No. 355: Between The Buttons

Band: The Rolling Stones
Album: Between the Buttons
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: The Stones' pretentiousness is evident on this album. Despite doing a fair amount of blue collar blues rock, both Richards and Jagger were upper class lads and their upper crust British society leanings come out on "Between The Buttons." I kind of respect this, despite not being a Stones fan.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I'm tired of the Stones and this is one of the band's least consequential albums.
Best song: "Something Happened to Me Yesterday" is a great drug anthem.
Worst song: "Who's Been Sleeping Here?" stinks.
Is it awesome?: Nope.

You know what, you've read this post before. The Stones are an iconic band (hell, the magazine is sorta named after them) and this is one of their early(ish) albums. It's got some classic songs -- "Something Happened to Me Yesterday" on both versions and "Ruby Tuesday" and "Let's Spend the Night Together" on the American version -- but, overall, the album is a sad reflection of a band nowhere near its contemporaries. While the Beach Boys were doing "Pet Sounds," the Who was doing "The Who Sell Out" and the Beatles were doing "Sgt. Pepper," this is what the Stones were doing?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The Stones are a greatest hits band. Nothing more, nothing less.

No. 269: Some Girls

Band: The Rolling Stones
Album: Some Girls
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: One of the iconic band's iconic albums, "Some Girls" fuses several different distinct genres during said genres' peak of popularity. As is the Stones' way, the classic outlaw spirit peppers the album nicely and evenly.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: There's a lot of filler on here, which isn't a big surprise. Some of the songs are entirely forgettable.
Best song: "Beast of Burden" will always have a place in my heart if only because I had heard the lyrics wrong as "I'll never be your pizza burning." That still makes me laugh.
Worst song: I don't care for "Far Away Eyes."
Is it awesome?: Not really.

I can't really write anything about this album that hasn't already been written a million times, so let me just say the incredibly not controversial thing in saying that I wish they stopped making music a long time ago.

That bands like the Stones, Who and Led Zeppelin can continue to tour despite not making any new music of consequence is sad. The Stones continue to tour, despite all of them looking like the dead pirates.

I would be lying if I didn't say that I enjoy "Beast of Burden," "Shattered" and "Miss You." The Stones are so heavily playlisted -- I imagine, partially due to the fact that they still tour -- on classic rock radio that we all know each one by heart. Because I was a suburban teenager, I listened to (and, on some level, still listen to) classic rock radio. Therefore, I don't even really like the Stones, but I've heard each of their hits so many times that they're part of my subconscious. If a radio station (or, god forbid, MTV) gets a hold of something, it becomespart of the culture.

This, on some level, makes me respect Springsteen a little more. Of his 23-song set at the Verizon Center, he played eight songs from his latest album (hat tip to Ellen for the stats). Springsteen, while playing a lot of favorites, did want to play his new stuff.

(And was rewarded. According to Ellen, who was there, the crowd did go nuts for the new stuff.)

Page and Plant haven't recorded new music together, I think, since the late '70s. The Who recently released an album of new stuff, but before that, the band had done several reunion tours to simply play "My Generation," do some windmills and print money.

That's what the Stones do. They open with "Satisfaction" and they close with "Sympathy For The Devil." I can't really begrudge them for making money or playing songs that are, for all intents and purposes, classics.

But, move to the side, gents. There are bands out there who get no play and deserve to be playing those stages and getting some radio play.

No. 211: Tattoo You

Band: The Rolling Stones
Album: Tattoo You
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Considered by some to be the Stones' best album, "Tattoo You" opens with one of the band's most popular songs and ends with one of the band's best. Because of its prolonged recording history (most of the songs came from pre-1980 sessions and were simply augmented during the recording), the album doesn't reflect the disco era from which it came.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: This is album no. eight of theirs on this list, so I've run out of ways to say that the Rolling Stones don't excite me.
Best song: "Waiting On A Friend" is surprisingly mature for a Stones record.
Worst song: People like "Slave," but it doesn't appear to be more than some chanting, a riff and a sax solo.
Is it awesome?: Nope.

