With Emotional Rescue The Rolling Stones revert to bad habits

The Rolling Stones : Emotional Rescue

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On June 20, 1980 The Rolling Stones followed up their comeback album Some Girls with Emotional Rescue. The album misses the tension of Some Girls while sounding, in places, like its following the Some Girls formula.  "Dance Part 1 " is another "Miss You" style disco-rock number while "She's So Cold" and "Where The Boys Go" aren't quite up to the raw rock'n'roll of "Shattered" and "Respectable". Even "Send Her To Me" can't keep up with the bawdy lyrics of "Some Girls", though Jagger will mail-order any bride you can find: "She might be Ukranian/She could be Australian/ She could be The Alien...Send her to me!". "Indian Girl" may be the worst song the Stones had yet recorded. 

If Some Girls was a response to punk, Emotional Rescue's title track sounded like a response to the Bee Gees:

Only "All About You" still fascinates these ears, a preview of that fantastic Keith Richards solo album Talk Is Cheap. Whose the dog he is so sick of hanging out with? Mick Jagger or Anita Pallenberg? In Life, Richards says it was probably more about Mick.

I realized that Mick had quite enjoyed one side of being a junkie--the one that kept me from interfering in day-to-day business...The phrase that rings in my ears all these years later is "Oh shut up, Keith". He used it a lot, many times, in meetings, anywhere. Even before I conveyed the idea, it was "Oh shut up, Keith. Don't be stupid." he didn't even know he was doing it--it was so fucking rude. I've known him so longh he can get away with murder like that. At the same time; it hurts.

The album sold well, topping the charts in the US and UK. Hit singles from the album include the title track, which reached No. 1 in Canada, No. 3 in the US, and No. 9 in Canada and "She's So Cold", which was a top-40 single in several countries. But it's not an album that satisfies. 

The critics were not stunned the way they were were by Some Girls. Writing in Rolling Stone, Ariel Swartley stated that "as far as the music goes, 'familiar' is an understatement. There's hardly a melody here that you haven't heard from the Stones before".

NME's Nick Kent said compared to the latest albums by Graham Parker and Peter Gabriel, "Emotional Rescue is devoid of passion, bloated with clumsy posing and artifice".

From Robert Christgau of the Village Voice a grade of B+:

 No one will ever mistake this for a great Stones album, but I bet it sounds more interesting than It's Only Rock 'n Roll should we take the time to compare and contrast in our respective retirement communities. The mid-'60s charm of such tossed-off tropes as "Where the Boys Go" and "She's So Cold" goes with music that's far more allusive and irregular and knowing: for better and worse its drive isn't so monolithic, and the bass comes front and center like Bill was James Jamerson. Looser than you'll ever be.

From David Hepworth of Smash Hits

But apparently the band was inspired enough to hold some tracks from the sessions for their next album, the far better Tattoo You, including "Hang Fire", "Little T+A", and "No Use in Crying" 

Shmatta, Shmatta, Shmatta

The Rolling Stones : Shattered

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On October 24, 1978 Keith Richards showed the world he wasn't just another drug addict, when a Canadian judge gave him a one-year suspended sentence and placed Richards on a year’s probation after he pled guilty to a reduced charge of possession of heroin. Charges of possession of cocaine and possession of heroin with intent to traffic, which could have resulted in a life sentence for Richards. The judge also ordered Richards to continue treatment for his heroin addiction and that he perform a benefit concert — by himself or with a group — for Toronto’s Canadian National Institute for the Blind within six months. 

Looking back on the verdict, Richards writes in Life that he had a blind angel in his corner, Rita Bedard.

Despite her blindness, she hitchhiked to our shows. The chick was absolutely fearless. I'd heard about her backstage, and the idea of her thumbing in the  darkness was too much for me. I hooked her up with the truck drivers, made sure she got a safe lift and made sure she got fed. And when I was busted, she actually found her way to the judge's house and told him this story. And this is how he arrived at the concert for the blind. The love and devotion of people like Rita is something that still amazes me. So aha! A way was found.

The Easiest Lay on the White House Lawn

The Rolling Stones : Respectable

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The Rolling Stones had already sold more than two million copies of Some Girls, when EMI ran into legal issues with the sleeve. It was reported that Raquel Welch and Lucille Ball both objected to being on the cover. Also pictured were Farrah Fawcett, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. 

