Tag Archives: The Rolling Stones

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Song of the Day #1,013: ‘Sympathy For the Devil’ – The Rolling Stones

Beggars Banquet was released just one year after Between the Buttons, in 1968, yet The Rolling Stones managed to sneak another album out in between them (Their Satanic Majesties Request, a foray into psychedelia). Talk about a prolific period.

Beggars Banquet was a return to a more blues/rock approach and is widely considered one of the band’s finest works. This was one of the first Stones albums I bought when I started reading up on their catalog and deciding where to dip my toe.

The album isn’t packed with hit singles — today’s track and ‘Street Fighting Man’ are the only songs here that would likely make a greatest hits record. But every song is great, from the jokey hoedown ‘Dear Doctor’ to the bawdy riff-tastic ‘Stray Cat Blues.’

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Song of the Day #1,012: ‘She Smiled Sweetly’ – The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones’ Between the Buttons was released in 1967, a year after Aftermath. Again, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote every track.

As was customary in the 60s, different versions of the LP were released in the United Kingdom and the United States. The US version included hits ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’ and ‘Ruby Tuesday,’ which had been released as singles in the UK.

Ordinarily I’m against this sort of repackaging (The Beatles albums were similarly bastardized and I feel fortunate that the UK releases became the official US CD releases eventually). But in the case of The Stones, I rather like having the more popular songs available alongside the lesser-known album tracks. Of course I don’t know what I’m missing in the two songs left off the US version.

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Song of the Day #1,011: ‘Under My Thumb’ – The Rolling Stones

I was coming up with ideas for the follow-up to Elvis Costello Weekends and it occurred to me that if my CD collection and musical knowledge were sufficient, The Rolling Stones would be perfect candidates.

Here’s a band that often comes up in the same breath as The Beatles, who have written as many classic songs, and who have released three times as many albums. I’ve always fallen on The Beatles side of the old “Beatles or Stones” question, but there is no doubt that it’s a legitimate contest.

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Song of the Day #718: ‘Torn & Frayed’ – The Rolling Stones

Every so often, the entertainment industry seizes on an anniversary as an excuse to roll out a new version of some classic album or movie, prompting all of the entertainment magazines and websites to launch their own retrospectives. No doubt it is all in the interest of making a lot of money off of a gullible public’s nostalgia.

And I’m here to say that it’s a wonderful thing.

Last year it was The Beatles CD reissues, which weren’t even tied to an anniversary but rather to the release of the Rock Band video game featuring the Fab Four’s music. I, like millions of other fans, plopped down lots of money to buy up new versions of albums I already owned because these sounded a whole lot better.

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Song of the Day #308: ‘I Am Waiting’ – The Rolling Stones

rushmoreI love highlighting songs featured in movies because it’s a marriage of my two great artistic passions — the peanut butter and chocolate of the entertainment world.

In some cases, a great song is made greater by its association with a movie. In other cases, a great song brings something fresh to a movie in need of the injection. And then there are cases like today’s example, where a song that never made an impression on me is suddenly revealed as great through its use in a film.

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