What is the most underrated Stones record?

[Fashionista]

Of the Stones records which generally had a mixed to negative reception or hold the most mixed legacy, which do you feel is the most underrated? 

[Len Cnut]

I dunno, aint really heard the later ones but I can tell you what I think is the most overrated, Aftermath.  People go on like its The Stones at their absolute finest and for about 9 songs it probably is...but the last 5 songs seems really fillery...and I’ve not found that with any other Stones album.  Its almost weird cuz the first 9 are SOOOO good...but then it just kinda hums along.

Goats Head Soup perhaps?  Between the Buttons maybe, how wells that rated historically cuz I think its brilliant.

Black & Blue I really liked, had a nice loose jammy quality to it but with strong enough songs to make it cohesive, though Old Man Richards dont seem to think so.

Edited July 24, 2018 by Len Cnut

[ChineseDemocracy2004]

Black & Blue but only just.

[Fashionista]

11 hours ago, Len Cnut said:

I dunno, aint really heard the later ones but I can tell you what I think is the most overrated, Aftermath.  People go on like its The Stones at their absolute finest and for about 9 songs it probably is...but the last 5 songs seems really fillery...and I’ve not found that with any other Stones album.  Its almost weird cuz the first 9 are SOOOO good...but then it just kinda hums along.

Goats Head Soup perhaps?  Between the Buttons maybe, how wells that rated historically cuz I think its brilliant.

Black & Blue I really liked, had a nice loose jammy quality to it but with strong enough songs to make it cohesive, though Old Man Richards dont seem to think so.

The American version of Aftermath got rid of the fat:

1."Paint It Black"

2."Stupid Girl"

3."Lady Jane"

4."Under My Thumb"

5."Doncha Bother Me"

6."Think"

Side two

7."Flight 505

8."High and Dry"

9."It's Not Easy"

10."I Am Waiting"

11."Goin' Home"

Edited July 24, 2018 by Fashionista

[Len Cnut]

12 minutes ago, Fashionista said:

The American version of Aftermath got rid of the fat:

1."Paint It Black"

2."Stupid Girl"

3."Lady Jane"

4."Under My Thumb"

5."Doncha Bother Me"

6."Think"

Side two

7."Flight 505

8."High and Dry"

9."It's Not Easy"

10."I Am Waiting"

11."Goin' Home"

I could more or less run with that although Out of Time I think was way too good to omit, WAY too fuckin’ good, that song for my money is one of the best they ever did.

[wasted]

I’m down with the sickness on this one.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Goats Head Soup. Very hard to follow up Exile on Main St.

[username]

Probably either Goats Head Soup or Black And Blue. 

But I've always felt Out Of Our Heads gets overlooked too. There's always the 3 big ones in Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile. Then people often go with Beggars, Some Girls and Aftermath as their other big albums (I get what you're saying Len, but of lot of the album is great). But they never really mention Out Of Our Heads that much. And that album is just really brilliant early-Stones for me. 

Edited July 26, 2018 by username

[wasted]

Bridges to Babylon is the most underated there’s a full album of quality there. 

 

[wasted]

 

[DieselDaisy]

On 7/24/2018 at 8:40 PM, Fashionista said:

The American version of Aftermath got rid of the fat:

1."Paint It Black"

2."Stupid Girl"

3."Lady Jane"

4."Under My Thumb"

5."Doncha Bother Me"

6."Think"

Side two

7."Flight 505

8."High and Dry"

9."It's Not Easy"

10."I Am Waiting"

11."Goin' Home"

No ''Mother's Little Helper'' either. 

[Fashionista]

People need to check out Between the Buttons

 

[Len Cnut]

1 hour ago, Fashionista said:

People need to check out Between the Buttons

 

AMAZING album, was sayin this somewhere else on the forum, such a cool album, Connection is one of my favourite Stones songs ever.

[DieselDaisy]

It is their most Englishy, Kinksy, record.

[username]

9 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

It is their most Englishy, Kinksy, record.

It might be the most un-Stones album they did. I'm still not sure if I like that. But I do love Connection to bits. 

[Len Cnut]

10 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

It is their most Englishy, Kinksy, record.

Its a proper dirty English 60s rock album, Kinksy is a weird definition for anything for the simple fact that, over the course of their career, The Kinks were a lot of things.

[DieselDaisy]

''English Suburbia'' is the word I'd use. I like it but in a strange way in that I don't see it as a ''Rolling Stones'' album. It is more something I chuck on now and then and think of Carnaby Street, Jean Shrimpton and Hurst's hattrick. It is their most overtly ''swinging sixties'' record.

