Some Girls Recall When The Stones Were On Top of Rock ‘n Roll
Jay Minkin
Posted On November 23, 2011
The year was 1978. I was a sophomore at The Ohio State University. The Rolling Stones were going to appear on Saturday Night Live on the season opening show in October. The band had released the vinyl Lp Some Girls that summer and the old guard of the original British Invasion was making a statement with this record just as the words “Punk” and “New Wave” were becoming part of the college counter culture. Some friends were throwing a party in their penthouse apartment to watch The Stones SNL performance. The music was loud, the dancing was hot, and it involved the consumption of one or more parts of beer, alcohol, pot, Quaaludes, and cocaine. As the opening words were spoken by Mayor Ed Koch of New York, we became riveted to the television set awaiting The Stones performances which included “Beast of Burden”, “Respectable” and “Shattered” from the new record.
We’re gonna bring a case of wine
Hey, let’s go mess and fool around
You know, like we used to
So as I loaded the two compact discs of the newly re-mastered Deluxe Edition of Some Girls, I was taken back into time when earlier during that summer of ’78, the original record went #1 on the US album and #2 on the UK Album charts with “Miss You” becoming the band’s first #1 hit single in seven years. The bad boy image of the boys was enhanced when the original album artwork which included images of Lucille Ball, Raquel Welch, Farrah Fawcett, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren had to be removed due to threatening legal action – hence the color blocks on the revised album covers. Released in three different color variations, you might stumble upon a copy next time you visit your local used record store.
I’ve been stumbling on my feet
Shuffling through the street
Asking people, “What’s the matter with you boy?”
The band’s songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (known as The Glimmer Twins) along with original members Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, had made a line-up change with ex-Faces guitarist Ron Wood replacing Mick Taylor (who had previously replaced the late Brian Jones) on Black and Blue which was panned by the critics. The release of Some Girls took The Stones back to the top as the anointed rock ‘n roll kings and the boys continued the reign with subsequent releases Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You. Not until 1987 when U2 released Joshua Tree did the torch finally get passed.
Aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah
Aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah
Aaah aaah aaah aaah
The album was like a great party mix with a cover of the Motown classic “Imagination”, the jangle guitar rockers “When The Whip Comes Down” and “Lies”, a Keith classic vocal number “Before They Make Me Run”, and the provocative sultry title track delivered by Mick. The alt-country twanger “Far Away Eyes” is a juke-box classic and was the B-side to the bands first 12″ long play or “Disco Version” of “Miss You” released on colored vinyl.
Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh Oooh oooh oooh
The new Deluxe release includes a second CD of outtakes that were recorded and shelved during the Some Girls sessions. Don Was produced and cleaned up the mixes with the help of some new overdubs by the boys without taking anything away from the integrity of the original. Those songs help keep the party and memories going for another 40 plus minutes …. but just revisiting the original songs of this classic Stones record makes it worth your while to add to your music collection.
