Negative review of Still Life
The Ignorant One
when the guy says "the song's inclusion on a 1982 album is a nasty anti-female
gesture, by the way" about Under My Thumb.
Still Life, compiled from the Rolling Stones' not-quite-triumphant-but-very
successful 1981 U.S. tour, presents a bit of a problem. Of course it's good -
as a live Stones album, it beats the socks off the desultory, decadent Love You
Live. The band sounds more vital here than it has since Exile On Main Street,
but the element of risk that charged its greatest records is missing (listen to
this album and Beggar's Banquet back-to-back and you'll agree). As good as they
are, the current Stones wouldn't dare to do anything to challenge their
audience's preconceived notions of "The World's Greatest Rock And Roll Band."
It's too bad, because if they'd take risks, the Stones might be great again.
But they won't, and we'll just have to accept them the way they are... Side one
opens with an unremarkable "Under My Thumb" that's rescued mainly by Charlie
Watts' still-uncanny drumming (the song's inclusion on a 1982 album is a nasty
anti-female gesture, by the way). "Let's Spend The Night Together" is similarly
competent but uninspired. Things pick up considerably with a pneumatic
"Shattered," which leads into the real goodies: a pair of brilliantly revived
new oldies. Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" gets the same sort of
treatment the Stones used to give their early Chuck Berry covers. Even better
is the anthemic reworking of Smokey Robinson's "Going To A GoGo," the album's
one real moment of greatness. The second side kicks off with a pummeling,
propulsive version of the very minor "Let Me Go "leading into a blurry but
convincing "Time Is On My Side." "Start Me Up" kicks hard, though it's a bit
too close to the studio version. "Just My Imagination" is reassuringly gritty.
And the finale, a savage "Satisfaction," almost makes the trip worthwhile.
Jagger is in fine voice, actually singing rather than cheerleading, but his
between-song raps (of which there are few)
are of the patronizing are-you-ready-to-
rock-we-love-you variety. The guitars of Keith Richards and Ron Wood are
predictably sloppy/great/sloppy - but the real stars are Bill Wyman and Charlie
Watts, who remain the most cosmically correct rhythm section in rock. If you
are content to think of the Rolling Stones as merely another rock band, then
Still Life is as fine a live album as you're likely to find anywhere these
days. But if you remember when the Stones "really meant something"... Oh well,
you've probably gotten used to it by now.
ShawnMckelvey
I think you totally missed it on this one. Under My Thumb
from Still Life is one of my all-time favorites. Its metallic, hard and full of
loud guitar excitement. To say its unremarkable, is crazy as far as I can see.
Especially with the Bill Graham intro, I'd say its clearly THE remarkable
moment on the album, second only to JJFlash on Ya Ya's as the best opener (and
w/ Satisfaction as the 2nd best closer after SFM). Thank you very much for
waiting New Jersey..
Peace,
Shawn
babylon
heard that really blew me away. I'd listened to my father's old Stones
singles before that, like Street Fighting Man and Lany Jane, but the
first few seconds of Under My Thumb I listened to with headphones at a
record store really did it for me. I remember I was trying to decide
between McCartney's RAM and Still life, well I took Still Life home...
although I did end up buying all of McCartneys LPs over the years...
I since went on to collect pretty much all of the Stones recorded
production (released and unreleased).
Man do I still dig these first few bars and I was really overjoyed
when I recently found Still Life on the web recently.
Check out my web site
http://juiced.hypermart.net
On 06 Aug 2000 04:12:58 GMT, shawnm...@cs.com (ShawnMckelvey)
wrote: