Tag Archives: The Rolling Stones

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Song of the Day #5,569: ‘Sleep Tonight’ – The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones had been putting out an album every year or two (sometimes more than one per year) since their inception in 1964. But the band’s internal turmoil in the early to mid 80s caused their output to slow. The 1986 album Dirty Work dropped three years after previous release Undercover.

Tensions between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were higher than ever, in part because Jagger had embarked on a solo career, releasing his debut album a year earlier. Richards’ full attention was still on The Stones, and he was annoyed by his partner’s wandering eye. At 1985’s Live Aid concert, Jagger performed a set with Tina Turner while Richards and Ronnie Wood played for Bob Dylan.

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Song of the Day #5,568: ‘All the Way Down’ – The Rolling Stones

The 1983 Rolling Stones release Undercover found Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the middle of an ugly spat that kept getting uglier. Returning to the studio after the patchwork construction of Tattoo You, they found themselves trying to pull the band in different directions.

Richards favored the R&B and blues sound of the band’s heyday, while Jagger wanted to experiment with the burgeoning musical styles and production techniques of the new decade. The resulting album was a Frankenstein monster combining both of those dueling approaches.

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Song of the Day #5,567: ‘Start Me Up’ – The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones’ 1981 album Tattoo You is an unlikely success.

It was more a product of commerce than art, cobbled together because the band needed a new album to promote on their upcoming tour. Tensions between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards resulted in little interest by either of them in collaborating on new songs, so producers mined the group’s voluminous archives for suitable material.

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Song of the Day #5,564: ‘Emotional Rescue’ – The Rolling Stones

Two years after top-seller Some Girls, The Rolling Stones marked the beginning of a new decade with 1980’s Emotional Rescue.

The 70s had been a strong decade for the band, despite a slump in the middle years. They started with two of their best albums and finished it with another, their biggest hit. In between were a trio of lesser releases that still had their share of memorable songs.

How would they make the transition to the 80s, a decade that proved to be a landmine for many successful 70s acts?

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Song of the Day #5,563: ‘Before They Make Me Run’ – The Rolling Stones

Fourteen years and 14 albums into their career, The Rolling Stones released their best-selling album ever. Why 1978’s Some Girls earned that honor is a bit of a mystery. It did produce two top ten hits (‘Miss You,’ which hit #1, and ‘Beast of Burden’) but otherwise doesn’t feature any songs a casual fan would know.

The album also came in the midst of a critical slump for the band, following three straight albums that failed to live up to their great work from the late 60s and early 70s. Some Girls shifted that conversation, and was hailed by many as The Stones’ best work since Exile on Main St.

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