"Tattoo You" is both interesting and boring at the same time. It's interesting in that the album is almost a housecleaning effort. Only two of the songs come from sessions in 1980, when the album was put together (our good friend Wikipedia has the details). The other eight were all leftover songs that were written and bare-bones recorded in the early-mid 1970s. The band spent the proper "Tattoo You" sessions overdubbing. In fact, "Waiting On A Friend" had no Ron Wood guitar in it at all. That song's guitar is all Briant Taylor, who was no longer in the band by 1980. He continues to get royalties for the album.

It's boring because it isn't really anything different from previous and future Stones efforts. Sure, there's the dance-tinged "Start Me Up," but the rest of the record is standard Stones fare. There's the fast-paced blues "Neighbors," the cop of "Hoochie Coochie Man" on "Black Limousine," the "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" cop on "Slave" and balladry of "Tops." It even has the requisite sexist song in the Richards-sung "Little T&A."

"Waiting On A Friend" is introspective -- something to laud, surely -- and a good song to boot, but it isn't really anything more than a slower blues rock song. It's doesn't depart from the script, musically.

At the time of "Tattoo You," the Stones were at the top of their "best band in rock and roll" nonsense. I imagine some of the praise heaped on it is due to this claim of greatness. More of the praise is surely based on the love of "Start Me Up," however misguided that may be. Nevertheless, I'm not a fan.

No. 181: The Rolling Stones, Now!

Band: The Rolling Stones
Album: The Rolling Stones, Now!
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Certainly the strongest of the band's early American releases, "The Rolling Stones, Now!" mixes some great early Jagger/Richards material with old blues-rock standards. Where Aerosmith wanted to go in the 70s... That's where the Stones were in the 60s.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: There's a certain amount of overkill in throwing all these Stones records on here, right? This is a solid album, certainly, but is there a certain level of tokenism -- the magazine is named after the band, after all, so they need to get the band on the list a lot -- in this sort of selection.
Best song: "Heart Of Stone" is kind of misanthropic, but certainly a great song.
Worst song: The cover of Bo Diddley's "Mona" isn't great.
Is it awesome?: It's overkill, but it's also a quality album.

It's easy to forget that the Rolling Stones were once young art-schooly British lads, covering old R&B songs and generally rocking out. Pre-heroin, pre androgyny, pre-car commercials, pre-arenas, the Stones were just a bunch of rich kids who liked Bo Diddley.

"The Rolling Stones, Now!" shows the Stones at their green best. The Jagger/Richards originals are in short supply (four of the 12 tracks), but none are subpar while "Heart of Stone" is up on the shortlist of great original Stones songs. An angry womanizer, the protagonist uses his youthful angst to pronounce the ubiquitous chorus.

The covers, while mostly standard, are also right in the band's wheelhouse. Ranging from the oft-covered Willie Dixon classic "Little Red Rooster" to Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me," the Stones show their dexterity in playing old blues, some country and early rock and roll hits.

Overall, it's a look into the Stones as young men. For those of us who know "Heart Of Stone" from jewelry commercials, it's a fulfilling record that expands the band's import.

No. 114: Out Of Our Heads

Band: The Rolling Stones
Album: Out Of Our Heads
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Perhaps no band is as associated with a song as the Stones are with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and the fourth U.S. Stones album has it.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Who the hell cares about every song on "Out Of Our Heads" other than "Play With Fire," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "The Last Time?" Probably no one.
Best song: Come on, you know this.
Worst song: Everything other than the three mentioned songs, though "The Spider And The Fly" isn't terrible.
Is it awesome?: Nope.

Not to cross lists, but Rolling Stone (the magazine) placed "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" as the no. 2 song on its "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time." It's hard to separate the song from the band, as it basically encompasses everything that the Stones were about in the mid '1960s. The anti-establishment bent of striking down what the TV was telling him to wear. This derision turns decidedly aggressive, in Jagger telling the man on the TV that he can't be a man because of his cigarette choice. It's the voice of youthful frustration (something Jagger has said he meant to convey), thus being the attitudinal template for punk rock.

The riff itself is decidedly aggressive and probably the start of really hard rock. It easily moves up the neck of the guitar, setting the stage for, basically, 80% of what Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin did.