The band hate it. 

[Len Cnut]

1 minute ago, DieselDaisy said:

''English Suburbia'' is the word I'd use. I like it but in a strange way in that I don't see it as a ''Rolling Stones'' album. It is more something I chuck on now and then and think of Carnaby Street, Jean Shrimpton and Hurst's hattrick. It is their most overtly ''swinging sixties'' record.

The band hate it. 

I love it, I think its one of their best.  It has like, a couple of moments of that sort of archetypical sound but a lot of it rocks pretty solidly.  And apart from that I don't necessarily think swinging London was characterised by fluffy music as such.

[DieselDaisy]

1 minute ago, Len Cnut said:

I love it, I think its one of their best.  It has like, a couple of moments of that sort of archetypical sound but a lot of it rocks pretty solidly.  And apart from that I don't necessarily think swinging London was characterised by fluffy music as such.

Ahh (does best Keef impression) where is Howlin' and Chuck maan?

Jagger doing his best Dickensian impression at the end of amanda jones. 

[Fashionista]

14 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

Ahh (does best Keef impression) where is Howlin' and Chuck maan?

Jagger doing his best Dickensian impression at the end of amanda jones. 

You know Keith is a crock. All his where is Howlin Wolf shit; you should listen to the Satanic Sessions boxset one day, 12 CDs of uncut studio from the making of Satanic Majesties that was gonna be junked and someone saved it. Whose leading the fuckin sessions of the most non Howlin Wolf Stones record and telling everyone how and what to play? Mr. Keith Richards. Not Sir Mick or Brian Jones. Keith's the musical director, pretty much the producer, of that record.

[Fashionista]

Also we have to consider that some of the band's softest or most lovey shit was written or co-written by Keith.

Angie? Lyrics and music by Keith. 

Ruby Tuesday? Lyrics by Keith, music and melody by Brian Jones

Happy? Written and features only Keith. No other Stone on that track (Jimmy Miller on drums)

Dandelion? Lyrics and melody by Keith (you can hear his original demo which is more like early Who).

 

Edited July 29, 2018 by Fashionista

[Fashionista]

Also another thing to consider when people talk about the "magic 71-72" era is a most of the songs on Sticky Fingers were recorded in 1969 (Brown Sugar, Wild Horses, Sister Morphine, You Gotta Move all date to the December 69 sessions).

Even stuff on Exile: Loving Cup was first recorded in 69 and performed at Hyde Park in July 69.  Shine A Light was first written in '68 and recorded in '69.

They had a creative burst from 65 to 70. Everything after Exile is bonus material. 

 

[Len Cnut]

1 hour ago, DieselDaisy said:

Ahh (does best Keef impression) where is Howlin' and Chuck maan?

Jagger doing his best Dickensian impression at the end of amanda jones. 

I always thought it was a parody of those 1950s BBC public service thingies.

[DieselDaisy]

I see their greatest period as lasting from Beggars Banquet, when they ditched the music hall and psychedelia and become reacquainted with the blues and rock n' roll, to about Goats Head Soup, so that would be '68ish to 73ish - granted, the latter album is not very popular.  

[DieselDaisy]

I suppose thinking about I see two great periods,

1/ 1963 - '66 

When they were more direct ''American music interpreters'', but with a gradual Jagger/Richards influence (and non-blues influence) taking hold - but it still remaining somewhat rootsy and ''definitive Stones'' (except right towards the end of this period, on something like ''Lady Jane''). And there were loads of masterpieces! An abundance: ''Satisfaction'', ''19th Nervous Breakdown'', ''Heart of Stone'', ''The Last Time'', ''Paint It Black'', the whole of Aftermath, etc etc. Everywhere you look there is gold, even on their original blues interpretations, ''Little By Little'', ''Doncha Bother Me'' and stuff like that. Even on their earliest attempts at writing, ''Tell Me''.   

2/ 1968 - '73

This was the age of the long-player and the (arena based) live show, and The Stones became the greatest exponents at both, rediscovering their roots at the same time whilst building on earlier Jagger/Richards success. They had a string of four certifiable masterpieces, Beggars-Exile, during this same period and their live shows reached proportions no rock band has matched (unless you go back to The Stones' own forebears, people like James Brown). They truly became ''the greatest rock n' roll band'' during this age.

You might also include a 3rd Some Girls age, 1978, when they infused contemporary sounds, disco and punk, into their sound. This seemed to give them a certain oomph they'd lacked in years on the Some Girls album. And for live shows, the Texas DVD is spellbinding?

Edited July 29, 2018 by DieselDaisy