Was their cover of / video for "Dancing in the Street" the nadir of David Bowie's / Mick Jagger's respective careers?

She's the Boss - February 1985.

Best song ever.

also, the DITS video is MUCH more interesting post-angie bowie's revelation of david and mick's bedtime 70s frolics!

david bowie nadir = freddie mercury tribute gig

so, no!

http://live-aid.chez.tiscali.fr/vsd/pages-uk/index.html

Lady Di had mesmerizing hair that day.

An oddly homoerotic canary with a trenchcoat, shaking ass.

I didn't really mind "Just Another Night", to be entirely honest. I mean, I didn't buy it, but it's certainly more listenable than "Let's Work".

Kyle OTM. I think people were more put off by Bowie's cloyingly earnest claims that "we're a band, maaaaaan!" The whole schtick was tiring, but much of the music was okay (granted, Reeves Gabrels is an insufferably masturbatory guitar player, but when held in check, he did alright).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_li_d_YviZ4

lol that's great

I mean wtf, 5)8' off the wall

I mean David bowie is jumping off a staircase here, double dragon style

https://64.media.tumblr.com/21e6b07246e915281a488111eef6dbd4/b64748c29b2029bb-44/s540x810/c4ec8630ebadf0245ed300dff69ac1353b23192c.gifv

Is it fair to say it's (chronologically) the final song by either Bowie or Jagger(/Stones) that most people are likely to know? Just as, in the UK at least, McCartney's are No More Lonely Nights/We All Stand Together.

South Americaaaaa ....!

Maybe? "Harlem Shuffle" was after this, and it's a wedding DJ staple.

That's true, I forgot that remains a biggun in some countries (not in the UK though I wouldn't say)

Hallo Spaceboy was a top 40 hit in about a dozen countries. (FSVO "most" just as much as Dancing.)

> "Harlem Shuffle" was after this, and it's a wedding DJ staple.

I haven't been to a ton of weddings in the last ~5-10 years, but I have never heard "Harlem Shuffle" at a wedding

"Wedding DJ" is just shorthand for party dj, corporate event dj... somebody that goes out and spins songs without getting to involved in mixing etc.

Hallo Spaceboy again sadly forgotten by-and-large in the UK. My dad remembers Little Wonder though, which is usually a sign that a song is still quite public/Radio 2/whatever but in this instance isn't so much

Self-XP I mean, I mostly associate their version of "Harlem Shuffle" with school dances and outdoor events in the '90s, so YMMV.

For Bowie, there's the Reznor remix of "I'm Afraid of Americans".

“Mixed Emotions” was pretty big; Wikipedia sez it went #5 in US (two spots higher than “Dancing…”), and #1 in Canada. The Stones’ last Top 10 hit.

(…”To date”)

I imagine “Harlem Shuffle” is good at weddings because the lyrics tell people how to dance to it. Lots of people need guidance in that area.

"Mixed Emotions" has kind of become a modest CVS/Supermarket Jam.

"Harlem Shuffle" and 'Mixed Emotions" were both big at the time, so much so that I was v familiar with them as an elementary school child, but I haven't heard either since the 80s.

"Mixed Emotions" has kind of become a modest CVS/Supermarket Jam.

― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain),

lol heard it at Publix on Saturday.

So what’s weird is, as a Rolling Stone magazine reading, MTV-watching teenager at the time, that Steel Wheels was marketed and heavily hyped as an event, like a “comeback”, like they had had a long period of inactivity. And yet Dirty Work was only released three years earlier?

And got pretty good reviews too

DW, that is. It got blasted in light of Steel Wheels and Voodoo Lounge and Jagger's decision not to tour behind it.

Like it had the marketing push like what happens with some artists when they are on a new label, like the push Elvis Costello got when he went to Warner Bros., (the same year the Stones put out Steel Wheels).

We’re all new Stones albums would treated like an event? I would have thought that there would be some stretch of time in any long-running band’s career where

1. They make chart hits. Early albums make their legend, album releases are increasing events; then
2. Tastes change, middle age sets in and the albums aren’t highly anticipated “events” although they may still sell well and critics give positive notices; years pass then
3. Band achieves legendary status based on 1, new generation(s) discovers them, and every subsequent album is an “event” again.

