The Rolling Stones: Steel Wheels - 1989
"We had got into a terrible habit of meandering and being disorganised" - Mick Jagger
Along with 1986's Dirty Work, it is easy to dismiss this album as "execrable", as many, many journalists and fans have done over the subsequent years.
Yes, it is has a synthesiser presence, as did work from many artists in the mid/late eighties, but, in my opinion, it is nowhere near as bad an album as so many have considered it to be. It is actually far superior to Dirty Work. The late eighties were, admittedly a dreadful, barren period for music, and this album suffers some of the drawbacks of coming from that era, but there is still some solid Stones rock on here.
The elephant's in the bathroom....
Sad Sad Sad was an excellent, riffy and catchy opener. Nothing more, nothing less. Classic eighties Stones-by-numbers. Mixed Emotions was a captivating rocker, some great backing riffs and, on the 2009 remaster, a big, throbbing bass sound. Conspiracy theorists claim the title is a subtle play on "Mick's demotion". Yeah, of course it is. Not. I love the line in Sad Sad Sad of "the elephant's in the bedroom, throwing all his weight about", though. Jagger is on revitalised vocal from on these tracks. He sounds totally rejuvenated.In Terrifying we had another killer bass line and a hypnotic intoxicating beat with one of those sleazy, menacing Jagger vocals, going on about "strange, strange desire...". Some nice brass at the end of it and some rhythmic drums from Charlie Watts. Hold On To Your Hat was a breakneck, slightly punky rocker that sounds a bit like it should have been on Dirty Work. It is a catchy number, though, and I have always liked it.
Hearts For Sale was a Jagger vocal-dominated mid-pace, intuitive rocker that I haven't heard for ages and I am quite enjoying discovering it again. Some excellent guitar and harmonica interplay comes in near the end. You know, this really isn't too bad an album.
A lilting, rich bass and fetching percussion introduce another Jagger, Latin-Elizabethan-style groove of a smoocher in the sumptuous Blinded By Love, with him going all snake hips as he gavottes to it, no doubt. There are endearing country-acoustic twinges to the song too. One of the better, undiscovered tracks from the album. Songs like these are never played live, which is a shame. It is current trend, utilised by Bruce Springsteen a lot, to play old albums in their entirety. I reckon it would be good to hear The Stones do so with albums like this.
On Rock And A Hard Place, a typical Stones grinding riff and rubber band bass combine to give us this rocker. This was a single and a good one it was too. Can't Be Seen is an appealing, upbeat Keith song, it would have sounded great on Talk Is Cheap, but it is ok here and considerably ballsier than some of his more wheezing ballads that cropped up with increasing regularity on latter-day Stones albums.Almost Hear You Sigh was a leftover from Richards' Talk Is Cheap sessions, but here is sung, and convincingly too, by Jagger. It does beg the question that all those "Keith songs" would have been better served by Jagger's vocals. Certainly the latter era ones. Not so much the earlier I Got The Silver blues ones. The song features some lovely acoustic guitar in the middle, Ronnie Wood, I think.
Now for the big surprise on the album - Continental Drift was a lengthy song, with instrumental experimentation not heard in The Stones' material for many a year. Moroccan sub-Saharan musicians are used on the track, in true Brian Jones-inspired style. Many have said, rightly, that The Stones would have done a lot more stuff like this, had Jones lived. Best track on the album by a mile. The repeated line "love comes at the speed of light" would not have sounded out of place on Satanic Majesties.
Break The Spell was a sort of grinding, upbeat, jazzy almost rockabilly meets the blues sort of thing - if that makes any sense whatsoever. Either way, it is some speeded-up fun. Then we end, of course, with one of those Richards songs I mentioned earlier in Slipping Away. Actually, despite that, I quite like this one. It has a gentle tenderness to it.
All in all, a much better, more enjoyable album than it is ever given credit for being.
The 'b' side to Mixed Emotions was a real gem, the copper-bottomed Stones blues of Fancy Man Blues. A great "rarity" of a track. Jagger's vocal is impressive as is the piano. The 'b' side to Terrifying was Wish I'd Never Met You. It is another solid, chunky blues featuring some more excellent piano and guitar. Imagine if both these tracks had been on the album, I reckon it would have been received far more favourably.
