Medialoper

Certain Songs #2103: The Rolling Stones – “Rough Justice”

May 10, 2021 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: A Bigger Bang
Year: 2005

. . .

Way back in 1981, The Rolling Stones felt like they had to have a new album to tour, and thus Tattoo You was assembled from duct tape and bailing wire. In the 21st century, however, there is no such need, and new records from the Stones have essentially dried up even as they continued touring.

And so, suddenly, it’s 2021, and they’ve only released a single album of all-new material this century. I’m sure that some of you are fine with that, as the they’ve become a bit like The Simpsons: both institutions answer the age-old question of what if you loved something so much that you never wanted it to go away? And then it didn’t!?!

Certain Songs #2102: The Rolling Stones – “Don’t Stop”

May 8, 2021 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Forty Licks
Year: 2002

. . .

While the Stones had been putting out compilation albums since 1966’s Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass), those compilations were either focused on either their pre Rolling Stones Records work or everything they’d done since they founded their own imprint.

That all changed with 2002’s Forty Licks compilation. That’s because because ABKCO had been bought by Universal Music and now all of the Rolling Stones’ music was now under a single roof. Score one for record industry consolidation!!! I guess.

Certain Songs #2101: The Rolling Stones – “Saint of Me”

May 7, 2021 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Bridges to Babylon
Year: 1997

. . .

I’m sure there are people out there whose favorite Rolling Stones albums are Voodoo Lounge or Bridges to Babylon, and god bless those people. But both albums basically passed me by: I bought them when they came out, I listened to them a few times; put the songs I liked onto mixtapes, and filed them with the rest of my Stones records, knowing that when I wanted to listen to the Stones, I had any number of great records from which to choose. And all of those had Bill Wyman playing bass, Wyman having flown the coop after the Steel Wheels tours.

Which is not fair to either record, but here we are. I feel weird that Voodoo Lounge is the first album I completely skipped for this project — and certainly I considered writing about “You Got Me Rocking” or “Sparks Will Fly,” but I really had nothing to say about either song, which is one of the criteria of course for writing about a song.

Certain Songs #2100: The Rolling Stones – “Mixed Emotions”

May 6, 2021 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Steel Wheels
Year: 1989

. . .

While Mick Jaggers’ first solo album, She’s The Boss, made it to #13 on the Billboard charts, his second solo album, Primitive Cool, didn’t even crack the top 40. In between, of course, was the much reviled Dirty Work, which still made it to #4.

And when Keith followed up with his critically-acclaimed solo debut, Talk is Cheap, which didn’t crack the top 20, but still did way better than Primitive Cool, Mick saw the writing on the wall and threw in the towel, deciding that maybe his solo career wasn’t ever going to happen the way he’d imagined. The question, of course, was whether or not it was too late for the boys to get it back.

Certain Songs #2099: The Rolling Stones – “Sad Sad Sad”

May 5, 2021 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Steel Wheels
Year: 1989

. . .

The second (and heretofore final) time I saw The Rolling Stones in concert was on either November 4th or November 5th 1989 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which is called something else today, I’m sure. Sorry for the ambiguity on the dates, but I don’t have a ticket stub and that was 30-plus years ago.

In any event, the vibe was much mellower at the end of the 1980s than it was at the beginning, especially since this was the first U.S. tour the Stones had done since then, and it felt like a small miracle that it was even happening in the first place. The vibe felt reassuring, and not just because everybody was eight years old, but because everybody knew that the Stones had almost broken up and who else was going to beast the burden of their massive history?

Certain Songs #2098: The Rolling Stones – “Fight”

May 4, 2021 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Dirty Work
Year: 1986

. . .

Remember when Rolling Stones album covers where five sullen dudes all in black staring down the camera in a black background? Not so much with the cover shot for Dirty Work, which was one of their greatest misfires ever. With four out of the five Stones wearing neon pink jackets — only Charlie, the snappiest dresser of the lot, demurred — assembled around a day-glo couch, I’m convinced that a lot of people just laughed and never played the fucking record.

I mean, yeah, you’d expect Mick to dress trendy, maybe even Bill & Ron, but how in the fuck did they talk Keith into this? You can see that he’s trying to save some face by making sure his ubiquitous skull ring is displayed, but even more than the big-ass snare sound that co-producer Steve Lillywhite got, nothing screams “HEY, WE’RE SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING 1980s” more on Dirty Work than that godawful cover. At least nobody’s smiling.

Certain Songs #2097: The Rolling Stones – “One Hit (To The Body)”

May 3, 2021 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Dirty Work
Year: 1986

. . .

Written and recorded smack dab in the middle of their nadir, Dirty Work has often been slagged as one of their worst albums, but I like it more than any of their records between Tattoo You and A Bigger Bang.

It’s true that Mick Jagger had snuck a solo deal on top of the Stones’ contract with their new distributor, CBS, and it’s true that Mick immediately went out and cut his solo debut, She’s The Boss, dreaming of glory outside of the context of the band that had helped define him. The apotheosis of all of this was probably Live Aid, when Mick performed as a solo artist and with Tina Turner and Keith and Ronnie backed up a fucked-up Bob Dylan.

Certain Songs #2096: The Rolling Stones – “Dog Shit”

April 30, 2021 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Fully Finished Studio Outtakes
Year: 1983

. . .

The idea that the Rolling Stones had died in a plane crash in 1978 — just after they recorded the Dallas show — was first mooted back in 1985, when we came in contact with the infamous Cat Burglars, whose “Song For Julie Newmar” had just showed up mysteriously in the KFSR studios and became a minor hit.

Eventually, The Cat Burglars themselves showed up a couple of times at KSFR, most infamously at an in studio show broadcast live on KSFR. They — Bob Feline, Jules Newmar and Anonymous — were like Chuck Berry and went from town to town playing with pick-up band, so Blake, Ross, Joseph and I backed them up, and more a foul assortment of scum and villany I’m not sure I’ve ever seen, especially that fucker Anonymous.

Certain Songs #2095: The Rolling Stones – “Undercover of the Night”

April 29, 2021 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Undercover
Year: 1983

. . .

For two decades, The Rolling Stones got away with exploiting the tension between Mick Jagger’s restless desire for staying right on top of the trends and Keith Richards’ equally restless desire to find new nuances in the traditional. Then, in 1983, it all went to shit, when they released Undercover, an album that not only did I not like, I fucking hated.

As a matter of fact, I hated it so much, I didn’t even bother revisiting it for this project: the only one of their records I did that with. While 1983 Jim had a lot of musical opinions that 2021 Jim now scoffs at, I trust his judgement on this record: it’s a complete piece of shit. With one exception: the lead single “Undercover of the Night.”

Certain Songs #2094: The Rolling Stones – “Waiting on a Friend”

April 28, 2021 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Tattoo You
Year: 1981

. . .

The first time I saw The Rolling Stones in concert was Friday, October 9, 1981 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Tim and I drove down the night before and were able to park on the USC campus and walk to the show rather than dealing with the traffic snarls caused by 100,000 people descending on the Coliseum on a Friday.

That’s because we had a friend, Anna, who lived in an apartment on campus and let us crash there (in exchange for tickets for her and her roommate), still one of my all-time favorite logistical coups for a big concert. In any event, I was so excited for the show — I was going to see the Rolling Stones! — I drank like a pint of vodka in order to get to sleep and was incredibly hungover for much of the wait in the long lines to get in. Despite all that, we went out for pizza after the show, as well as went to Westwood Village, and then drove home, getting into Fresno at around 6:00AM, because I had nothing but energy when I was 18.