The late 80s were the height of the 60s nostalgia industry, so maybe the time was ripe for a middling album like Steel Wheels to be an “event” again.

Also at the time of Dirty Work there was public squabbling between Mick and Keith and so people thought the Stones might be breaking up. Both of them making solo albums around that time fed into that perception. So then Steel Wheels came as sort of a relief, plus it was tied to their 25th anniversary.

^^ this

Related as well is the 'Stunning Return to Form' (the TPL Flowers in the Dirt piece suggests this was around the time that term took off, cf. Freedom, Tin Machine, Oh Mercy, New York). As it relates a lot to rockers getting old/the 'legacy' years it not only implies the glory days are in the past but that they'd strengthened that idea with subsequent inferior material. So the Stones hosting an enormous tour for Steel Wheels, patching up or at least hiding tensions and branding it all as a 25th anniversary celebration is the right sort of 'comeback' fuel - just as Flowers in the Dirt and its huge tour overwrote Press to Play, say - regardless of the album not necessarily being all that much better than its predecessor*, and also having a perhaps even shorter shelf life, particularly to passive fans.

*I think Terrifying, Blinded by Love (Phil Beer omg) and Continental Drift are all comfortably better than anything on DW tbf.

A pragmatic reason for all of that too was CDs were really starting to make an impact, with alot of these legacy artists' catalogues debuting in toto or getting filled out on disc during '88-'90.

Is it a true Stunning Return to Form if it isn't at least 50 minutes long?

I remember RS and Creem speculating that Some Girls marked the end of the Stones.

Lol

1989 was a big year for the “stunning return to form!”

I remember the marketing power behind "Steel Wheels" as being pretty impressive. Like the prime time simulcast 3D TV performance, where glasses were included in newspapers (iirc?) and "2000 Light Years from Home" was performed with janky images flying across the screen. Maybe it was part of an awards show?

I mean, this happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBfx_aKXCYQ

I suppose Steel Wheels marked a return to the form of, say, Emotional Rescue or even Undercover (which I liked a lot and which seems to have sunk without trace).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-RMZoR-aDw

Like the prime time simulcast 3D TV performance, where glasses were included in newspapers (iirc?)

Ha, they were given away at 7-11's. I was just talking about this because our state didn't really have any 7-11's.

xp Well I'm thinking that in the UK Undercover of the Night is the final Stones song that still gets heard.

Non-rock examples of the so-called return to form record

this thread has numerous links to *rock* examples of the phenomenon in its OP as well

Steel Wheels was a big enough deal that I, a not-quite-13-year old with no great prior interest in the Stones, bought the cassette.

What also strikes me about Steel Wheels is that on its own terms it looks nothing like a big deal. The title and especially the sleeve are pretty random, quite free of resonance, not clearly evocative of the Stones in any way. Compare again with Flowers in the Dirt which at least looks - in late 80s terms - like its going to be special or at least try to be special.

Ha, they were given away at 7-11's. I was just talking about this because our state didn't really have any 7-11's.

Hmm, growing up in the land of Wawa, I'm not sure where I got my glasses, then. They did used to include 3D glasses in newspapers and other periodicals, now and then. Sometimes the Saturday black and white creature double feature on TV would show stuff like Creature from the Black Lagoon or It Came from Outer Space in 3D, and for some reason I want to say those glasses arrived tucked in the paper. This (for the benefit of you young people) was of course back when most people looked in the paper for the printed TV schedule.

Yeah, the UHF channel would have the red-and-blue 3D glasses inserted in the paper when they were going to show House of Wax or something.

But – and this is a memory from well over 30 years ago – I thought the Stones special was one of the first to utilize the now-common "black" lensed glasses.

All this comeback business, and then going through it all over again five years later with that U.S. tour.

Emotional Rescue (and Dirty Work) are so much the better albums, c'mon, despite how much I like "Mixed Emotions" and "Almost Hear You Sigh" (and maybe "Slipping Away").

Also at the time of Dirty Work there was public squabbling between Mick and Keith and so people thought the Stones might be breaking up. Both of them making solo albums around that time fed into that perception. So then Steel Wheels came as sort of a relief, plus it was tied to their 25th anniversary.

