Album: Beggars Banquet
After the towering inferno of the opening track, the Stones make a direct homage to Robert Johnson on No Expectations, with some great slide guitar work by Jones, one of his last meaningful contributions to the band. The sleazy blues of Parachute Woman is another highlight on side 1, while the other two tracks aim for a more rootsy, country blues, with Jigsaw Puzzle an attempt by the Stones to mimic the surrealism of Dylan at his mid-60s peak. Side 2 gets off to a muscular start with Street Fighting Man, and one of my favourites aspects of the song is Jagger's singing, which is not something I find myself saying often these days. Prodigal Son takes this to another level, with some of the best blues singing by a white guy since Alan Wilson of Canned Heat. Stray Cat Blues is a low though, not least for revealing the prevailing mindset of male groups during the 60s & 70s that female groupies, whatever age, were fair game. Factory Girl is a slightly interesting (and funny) departure for the band into Appalachian folk, while Salt of the Earth is a far more successful venture into country blues and gospel, and is one of my favourite Stones songs. Though Lennon on the White Album enjoyed poking fun at the British blues explosion on Yer Blues, on this album the Stones showed a way forward by forging their own unique sound that was more original than derivative.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Born: Dartford, Kent
Released: December 1968
Genre: Rock
Influenced: Faces, Black Crowes, Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon
After Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones' hilariously bad attempt at psychedelia, it was time to get back to basics with Beggars Banquet. Though a highly derivative band until that point, the post-White Album decline of the Beatles (who had long overshadowed them) somehow invigorated the Stones to produce a 4-year purple patch. So what changed? By '68, Brian Jones had become a tragic, marginal figure in the band and this made room for Keef to assert himself on guitar. Also, the time that several Stones members had spent in prison gave the band a more serious, menacing edge (Street Fighting Man addressed the social upheaval of May '68). A change of producer also helped to revamp their sound. I have a distinct memory of borrowing this CD from Welling Library, catching a 51 bus home and listening to it on my Sony Discman while sitting on the top deck; those rhythmic drums, the yelps, the panorama of evil through the ages, all this was intoxicating stuff to my teenage ears. Hearing Sympathy For The Devil in '68, barely a year after the Summer of Love, must have felt damn near apocalyptic.
After the towering inferno of the opening track, the Stones make a direct homage to Robert Johnson on No Expectations, with some great slide guitar work by Jones, one of his last meaningful contributions to the band. The sleazy blues of Parachute Woman is another highlight on side 1, while the other two tracks aim for a more rootsy, country blues, with Jigsaw Puzzle an attempt by the Stones to mimic the surrealism of Dylan at his mid-60s peak. Side 2 gets off to a muscular start with Street Fighting Man, and one of my favourites aspects of the song is Jagger's singing, which is not something I find myself saying often these days. Prodigal Son takes this to another level, with some of the best blues singing by a white guy since Alan Wilson of Canned Heat. Stray Cat Blues is a low though, not least for revealing the prevailing mindset of male groups during the 60s & 70s that female groupies, whatever age, were fair game. Factory Girl is a slightly interesting (and funny) departure for the band into Appalachian folk, while Salt of the Earth is a far more successful venture into country blues and gospel, and is one of my favourite Stones songs. Though Lennon on the White Album enjoyed poking fun at the British blues explosion on Yer Blues, on this album the Stones showed a way forward by forging their own unique sound that was more original than derivative.
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