaker, they'd have been disappointed.

I did quite enjoy hearing the C&W pastiche Far Away Eyes. It was the b side of Miss You and used to get a run out on the jukebox in the basement bar I frequented when I was a surly teenager. I don't think I'd heard it since then.

[Slim]

15. Emotional Rescue (June 1980)

Opens with with the funky and agreeable Dance (pt 1) which, uniquely on this album was co-written with Ronnie Wood (the other tunes are all Jagger / Richards compositions). Nice. Solid, tight disco-esque bass line, played by Ronnie (sorry to say that Bill would have ruined it). Choppy guitars, repetitive but plenty of energy.

Sadly the rest of the album is, like most of Some Girls, limp and half-baked.

A few interesting quirks, though. On Where The Boys Go they almost sound like a middle-aged Sham 69, with Mick eschewing his usual Deep South American accent for an exaggerated cor-blimey Cockney. Extraordinary. Indian Girl seems to be about the Contra War in Nicaragua, although it doesn't really say very much. And of course Mick attempts falsetto in the title track. Nice punchy bass line on that one, as well. Ronnie again.


16. Tattoo You (August 1981)

An album hurriedly bodged together from unused recordings in the vault, some used as-is, some patched up with new vocal tracks and instrumentation. As you'd expect, it's mostly not very good.

But it does have one classic, the thoroughly decent Start Me Up. Curiously, this was envisaged as a reggae number originally.

There's one other outstanding tune on this album, a number called Black Limousine partly (probably mostly) written by Ronnie. Nothing whatever half-baked or stripped down about this one, it sounds like a proper Stones tune; slick and powerful (if not very original - it's just a 12 Bar Blues, but a very good one).

[Slim]

17: Undercover (November 1983)

A bit of a schizophrenic album this, and not a very good one. Keith was keen to maintain the band's blues / rock'n'roll persona; Mick wanted to explore more contemporary territory. The adventurous, New Wave themed stuff doesn't usually come off and the more traditional rock'n'roll riffola sounds limp and banal.

Everyone knows the title track of course but while it does have a certain sharp, spiky attitude and energy, musically there's not much going on.

They did hire a proper producer for these sessions, Chris Kimsey. But in the main the album sounds a bit haphazard all the same. Charlie's drum parts especially sound tinny and limp.

But at the very least you have to give them props for experimenting with new sounds, even if Keith didn't want to. They attempt reggae again. There are a couple of songs that sound like Joe Jackson tunes, even if they don't have any of Joe's style or good taste.

And there is one song on here that I really liked, Too Much Blood. It has a sort of tribal, world music beat with horns. One of the Stones' roadies who was present at the sessions plays a chorus-drenched guitar part inspired by Andy Summers. And Mick performs an ad-lib rap about violence in the media, firstly in his usual Deep South American accent, then later in his native Sarf East English. It bounces along nicely. Loved it. But it's the only tune I'd return to on this record.

[Slim]

18: Dirty Work (March 1986)

From the first few seconds of One Hit (To the Body) it's clear that this is a different proposition from the last few Stones albums. It's much better recorded. The guitars sound really good, the bass is powerful and full, bass and drums are tightly locked together, it sounds slick and well-produced.

Clearly, someone identified a problem and it was fixed on this record. Steve Lillywhite was brought in to produce it, so I have to assume that's where the credit lies.

Only one tune sounds a bit slapdash - Sleep Tonight, which Keith sings. There's an obvious Dire Straits influence on this one; it was clearly a highly infectious sound - I recall that even Jethro Tull added a Knopfler-sounding tune to their repertoire around this time.

Bill Wyman is credited as playing bass throughout, except for Winning Ugly on which John Regan (in Frehley's Comet at the time) is credited with four string duties. However, unless Bill took bass lessons and possibly some amphetamines before recording this album, I simply don't believe it. The bass sounds right in the pocket through the whole album and there's at least one tune with some very nice funk bass that he simply wasn't capable of.

Wouldn't be the first time that a producer brought in a session man (or several) to cover the inadequacies of one (or more) of the band.

Jimmy Page plays on One Shot (To the Body).