  

They may have remembered the notoriety the Rolling Stones gained with the S/M campaign for Black and Blue two years earlier. Keith Richards' heroin bust in Canada and Mick Jagger's affair with Canadian first lade Margaret Trudeau were both more recently in the news.

While the objections were made in the US, EMI halted worldwide production of the album. The album was quickly re-issued with a redesigned cover that removed all the celebrities (except George Harrison). The celebrity images were replaced with black and punk style garish colours with the phrase Pardon our appearance – cover under re-construction 

Booze and Pills and Powders

The Rolling Stones : Before They Make Me Run

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On June 9, 1978 The Rolling Stones released their last great album, Some Girls. This was my entry point into the entire Stones legend, followed shortly by Hot Rocks and then More Hot Rocks. Rather than leading the way, the Stones take their cues from what's happening around them : disco ( "Miss You"), punk ( "Lies") and country ( "Far Away Eyes"). The title track may have been a joke, but it went over my head and upset various groups.

If Richards was absent from his usual contributions, he showed up in first on "Before They Make Me Run", an all time favorite  often covered live by Steve Earle. 

Great album to play on your earphones as you're wandering around New York City.

From Paul Nelson writing for Rolling Stone :
 Q: Do you think the music of the Rolling Stones has an overall theme?
A: Yeah. Women. - Keith Richards

With Bob Dylan no longer bringing it all back home, Elvis Presley dead and the Beatles already harmlessly cloned in the wax-museum nostalgia of a Broadway musical, it's no wonder the Rolling Stones decided to make a serious record. Not particularly ambitious, mind you, but serious. These guys aren't dumb, and when the handwriting on the wall begins to smell like formaldehyde and that age-old claim, "the greatest rock and roll band in the world" suddenly sounds less laudatory than laughable, you'd better dredge up your leftover pride, bite the bullet and try like hell to sweat out some good music. Which is exactly what the Stones have done. Though time may not exactly be on their side, with Some Girls they've at lest managed to stop the clock for a while.

On the new album the Stones have stripped down to the archetypal sound of two or three guitars, bass and drums, and it's wonderful to hear the group blazing away again with little more than the basics to protect them. Everything's apparently been recorded as close to live as we'd want it, and the overdubbing and extra musicians have been kept to a minimum. "Respectable" takes a close look at the peculiar position of the Stones, circa 1978, and boasts lines like these: 

We're talking heroin with the President 

Yes it's a problem sir, but it can be bent... 

You're a rag trade girl, you're the queen of porn 

You're the easiest lay on the White House lawn... 

before it inexplicably begins to lose interest in itself. "When the Whip Comes Down" and "Lies" are a neat combination of white heat and old hat, while "Miss You," "Imagination" and "Shattered" are a good deal better than that. And the title track is every bit as outrageous ("Black girls just want to get fucked all night/I just don't have that much jam") as everyone says. This song may be a sexist and racist horror, but it's also terrifically funny and strangely desperate in a manner that gets under your skin and makes you care. On "Some Girls," Mick Jagger sounds like he's not only singing like Bob Dylan, but about Bob Dylan: "I'll give you a house back in Zuma Beach/And give you half of what I owe."

"Before They Make Me Run" and "Beast of Burden," Some Girls' hardest-hitting songs, are sandwiched between "Respectable" and "Shattered" on side two. It's probably presumptuous to suggest that these four tracks are about the present predicament of this stormy band, but I think they are. When Keith Richards sings, "Well after all is said and done/Gotta move while it's still fun/But let me walk before they make me run," there's no doubt he's talking about the music, his drug bust and the possible end of the road, about which he writes brilliantly ("Watch my taillights fading/There ain't a dry eye in the house..."). And when Mick Jagger implores, 

Ain't I rough enough 

Ain't I tough enough 

Ain't I rich enough 

In love enough 

Oooo, ooh please. 

 he's got to be thinking about himself and the Rolling Stones, among other things. It's too bad the answer to all his questions isn't an unqualified yes. In a better world, it should be.

