Rolling Stones Single-By-Single Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Parachute Woman, Mar 6, 2018.

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  1. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    for myself I have always considered Respectable a knowing bit of self parody from Jagger, but I don't think it follows that it is necessarily about Bianca. Not at all. On the other hand it's not clearly about someone else, and hence the angle that it might be about Bianca that some think. But not me.

    Respectable to me instead is Mick saying he knows that all that high society stuff going back to the 72 US tour had its downside, but let's be clear he was all in on that. If he didn't want to have the likes of Truman Capote or Princess Radziwill hanging around, he could have done something about it. It wasn't Bianca forcing any of that. Like when Keith and Anita chose Nellcote and being near the sea when Mick chose Paris. He didn't need Bianca to make him do that. In Respectable Mick is saying yeah I get that some of you see a problem with all that high society stuff.

    I think a lot of people think Mick doesn't have much self knowledge. I've never felt that way about him, and Respectable is certainly evidence he does.
     
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  2. John Fell

    John Fell Forum Survivor

    Location:
    Undisclosed
    It seems unnecessary to delete Bill and the compilation could have been much better, even if it just contained all of the non-lp studio b-sides to that point.
     
  3. SurrealCereal

    SurrealCereal Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Respectable
    This is another punk-influenced song, possibly the most so the Stones ever did. It’s interesti f the way they mix punk with their own style, plus some Chuck Berry thrown in for good measure. It’s not quite as strong as some of the other songs from Some Girls, but it’s still really good.
     
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  4. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Central VA
    "Respectable" was the first UK A-side not issued as such in the States (not including reissues) since, I think, "Little Red Rooster" way back in 1964. It did get lots of airplay on AOR (Album Oriented Radio) formats. Billboard didn't start to quantify FM radio hits until 1981, so there's no way to know how much airplay it really got in '78.

    I was a freshman in college in the fall of 1978, and Some Girls was an album I heard frequently in the dorm. Because my room was smaller than the bathroom where I currently live, I didn't bring any records with me, so I was at the mercy of others' tastes. I certainly didn't mind that one of my neighbors liked this album.

    Around the time this was released, Rolling Stones Records in the US serviced select radio stations with a promo-only 45 of "Before They Make Me Run" (PR 316). Unusually for a promo, it was pressed with yellow stock labels, mono on one side, stereo on the other, 3:23 the listed time on both. It also has a picture sleeve. Finally, this 45 was remixed by Bob Clearmountain, and evidently this mix -- which also contains some alternate lyrics at one point -- has never been legitimately issued except on this promo.

    This promo, both record and sleeve, has been counterfeited (the best way to tell the real sleeve from a fake is to look for the pupil of Keith Richards' left eye).
     
  5. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    ^
    I think Before They Make Me Run is my favorite song off Some Girls. It says it all.
     
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  6. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    Respectable / Whip — what a combo! These are the hardest, raunchiest songs on the album with THAT title track. A blistering 45 to suit the times

    I like to think that had they toured UK or Europe in ‘78 it would have been utter bedlam, with pogoers etc., but it didn’t happen...
     
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  7. John Fell

    John Fell Forum Survivor

    Location:
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    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]

    Respectable - This single was not released in the U.S. Sort of a Chuck Berry and punk influenced number. This high energy rock is one of the better tracks on Some Girls in my opinion. Nice work by Charlie and Bill here are lyrics talk about a woman's rise in society. It has been included on a number of compilation albums including the European version of Rewind, Jump Back and GRRR!. It was played live in on the 1978 and periodically after that including at the Stripped shows. A live version also appears on the No Security live album. A promo video exists.
     
  8. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    Live versions from the 90s are great!

     
  9. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    Here’s the promo 7” mix of Before They Make Me Run

     
  10. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    Respectable - More enjoyable than the other "punky" song WhenThe Whip Comes Down. Musically it's pretty dull but the lyrics make it fun but I always sort of yawn when it comes on.
     
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  11. John Fell

    John Fell Forum Survivor

    Location:
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    Wow, those are 2 of my favorites on the album. I am tired of Miss You and Beast of Burden and despise Far Away Eyes.
     
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  12. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    Great stuff. How wonderful it must have been to be there that night. Their music is better suited to a small hall I think.
     
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  13. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Before is imo Keith's anthem. More than any of his other songs, Happy is up there too but not like Before.

    Steve Earle did an excellent cover of it, taking it down to C as the main key.

