In Praise of The Genius That Was The Videos for The Rolling Stones Undercover LP

undercover 12inch remix was so hot. they were hot.

I'd LOVE to hear the Arthur Baker mix of "Too Much Blood"!

He should've mixed that whole album.

whoa i have never seen the too much blood video before! there was a real spate of "horror" videos around 1983, huh? thriller, and uh...

I love "Too Much Blood".

because that "undercover of the night" link doesn't work anymore. i'd dismissed listening to "tattoo you" for years and that's catapulted into maybe my top 5 stones records (i know its 70s outtakes). then i saw this and thought, "oh no, i'm about to go deep into the 80s stones."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVJkfXeTs9Q

I maintain the opinion that a lot (well, some) of '80s Stones sounds like "Sandinista!" deep cuts.

I'd LOVE to hear the Arthur Baker mix of "Too Much Blood"!

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, January 30, 2008

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4-oarhm0XI

I was a kid at the time and only vaguely aware of the Rolling Stones. I find it really hard to place their early-80s music into context. Partially because as pointed out earlier Tattoo You was made from 1970s outtakes. Also because they seemed to musically get stuck in the early 70s, but with modern-but-not-too-modern production, so by the early 1980s they felt like a sarcastic parody of old-fashioned rock music along the lines of the B-52s or Devo, except that they weren't joking.

Unlike virtually all of their peers they didn't adopt synthesisers. Unlike ZZ Top they didn't go for a tongue-in-cheek ironic quasi-parody of blues rock. They sort-of adopted a little bit of the post-punk New Wave, in the sense that their sound was effects-light and trebly, but that's because they sounded like that anyway. So they were doing a kind of vaguely post-punk blues rock, which sounds like chalk and cheese, and unlike essentially every other new wave / post-punk band they sang about women, sex, and drugs, instead of e.g. the alienating aspects of modern technology or the inevitable triumph of the SDP or unemployment.

Although "Undercover of the Night" is apparently about unrest in South America. And yet through sheer force of will they managed to get chart hits and chart-topping albums, not just on the strength of being a big legacy band. "Undercover" is a better song than I remembered.

They're a bundle of contradictions that I can't mentally process. If only someone with clout could have told Mick Jagger that he looked stupid when he was dancing. If he'd just put on a suit and stood still, and the rest of the band had put on suits - adopted the Joy Division look - their videos from the period e.g. "Start Me Up" wouldn't be half as cringe.

very fuckin funny michael VERY FUCKING FUNNY MICHAEL

The spoken word parts of too much blood had me lmao

This cover is more frightening IRL when you flip through some records only to have this appear in all its 12" x 12" glory.

https://i.discogs.com/XS_NCCIvZPEh03hnwJDVhI9awphumtpnQTQO0jO04jU/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTExMTE0/Ny0xMzgwNzM1MTEy/LTI5MDguanBlZw.jpeg

Lol i can't think of any other record cover that has been posted more on ilx.

And with as many cover connections too

Unlike virtually all of their peers they didn't adopt synthesisers. Unlike ZZ Top they didn't go for a tongue-in-cheek ironic quasi-parody of blues rock. They sort-of adopted a little bit of the post-punk New Wave, in the sense that their sound was effects-light and trebly, but that's because they sounded like that anyway. So they were doing a kind of vaguely post-punk blues rock, which sounds like chalk and cheese

Quite well put, but chalk 'n' cheese sounds delicious.