Stones. Dirty Work. Song by song.

This is how I like my Stones. This is a great Stones track. Reminds me of Neighbours. Even Rip This Joint or Bye bye Johnny. Can't hear any synths on this although I'm listening via youtube. Great Keef solo which shoulda been mixed way louder.

 

Cool, I'm home and can actually access You Tube...here's a couple of outtakes:

 

One more:

If the "Fight" talk has played out by tonight, we'll move on to the smash hit single from the album

 

Mick said in 86' that he thought maybe One Hit for 1st Single then stated that it did not get the instant reaction Shuffle got after a couple of plays only so they went with that.

 

What? "One Hit to The Body" reaches out and grabs you by the throat..."Harlem Shuffle" is fairly innocuous in comparison. And at least "One Hit" is an original song- isn't one of the common negative comments thrown at Dirty Work, "Oh, they had to do a cover for the single...that can't be good!" That said, I do remember seeing the video for "Harlem Shuffle" on Much Music as a kid. I never saw the video for "One Hit", though- if I had I might have ended up becoming a Stones fan a year or two sooner...

 

Yes agree with you but look at the chart placings for both singles around the world. Shuffle was much more commercial, Jagger was right.

 

Hell, when you get right down to it "Harlem Shuffle" is just about the only song really resembling "commercial" on Dirty Work. This is a really wacky comparison that just popped into my head, but bear with me: in a way, "Harlem Shuffle" is to Dirty Work what "Squeeze Box" is to The Who By Numbers- a light song that really doesn't fit in with the rest of the album yet is the song most people tend to associate the album with. And was the lead single, made the compilation albums etc.

 

There's very little rock on Between the Buttons—I can't speak for everyone here, but that's a pretty huge negative for a rock band. No real hooks or riffs, and the guitars are very polite and mostly buried. The fact they played precisely two songs from the album live ("Connection" and "She Smiled Sweetly," and only briefly) says a lot about what the Stones themselves thought of it. Satanic Majesties is even worse in all these regards, but at least it produced one genuine classic ("2000 Light Years from Home") and plenty enough embarrassing material for it to be a curio—not the case with Buttons.

 

There's maybe four or five songs out of both of those albums combined that I really like. My idea of The Rolling Stones ain't doing music hall pastiches or bloody psychedelia! Most of the time I tend to go right from the early blues/Chess/RCA era (I'm not a big fan of Aftermath, either) right to Beggars Banquet. That's just me, though. Minority view, I'm sure.

 

I like Aftermath and Between the Buttons, but I don't think I've ever made it through Satanic Majesties in one sitting more than 2 or 3 times in 30 years. It's just...not good.

 

One of my favourite Stones outtakes.
I wish they'd worked on this further.

 

Fight is another great track. Simple riff and straight to the point lyrics.
Like the opening track, I think Fight's main attraction is Keith's attack and tone.
The passion and fire in his playing on this album is one of my favourite things about it.

 

One of my issues with this album is that it really feels like Mick went in and grunted out all his vocals in a day or two, but it doesn't feel like a conscious stylistic decision as much as it does Jagger not really caring and trying to get it over with as fast as possible.

 

The hell of it is, of the three Satanic Majesties probably is the one I like the most!

It's easy to see why Keith was pissed when Mick refused to tour behind the album. Mick had a point -especially where Charlie was concerned- but there is a fire and passion to the playing that could very possibly have translated well to the stage.

You'd think that, especially based on the record's supposed reputation etc but apparently Mick was around a lot more than that.

 

Keith would have been the main attraction on that tour, without a doubt. He was on fire during this whole period.
Charlie watts was in a terrible way and Keith would have no doubt played his ass off to keep things together.
They've said in the past that Charlie follows Keith so he would have been using the guitar attack that you hear on the album.

I do think that Jagger made the right decision, even though I'm not entirely convinced by his motives.
I really think that at this point, the band was his safety net and he was obsessed with being a successful solo artist like Elton and Rod, to name but a few.
Not surprisingly, when the 1988 Jagger tour went pear-shaped, he came back to Keith, just as Keith was in the middle of his first Solo success.

To quote Keith's "You Don't Move Me"...
"Now you wanna throw the dice, you already crapped out twice".

