Could The Rolling Stones ever make another good album?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Dylan did it with "Time Out of Mind". Could the Stones make an old man version of "Exile on Main Street"? What's stopping them?

― fritz, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Stripped' wasn't completely horrible

― dave q, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I haven't listened to a new Stones album in over a decade. However, they were at one time a serious conteder for "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band" (some would say their status as this is uncontested). I do think they have it in them to produce another classic album, but despair at this point of it actually happening. Considering their origins in American Blues and R and B, why don't they make an "unplugged" type record that gets back to their roots? The bluesmen that they supposedly revere made and make great music well into middle and late age, so age shouldn't be the issue. Part of the problem in the late 80's (the last time I heard their latest stuff) was that they seemed to be trying too hard to stay "contemporary" with too much production nonsense, etc. If they just got back to basics they should be able to pull it off. I'd like to see it happen.

― Sean, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Even if they produced the most down-n-dirty blues album possible, it still wouldn't have an impact though, without the social context surrounding them. 'Under My Thumb' is Swinging London, 'Gimme Shelter' makes people think of Altamont, 'Miss You' is the fabulous Studio 54/Neil Bogart/Halston disco daze, and if they released a blues album now it would have the same cataclysmic impact as, say, another Johny Winter or Robert Cray album.

― dave q, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Understood. But if their down-and-dirty blues album failed to make a social impact, it could still succeed at being a good album, right? That's all we--or they--can hope for.

― Sean, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But they didn't make an impact in the first instance because they were "bluesy"; they made an impact more because they were "Stones-y": ie because they were snotty white anglos who simultaneously grasped and mimicked and revered AND MOCKED the music that made them. To be what they WERE, they'd have to out Brass-Eye Chris Morris: not impossible, but not very likely. Being respectful wd be the biggest sell-out of ALL!

― mark s, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

THey're rubbish now and they were pseudo -Beatles then. They should have all died heroically in 1970. They could only make a good record if I produced them

― Mike Hanle y, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

pseudo-beatles? there was a period when the Stones tried to play catch-up with the Beatles, but it was brief and hardly definitive of the band.

to me, a lot of the most Beatles-y Stones songs seem like parody or an expression of contempt for the pop elements of the Beatles ("Let It Be" answered by "Let It Bleed", "We Love You" - a sneer at Beatles' "All You Need is Love"-era utopianism). Furthermore, the Stones' best work (Beggar's Banquet, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed, Exile) comes from the post-Beatles breakup era, when they were free of comparisons to/competition with the Fab 4.

― fritz, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yah Mike - "Exile" I don't really hear any Beatles in at all. Also harder to hear the "snotty Anglo" bit of it - maybe it's still there, but it's integrated/assimilated better, maybe.

― Josh, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Funny, but the Stones album I like the most is their biggest Beatles copycat, "At Their Satanic Majesties' Request." I know it's not "authentic" and really fruity and has "ridiculous" written all over it, but I love their pseudo-psychedelic pop, mellotrons, and the cool 3-D cover. That's a lot more fun to me than delta blues sung by art school students. (Shh... I like "Beggars' Banquet," too!)

― X. Y. Zedd, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Stripped' WAS almost completely horrible - Don Was heritage industry fodder on a par with that Brian Wilson alb he produced round abt the same time. First K. Richards solo alb, however, a neglected gem. Ditch the singer keef.

― Andrew L, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Best idea yet on this page - Hanley producing them.

― duane, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I dunno man. I guess you're right, they can't really compare to the Beatles.

― Mike Hanley, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The only way they'd make a great record now would be if it was total sell-out action on an Emotional Rescue level, like if they went all dance-pop-y. Can you imagine them vs. N'Sync? I think it'd be fucking great, Mick'd be all old and lascivious like Serge Gainsbourg, Keef could execute scissor kicks and break his hip again... c'mon, you know it's the only option left.

― Dave M., Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Same thing happened to Stones as to Prince - outflanked on the 'left' by Guns'n'Roses/hip-hop, and on the 'right' by SRV-style blues/nu- R&B, leaving them precisely nowhere.

― dave q, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I didn't think "Bridges to Babylon" was really that bad a few years back... it was the first Stones album I managed to endure more than twice since "Tattoo You." But I doubt the Stones have another great one in them. The musical landscape has virtually eliminated any prospect of competition... they no longer have to keep tabs on what the Beatles or the Airplane are doing, or even Love (supposedly "She's a Rainbow" was inspired by "She Comes in Colors"). They're an anachronism, and have been for at least twenty years. If they can suck some more money out of a 40th anniversary tour, I'm sure they'll try. But any hope of a future "Beggars Banquet" or "Exile on Main Street" is almost certainly futile.

― Darren, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No. Keith Richards will scare the children.

― Lindsey B, Saturday, 11 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think Dave M's idea is way best: they do a boyband thing, as a kind of soulster- minstrel PaedoGeddon. They HAVE to be scary and horrible and ugly and semi-fake to be GOOD...

― mark s, Saturday, 11 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

I'm picking this cuz i'm too lazy to search for a more suitable thread, and it has my touchingly coherent posts above in it as well. I bought Bridges to Babylon a few days ago having never heard it before, and I really really like it. Then again what I expect out of a record is different than what I expected out of one say ten years ago. Hell, what I expect out of LIFE is different than what I expected ten years ago. Actually in fact I don't care if my post gets a hundred responses (doubtful) or zero. Music should speak to us all in ways that illuminate life specifically for us alone; my enjoyment of this record exists beyond any public validation of it. But I'm sharing it here nonetheless.

― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 06:27 (twenty-two years ago)

eight years pass...

The Rolling Stones to bow out at Glastonbury?

The Rolling Stones will bow out from live performances with a headline slot at next year's Glastonbury festival, according to a tabloid report.
The band have never played the Worthy Farm festival but a rumour suggests that they will be heading there for their first and only time next summer, according to the Sunday Mirror.
The tabloid newspaper reports that "sources" close to the band have indicated that their Glastonbury appearance will be their final date in a "handful" of shows in the UK and USA in 2012. It is also suggested that, as it is part of the group's 50-year anniversary, it will be seen as a good time to call it a day on live performances.
One source revealed: "All four members have agreed that next year is the right time to have one final hurrah and put on the gig of their lives. It's a case of now or never, and obviously Glastonbury is the most important festival on the circuit. Everybody's incredibly excited... it's a final bow."

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 18 June 2012 01:47 (thirteen years ago)

forming an army of prayer warriors to make them do a bunch of b-sides and no hits

― decrepit but free (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 18 June 2012 03:20 (thirteen years ago)

Wayne Shorter is on Bridges to Babylon, and does something worth hearing. Also Thru And Thru is a good song from 1994's Voodoo Lounge. Both Keef's doing. That is all.

― Lil' Kim Philby (Call the Cops), Monday, 18 June 2012 06:15 (thirteen years ago)

So they've been vibing with Bill and MTaylor (really unfortunate to have the same name as the lead singer)..

so I could believe this could be the goodnight vienna.

Then again, most news stories comprise of things that are vaguely plausible, so hey

― Mark G, Monday, 18 June 2012 09:18 (thirteen years ago)

So, I'm assuming "A Bigger Bang" was that album that was a 'return to past glories', and the stones have done people the favour of not releasing any old toffee anymore?

― Mark G, Monday, 18 June 2012 09:20 (thirteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.