1. Gimme Shelter*
2. Love in Vain
3. Country Honk*
4. Live with Me
5. Let It Bleed
6. Midnight Rambler
7. You Got the Silver
8. Monkey Man
9. You Can't Always Get What You Want*
***1/2
More of the deeply frustrating, frequently off-putting, occasionally brilliant Roling Stones. Maybe the greatest singles band of all time, but their albums just don't do it for me. There are a few reasons for this, all I suppose pretty idiosyncratic.
The first is that Mick Jagger is an affluent white guy from Britain who really, really wants to be a poor Southerner (ideally, a black one). It's weird.
The second is the band's obsession with trying to make poverty, substance abuse and risky sex seem, for lack of a better word, poetic. Once again, these are very wealthy guys from middle class backgrounds, and few things piss me off more than rich people from good homes trying to sound poor. I also sincerely doubt Mick Jagger spent as much time hanging around in squallid basements shooting heroin as his lyrics seem to insist he did.
The third is just that these are incredibly talented musicians and songwriters, and yet most of their music is just really well-played filler. Don't get me wrong, there are two absolutely brilliant songs on this album. And the Stones really do push music in some new and interesting directions - the style of music on this album, a clever mix of folk, blues, gospel and rock, would basically come to define the early 70s. But then you have crap like "Monkey Man" and the long, pointless jam "Midnight Rambler" almost completely tanking side two of the album. And "Love in Vain" is just a pointless exercise in attitude with utterly banal lyrics. The Stones seem to be trying to tap into the awesome power of Americana and American roots music, but they just don't have the lived experience and direct connection to the material to manage anything more than a bit of technically impressive play acting. I'm sorry, but I need a bit more to go on than something sounding really "real" and "bluesy". A decent hook might be nice, which "Country Honk" at least has even if it's not as good as the rock version.
All of which sounds pretty damning, but I'd say the complete opposite about the opening and closing tracks. On "Gimme Shelter" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want", the band are firing on all cylinders, and Jagger manages to tap into subjects that genuinely matter and that he feels strongly about. "Gimme Shelter" is fucking apocalyptic, and perfectly captures the sense of dread and uncertainty in the air as the 60s came to a close. It also features one of the greatest guitar riffs ever devised, which helps. It still sounds like nothing else, a nightmarish mix of hard rock, psych and gospel that unfortunately sits completely at odds with the more mellow material making up the bulk of the album.
"YCAGWYW" on the other hand, goes in the opposite direction. I don't have to describe it to you, as you've probably heard it about a hundred times, but it's a bold, risky track that shouldn't work yet really does. It's also one of the few moments on the album when Jagger drops the bullshit and sings about something real - there's no pseudo-Bluesman bullshit, just a direct and affecting song about learning to let go of the past and be grateful for what you've got.
So yeah, I can see why people like this album so much, and it really is very good. It's just that I think the bookends have led people to overlook the weakness of the majority of the album and accord it legendary status when it's really just a mishmash with a couple of great songs and a couple of real duds.
Also that cover art is just awful.
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