WHAT A DRAG IT IS GETTING POLLED – ILM Artist Poll #16 – The Rolling Stones (Extended deadline: April 1st)

Yeah It's Only Rock N Roll is not good, I have a hard time hanging with it. It always sounded like they didn't even want me to *listen* to it, let alone play on it themselves.

I feel like there is another quote about the Stones nicking something else from the VU & Nico but I can't find it...

i mentioned upthread that "child of the moon" reminds me strongly of the first-album velvets (GREAT SONG, VOTE FOR IT NOW), but i don't know that there's any stones-on-record commentary supporting the connection

Black and Blue at least has Fool To Cry, so not a total waste.

It always sounded like they didn't even want me to *listen* to it, let alone play on it themselves.

Hahaha, that's so perfect.

re IORnR: i half like both "time waits for no one" and "fingerprint file", but they're both a bit dismal and overlong

"fool to cry" is the only really great song on black and blue, i shed a few tears over cutting it, but "hand of fate" and "memory motel" are at least worth a listen

I think Dance Little Sister is my favorite off that album, but even that didn't go on my ballot. Title track is pretty good for a meathead rawk anthem, but is still a meathead rawk anthem.

No one's mentioned this yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIt-nQ_qp1s

Probably not as good as Vashti Bunyan's hit, but it's on my ballot.

i am a huge fan of "hand of fate" fwiw tho i recognize it's a minor work

Mick Taylor told Jim Lea of Slade that the title track of IORnR was Jagger/Richards attempt at the "Slade formula".

Needs more handclaps imo

xps Hand of Fate is a wonderful track. Don't know if I'd put it in my 20, but it'd be somewhere in my 40.

"Hand of Fate" and "Crazy Mama" are two of my favorite Stones throwaways. The guitar sound on both is shit-hot.

toss in "Fool to Cry" and "Memory Motel" and you've got half a good album.

xps Hand of Fate is a wonderful track.

yeah, i slighted it by saying only that it's "worth a listen". has been bouncing around my head for hours after one listen this morning. catchy tune, great riff and tone, good lyrics. main problems are that it's at least a minute too long, and i don't like the solos. that and there's a weirdly empty quality to the sound, loose and airless at the same time, that's initially off putting, but the swagger manages to cut through anyway. always makes me want to hear what they'd have done with it circa exile.

I often wish Wayne Perkins had joined the band instead of Woody ("Worried About You"). What tone!

I can barely put into words how I feel about this song, but know that I love it more than any other Stones track (and probably more than most songs I've ever heard by anyone). Plz consider giving it points on your ballots!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKNSm8_CTOY

1st cut gets me down to 130 songs

damn, feel for u, WMC. mine was around 70s, then when up to 90 on a second pass. getting it down past 40 was a kind of hell, like using a knife to select your favorite fingers.

re "she smiled sweetly": it's not one of my favorites, but i think it'll do just fine, JF, what with the massive wes anderson boost and all. "ruby tuesday" seems like the perfected version, and i cut that, too.

I always forget it was in The Royal Tenenbaums (I've only seen that one time, back when it was in theaters).

I would like to take this opportunity to remind you all to vote early and often for Have You Seen Your Mother Baby

i'm with whoever said upthread that it's nearly impossible to pick tracks from BtB and Aftermath (my faves on most days, too) on account of the fact that the songs come off better in their natural environment. but "Back Street Girl" **cking slays me no matter where or when
and on the most hated note "my girl" is the worst thing they ever recorded

I'm leaning in the direction of obnoxiousness instead of bad songwriting on the most-hated ballot.

Fair, but I voted a poor cover version. Not saying which song, but UB40's version was better.

Ballot ready, but I'm going to ponder it for a couple of days before I send it.

This is the biggest discography by far for the single-artist polls, right? I wouldn't be surprised to see #1 votes as far down as the #150-200 range, if the ballot count goes over 50.

do you really think "Winning Ugly" will get that many #1 votes?

This is the biggest discography by far for the single-artist polls, right?

Naw, James Brown's was/is way huger. Problem was, said huge discography seemed to intimidate people into not voting.

I'm not convinced about JB vs RS! I'd bet a shiny dollar that more RS songs will get votes than JB songs did, but that would only work if the number of ballots were the same for both polls. The Stones song list is 450+.

There are something like 1200 songs listed here for Prince: http://www.princevault.com/index.php/A-Z_song_list

I don't know if it's possible to accurately calculate James Brown's song list, given live versions and multipart singles. But, at the very least, he matched the Stones year-for-year, album-for-album, and started a good 5+ years before them.

ok, I'm full of beans

I'd really like to see everyone's first draft lists after posting our 20, but that would probably get unwieldy real fast

Child of the Moon is another revelation to me...it would have made such a better album closer than Salt of the Earth, which is such a dud

Salt of the Earth is a wonderfully insincere closer, just what the album needs. If anything's wrong with it it's that it's too obvious in making things explicit.

It didn't feel insincere when they played it at the Concert for 9/11 or whatever...is it really tongue in cheek? sorry to sound naive!

Salt of the Earth is the fucking great.

(no the)

never heard "salt of the earth" as ironic.

Child of the Moon is another revelation to me

yes! love it so much & felt like i was the only one.

...but i guess i'm wrong abt "salt". i dunno if it's precisely insincere, but it's definitely quite cynical.

we love you is insincere

no irony...and it's got nothing to do with Jagger changing one key verse (guess which...?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZGPcRyyvc0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELoTflLRskQ

If you hear Salt of the Earth as insincere then to me it just means your jadedness is maybe getting out of hand, idk

in fact it sounds so strange

but that jaded faded junkie nurse, oh what pleasant company!

"salt of the earth" both is and is not insincere, and that's where it gets its power imo. it takes a lot of positions all at once, both occupying and eviscerating the "let them eat cake" position while also expressing both compassion and contempt for the masses. if it helps, bear in mind that e.g. many tea partiers are salt-of-the-earth types.

I think that's right, & that you can hear the Jagger / Keef songwriting dynamic at work in that (though I should read up to see if that's right)

OK, I can hear that, the both positions at once, but I still hate it!

"salt of the earth" both is and is not insincere, and that's where it gets its power imo. it takes a lot of positions all at once, both occupying and eviscerating the "let them eat cake" position while also expressing both compassion and contempt for the masses.

Yes. I'd argue that this has been Jagger's power from the beginning.

before Bowie and Ferry he was the first to conflate notions of "irony" and "sincerity"