Rolling Stones: Is Dirty Work really their low point?

These two tracks sound like solo Mick to me as well

 

Hold Back is good..Mick sings it like he nean s it. Not super memorable... not much of a melody

 

but they didn't even tour after Dirty Work.

 

IMO Black and Blue, Some Girls, Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You are the home stretch and somehow each is part of a natural progression that was pretty strong until after TY. When ER came out I thought it was kind of lame compared to what had passed but yet very palatable and when TY came out the feeling was even stronger. I gave up on Undercover and since then I've tried to listen to these later lps and just can't get into it.
It really is a matter of quantity I think, heck I would go back to It's Only Rock n Roll to start noticing lps with less killer and more filler - I really want to like that whole lp, but I don't. On the other hand I don't understand dissing a whole lp like B&B or ER because they have a lot of great material on them, so I have to assume that someone who really jumps out of this thread to dump on those two must have very strict criteria for what they hear or feel is the ' Stones sound' and apparently the sound that is outside of that box is on those two lps I guess.
I want to say if you cant find anything good on those two lps than you really don't understand them as a group of players, but it's really just to each his own -I'm probably missing something as well for not really listening after TY.
I did get Bridges to Babylon at the thrift store on CD awhile back and it's not so bad, I remember hearing the single from Bigger Bang and it was pretty good I thought, I owned Undercover when it came out and was pretty disgusted with it at the time and got rid of it years ago. I think I might have bought Steel Wheels when it came out, but it got traded in pretty quick. Voodoo Lounge just sounded like a dumb idea title wise, so not going there was an easy choice for me.
Dirty Work to be honest came at a time when I wouldn't even bother, if 'One Hit To The Body' is from that lp then I think that is all I've heard of it, and yes that cover was a complete turn off -was it conceived to look like a hastily thrown together Rolling Stone magazine cover? Barf.
If I see it at the thrift store, I'll check it out.
FWIW the last lp I spun by them was B&B and I thought Hey Negrita sounded better than ever.

 

Correct, though I believe they originally intended to do so. Band tensions became so terrible that it didn't work out, but I think "Dirty Work" was intended as an album that they would support on tour...

 

There is more to it than that. Charlie was too ill to tour.

 

So does that mean you think that if Charlie had been healthier, they would've toured? I think the Mick/Keith situation was so terrible at that point that no tour could've happened...

 

This seems to be a recurring thread (which Stones album is the worst?). Every Stones studio album has at least three tracks (often released as singles) that I really like (even Emotional Rescue and Dirty Work), except for A Bigger Bang, which has nothing that I care for, a blot on an otherwise worthy catalog.

It's disturbing that, after Bridges to Babylon in 1997, the Stones only recorded a few tracks that I enjoy (Don't Stop, Stealing My Heart, Doom and Gloom and One More Shot). Your opinion may vary.

 

Dirty Work is an odd duck in the Stones catalog. It comes between their punky rebirth (Some Girls through Undercover) and the "new" Stones, which started with Steel Wheels and continues to the present day. Dirty Work is adrift between these two periods and sounds like nothing that came before or after, so it's hard to contextualize. It also has a number of pretty half-baked tracks - Fight, Hold Back, Back to Zero - that IMHO sink it. And while it has some good moments - One Hit, Had It With You - nothing rises to greatness to redeem it. Not sure it is absolutely the worst Stones record, but it's a contender.

 

Conversely, it was arguably Norm MacDonald's high point.

 

Charlie's unhealthy state (and Ron Wood's before that) was Mick's trump card played against keeping the Stones from being more of an active force in the 80s. If they had been better in command of their faculties there could have been a whole bunch of possibilities — gaps between albums wouldn't have been nearly as long, more touring in the 80s would possibly have included a chance for the Leavell/Stewart lineup to play in countries outside Europe, etc. As it stood, Mick was more inclined to get "professionals" in to play for his solo stuff than put up with the stupefied, substance-addled Stones. Yes, they probably could have toured Undercover & Dirty Work otherwise. Would touring during WWIII have been a disaster though, even with everybody relatively sober? Yes.

 

Dirty Work is better than most Rolling Stones albums released after Tattoo You.

It's uneven, but it has some nice tracks -- One Hit, Harlem Shuffle, Sleep Tonight, Too Rude immediately come to mind.

I would say it is on a par with Voodoo Lounge and Bigger Bang, but benefits from being shorter.

 

regardless of the fact that they didn't tour, my post was disagreeing with the notion that if they had, it would have been the beginning of the "album exists only as a pretext for a tour" period. I don't see any evidence of that. It would instead have been, imo, the end of the more organic "we are a band, therefore we write and record songs" period. As it stands, since there was no tour, and the band broke up around the album, the album itself exists in a weird transitional phase, also containing the first solo albums.

 

Those are probably the four best after Bridges. I do enjoy some others though.

 

Those four and Had It With You are all really good. Some of the unfinished outtakes that KR supplied Jagger with are also good. This could have been an excellent album.

 

I rate "Steel Wheels" as their worst. 'Rock And A Hard Place' and 'Almost Hear You Sigh' are good songs, but otherwise the album is just plain dull to me.

I rate "Dirty Work" as their second worse album. Though the title song and 'One Hit' are both great and along with 'Hold Back' they kick buns, and 'Too Rude' is too cool, and 'Had It With You' is good old fashioned rock and roll... the album still does not have enough good songs to complete with the other albums. It may be their hardest, grittiest album ever, but half of it does nothing for me.

 

Outtakes and demo versions from the Dirty Work sessions that could be used to make a new album or a deluxe version:

• "Strictly Memphis"
• "You're Too Much" (Keith Richards on vocal)
• "Treat Me Like a Fool" (Richards on vocal)
• "She Never Listens to Me" (Richards on vocal)
• "Deep Love" (Richards on vocal)
• "Crushed Pearl" (Richards on vocal)

 

If the chance to advocate for Dirty Work doesn't bring Driver 8 back, nothing will.

 

Can anyone explain what's the problem with Harlem Shuffle? I mean it came up on the radio and what a KILLER single! It grooves like crazy, an amazing track from start to finish!

 

Maybe because it's a cover? Quite regressive for Stones to release a cover as the first single from an album in 1986. It's also quite slickly produced, but the backing vocals by Bobby Womack are pretty cool.

 

"Dirty Work" IS poor - so is "Emotional Rescue", "Tattoo You", "Undercover", "Bridges To Babylon". The good songs recycle way to many riffs from their heydays and the poor songs ... are just poor. Sorry guys - just my opinion.

 

Agreed on everything except Tattoo You, which only has one weak track IMO - Hang Fire.

 

To be honest - I think that "Emotional Rescue" is even worse than "Dirty Work".

 

How do u figure that

 

I like everything they put out.