ROLLING STONES - SOME GIRLS (1978, Rolling Stones Records)

SOME GIRLS

Hodge-Podge Rock from the Glimmer Twins, true masters of mishmash music.

If two businesses that market the same product are in competition said contention should create a better piece of merchandise on both sides. For several wayward years leading up to Some Girls, the Rolling Stones coasted on the assumption that their age old, dual guitar riffs and Mickey’s cockeyed lyrics but never forced delivery would be all they needed to reign supreme as the “Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World”. This postulation, that they were the “end all, be all” of popular music, whether they tried or not, resulted in several hit and miss (and at their worst cringe worthy) albums and songs in the years following their gargantuan 1972 world tour in support of Exile on Main St. While the three post-Exile LPs certainly all have their share of gems, the group was marred by the departure of Mick Taylor, too much Billy Preston, and with the absence of an outside producer, the fledgling and often shaky productions of The Glimmer Twins. It took the finally-in-place Ronnie Wood, who had been covertly lending the Stones his talents since It’s Only Rock and Roll, a greater command of the boards, and perhaps most of all, the competition raised by the punk and new wave movements to shock life into age old chords and clichés.

When folks talk about Some Girls, they are always keen to bring up the influence that punk and disco had on the Stones, namely Mick Jagger, but these genres are only remotely audible on this album. Of course “Miss You” has a disco beat but it’s all a little too organic and what disco song ever had a blues harp perform the main hook. Certainly “When the Whip Comes Down” and “Shattered” have snarls and punk-lite cords and beats but most punks wouldn’t include a pedal steel solo. Instead, most of this album is cut and dry Stones but the material sounds fresher and is played more vibrantly then anything since 1973 with this recording featuring only the core band (keyboards on just two songs!) and a revitalized guitar sound with Jagger and Woodie weaving around Keith’s grounded contributions. “Respectable”, “Lies”, and “Some Girls” are all standard Stones fair, albeit with more speed in the formers' case. They all sound great despite a bit of dust, especially “Respectable” which consist of repetition upon repetition, a common Jagger/Richards technique. “Shattered” is just a weird track and the choice to use the “phaser” effect on the guitars may have sounded great in 1978 but now rings hopelessly dated. On that subject, Keith and his cronies have always sounded uncomfortable with wah-wah, Leslie speakers and the like. To see the true punk edge that "Shattered" holds try the distortion heavy, low-fi recording by Richard Hell and The Voidoids (with searing Bob Quine guitar) from their live compilation Time which also features a bonkers version of “Ventilator Blues”.

The radio favorites “Miss You” and “Beast of Burden” transcend their classic rock DJ fetish to become statements by this aging band. On “Miss You”, Billy Wyman, who often struggles with anything that’s not a standard walking blues bass line, fits his throbs in perfectly between Charlie’s rather wack-a-mole take on the four on the floor beat. Ian MacLaglan’s electric piano seems at first quite noticeable but quickly merges into the songs fabric. Above it all Jagger seems to be having a hell of a time. For the first time in years he has new lyrical subjects and aspirations, somewhere between Lou Reed and David Johanson, and seems his most malevolently dance crazy since “Star Star”. The boys seem to be enjoying themselves on “Imagination” and it doesn’t sound like THE mandatory soul cover included on most of their albums around these last two decades. In fact, with its Keith & Ronnie backing vox and ringing chords, this "Imagination" has much more in common with 60s blue eyed garage soul than with The Tempations, who recorded the original version in 1971, a mere seven years earlier. “Far Away Eyes” may make some people cringe but Jagger has always been wry and cheeky and I love to hear him drawl on about “music on the colored radio station”. When Keith and Ronnie add their harmonies on the chorus the song bursts to life and becomes more then a put on. Speaking of Keith, his solo turn on "Before They Make Me Run" is one of his better. In later years he immersed himself in ballads or pointless, poorly written rockers but here his occasionally double tracked vocals really stand out as do his Tin Pan Alley cum cowboy lyrics about “booze, and pills, and powders”. Both “Before TheyMake Me Run” and the LP’s best track “When the Whip Comes Down” feature pedal steel guitar breaks by Ronnie which really enliven both of these non-country songs in a way not usually found in rock music. “Whip” features one of the all time best Jagger couplets: “Mama and Papa told me I was crazy to stay/a gay in New York was just a fag in LA”. Here we are presented with a bored, materialistic hustler who doesn’t much care that he’s “plugging a hole” as long as he’s getting something in return. Returning to their buried vocals approach, when you do hear the lyrics they are full of clever turns of phrase with a great enigmatic chorus consisting of only the title. Deep in the mix, Charlie pounds away with a volatility never heard from him before.

Radio play may have diluted Some Girls' power and its unofficial title as “the baby boomer generations favorite Stones album” doesn't help. But this LP may be their last great LP, right down to its cover. The cover, a mock up of old magazine fashion ads featuring the Stones in cut & paste drag (not the first time) is pastiche art. The music, with its gloriously jumbled mess of ragged country, amped-up soul, rough edged punk, and Studio 54 dance strut results in pastiche music which is essentially rock'n'roll itself.