 

One Hit To The Body- great riff, love the guitar tone! Not sure about the Page solo but it's short and to the point. Interesting and intense lyrics referencing fallen angels? cleaning out veins and general violent actions.

Fight - as a relative newcomer to this album this comes across quite fresh compared to some the later tracks on the album IMO. Would've loved to be a fly on the wall at the sessions for these tracks.

 

Yes, but how invested was he in the material? Does anyone know of any contemporary quotes from Mick regarding this record? I'd be curious as to where his head was at.

 

Fight - "One Hit" was a great opener but it was mid-tempo, so "Fight" works perfectly as track two to kick things into higher gear with plenty of bite.

 

"Fight" is pretty good. I don't think there's anything particularly special about it, but it was definitely the best choice to follow "One Hit" with. As mentioned by @Silksashbash the verse has a great sense of urgency by keeping it on the dominant chord.

As far as "classic rock" albums from 1986 go, this has to have more guitar than all the other ones put together. It has some synths, but I really like that they kept the guitars front and center. Maybe it's just because I tend to avoid '80s music like the plague, but I don't get why people describe it as '80s production. Reverby drums, sure, but what '80s production has guitar that sounds anything like this (i.e. real guitar)?

 

100% agree.

 

So I'm playing this album for the sake of this thread, and, oh my god, "Hold Back" is a terrible, terrible song.

 

Glad to see the speculation about which songs that Charlie plays on. I've listened to the album about a dozen times or so, but am still unsure about which songs he plays. Some of the parts sound too smooth to be be Charlie.

 

Where is that from? I always felt like the album credits: only 8 original songs, and 5 of them actually credited an extra person...that really told the story. But man, Jagger's vocals are really bad on so much of this record.

 

Well, there's "Connection" (which is mostly a Keith riff track), "All Sold Out", "Miss Amanda Jones" (which is a great rock track), and "Please Go Home" (with bold guitar work). Some people would call "Back Street Girl" a classic. Mick was quoted that he loved the basic tracks (which were engineered by Dave Hassinger in L.A. and then taken back to England for overdubbing, losing their original clarity). With "Satanic Majesties", the pressure was on to grow musically and be psychedelic, but Keith was still the musical director. Even that album had "Citadel" and "2000 Man".

 

Buttons is very "Kinks-ian" in a lot of spots.....obviously they were listening to Face To Face and some of the Kinks singles, but I could also see how people who love the "rockier" version of the Stones would find it a little "soft sounding". However..... I wouldn't say the guitars are really polite. They don't always hit you over the head like some tracks, but Keith's tone on this album is awesome. Miss Amanda Jones, My Obsession, All Sold Out, and in the middle when it comes in on Yesterday's Papers. So fuzzy, raw and out of control. Sounds like the amp is gonna blow up any second. Anyone know what guitar/amp combo he's using on Buttons? It's awesome. Oh, I agree about Backstreet Girl, 9la. Always one of my favorite Stones ballads.

Back to Dirty Work. My first Stones album I bought in "real time" as it was released. I still like it a lot, or maybe a better way to phrase it, what I like on it, I still really like. There are a few stinkers on it, but I like it better than Undercover and better than Steel Wheels. It is very 80's sounding, but still sounds like the Stones. Raw and dirty in places. The 80's sound (cheesy synth bass and horns) are tacky, but it was what everyone was doing and Mick wanted to do. Keef just wanted to crank the amps up, which gives you the contrast, the push and pull between the Glimmers. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

One Hit To The Body is a classic (albeit one that barely anybody outside us Stones fans know like other songs by the band). Deserves to be a well known classic. Great sound, great riff, great performance. On a lot of my playlists, and always a pleasure when it comes on.

Fight is another one I love. Jagger is a bit "barky", but I don't mind it. Once again, love Keith and Ron's weaving, and it's a real good (and interesting) solo. The riff in the breakdown after the solo always reminded me of Jumpin' Jack Flash. Probably why I like it so much.

Got this on cd, not sure what pressing, but I always listen to the vinyl. LOUD. Sounds nice and full. Still got my original copy with the red shrink wrap on it and the sticker on the front.

THANKS for this thread. Nice seeing that not everyone hates this album!!!!!!!!!