Good record! I especially liked the dub reggae tune, a cover of Half Pint's Too Rude (with Ronnie Wood on drums!) and the cover of Harlem Shuffle, which swings beautifully. But it's all good, even if there are no classics.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I was always been a bit take it or leave it with the Stones music. Liked it but would never really consider buying it. However, they were once a great help in my life. I had to undergo an MRI examination. I'm not hugely claustrophobic but for some reason I was terrified leading up to the experience. The technician was well polished in his way of reassuring nervous patients. He had a kind of gallus (Glaswegian) approach to keeping you calm. He told me it would take about 25 minutes and he would blast my preferred music on headphones to combat the noise of the machine. He looked puzzled when I asked for Rush and said "what about the Stones?". I was pushed into the scary place and as the magnets began to do their thing I heard the beginning bars of Start Me Up which I saw the irony in even under the circumstances. The track passed quickly and I calculated that it must be about four minutes(ish) long which pleased me. It was obviously a greatest hits compilation so all the regulars were played in succession. After about four or five songs I realised it must be nearly over and so it proved. I was really grateful for those songs. Just the correct length and variety to help things along. I don't think side 1 Hemispheres would be the best idea.

[Slim]

When I gave myself this task, to listen to all the Stones' studio albums, I certainly wasn't expecting them to add to my todo list. The single appeared on Wednesday.

I have ambivalent feelings about it. For one thing - I'm a bit sad that they decided to continue as a band and release an album without Charlie, something Keith said wouldn't happen many years ago. However Charlie does appear on it somehow (they must have recycled old studio tapes I guess). Even Bill appears on it, not sure whether ancient bass tracks were used or he's actually popped into the studio this year to play a bit for old times' sake.

Having said that, the Stones always used different musicians. As we've discussed elsewhere, they have always been a lot more flexible in their approach to recording. There are other Stones tunes that Charlie doesn't play on. Plenty (more than people know I suspect) that Bill doesn't play on.

It is though remarkable that a band of that age (Mick is 80, Keith is 80 later this year, Ronnie's 76) are making music at all. It's even more remarkable that at this stage, they can sell out enormous stadiums all over the world and that a new album is big news. And I have to say that they have extraordinary energy considering they are literally, properly old men.

I don't particularly like the single, it's not bad exactly. A bit trite. Most of all I find it surreal. Actually the video is genius, using younger images of the band to enhance the enhance the energy on the pretext of invoking a bit of nostalgia.

I often perform mental exercises like this to get a bit of perspective, but I thought about this earlier. I imagined that when I was 17 and buying records, that a band had released a new album to huge fanfare. They'd released their first album 59 years earlier, in 1918. It's impossible to contemplate, isn't it? I think it says something unfortunate about the stagnation of popular culture over the last few decades.

Anyway the single, I expect you've seen it already.

[Slim]

19: Steel Wheels (August 1989)

Another three years pass, another indifferent Stones album. Three or four tunes in I was convinced it was going to be dismal, but it does pick up a bit.

Even so it's a definite step back in terms of sound from Dirty Work. I'm not going to say half-baked exactly, it doesn't sound like lazy demos, like Emotional Rescue for example. But it's come out of the oven a little bit quicker than I'd like.

Terrifying has a nice beat and a pleasing, insistent subdued guitar riff. It has some Knopfleresque lead guitar, probably a Strat on the mid-position between two pickups.

I remembered Rock And a Hard Place, it's a decent rock song, though the disco bass line that pops up here and now is incongruous. Would be nice to hear a proper hard rock band cover this.

I did really like the tasteful ballad Almost Hear You Sigh, which I remembered as a single. Originally written for one of Mick's solo albums, and co-written with Steve Jordan. Keith supposedly had a part in the writing. Really? OK. In songwriting terms it's head and shoulders above the rest of the tunes on this record, I can only assume that's Steve Jordan's input.

Continental Drift is a curious tune with an Eastern feel and a table drum. I think the bass is electronic (a bass synth, I guess, or a sequencer). Not bad. Interesting. Different.

Blinded by Love is an innocuous light country ballad. Pleasant-ish.

But it's slim pickings on the whole.