Rolling Stone (again, the magazine) explains it as such:

That spark in the night -- the riff that opens and defines "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" -- was the crossroads: the point at which the rickety jump and puppy love of early rock & roll became rock. The primal temper of Richards' creation, played through a Gibson Fuzz Box; the sneering dismissal in Mick Jagger's lyrics and his devouring howl in the chorus; the avenging strut of rhythm guitarist Brian Jones, bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts: They were the sound of a generation impatient to inherit the earth.

The best part of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is the covers. Otis Redding recorded one in which he sang "Satisfashion." Britney Spears (performed and) recorded it for her "Oops!... I Did It Again" album. Bjork and PJ Harvey did a version together for British TV. Devo's done -- probably -- the second most famous version, by making the song sound wonderfully mechanical. Cat Power's version -- my favorite -- has her eschewing the chorus altogether (on the record. Not live).

Is "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" one of the best rock and roll songs? Look at its influence. Punk rock took its attitude, metal took its sound. It became a sock hop song unlike any other.

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The rest of "Out Of Our Heads" stinks, save for "The Last Time" and maybe "Play With Fire." "The Last Time" will always hold a place in my heart as it was the first and last song (albeit a cover by The Who) I played as a DJ on my high school and college radio station. "Play With Fire" remains the idiotic blue collar rock that the Stones have done for years, though it is catchy.

Otherwise, it's mostly white boy blues nonsense. I appreciate that they could shine the light on that music style, but trying to ape it is hit and miss. "The Spider And The Fly" is the best of the bunch, but it's mostly forgettable.

No. 108: Aftermath

Band: The Rolling Stones
Album: Aftermath
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: "Aftermath" catches the band at the height of their British Invasion-spawned success. The record has some of their best early stuff including (on the U.S. version) the incomparable "Paint it, Black" and (on both versions) the sexist classic "Under My Thumb."
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Because it was 1966, it's hard to say that the album is great. There are great songs, but the Stones were a singles band at that point. Moreover, the difference between the U.S. and U.K. versions are stark, so it's hard to even rate it.
Best song: The best song that appears on both versions is either "Lady Jane" or "Under My Thumb." The U.S. version has "Paint It, Black" and that one is among the band's best songs.
Worst song: "Think" stinks.
Is it awesome?: It's pretty good, but I'd still stick with the singles box.

I really wish The Believer -- One of McSweeney's periodicals -- put their stories online, because the music issue had an excellent essay on the Stones, the Beatles and each band's relationship to American counter culture in the late '60s. It has little to do with this album, but I just wanted to point it out. If you can find the 2007 Believer Music Issue, buy it. It's got great stuff in there.

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There aren't a million ways to say it: "Aftermath" is a decent album. Like a lot of Stones records, there are a few good songs, but there's also a lot of "white guys covering blues songs and/or writing their own blues riffs" on there. It's trying to have to listen to the whole thing. Undiscovered album tracks are few and far between on Stones records.

"Aftermath" is the exemplification of this. The U.S. version (the one I have) starts "Paint It, Black" and also features "Stupid Girl," "Lady Jane" and "Under My Thumb" as the next three songs. That's it for good songs on the album; "Aftermath" might as well be a four-song EP. The Stones' singles are great, but these non-single album tracks are trying. They're bland blue collar rock.

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Not enough, I think, has been made about the chauvinist nature of some of two of the Stones' classic songs on this record. "Stupid Girl" in and of itself is pretty awful, lyrically, as it basically posits that any woman who cares about, well, anything, is a stupid girl. The underlying notion in the song is one that's been prevalent in our culture for a while -- a man who is opinionated is "opinionated," while an opinionated woman is a "bitch."

"Under My Thumb," of course, is probably worse. You can extrapolate the personality traits of "Stupid Girl" and believe it's about a specific woman; "Under My Thumb" takes on feminism at its heart. The want for control is pretty evident in song:

"It's down to me
The difference in the clothes she wears
Down to me, the change has come,
She's under my thumb"

At other points in the song, Jagger calls this woman "a siamese cat," a "squirmin' dog," and "the sweetest pet in the world." Jagger finally praises her for "The way she talks when she's spoken to."

Fantastic.

