The Rolling Stones: Singles Box 1968-1971
Could these Rolling Stone complete singles box sets get any better? You bet your arse they could!
Jumpin' Jack Flash
It was the look of The Rolling Stones that first did it for me - the cockiness, the laddish (but pretty harmless) sexism, the sneers, the long hair. A general wilful grubbiness that appealed to many young boys such as myself. I let my hair grow Stones-ish. No mop-top for me, thank you very much. When The Stones really started to resonate with me, sonically, was in 1968 when Jumpin' Jack Flash hit the number one spot. Wow! What a devilish brew of a song. What an accompanying video they showed on Top Of The Pops as well - the group looking positively Mephistophelean. I was ten by then and I loved it. The huge, dirty riff, the menacing lyrics - "I was bawwwn in a crossfire hurricaaaaane...." - and Mick Jagger's drawled, affected but immensely captivating singing. I'll take half a pound of those please...this was the absolute dog's bollocks.
Child Of The Moon
If the previous box's Who's Driving Your Plane? was Stones deep cut Heaven, this trippy psychedelic swirl is hidden gem Nirvana. It is up there with The Beatles' tripped-out rock classics. Forget the blues of Beggars' Banquet, this was the heady, unsteady bridge between the blissed-out nonsense of Satanic Majesties and the more sombre, earthy blues of BB. The pairing of Jumpin' Jack Flash and this makes for one of The Stones (and the sixties) best-ever 45 rpm releases. It often appears on people's lists of "great 'b' sides". From its killer, twangy, jangly intro via its rolling Ringo-like drums to Jagger's drawled vocal, it is a sheer joy.
Street Fighting Man
This corker of a track was an ideal anthem for the turbulent summer of 1968, which saw students rioting in the streets and fighting running battles with police, particularly in Paris. The song takes Martha Reeves & The Vandellas' Dancing In The Street and paraphrases its title and meaning into something darker. Musically, it gives us the first truly great guitar "riff intro" since (possibly) Get Off Of My Cloud or Under My Thumb and Jagger's affected vocal - "my name is called distur-BOWANCE ....what can a poh-wah boh-way do, sep' play in a roggh-roll bai-yand?". Great stuff. As a ten year old boy who had always preferred The Stones to those milksop Beatles, this was music to my young ears. This was how I wanted my Stones to sound, even then. Rod Stewart also did a cracking cover of it on his debut solo album, An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down, in 1969.
No Expectations
Now it is blues to the fore with the stark, bass and slide guitar-driven No Expectations, with its plaintive, bluesy vocal and laid-back, dusty blues sound. It was The Stones at their most authentic, blues-wise.
Surprise, Surprise
A strange, retrospective release here. I'm not sure why it appears. Beginning with a fast-paced rockabilly drum sound, this is a little-known Mick and Keith piece of pop-rock. It has that youthful energy to it that means that, although it is admittedly a pretty lightweight song, it still has a toe-tapping vibrant appeal. I can't help but enjoy it.
Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
Ditto above. There was a shorter (2:57) version of the much longer one that had appeared on The Rolling Stones #2 album, apparently this was the result of an error at the record processing factory! The one that appears here, though, is the superior longer version. Solomon Burke's song would seem to have been tailor-made for The Stones. It was a fine example of the whole British Blues Explosion thing circa 1964-65. Mick Jagger gives the song an ad hoc, almost "live" feel that is completely convincing, despite what several naysayers have subsequently said. This was still a young band, remember. Taking that into account, their achievements were quite remarkable.
Honky Tonk Women
Back to 1969 now. No, it wasn't good old Charlie Watts on cowbell, was it? Lots of us spent years thinking it was - including John Otway - if you're an Otway fan you'll recognise the reference, if not, ignore it. Anyway, it was producer Jimmy Miller tapping out that iconic, clunking, metallic rhythm before Keith comes in and blows the lid off the whole damn thing. The lyrics are just so deliciously bawdy too, aren't they? "I met a gin-soaked bar-room Queen in Memphis...." and "I laid a divorcee in New York City", Jagger enunciates these lines wonderfully, in his best leery fashion. Pretty much everything about this single was perfect. It was a candidate for number one in my list. Quite what possessed The Stones to not include it on the Let It Bleed album in preference to the muddy blues of its cousin Country Honk is beyond me.
You Can't Always Get What You Want
This was, of course, an extended rock anthem with build-up shades of Jimi Hendrix's The Wind Cries Mary and an invigorating gospel choir massive, dramatic ending. The choir is used at the beginning and end of the song and remain somewhat detached from the song's sleazily infectious main part. I guess the song could have been done without the choir, but we are all so used to it now that it would sound odd any other way, wouldn't it? Indeed, the single version of the song omits the choir at the beginning but I have always preferred the full monty. It's an album track, isn't it? What's my favourite flavour? Cherry red.
