The Rolling Stones: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll - 1974
"I did have a falling out with Mick Jagger over some songs I felt I should have been credited with co-writing on It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" - Mick Taylor
After the critically-lauded Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street, 1973's Goat's Head Soup began the supposed descent from which The Stones were never to recover, according to many. Another popularly held opinion is that it was something of a "treading water" album with the band at a period of transition. To a certain extent that was true, and this was, unfortunately, the last album to feature the wonderfully talented Mick Taylor on guitar.
Nevertheless, in terms of looking for positives about it - the very fact that it includes Taylor is one huge positive. Secondly, while both this and its predecessor suffer from poor sound quality, the sound on here is markedly improved from the muddiness of Goat's Head Soup. Listening to this album every now and again is always a pleasurable experience. There was some good material there.
After all - it's only rock 'n' roll....
If You Can't Rock Me starts the album off with an upbeat, rousing number for a change, Keith Richards soloing on bass guitar and Ray Cooper on percussion. It is a rocking if slightly unremarkable opener. An overall good start, however, that is continued into the surprisingly good cover of The Temptations' Ain't Too Proud To Beg, from the mid 60s. Motown covers are notoriously difficult, they rarely come close to the originals. This one is not too bad at all. It has a nice memory for me in that I was a few yards away from Jagger as he sung it on a raised side of stage podium at the O2 Centre in London in August 2007.
Till The Next Goodbye is a beautiful, melodic ballad with a touchingly tender Jagger vocal that references his lady's "Louisiana recipes that let you down" at one point (maybe he had a disappointing gumbo). There is a touch of country about it too, despite being set, lyrically, in New York. it is one of my favourites from the album.
A lengthy workout is present in Time Waits For No-One and it features a stunning Mick Taylor lead guitar that was his last great contribution. It also has an appealing drum rim, piano and bass slow burning intro. The bass continues to be of a quality throughout. Indeed, it is played by Mick Taylor, presumably at a different time to his lead guitar! Again, Jagger's vocal here is impressive, vastly improved on his somewhat slurred delivery on Goat's Head Soup. Regarding Taylor's contribution, he is said to have contributed considerably to the writing of these latter two songs and had this to say about that - "I did have a falling out with Mick Jagger over some songs I felt I should have been credited with co-writing on It's Only Rock 'n Roll. We were quite close friends and co-operated quite closely on getting that album made. By that time Mick and Keith weren't really working together as a team so I'd spend a lot of time in the studio." Taylor was not credited, of course - the songs went down as Jagger-Richards compositions - but this showed the first signs of the pair starting to drift away from each other and operating individually. This is something that would carry on for the rest of the seventies and be obvious and often counter-productive by the mid-eighties.
Luxury is an enjoyable piece of cod-reggae seemingly popular with artists at the time (Elton John's Jamaica Jerk-Off and Led Zeppelin's D'Yer Mak'er spring to mind). While it is somewhat unconvincing and Jagger's vocal faintly ludicrous, it has a lively, light, summery appeal. It was, at the time, the "album track" that often seemed to get the radio play upon release. I remember it was the first one I heard from the album, played one Saturday morning on the Stuart Henry show on Radio One.
Another lengthy, slightly mournful ballad was here in If You Really Want To Be My Friend that had echoes of Waiting On A Friend from the Goat's Head sessions that would eventually appear on 1981's Tattoo You compilation of unreleased tracks. Philadelphia soul group Blue Magic (see my review of their debut album) contribute backing vocals.
Short And Curlies is perhaps aptly short and to the point. "She's got you by the balls" proclaims a miffed Jagger, or "bowwwls" as he enunciates it, typically. It was initially recorded during the sessions for Goat's Head Soup.
Fingerprint File was a long one, this was a real high point upon which to end what was a better than popularly thought to be album. The Stones embrace funk with Billy Preston's keyboards and some wah-wah guitar on this slow-paced, mysterious number about the FBI's surveillance techniques. As it fades out among whispers and a descending, disappearing beat at the end, we hear the fading out of the classic end of the 60s-early 70s Stones line up.
Maybe it is this album, not Exile, that sees the last of the truly credible Stones material. It is certainly true to say that after this album The Stones ceased to be at the cutting edge of youth culture, or indeed relevant to it. They were into their thirties now and so were many of their fans. From now on they were seen as respect-worthy elder statesmen or boring old farts, depending on your opinion of them. Me, despite my punk years, I never turned my back on them. Never. Never again would The Stones be considered corrupters of the nation's youth, however. Time waits for no-one.
The 'b' side to the It's Only Rock 'n' Roll single was Through The Lonely Nights. It is a mournful number that sounds like a Keith song but it is Mick on vocal. It has a killer guitar solo on it, possibly from Mick Taylor. The track originated from the Goat's Head Soup sessions.
Dating from an October 1974 session, a few months after the release of this album, is Scarlet, an interesting raw rocker featuring Jimmy Page on guitar and Ric Grech from Family on bass. It has a rough-edged drum sound, some grungy guitar and a sound closer to that of Goat's Head Soup than this album. The track was finally let loose to the public in 2020.