From Robert Christgau writing for the Village Voice :

 The Stones' best album since Exile on Main Street is also their easiest since Let It Bleed or before. They haven't gone for a knock-down uptempto classic, a "Brown Sugar" or "Jumping Jack Flash" -- just straight rock and roll unencumbered by horn sections or Billy Preston. Even Jagger takes a relatively direct approach, and if he retains any credibility for you after six years of dicking around, there should be no agonizing over whether you like this record, no waiting for tunes to kick in. Lyrically, there are some bad moments -- especially on the title cut, which is too fucking indirect to suit me -- but in general the abrasiveness seems personal, earned, unposed, and the vulnerability more genuine than ever. Also, the band is a really good one -- especially the drummer. A

People Think I'm Crazy

The Rolling Stones : Miss You ( extended version)

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It is the summer of '78 and my dad has dropped me off at a bowling alley in West Haven with friends so he could spend more time with a Swiss woman who would become my step mother. I've got enough money for a soda or candy, but not both, and there's no way I'm going to break 200. But I can beat my sisters with my eyes closed.

 All of a sudden this song comes on. All I'm hearing is the bass and drums at first, a disco beat that doesn't do anything for me. Then comes the chorus with its "Oooh oooh oooh oooh" and EVERYBODY in the place is singing along.

 What the hell is this? It's the new Rolling Stones single, THE song of the Summer of '78, which broke into the Billboard Hot 100 at #76 on May 28, 1978. It would hit #1 in August and so would the album Some Girls. 

That was the Summer I returned from boarding school needing a tutor for Algebra I/ Symbolic Logic and Introductory French. The Summer my dad and his Swiss friend and all of our families lived together in a rented beach cottage. Like cats introduced in the same house all at once, we hissed . We fought. We found our quiet places. It was also the Summer I would bike over to the next town to hang out with a friend who had a guitar and was willing to write songs with me.

When his dad caught us sitting around, he'd call us over to do some yard work. We'd muck the one horse stable or chop wood. Writing songs in the basement was the best way to avoid that work. We decided to call the band Split Wood. 

40 Year Itch : Knebworth '76

On August 21, 1976, 250-thousand fans --some naked, some high --attended the Knebworth Festival, including Linda and Paul McCartney and David Gimour. The Rolling Stones headlined the UK rock festival, but the  highlight was Lynyrd Skynyrd's scorching performance. The Alabama rockers followed Utopia on stage. "America's Confederate rockers" would be releasing their live album, One More From the Road, in September and were in peak form. 

They were followed by 10cc, in what I believe is their final performance as the original quartet. They may have had the best sound but they had a hard time winning over the crowd who were anxious to see the Rolling Stones. They rocked out on a ten minute version of  "Rubber Bullets" before saying goodnight.

Conditions at Knebworth were fairly miserable. Long lines for bathrooms and drinking water. A naked hippie raced on stage and pleasured himself in front of the crowd. When he was finished he grabbed a mike and said "Sorry for keeping you waiting for so long".

The Rolling Stones came on hours late, in part because some giant lips had to be inflated above the stage. Finally around 11:30 that night , they opened with "Satisfaction". Billy Preston played keyboards. Ron Wood played some hot licks on lead guitar. Despite the recent Lester Bangs obit* for the band, The Rolling Stones were still alive and still mattered.

*There are two things to be said about the new Stones album before closing time: one is that they are still perfectly in tune with the times (ahead sometimes, trendies) and the other is the heat's off, because it's all over, they really don't matter anymore or stand for anything, which is certainly lucky for both them and us. I mean, it was a heavy weight to carry for all concerned. This is the first MEANINGLESS Stones album, and thank God... I don't even hate Black and Blue like the new Led Zep, which admittedly is unworthy of hatred from anybody except a true patriot who expected more than what you knew you were going to get - what you get here is sweet flow Muzak dentist office conversation piece bright eyes shining in the face of nothing at all which they will not even confront and more power to 'em... So thank you for not aspiring: you are an inspiration to the blank generation whole.

Meanwhile in France,  on the way to the Mont de Marsan punk festival , headlined by Eddie and the Hot Rods, Nick Lowe, The Count Bishops and Pink Fairies, The Damned's Ray Burns buys a shirt with epaulettes and exchanges his nickname "Eats" for "Captain Sensible". The Damned's first single, "New Rose", will be released in two months.

