The Rolling Stones reconsidered, again.

 ROLLING STONES RECONSIDERED, AGAIN

 

In mid-2024 the Rolling Stones, with octogenarians Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the not much younger Ron Wood and supporting musicians, are touring again, in support of Hackney Diamonds (2023). 

 

Many have hailed the latter as some kind of masterpiece; the strongest Stones album in years, well, it’s the first Stones album of original material since A Bigger Bang (2005.)  I don’t care for Hackney Diamonds.  The best I can say about it, is that it sounds sonically immense. Otherwise, the riffing is just rote, the songs are tuneless arrangements and the lyrics are from “professional songwriting craft” and, like basically all Stones songs since the late ‘70s, do not sound if thy come from inspiration or imagination and have no emotional resonance. Hackney Diamonds is no masterpiece and the likelihood is that most of those who acclaim it, do it simply because the guys who made it are so old that it’s likely there won’t be many more, especially if the gaps between studio albums remain as lengthy as they have been over the last 30 years.

 

In the meantime, the Stones remain a huge live draw (better see them now before it’s too late) and seem to be as energetic on stage as ever, despite their advanced years.  Presumably, they do perform a couple of tracks off the latest album but the reality is that the set list hasn’t changed materially over the past 40 years. The audience aren’t there for tunes off albums released since 1980 (although, of course “Start Me Up” is mandatory); they want to hear the classic canon of Stones music, the songs that made the Stones and the songs we automatically think of when we think Rolling Stones, like “The Last Time,” “satisfaction,”  “Jumping Jack Flash,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Angie,”  “It’s Only Rock and Roll,” “Miss You”  and any of  the other songs that appear on all the compilations. The Stones have  a vast catalogue and the best of it, the memorable tunes that have become part of the cultural landscape of rock, were released before the end of the ‘70s, “Start Me Up” excepted. 

 

I’ve recently watched a thing on YouTube, which is called a review of the Rollings Stones over the period 1973 (Goats Head Soup) to 1983 (Undercover.). The participants are mostly music journalist talking heads and none of the Stones participate except for some brief clips from Keith Richards.

 

The accepted view is that Sticky Fingers (1971) and Exile on Main Street (1972) are the last really good Stones albums, and the final instalments of the purple patch that started with Beggars Banquet (1968) and that after Exile, the ‘70s weren’t a good decade for Stones albums except for the brief phoenix of Some Girls(1978), though some people in the aforementioned review are very kind to Black and Blue (1976) as a brave, innovative musical change in direction for the band.

 

At some point in the late ‘70s or early ‘80s, a writer for the NME made the point that the Stones hadn’t made a properly, full on good album for years.  Each record might have a few good songs on it but there are no albums with, say, 12 top quality songs anymore. As Barney Hoskyns said in the review show, if you cherry pick the ‘70s albums after Exile you can put together a very good compilation and will have no need to listen to the parent albums again.

 

I think Exile is truly excellent and incomparable but don’t quite have the same feeling about Sticky Fingers.

 

Of the rest, I have a very soft spot for It’s Only Rock and Roll (1974), probably because it was the first Stones album I bought that wasn’t a compilation and definitely because the “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” was my radio song of 1974, with the title track just behind, and ahead of J Geils Band’s  “I Must of Got Lost.”

 

At first, I liked only the fast rock songs on It’s Only Rock and Roll and it took repeated plays and becoming older and marginally more mature before I got into the longer, slower tracks “ ’Till the Next Goodbye,”  “Time Waits for No-One” and “If You Really Want to be my Friend” but once I was hooked on them, some of the faster tracks, like “Dance Little Sister” and “If You Can’t Rock Me” paled.

 

“Angie” off Goats Head Soup was a monster hit and almost the only track of that album I like.  For the rest the record just seems too slow, ballad-y, slick and mature, unlike the apparently rough and ready, organic rock and blues of Exile, which seems to come from inspiration, probably because of lengthy jamming, whereas Goat Head Soup seems more calculated, sophisticated and carefully constructed.

 

With Black and Blue, the change in direction, which some see as brave, irked me because these songs, other than “Memory Motel” and “Fool to Cry” just sounded like lightweight throwaways and from this point on, the songwriting really started to sound contrived and professional rather than inspired.  Of course, the band is hot and proficient but still sounded overproduced.

 

I also bought Some Girls (1978) when it came out and, like It’s Only Rock and Roll, it took some time for me to really appreciate and love the record.   Where “Miss You” is genius and viscerally exciting, each time, “Far Away Eyes” is the weakest link on the record and grates but for the rest, the music sounds tough, urgent and vital and if the lyrics still seem to be the product of hard works rather than inspiration, the combination of music and lyrics appeal a lot more than the lyrics would on their own.  Some Girls  is the last Stones album, other the blues record Blue and Lonesome (2016) that I unequivocally like and still play often.

 

Emotional Rescue (1979) is just so poor, weak and silly.   The Stones want to do disco (title track and “Dance, Pt 1”) and  twee power pop, all of the rest other than “Indian Girl” and “Down in the Hole” (the sole worthwhile rock tune), and released a nothing of an album. By the time you get to the end of side two, you barely remember any of the previous songs and, though the title track and “Down in the Hole” have merit, this is the least essential Stones album to date, and perhaps of all time.   It’s a piss poor farewell to the ‘70s. 

 

I would’ve liked to be fonder of Tattoo You (1981) than I am and I don’t care for Undercover (1983) at all, even if  the title track and “Too Much Blood” (in a remixed, club version) received lots of airplay on South African rock radio.  

 

Tattoo You’s fast songs lacked power and the slow songs suffer from early ‘80s production. Undercover’s peak ‘80s production and rock funk style simply grates.   If Emotional Rescue sounds like a contractual obligation, the following albums don’t do much better, especially if you consider that Tattoo You is essentially a compilation of older, uncompleted tracks and Undiscover sounds like a band trying too hard to be contemporary, in a scene they don’t really resonate with, instead of just being the Rolling Stones.

 

Anyway, Steel Wheels (1989) was the first Stones album I bought after Emotional Rescue because the other ‘80s records didn’t seem worthwhile, and still really don’t, and after that the only studio albums I bought were Voodoo Lounge (1994) (I belonged to a record club at the time), A Bigger Bang (the positive reviews motivated me) and Blue & Lonesome (because it seemed that the Stones had returned to their roots) and only the latter is an album that I value and play regularly.  The other  studio records are simply well-produced works of professional craft on which the band rocks out with, paradoxically, no visceral excitement.  The albums are far too long and nothing stands out.  

 

Hackney Diamonds is just one more of the same; a good record for a bunch of old guys but no more than that. It may be revisionist but the Stones would’ve been better served to return to their looser, jamming, blues inspired late ‘60s and very early ‘70s  approach than to try to remain relevant and contemporary in a musical climate where they’ve had no relevance other than as a nostalgic live act with some truly stupendous classic songs.