― Josefa, Tuesday, September 6, 2022 9:14 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

It didn't help -- that is, it didn't help Mick -- that two of the three Stones solo records between 1986 and 1989 were pretty much garbage. Mick also fanned the flames by touring solo, something no Stone had yet done. I'd argue that Keith's solo record and tour -- both widely praised -- simultaneously fed anticipation for new Stones product, and made Mick a bit nervous (and probably jealous). Mick now knew that he couldn't sustain a solo career, and he realized a) he needed Keith more than Keith needed him, and b) he would make a shit-ton more bread on a Stones tour than on a solo tour. While Steel Wheels was only three years after the previous record, they hadn't toured the US in eight years, an eternity in those days (and these days, too).

This piece from 1994 illustrates the pattern of "The last record sucked, but this one is their best since Some Girls and/or Tattoo You!" that emerged after Dirty Work:

https://chicagoreader.com/music/doodoo-lounge/

doodoo-lounge

While Steel Wheels was only three years after the previous record, they hadn't toured the US in eight years, an eternity in those days (and these days, too).

^^This. I hadn't done the research, but was figuring something like this. They toured the US every three years from '69 up until the early '80s, so that alone was a big deal.

1989 was nuts for tours in the US. In addition to the usual suspects, you had the first Stones in 8 years, first Who in 6, and first McCartney in almost 15 (and his first solo tour here ever).

And George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars! If the (minimal) info online is accurate, 1989 was Clinton's first tour in six years.

Plus there were the extensive 25th anniversaries (as mentioned the Stones, Beatles invasion of the US, the Who, etc), 20th of Woodstock, etc. etc, I remember as a music obsessed teen being just swamped by the boomer nostalgia that whole yr

The groundwork was laid in 1987 with the twin resurrections of the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd. But at some point between 1987 and 1989, listeners decided they weren't as into the new shit -- the Stones record sold, but McCartney's album topped out at #21 in the US, the Dead's Built To Last topped out at #27, Neil Young's Freedom hit #35, and Townshend's The Iron Man didn't get any higher than #58 (though it didn't deserve better).

Q magazine came out in 1986, as well, with its grown-up CD-age commentary - I can't find the full text of their Steel Wheels review but David Sinclair seemed to like it. I had forgotten that the Master Musicians of Joujouka were on the record, on "Continental Drift". It sounds vaguely like the Sisters of Mercy but not very good.

Sounding like Sisters of Mercy is a pretty low bar to begin with.

How powerful were Q to begin with? Cus 1986 was a different landscape for this sort of trajectory than 1989. Fresh off Live Aid, with lots of famous 70s people doing extremely well (Queen, Gabriel, Genesis, Winwood, Simon) but crucially not so much new releases for McCartney, the Stones (as such), Young, Dylan, Reed, the albums that SRTFs were treated as 'rejections' of by Q, Rolling Stone and others by 89.

I really like Continental Drift. There's a bit near the end where its structure mirrors The Creatures' Miss the Girl.

doodoo-lounge

― The self-titled drags (Eazy), Tuesday, September 6, 2022 1:06 PM bookmarkflaglink

The Neil Young album was actually a comeback.

I was in high school when Steel Wheels came out and definitely remember all the big comeback/return to form hype - I think most of the reasons feeding into that have been covered in this thread but offer thid as a side-note - me and my friends were really into 60s/70s “canonical” rock music, and we all viewed Dirty Work as the nadir of the Stones’ career. Crucially, none of us had actually heard it - there was always a better record to spend your money on. So this impression was based mainly on the cover, which seemed unbelievably corny and embarrassing to us - and also maybe the clip for One Hit to the Body, which, same.

True, it charted much higher in the US than anything he'd released since Trans (which itself made the top 20, somewhat surprisingly).

xp

also maybe the clip for One Hit to the Body, which, same.

Sure it wasn't "Harlem Shuffle"? That video (and performance) is terrible, while I defend "One Hit" to the death.

The “One Hit” video is great. It likely wasn’t conceived with this video in mind, but it’s the perfect antithesis to the one for “Waiting On A Friend.” (Also has one of Jimmy Page’s greatest-ever solos.)

ha yeah, in today's money i can see the One Hit video as funny/good value - just trying to convey the mindset of our particular pack of teenaged rock purists in 1989

i think there was something about us perceiving 1986 as the last ebb of the band desperately grasping for youthiness/edginess - whereas the narrative of Steel Wheels was 'still pop but also easing into dignified elder statesman role' - with a little more acknowledgement of the legacy, eg master musicians cameo, playing 2000 Light Years and (i think?) She's A Rainbow

Jagger's hair metal hair in "One Hit"is execrable, I'll admit.

