Rolling Stones mid 70s Poll (post-Exile, pre-Some Girls)

This period may also mark the only time when they were eclipsed by Aerosmith, at least in America ?

TS: Aerosmith "Combination" vs Stones "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo"

aerosmith's first album didn't come out til 73 so yeah maybe a torch was passed, i don't know, wasn't there

"Doo Doo Doo..." has Charlie going 3/4 tempo during the verses and Mick's(?) rhythm gtr makes it almost funky? Also can imagine Keith in the control room making sure the wah is up in the mix

yeah this is the era when Mick started playing a lot of electric rhythm ("Fingerprint File," "Winter," "Crazy Mama").

I meant Taylor

him too!

I had It's Only Rock and Roll as a kid on an 8 track, so that is about the Stones record I have hard the most. Really any mid-70s Stones is still good, just not to the level of where they had been. I think the slow and ballad tunes, which are not bad, kinda drag these records (and side 2 of Tattoo You). I'd figure they were living so hard and fast, when they got in a room to play, they were probably just so wound/strung out, that easy going acoustic slow things felt better when writing them.

I don't know to me any SLOW tune that doesn't have some unique or crazy musical break/bridge that goes on for 5-6 minutes would be better dropping a verse and chorus. I'd say that is the issue to me on some of these tunes.

'Time Waits For No One' is the best song on any of these records... love the "ticking" drums, the subtle use of synth and Taylor's sublime guitar playing. It's also got that grimy, fucked-up vibe to it that one would expect from mid '70s Stones.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I really need to hear these albums someday.

yeah no rush

Snrub, listen to Goats Heads Soup first

i'm hearing "hand of fate" right now.. it's a great riff and mick sounds fabulous but the production sounds really off to me. too light and airy or something, not violent enough.

mandel's minimal harmonic laden solo is pretty sweet

yeah no rush

― calstars, Thursday, September 28, 2017

description of Stones recording these songs

These albums do all kinda suck.....I really like the way Charlie Watts gets them from verse to chorus on "Heartbreaker," and the completely generic unfelt social consciousness of the lyric charms me, so GHS gets my vote

Yeah, Charlie is all over the map on that one. It's almost like some free jazz shit. Also wonder if '78 Mick walking Central Park singing after dark could have been the same boy the police chased back in '74

Also no one has mentioned the causal enjoyment of "luxury!" make a million for the texan. 20 dollar me. My woman need a new dress. My daughter got to go to school.

TS: luxury vs Haitian divorce

'Luxury' is utterly terrible.

Goats Head Soup doesn't suck either.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

What the fuck? You guys don't like Mick Taylor or something?

Sorry, I hallucinated that BAB won

What the fuck? You guys don't like Mick Taylor or something?

― calstars, Friday, September 29, 2017

I do! A lot! But his last two albums suck.

Good to see that the correct choice topped the poll!

oh thank god.

Goats Head Soup is a fantastic album. There are some hints at a slide toward banality -- some of the forced vulgarity and detachment of "Doo Doo Doo Doo" and "Star Star," which to me for some reason prefigure one of their lowest moments, "Too Much Blood" -- but still. Winter. Angie.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51KTfqMf2DL._SY355_.jpg

nah, this picture alone is better than anything on Goats Head Soup

No it isn't and stop lying.

xpost:

'Heartbreaker' and 'Star Star' are two of the best things on the album.

I really love the album art as well, although I know that I'm in the minority there.

You a stawfucka stawfucka stawfucka stawfucka staw

I thought "Star Star" (and "Short and Curlies," for that matter) were puerile when I was 15.

I think that these three albums are distinguished by solid performances but a lack of actual songs. The Stones weren't yet at the don't-give-a-shit point of their career--they were still a band coming off of Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St.--but they were clearly exhausted with the process of songwriting, and needed to produce content in order to keep the brand going (and having a reason to tour). So, at best, we get half-baked things like "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" (the song), which actually has a provocative lyrical conceit, and is tightly performed, but which they were obviously in such a hurry to complete that they just slapped the most generically anthemic chorus possible on and called it a song.

haha i love the chorus of that song but tbh 90% of that is probably the tape-bleeding delivery on the opening IIII KNOW!!!

I think that these three albums are distinguished by solid performances but a lack of actual songs.

This applies to about half of Black and Blue and It's Only Rock'n'Roll, but there's plenty of "actual songs" on all of these albums.

Before Goats Head Soup's release, Mick Jagger advertised it as a RETURN to "songs" following the freewheeling Exile.

Goats Head Soup, which is also actually one of their best albums of the '70s, even if it is a minor step down from the preceding two.

If so then I've been right in my decision to not bother listening to any 70s Stones albums released after it.

The thing about Exile on Main St. is while it definitely has some stunning all-time moments, about a quarter of the LP isn't all that great.

xpost:

Some Girls is worth a listen.

1/4 of 2 sides is still 1 1/2 albums of juice

I can't think of a song on EOMS that wouldn't have improved GHS, though admittedly they would probably have sounded shit if actually recorded at the GHS sessions.