40 Year Itch : Black and Blue

   To promote their new album, Black and Blue, released in April of 1976, The Rolling Stones displayed model Anita Russell all tied up ( by  Mick Jagger it turns out!) and sporting bruises with the tagline "I'm Black and Blue from the Rolling Stones - and I love it!"

  Not everybody else loved it...including the intrepid spray can artist who climbed up to the Hollywood billboard below to write "This is a crime against women!". More protests convinced the record company to take the billboard down.

  Anita's comment: "People should have more of a sense of humor."

   The album itself is a mixed bag, recorded with various guitarists who were auditioning in Munich for the Rolling Stones spot that Ronnie Wood would eventually win. The best thing on the entire album might be Canned Heat's Harvey "The Snake" Mandel's distinctive wah wah guitar on the lead off track "Hot Stuff". ( Doesn't Bill Wyman look thrilled to be entering the disco age?)

The second best thing is "Hand of Fate" which sounds like a classic Keef Richards tune, only the lead guitar is played by American session man Wayne Perkins. The third best: anything Billy Preston did.

40 Year Itch: A Shot of Salvation

  On April 15, 1974 The Rolling Stones concert movie "Ladies and Gentlemen The Rolling Stones" made its debut at the Zeigfield Theatre in New York City. The movie shows the Stones at their peak, performing in Texas and at Madison Square Garden during the 1972 American Tour. Originally screened in quadrasonic sound, the movie played limited engagements in select cities (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles) because tons of sound equipment has to be moved and set up at each theater.

40 Year Itch: Rolling Stones Saxman Takes a Bath

On September 30, 1973 The Rolling Stones played two shows at the Festhalle in Frankfurt Germany rounding up the first month of their 1973 European tour. Despite the sexy poster, designed by John Pasche from a photo by David Thorper, this tour wasn't as wild as the '72 American Tour. Billy Preston, a big star in his own right and the opening act for the tour, played keyboards. Keith Richards wasn't always keen on his musicianship as he related in his autobiography Life:

There was one time in Glasgow when he was playing so loud he was drowning out the rest of the band. I took him backstage and showed him the blade. "You know what this is, Bill? Dear William. If you don't turn that fucking thing down right now, you're going to feel it." It's not Billy Preston and The Rolling Stones. You are the keyboard player with the Rolling Stones.

   The Frankfurt show is missing saxophone player Bobby Keys. Richards says  found Keys and some French chick  in a bathtub full of champagne and Bobby told Richards he wasn't going anywhere. This was also the last tour to feature Mick Taylor on guitar.

By the way, the Stones had planned to put out a live album of their European tour. They has their mobile recording unit at almost every gig. The talk at the time was of a part live/part studio album ( not unlike Humble Pie's most recent outing) with the studio tracks coming from the same Jamaican sessions that produced Goats Head Soup.

   Below: an out of breath and over-heated Jagger sings the last song of the night.

40 Year Itch : Bomb Strikes The Stones Tour

Just over six weeks after the Rolling Stones began their STP tour of North America with a full blown riot in Vancouver , a bomb placed under a ramp at the Montreal Forum explodes in one of the Rolling Stones' equipment trucks. Thirty speakers are destroyed. Replacement gear is flown in from Los Angeles.

Montreal radio stations receive no fewer than fifty calls from would-be bombers claiming responsibility, but it's never determined just who planted the dynamite, or why. History suggests its the paramilitary Quebec Liberation Front but there are also some concerns that The Hells Angels want to send Jagger a message after he blamed them for the tragedy at Altamont.

 Mick Jagger's only comment: "Why didn't that cat leave a note?"

There's another problem: more than 500 counterfeit tickets were sold to the show. It is oppressively hot for the 20,000 fans who show up at the Forum. The Montreal Gazette reporter writes "In the top galleries of The Forum the temperature must have reached 120 degrees though outside it was a cool 75." In the video below you see Jagger tossing buckets of water on the crowd. Firecrackers go off and at one point a 40 ounce bottle is tossed at the stage:

Weekend Magazine  reports:

Ninety seconds later, a bottle sailed out of the crowd and hit him on the leg. He winced...Jagger didn’t know it wasn’t aimed at him. His truck had been bombed. People were shouting. The firecrackers sounded like shots. A bottle had just hit him. He wound up the song, giving Richards his end-it look.

Later, there was a party in Jagger’s room. He looked tired and washed out. ‘Not good, man,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t good.'