Memo From Turner
There are two versions of this excellent blues rocker. The version of Memo From Turner that appears on the Metamorphosis compilation is more raw, edgy and faster than the one released by Mick Jagger in 1970. It is almost punky in comparison to the drawly, guitar-dominated later version. I prefer the longer (4 minute), later version, although I like both of them. The vocals are clearer on the latter too and it is this one that is included here. It has to go down as a Stones classic even though it is technically a Mick Jagger solo single. I love it.
Natural Magic
A short bit of guitar jamming is found on this instrumental 'b' side, played (I think) by Ry Cooder, who definitely played slide guitar on Memo From Turner. It probably came from the soundtrack to the movie Performance, from whence Memo came.
Brown Sugar
Well, you simply cannot beat the riffy, sleazy glory of Brown Sugar, can you? Dodgy lyrics and all. It is up there as a candidate for the best Stones song of all time - the iconic opening riff, Jagger’s leery vocal, Bobby Keys’ blistering sax...
"I’m no schoolboy but I know what I like"...and I have done since I was that schoolboy.
Some have criticised the song for its more obvious commercial sound compared to the rest of the Sticky Fingers album. Sometimes some critics astound me - so it’s catchy, lively and gets you off your feet - so it should, it’s The Rolling fucking Stones. I always remember the song being performed on Top Of The Pops, with Jagger looking strangely yellow-eyed. I loved it back then and, of course, I still do. We got a colour telly in 1971, life went into colour with immediate effect and Brown Sugar came out at the same time. Jagger strutting around on that Top Of The Pops performance in a pink shiny suit and looking just so supremely decadent. The King of Knaves. They just looked the absolute business. That was that sealed for me. The Stones were here to stay. They have been here ever since. They always will. Say what you like about them going through the motions for over thirty, forty, fifty, sixty years. So what? Just listen to any Keith Richards intro. They can go through as many motions as they fucking well like, man.
Bitch
Want a bit more copper-bottomed Stones rock? Then flip over to the 'b' side of Brown Sugar - check out the grubby but glorious swagger of this horn-drenched beauty - Bitch. Those horns take this one home from the very start and Jagger addresses Charlie in the lyrics for, I think, the only time. It is one of my all-time favourite Stones rockers. It kicks ass, big time. I would put it on any “best of” compilation. Never have The Stones used horns so effectively.
Wild Horses
If Brown Sugar is one of their best rockers, then this is one of the best ballads. Building up slowly, it bursts into huge life on the chorus when Charlie Watts’ solid, steady drums kick in. It has a country feel to it, too, and indeed first appeared as a cover by The Flying Burrito Brothers.
Sway
The assured, confident and down ’n’ dirty blues sway of yes, Sway is superb. What an apt title for this loose, almost lazy-sounding serving of cookin’ blues rock. Once again, it is another example of The Stones at their very best. Four killer tracks in a row here, weren't they?
Now we get a bunch of tracks from Metamorphosis (I'm not quite sure why).
I Don't Know Why (aka I Don't now Why I Love You)
The Stones' cover of Stevie Wonder's I Don't Know Why I Love You is muscular, with a rocking guitar solo and powerful brass backing. One of the best cuts on the album. They make it sound like a bluesy Stones rocker.
Try A Little Harder
Upbeat and punchy with a blues vibe dating back to the group's 1964-65 sound. That's because that's where it comes from, you idiot! 1964. It has definite hints of I Want To Be Loved in it.
Out Of Time
Included here in its shorter, single version, Out Of Time showed that The Stones could do a soulful pop song. Chris Farlowe had a huge number one hit with it, of course, and in the mid-seventies Nazareth singer Dan McCafferty did a really good version of it. I love all three versions. The Stones were the ones who gave it a marimba backing, though. It's just such a damn good song.
Jiving Sister Fanny
Dating from the late sixties, the superb, buzzy and earthy blues rock of Jiving Sister Fanny is a copper-bottomed unearthed diamond. It would have enhanced Let It Bleed no end. Put it on there instead of Country Honk. Good old Fanny is said to have the "brain of a dinosaur", by the way! It is up there with Who's Driving Your Plane?, Child Of The Moon and Memo From Turner in the list of my favourite deep cuts.
Sympathy For The Devil
That old devil thing was never given greater significance than in the Beggars Banquet album's dramatic, iconic opener, Sympathy For the Devil - a menacing, intoxicating mephistophelean brew of mesmeric voodoo-influenced percussion, searing Keith Richards guitar, insistent "woo-ooh" backing vocals and one of Mick Jagger's best ever sneering vocals. An absolute Stones classic. I can never hear it too many times, it sounds great every time, really. It was also really ground-breaking in 1968 as well - all that danger, sleaze and decadence. One thing it wasn't though, was a single. It should never have been edited for use as one (actually maybe it wasn't). Either way, like You Can't Always Get What You Want, it is album track fare all the way.