     
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  14. John Fell

    John Fell Forum Survivor

    Location:
    Undisclosed
    I like Happy better.
     
  15. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Fantastic!! What a great video tribute to the man. Keith is my #1 favorite rock star ever and here's some of the reasons why. When I was a senior in high school, we had to make and dress little skeleton figures for Dia de los Muertos in my Spanish class. We could design our skeleton to be anyone we wanted. I made mine Keith. I've still got him in my office at home. My little talisman for good fortune and rock. :cool:
     
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  16. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    Well at the time those tracks sounded so weak compared to what the Pistols, Clash and others were doing, so I always found them tedious.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2018
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  17. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

    Location:
    Newport Beach
    Holly cow, I always thought it was "girlie action" too. And not only that, but that thing about coming back in a week being about a period? I never got that out of it before. I thought she was telling the guy that he was a loser.
     
  18. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    Geez this thread just zips by! I love Beast Of Burden, it was a nice balance to Miss You. The song also gave Bette Midler her rockingest performance on record and really should have been a big hit for her. Somewhat OTT but that kinda was her shtick.

     
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  19. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I thought it was "I can't get no girl in action".:shrug:
     
  20. rednoise

    rednoise Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston
    I always heard it as "good reaction", which I like better than any other suggestion. "Girlie action" is extremely cheezy and juvenile. "Good reaction" makes the expression of frustration more universal - it can include sex, cigarettes, society, whatever grinds your gears.
     
  21. MCT1

    MCT1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Worcester, MA
    This was on Midler's 1983 album No Frills. Three singles were released from it, of which "Beast Of Burden" was the third. (By the time the "Beast Of Burden" single came out, it was early 1984.) All three made the Billboard Hot 100, but not the Top 40, with all three peaking on the chart in the 70s, "Beast Of Burden" at #71. The parent album reached #60.

    As I've mentioned in a few previous posts, I wasn't yet paying close attention to popular music in 1978 (I was seven years old at the time), so I have no memory of the Stones' version of "Beast Of Burden" from when it was new. I first came to know it when I began listening to AOR radio around 1985.

    I knew Midler's version of the song when it was new, though. Not from hearing it on the radio - I was a Top 40 listener at the time, and I don't remember the stations I listened to playing this, which isn't surprising based on its chart performance - but from seeing the video. I'm positive I saw the video multiple times. I'm not sure exactly where. It wasn't on MTV, because the cable system in the town I grew up in didn't carry MTV until 1992. Back around 1984, one of the local stations in Boston used to have a music video show on every afternoon. They may have had it in rotation for a bit, and that may be where I saw it. My recollection is that they showed a lot of second-tier material, because MTV would have exclusive rights to many newly released top-tier videos, so a minor hit like Midler's version of "Beast Of Burden" may have been able to get some airplay on this show.

    At the time, since I was unfamiliar with the Stones' version of the song, Midler's was the only version I knew. So if you'd asked me who sang "Beast Of Burden", I would have responded "Bette Midler". When I began listening to AOR radio a year or so later and heard the Stones' version, I recognized it as the same song, although I probably didn't know whose version was the original at first.

    Clicking on the link in Manapua's post and viewing the video for the first time since 1984, I see that Mick Jagger makes a prominent guest appearance in it. I didn't remember that. At the time, I certainly knew who Mick Jagger was, but I'm sure I didn't understand that he was in the video because it was originally his song.

    For what it's worth, Midler was with Atlantic Records, which at the time was still the Stones' distributor in North America, although they wouldn't be for much longer.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2018
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  22. Diamond Star Halo

    Diamond Star Halo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver
    I always thought it was “girl reaction,” which to me is better than the other interpretations.
     
  23. Fox67

    Fox67 Bad as Can

    Location:
    Isle of Rhodes
    We NEED photographic evidence!!!
     
  24. Flaming Torch

    Flaming Torch Forum Resident

    I am a fan of Beast of Burden and feel there is a bit of musical similarity with Dylan's Precious Angel (79) around the line "I'm not too blind to see".
    Bob (in his wonderful song) sings "I'm a little too blind to see". Whenever I play one I am reminded of the other song.
     
  25. Flaming Torch

    Flaming Torch Forum Resident

    That is what I always hear and I agree with you.
    Re UK release of Respectable as I had the album I never bought this and had virtually forgotten it was a single. I am probably wrong but presumably we got Respectable/Whip as a single rather than Beast to fit in with the punk/new wave thing in the UK. Again my opinion but would have been nice if the b side was a non album track.
     
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