Aerosmith snagged the vocal delivery of "Casino" and threw it on "uncle salty"

I can think of several. Like, 'Hide Your Love' and 'Silver Train' are, to me, the two "lesser" tracks on Goats Head Soup, and stuff like 'Casino Boogie', 'Shake Your Hips', 'I Just Wanna See His Face', 'Sweet Black Angel', 'Turd On The Run' are of the same quality.

Goats Head Soup doesn't sound shit either, if anything it's far more produced than Exile On Main St. and there's a thickness to the sound that Exile doesn't have.

Exile is perfect

Goats and Only sound like shit. Too much...mid range? But on Black they get some of that treble back, and then Some, which has the crispiest snare ever

xpost:

I disagree. It's a great snapshot of where the Stones were at at the time, but it definitely has its flaws.

*snorting

"Black and Blue" is the kind of album where you're pleasantly surprised any time you hear a stand alone track out in the wild, like "Fool to Cry" or "Hey Negrita" (the latter very much in line with the album's vibe of "one guy likes reggae, the others don't, and the guy that loves reggae is having a hard time explaining to the other guys exactly what reggae is and how to play it"). But then you put on the whole album, and it's incoherent in the way many erroneously categorized "Exile" and "Goats."

Absolutely love 'Hand of Fate' and 'Crazy Mama.'

Count me in as another fan of Black and Blue. Not sure if it was indeed intended more as guitarist auditions rather than an attempt to make a fully-realized LP, but part of the charm for me is the looseness. It's not one of the great Stones albums, but it's still good and really enjoyable.

yeah my position has always been that Black and Blue is a good Sunday afternoon hangout album, the ballads are better than the rockers

It's their most 'stereotypically '70s' album: "Hot Stuff" is the Funk/early Disco song; "Memory Motel" is an Eagles/SoCal ballad; "Hand of Fate" is Bad Company-style outlaw hard rocker; "Crazy Mama" is basically a Thin Lizzy song; "Fool To Cry" is Philly International; "Cherry Oh Baby" the Reggae nod; "Melody" is a tip to lounge Jazz...

It's a major 'informal' album

Also, the mix is fucking great. It grooves. It doesn't sound like other period Stones albums.

i always get like 12 seconds into "Hot Stuff" and start laughing uncontrollably

cos you'd be a fool to cry

Expanded Black and Blue out November 14th:

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/rolling-stones-black-and-blue-super-deluxe-reissue/

The Stones used the sessions for Black and Blue to audition potential new guitarists, which led to contributions from Harvey Mandel, Wayne Perkins, Jeff Beck, and Robert A. Johnson. Ultimately, the process led to the permanent addition of Faces alum Ronnie Wood, who remains in the lineup to this day.

...

The Black and Blue 2025 reissue includes a six-track disc of previously unreleased recordings, including the Jagger/Richards composition “I Love Ladies,” plus a high-energy take on Shirley & Company’s “Shame, Shame, Shame” which is available to listen to now here. Also included are four amazing Stones instrumental jams from the 1975 sessions featuring the guest guitarists.

The box set also features a full live concert recording from the Stones’ six-night residency at London’s Earls Court Exhibition Centre, featuring guest appearances from Black and Blue contributors Ian Stewart, Billy Preston, and Ollie Brown. On the Blu-ray disc, fans will find a previously unreleased TV broadcast of the band’s 1976 performance at Les Abattoirs in Paris, plus Dolby Atmos surround sound mixes of both the studio album and the live Earls Court concert, all of it available in high-resolution stereo. The package is completed by a 100-page hardback book featuring a new essay by Stones expert Paul Sexton, exclusive photographs from the album sessions and tour, and a replica poster from the 1976 Paris concert.

“I Love Ladies”

coulda fooled me

^^Wasn't that a Rod Stewart album?

Steven Wilson is also doing a new mix of the original album.

i looked up whitehallunity and they haven't posted for eight months, but just wanted to express here that i'd be interested in a re-up of their alternate Goads Head mix

― budo jeru, Saturday, February 22, 2025 3:12 PM (eight months ago)

https://we.tl/t-tKGW4DWz9M

wow, thank you!

Also, if you haven't seen it, here's a rough sketch of the originally proposed cover by Hipgnosis:

also want to re-up this because it seems to have disappeared

https://photos.smugmug.com/GLIMMERBOY-2/i-TQ92DLm/0/c5fa5e3c/O/GOATS%20HEAD%20DELUXE%20JAPANESE%2009%20.jpg

I'm surprised they didn't include any genitalia the way Guy Peellaert would for Bowie's Diamond Dogs. (Then again, I guess I shouldn't be surprised given that the latter was censored.)

astounded at my age that i'd never known/seen that Hipgnosis cover concept

knowing they'd recorded some of the Tattoo You tracks for Black and Blue has me wishing they'd finished those. remove "Cherry Oh Baby" and "Hand of Fate" into "Slave" would have been killer.

Thank you so much for reuppping that alternate Goat's Head it is great

yeah we really enjoyed listening yesterday while we were cooking