Artist: The Rolling Stones
Album: Beggars Banquet
Release Date: December 6, 1968
I have several Rolling Stones albums on my computer sitting fairly idly, and yet I’ve gone six months and only listened to two of them. I’ve got no explanation for this. Well, I do, but it mostly has to do with the fact that while I respect The Rolling Stone’s as a band, I’ve never called myself a fan. I like how versatile they are and I can appreciate their influence on modern rock, but they’re very much an instance of a band coming along and doing something cool, and then several other bands coming later and doing that thing better (see also: Nirvana). Two of my favorite Rolling Stones songs ever written appear on this album; “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Street Fighting Man”, and beyond the well-known cuts, album closer “Salt of the Earth” is a goosebump inducing anthem for the working man that shows off just how good The Rolling Stones were at the things they did. If there’s an ongoing downside to the music of the Stones, it’s that aside from the multitude of hits the band has had since forming shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg, the album cuts are fairly forgettable. There are a couple of gems, like “Salt of the Earth” on this record, but in large part, if you’ve heard the singles, you’ve heard the crux of the album. I don’t mean to knock the band, just an observation I’ve picked up in my musical travels.
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil [iTunes] (YSI)
==TJ==
Filed under: Album A Day | Tagged: 1960s, Album A Day, The Rolling Stones
With most Stones albums from this period you have to set it in context. This album was Brian Jones’ last full effort with the Rolling Stones. In addition to his slide guitar on “No Expectations”, he played harmonica on “Dear Doctor”, “Parachute Woman” (together with Mick Jagger) and “Prodigal Son”, sitar and tambura on “Street Fighting Man”, and mellotron on the “Heroin”-influenced “Stray Cat Blues”.
Jumpin’ Jack Flash was one of the first tracks cut at the sessions and was released as a single but not included on the album as it wasn’t the done thing in those days.
And for the Stones it was a return to their roots after the psychedelia of Satanic Majesties.
From 1967-1972, The Rolling Stones also released Between the Buttons, Flowers, Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main St, and I think Beggars Banquet fits neatly into all those.