I'll also say: Keef b/w 1983-1994 looked great! He gave coherent, rather intelligent interviews, kept himself busy producing Aretha, working with Chuck Berry, and recording a solid solo album, and bathed. I remember reading that 1985-1986 was the period when rock journalists stopped asking Jagger for good copy when Keith was available.

I think it was largely the ‘25 X 5’ VHS retrospective that directly leads to Captain Jack Sparrow

Creepier than that: Jagger shown affecting daddy vocals for his kids. I ducked under the bed.

Hang on what?

He's shown being a Normal Father, which terrified me.

haha nostalgic stirrings inspired by this thread just inspired me to check out the Mixed Emotions video

and yeah the first shot rings true to memory - B&W, band in a studio, Keith counting in - the world's greatest rock and roll band is ditching the flash trappings of fashion and back doing what it does best!!!

and then at the 5 second mark we see Mick wearing a leotard doing aerobics in front of a mirror, so clearly the memory cheats

Lol

Jimmy’s solo on One Hit is good but I wish it lasted more than ten seconds

Also that song suffers from “2 legit 2 quit” syndrome in that the name of the song repeats way too often

Maybe it's because I live in Canada, where they were bigger hits, but I feel like I'm still more likely to hear some of the 90s songs like "Love is Strong" and "Anybody Seen My Baby?" than I would the late 80s hits that were mentioned like "Harlem Shuffle" and "Mixed Emotions".

As for Bowie, I feel like there's a decent amount of Millennials out there that know Magic Dance, and that's from one year after Dancing the Streets. Does that count?

“Anybody seen my baby?” Was a hit in Mexico too. That video got aired a lot, first RS song I heard.

So Canadians have no hard feelings about the kd lang appropriation?

I feel like there's a decent amount of Millennials out there that know Magic Dance

Not challenging you, just curious – why is this song known(?)

and then at the 5 second mark we see Mick wearing a leotard doing aerobics in front of a mirror, so clearly the memory cheats

― meat and two vdgg (emsworth)

Followed by close-up of Mick's ass to illustrate the lyric "it's creasin' yo BUTT!"

Also that song suffers from “2 legit 2 quit” syndrome in that the name of the song repeats way too often

This was was a feature, not a bug, of ‘80s Stones songs: “Start Me Up,” “She’s So Cold,” “Hang Fire,” “Slave,” “Rock and a Hard Place,” “Winning Ugly,” etc.

west coast heat dome blues (morrisp) at 5:44 7 Sept 22

I feel like there's a decent amount of Millennials out there that know Magic Dance

Not challenging you, just curious – why is this song known(?)

“God gave me everything I want” by Mick Jagger feat. Lenny Kravitz was a hit in my memory but apparently it only was popular in Spain and Mexico.

(Also has one of Jimmy Page’s greatest-ever solos.)

I don't think I ever noticed this before or even really registered it as a solo. It doesn't really seem to go anywhere melodically to me or provide many surprises. What makes it great iyo?

I feel similarly about a couple of Jeff Beck's celebrated pop sessions.

There's an agitation in his approach that I love, and I don't hear anything like that on many/any of his other solos. It's stinging and unpredictable.

To me it sounds like a snippet that would fit right in somewhere in Achilles

Dig the Woods-Richards guitar interplay here. It's fierce, and I love Jagger bellowing about Stalin and Roosevelt like he's choking on a baby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH6drAKz7bc

Maybe it's because I live in Canada, where they were bigger hits, but I feel like I'm still more likely to hear some of the 90s songs like "Love is Strong" and "Anybody Seen My Baby?" than I would the late 80s hits that were mentioned like "Harlem Shuffle" and "Mixed Emotions".

The Stones rehearsed for their 90's tours in Toronto, this was an open secret at the time. It helped increased anticipation for those albums in Canada and probably led to greater airplay (radio, MuchMusic) than they would have gotten otherwise. So yeah, it's no accident that songs like "Anybody Seen My Baby" have more of a legacy in Canada compared with their 80's hits.