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.”
Which is ironic, given that “Undercover of the Night” had a lot of the bad production techniques I seem to remember marred the full album: electronic drums, extraneous keyboards, bad dance rhythms. But perhaps it wore me down through sheer ubiquity, or perhaps if it had been the only song like this, I would have been fine.
From what I can tell, “Undercover of the Night” is a political song — certainly the video led me to believe that — but I really didn’t pay attention to the verses, which were clanking and juttering in their rhythms to the point where I’m not sure if either Charlie or Bill played on the song.
So the saving grace of “Undercover of the Night” was its chorus, which alternated Mick’s vocals and guitar licks in a crashing cascading call-and-response.
Cuddle up baby
Cuddle up tight
Cuddle up baby
Keep it all out of sight
Undercover
Keep it all out of sight
Undercover of the night
I should point out that always heard that lyric as “curl up baby / curl up tight”, and I’m trusting that internet that it’s really “cuddle.” Either way, if nothing else about this song is prime Stones, the interplay between Mick’s vocals and Keith’s guitar (unless it’s Ronnie) is thrilling and visceral. The chorus, which changes every single time, is usually followed by a guitar solo — probably Ronnie — which is sometimes echoed by Mick and sometimes not.
That said, “Undercover of The Night” still made it up to #9 on the Billboard charts, which is a pretty good showing for a band now pushing 20.
“Undercover of the Night” Official Video
“Undercover of the Night” Official Alt Video
“Undercover of the Night” live in Atlantic City, 1989
“Undercover of the Night” live in NYC, 2006
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