What is your preference for Short And Curlies on the Rolling Stones It's Only Rock 'N' Roll lp

As John pointed out we could never agree on which songs from 73-76 should make an album but these are my picks
and I think I will make a cdr soon!

Hand Of Fate
Heartbreaker
If You Can't Rock Me
Angie
Time Waits For No One

It's Only Rock n Roll
100 Tears Ago
Memory Motel
Winter
Fingerprint File

 

This is precisely why cdrs or playlists are great. Most people's lists are slightly different.

 

I hate "Short and Curlies," but overall I agree with the writer Dave Marsh that the "It's Only Rock and Roll" album -- though spotty -- is the last gasp of the Stones as a great group.

Well, almost -- "Hand of Fate," "Memory Motel" and side 2 of "Tattoo You" are pretty great. And I have a soft spot for "Stripped." But that's it!

 

Dave Marsh doesn't consider Some Girls or Tattoo You the work of a great group?

 

I don't know what "Drift Away" is, but "Short & Curlies" has always been the tune that spoils an other wise great album for me.

 

Nope. He considers them soulless and cynical. I agree with him about "Some Girls" -- strangely, I loathe the record aside from Charlie, who never disappoints -- but disagree about "Tattoo You." (Or, at least, half of it.)

 

Good thing for the Stones that the general public doesn't listen to Dave Marsh - the two best selling albums of their career!

 

Dave Marsh is just a first generation fan. He did the original Rolling Stone review of Black and Blue back in 1976, and it was lukewarm. I remember it well and agreed with it, as did most fans, I suspect. Twenty years later, Rolling Stone reviewed it again in their "Hall of Fame" section and called it a masterpiece, awarding it five stars. Like Goats Head Soup, it has undergone a reappraisal. I remember watching a clip of the Guess Who's Burton Cummings cornering an embarrassed Jagger backstage at the SARS fest in Toronto and saying proudly "I've REDISCOVERED Black and Blue, man!" Five stars is a bit over the top, and for me the "correct" rating is somewhere between the two reviews.

Bottom line though, is that taken out of the massive shadow of the "big four", most of the Stones' 70's albums sound very good today. But you need to put them on a decent stereo and actually listen to them.

 

Like the dreadful cover of Drift Away, for example.

I like Short and Curlies, it really serves as an effective bridge between the over-serious, (and weaker, IMO) If You Really Want to Be my Friend and the paranoid synth funk of Fingerprint File.

 

Yeah, S&C, Luxury and Dance Little Sister are three of my favorite songs on the album. In fact, I prefer all of them to the title track itself, If You Really Want To Be My Friend, Thill The Next Goodbye, or If You Can't Rock Me.

If I replaced a song, it certainly wouldn't be for Drift Away, which I don't like at all - I might replace one of the two weaker ballads with Through The Lonely Nights.

 

I don't mind "S&C," and don't mind having it on the album as a bit of filler. But it reminds me too much of "Hide Your Love," which imo is a superior track. In fact, they might as well have just repeated that one on GHS and IORR. It functions the same way.

I don't think in their minds (i.e., Jagger's, at this stage) it was a matter of not having enough songs for an album and needing to scrape something like "S&C" out of the trash can. I think the song is on there to provide the kind of relief and variation tkl describes. Whether this concept of an album with "flow" actually works better than simply collecting all the best songs is another matter.

 

I agree, the problem tracks on the album for me are more the attempts to repeat former triumphs, "Til the Next Time" ("Wild Horses") and "If You Really Want to Be my Friend" ("Let It Loose"). I don't really like "Time Waits for No One" either, but at least it's something a bit different, as a slightly proggy/jazz odyssey Taylor feature (which he whiffs on, imo).

I don't find "If You Can't Rock Me" and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" too impressive either! which is why I think it was their worst album to that point. Title track, "Luxury," and "FFile" are the only standouts for me.

 

Love your side 1, a knockout.

I'd change side your 2 to be:

IORR
Hey Negrita
Crazy Mama
Dancing with Mr D
Memory Motel

 

That's a funny thing about the Stones -- they really didn't sell as many albums as most people think. It's pretty startling to think that "Some Girls" sold 6 million while the "big four" COMBINED sold just 7 million.

I guess there is no accounting for taste (or improved marketing):

Beggar's Banquet: 1 million
Let It Bleed: 2 million
Sticky Fingers: 3 million
Exile: 1 million

Some Girls: 6 million
Tattoo You: 4 million

 

They were also playing bigger venues by then as well so more people could see them live.

 

Those numbers amaze me since I alone have purchased about 8 copies of Exile in my life!!!

 

Those are US only certifications, of course. Worldwide numbers are much higher. But your point is apt - from a sales perspective Stones never had the commercial force of acts like the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Abba, etc.

 

Exile was not certified Platinum until 2000. That is the last time that it, or Sticky Fingers was certified. Let It Bleed and Beggars Banquet have not been re certified since 1989. I'm sure those numbers are not accurate.

 

And that's a good point. For example, the Exile reissue of a few years back sold almost 200,000 copies the first year, according to Billboard. So, the numbers for the "big four" undoubtedly have improved somewhat.

But it's also very likely that no matter what numbers you use, "Some Girls" and "Tattoo You" have still outsold the "big four" combined, especially since those albums also each were last certified in 2000. And when you consider that something like "Dark Side of the Moon" has sold 15 million in the U.S. (last certified 1998), it's clear that the Stones are not the big sellers people think they are.

Not that I love them any less for it. I like Pink Floyd, but I'd take "Sticky Fingers" alone over the entire Floyd oeuvre if I was headed to a desert island.

 

Only Stones fans could view Some Girls and Tattoo You as mediocre albums. If it were Bad Company or anyone else they would be universally revered even moreso than they are. The same with IORR and GHS, place a different group name on the cover and they are considered 'lost classics'. Fickle fans, I tell ya.

 

Exactly.

 

A lot of downloads since then.

 

Though not exactly from the same time period this covers a similar period Time Wait For No One Anthology 1971-1977

Side one

1. "Time Waits for No One" – 6:39
   • From It's Only Rock 'n' Roll
2. "Bitch" – 3:37
   • From Sticky Fingers
3. "All Down the Line" – 3:48
   • From Exile on Main St.
4. "Dancing with Mr. D" – 4:52
   • From Goats Head Soup
5. "Angie" – 4:33
   • From Goats Head Soup

Side two

1. "Star Star" – 4:26
   • From Goats Head Soup
2. "If You Can't Rock Me"/"Get Off Of My Cloud" – 4:56
   • From Love You Live
3. "Hand of Fate" – 4:28
   • From Black and Blue
4. "Crazy Mama" – 4:34
   • From Black and Blue
5. "Fool to Cry" – 5:04
   • From Black and Blue

 

Here is my 1973-1976 compilation

Dancing With Mr. D
Heartbreaker
Star Star
If You Can't Rock Me
Ain't Too Proud To Beg

It's Only Rock 'N' Roll
Time Waits For No One
Fingerprint File
Hand Of Fate
Crazy Mama

Fringe depending upon my mood or additions for double lp

Angie
Winter
Hey Negrita
Memory Motel

 

Agreed ninety percent. I do like Ain't Too Proud to Beg though, with its off the wall guitar solo. I think those two ballads you mention are also influenced by some soft R&B that was prevalent at the time and Jagger thought he'd have a crack at, with minimal success (c.f. Drift Away too). I also think Time Waits For No One is one of the overrated tracks in the Stones' canon, at least by Mick Taylor diehards. The song itself is an interesting reach by Jagger but it goes nowhere. But I love the three tracks you cite. See how much Stones fans can disagree!