Request : your personal impressions on “Miss You”

[Philippe Birgy]

Hi everybody,
I teach cultural studies at an English department in a French University and I am currently writing an article on “Miss You” and nostalgy in Rock music. So I am particularly concerned with the song’s reception, both at the moment of its release (for those who remember that) and at other moments, including the present: how it was and is perceived by different people, in short.
What I would like to know is what you feel when you hear it, whether you find it pleasurable, nostalgia-inducing, harrowing, stimulating, or anything. Do you enjoy it in the moment as it is, or is the pleasure or emotion it procures related to the situation when you first heard it, what it stood for at the time (perhaps at the period when it was a hit) ?
Do you have an ambivalent relation to it because of the element of disco in it which, to you, might make it sound less genuine, more contrived, made up in imitation of something, in response to commercial requisites, perhaps ? This is just a suggestion; I am mentioning it because a number of posts on the forum seem to reflect that idea. For my own part, I am very sensitive to the bass line and personally, I do not take Disco to be a damning word, it is an aspect of Afro-American culture that I find great. It may be that it has been changed into something formulaic by constant copying, but that applies to many other genres. Anyway, that is just my humble opinion and it is yours that I wish to know about. Thank you all for your understanding. Cheers
(Oh, and afterwards I will show you what I have written, of course !)

Philippe

[fallenstarseven]

I remember well when the song came out, I was a 17 year old boy in mid-America. It was a monstrously big hit and seemed to synthesize everything going on musically at that time--it had that dangerous, slightly seedy Rolling Stones sound; the disco beat and baseline; bluesy and yet punkish vocals, and layered throughout an incredible weaving of guitar, harmonica, and percussion. It was the song of the summer for 1978 and seemed to appeal to everybody from all social groups in my school and among my friends.

Later, as the reaction to disco faded, it seemed to survive the backlash that such groups as the Bee Gees received and perhaps felt like the only acceptable disco song.

Now, when I listen to it, I regard it as one of the Stones' best songs--I actually consider it a masterpiece, perhaps one of the greatest examples of their entire career distilled into one song. Other purists may scoff at it and prefer something from Exile or earlier in their career, but this song has literally everything that the Stones brought to music, from the storyline and lyrics, to Mick's perfectly used vocalizations--he captures every type of Mick Jagger nuance in one song. Dirty, ominous, shimmering, bluesy, punkish, louche, ballsy, masculine, feminine, you name it it is all there vocally.

And then the guitars and harmonica--beautiflly blended sonically so that you almost thing there is some otherworldly other instrument you've never heard of being deployed. The beat, the energy, and melody, every single thing about this song cannot be improved upon and I think the original recording will stand the test of time as a perfect expression of music in the last quarter of the century, and a perfect example of the Stones. I can listen to it every single day and get a charge out of it.

[P-Dub]

We are apparently the same age.

There are some songs from rock bands that came out back in the late 70s
- that did not make me happy because they had a disco back beat. I
remember there was almost a war going on between those who accepted
disco - and those who fought against it in any way possible. I was
mostly in the latter camp (anti-Disco big time.)

But there were two disco songs like this that I feel in love with almost
immediately - 'Miss You' and 'Shakedown Street'.

I liked Miss You cause it was just irresistible. Here was a disco song
that rocked. There was blues harp in it, rocking guitar, and Mick f'n
Jagger. I think the first time I heard it I hesitated briefly, but loved
it by the time it ended.

Same goes for Shakedown Street. This one was flat out funky, and had
some real nice bluesy riffs backed by the cursed disco beat. It was also
irresistible.

I also ended up liking 'Run Like Hell' by Floyd. Disco - but rocking at
the same time.

Songs like 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy' - flat out sucked. And I abhorred the
Bee Gees and that high pitch phony vocal. I hated Saturday Night Fever.

In retrospect, the anti-disco 'war' that seemed to be going on at that
time was silly. Disco, for the most part, had MELODY. It wasn't all bad.
It just seemed (at the time) like disco was not meant for serious music
fans - which was important. To me (and others) disco was trash dance
music. Thus - I (and many) rebelled against it.

As we all found out later - it was RAP that destroyed pop music. Not Disco.

P-Dub: "Goodbye Sister Disco" by the Who seemed to sum up the feelings
we had at that time.

[cruciverbalist]

On Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:43:55 -0500, P-Dub <pwol...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

P-Dub,

Excellent post. I agree with all your sentiments except... I still
hate Miss You! ;-)

Jack

[Will Dockery]

"Miss You" and the entire Some Girls album, along with Dylan's Street Legal and Patti Smith's Easter defines the summer of 1978 for me...

I hope to get back and add more on this to the thread, but running late for work.

Later.

--
Music & poetry from Will Dockery:
http://www.reverbnation.com/willdockery