It's too bad, too. The guitar riff to "Under My Thumb" is pretty awesome and Jagger's sneer is as good as it gets on the track. Too bad it's "Stranglehold" ten years earlier.

No. 63: Sticky Fingers

Band: The Rolling Stones
Album: Sticky Fingers
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Known as much for the Warhol-designed cover as for the actual songs, "Sticky Fingers" is considered a pop culture icon of a record. It was released during the Stones' most critically acclaimed period and remains a favorite of many.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: It doesn't live up to the hype. Armed with a grand total of two good songs, the record is just more boring blues-based rock that the Stones did well, but did over and over and over and over.
Best song: "Brown Sugar" and "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" are the two best.
Worst song: "Moonlight Mile" is awful. Any time a band does a song about how hard it is on the road, I turn the record off.
Is it awesome?: Probably not, though it's decent.

I love Andy Warhol's art. I think it's strangely evocative in a post-modern way. His art just screamed "rock and roll," hence this particular cover (complete with working zipper!).

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It's fitting that "Sticky Fingers" is close to "Appetite For Destruction" on this list, as they're both drenched in drugs/alcohol. "Brown Sugar" has the triple meaning of race, drugs and, uh, confections, while "Wild Horses," "Sister Morphine" and "Dead Flowers" are pretty clearly about heroin. "Moonlight Mile" is an earlier version of "Turn the Page," a pimple on the ass of music.

For the millionth time, I'm not a huge Stones guy, but I do enjoy this album. Despite all the drug references, the lyrics are solid and interesting, if not brilliant. The blues riffs vary in style and length, from the slow Delta of "Sway" to the more honky tonk-ness of "Can't You Hear Me Knocking."

"Brown Sugar" is probably the most well-known song from "Sticky Fingers" and it should be. It's the smartest song on the record and the wordplay of interracial love is among the smartest lyrics he's ever written. An indictment of the slave trade (yes, a 100-year-old reference), the opening verse is sarcastic and clever:

Gold Coast slaveship bound for cotton fields
Sold in a market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver know he's doin' alright
Hear him whip the women just around midnight

Never mind that this was 1970. Never mind that the term "brown sugar" is also a euphemism for heroin. Just taken as a criticism of the country that was second-to-last to outlaw slavery, the lyric is great.

"Sticky Fingers" is a Stones record, meaning it has a couple of great songs and a whole lot of quasi blues rock. That's fine and the highs (specifically, "Brown Sugar") are pretty high.

No. 57: Beggars Banquet

Band: The Rolling Stones
Album: Beggars Banquet
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: The return to the Stones' roots was a huge success and has one of the best -- and controversial -- songs in "Sympathy For The Devil." The addition of different instrumentation to the band's traditional blues rock doesn't change the vibe of the song, it simply adds to it.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: In my opinion, this is the Stones' best work. I'd rate it above "Exile On Main Street."
Best song: "No Expectations," "Sympathy For The Devil" and "Street Fighting Man" are all excellent songs.
Worst song: "Stray Cat Blues" is just OK.
Is it awesome?: Absolutely.

"Beggars Banquet" is my favorite Rolling Stones album, though not only on the strength of the record's two most famous songs ("Street Fighting Man" and "Sympathy For The Devil"). The album, released in 1968, was seen as a return to the band's famous blues rock sound after the psychedelic "Their Satanic Majesties Request."

Those two famous songs are great, though mostly misinterpreted. For one, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were children of the middle/upper class upbringing, so the idea that Jagger was a "poor boy" who was also a "Street Fighting Man" is pretty much garbage. "Street Fighting Man" also had the inopportunity of being released around the time of the post-MLK assassination riots in 1968. It became something of a rallying cry for the young left (despite the Stones' mostly decided silence on political issues). In reality, the song was written after Jagger attended a rally of Trotskyist Tariq Ali.

"Sympathy For The Devil" was, at the time, wildly misinterpreted. written from the point of view of the biblical devil (the trickster who made humanity fundamentally flawed), the song lists varying atrocities throughout history with Lucifer giving himself credit for them. At the time, reactionary squares and authority figures claimed the Stones were indeed Satanists.

Even today, the song is horribly misinterpreted. The National Review's list of the greatest conservative rock songs lists "Sympathy" as the third-greatest conservative rock song ever, citing a line here or there that give the devil credit for communism.

Here's the problem: It's the Stones' smartest song because the whole of the song relies on the evil of man. The lines "I rode a tank, Held a generals rank, When the blitzkrieg raged, And the bodies stank" can be thought to say that the Nazis were the devil (or evil), when Milgram's experiment shows pretty clearly that those people were human and that what we consider to be good people can do horrible things. This is the same nature of the bit where Jagger sings "I shouted out, Who killed the Kennedys? When after all, It was you and me."

This is backed up by one of the better quotes from Richards. In Rolling Stone magazine, Richards addressed the Satanist charges.

"What is evil? Half of it, I don't know how much people think of Mick as the devil or as just a good rock performer or what? There are black magicians who think we are acting as unknown agents of Lucifer and others who think we are Lucifer. Everybody's Lucifer."

It appears to be the main point of the song: We have sympathy for the devil, because evil lurks in all of us.

The most major problem, of course, with the thesis of "'Sympathy' as conservative song" is my favorite segment of the song: "I watched with glee, While your kings and queens, Fought for ten decades, For the gods they made." That bit is an atheist's dream and one that I firmly believe. We created "God" and "The Devil" in our image because we have each in every human.

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That's not to say that those two songs are the only part of the record, because they're not. "Salt Of The Earth" is a wonderful cynical tribute to the working class (complete with Richards' vocals!) white "Parachute Woman" is mildly dirty. "No Expectations" is classic old time blues and probably my favorite non-single Stones song. Brian Jones' slide guitar is as good as it gets.

In fact on the strength of the non-singles, I'd suggest that "Beggars" is the best Stones album. They don't try to do too much (like, say, the wacky country of "Country Honk".

No. 32: Let It Bleed

Band: The Rolling Stone
Album: Let It Bleed
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Wow, um, I'm not sure. “Gimme Shelter” is a pretty amazing song. “You Can't Always Get What You Want” isn't terrible.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I guess I just don't get it. These songs are all decent, but there isn't anything all that interesting about them. Sweet, blues riffs. Good work.
Best song: “Gimme Shelter” and it isn't even close.
Worst song: “Country Honk” is total sewage. It's “Honky Tonk Woman,” but in a ridiculous actual honky tonk style.
Is it awesome?: Nope.

I don't like the Stones that much. Before this project, I had one proper album (“Beggar's Banquet”) and the singles box. The singles box (a three-disc set) is pretty good as all the good Stones records are singles.

“Let It Bleed” has all of two singles on it. The first, “Gimme Shelter,” is awesome. It's a cool protest song that utilizes a pretty cool rhythm. The second “You Can't Always Get What You Want” isn't any good. It relies on a stupid proverb type phrasing that has been so overdone since its release, you got tired of it ten years ago. It also has the dumb choir singing the chorus at the beginning,

The rest is just the Stones trying to sound like American bluesmen or traveling country troubadours. Neither is interesting to me and certainly not by a bunch of suburban London kids.

No. 7: Exile on Main Street

Band: The Rolling Stones
Album: Exile on Main Street
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: An epic double album, most believe it to be the Rolling Stones' greatest achievement. It marked a changing of eras within the Stones, from their single-based accessible blues rock to a harder-edged sound. It's considered a landmark in hard rock, partially because of its "vox low in the mix" production style.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I guess I just don't see it. It's somewhat hard, but none of the songs really hit me. It's like "Highway 61," only with one tenth of the intellect and six years later.
Best song: A lot of people like "Rocks Off," but I'll go with the one you all know: "Tumblin' Dice."
Worst song: "Loving Cup" is dreck.
Is it awesome?: Not in my opinion. I prefer other Stones albums, but people seem to adore it.

Though I didn't mention it in the "my biases" piece, I'm not the biggest Stones fan. I am firmly in the Beatles camp and the Stones has some real blue collar rock tinges to them. Nowhere is that more evident than on this record. Certainly, it spawned "Exile in Guyville," which is good, but I prefer "Beggars Banquet." The Stones, in my opinion, are simply considered great because they hung around a long time. Kind of like music's Jamie Moyer.