If assertion rather than allusion was becoming the way of things for the Rolling Stones as the mid ’70s fast approached, let us join them in becoming assertive.
From 1968 through to 1972 they produced a four album run that even now stands as the yardstick for popular music at its most concerted and creative. August 1973 had then brought ‘Goat’s Head Soup‘ which despite some undoubted high points had been their first non-essential collection of the decade – to which the Stones, famous, feted and fabulously rich, responded with a quick return to the recording studio, in this case Musicland in Munich, to begin laying down tracks for their next studio LP.
Despite two of the foremost purveyors of celebrated rebellion now being well into their thirties – bassist Bill Wyman (38), drummer Charlie Watts (33) – and two of their number, singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards, hitting that landmark while new material was being cut, (lead guitar player Mick Taylor, onboard since 1969, a relative colt at 25), the Rolling Stones remained the undisputed Dukes of Debauchery.
For the past ten years a constant flow of adoration, analysis and acclaim had gone their way, so it took some front for Jagger and Richards, (recognised as royalty when it came to rhetoric and riff), to make the claim, assertion if you prefer, that ‘IT’S ONLY ROCK ‘N’ ROLL‘ – this given to a song that would become title track of their 12th studio album when it was released in October 1974.
For the most part it comes across as confident, cocksure, assured almost to the point of sounding smug – the Stones very pleased with themselves thank you very much and while many of their countless imitators can manage something similar in terms of bluster, do so without comparable panache.
Which is not to say ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll‘ succeeds on every level. As displayed in the title track, few, if anyone, did conceit and sarcasm better than Jagger, the Stones as an entity (along with additional cast members), turning his feisty, full-of-himself observations into authentic Rolling Stones songs, admittedly of variable quality.
On more than one occasion the gist of the lyrics is the most famous rock singer on the planet celebrating the fact he is Mick Jagger, with all the female attention that entails – the musicians adding to the self-congratulatory mood by confirming nobody else plays like them in simply sounding like the Rolling Stones.
Yet in regard to presentation and personnel things are not so straightforward as they might appear. For the first time since ‘Beggars Banquet‘ (1968), the beginning of their purple patch that continued through a quartet of albums ending with ‘Exile on Main St’ in 1972, the services of producer Jimmy Miller have been dispensed with, Mick and Keith deciding time was right for them to sit at the control panel. They had previously done so for ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request‘ (1967), but now, in the guise of The Glimmer Twins, their domination of group dynamics was total.
As a consequence guitar whizz-kid Taylor, already smarting from being denied what he felt was deserved co-write credit on a number of ‘Goat’s Head Soup‘ cuts, became an increasingly isolated figure within the unit. It does not effect his exemplary playing (on the tracks where he does actually appear that is), this disaffection further fueled by more complaints in the songwriting recognition department, notably the two tracks that close side one of this latest release – Taylor adamant thereafter he contributed more than just impressive guitar work to these songs.
It is, perhaps, a concession on the part of Jagger and Richards as producers to allow Taylor a couple of prolonged, un-Stones-like guitar solos. If intended as conciliatory gestures the plan failed as he would leave the band before 1974 was out – future developments writ large as Faces’ guitarist Ron Wood is thanked for his ‘Inspiration‘ in the credits, alongside contributing some resplendent 12-string acoustic guitar to the title-track.
Buoyed by a wave of positive reviews arising from a European tour in the early autumn of 1973, enthusiasm was harnessed into a number of possible recording ventures that at various stages included a part live/part studio set and also an album of soul covers. In the end focus shifted to the new material Jagger and Richards were composing (and/or Taylor depending on whose account is believed), the energy coursing through the band evident in opening track ‘If You Can’t Rock Me.’
Against the backdrop of slashing electric guitars, emphatic percussion provided by top notch sessioneer Ray Cooper and superbly elegant bass lines, played in this instance by Richards, underlining the claim of John Lennon that Keith was the most underrated bassist in rock, Jagger is both affectionate and antagonistic – this depending on whether his attention is on Watts or an infuriating woman:
‘The band’s on stage, and it’s one of those nights, oh yeah/The drummer thinks that he is dynamite, ooh yeah/You lovely ladies in your leather and lace/A thousand lips I would love to taste/I’ve got one heart, and it hurts like hell/But if you can’t rock me, somebody will.’
While not at the same level of accomplishment as previous songs opening a Stones album in recent times, (‘Sympathy for the Devil’/’Gimme Shelter’/Brown Sugar/Rocks Off‘), it is, nevertheless a dynamic way in which to start, Jagger creating an impression the female in question is not altogether convinced by his advances, hence the title. Yet any notion of him feeling vulnerable is dispelled when he declares:
‘Now, I ain’t looking for no pretty face, oh no/Or for some hooker working roughish trade/And there ain’t nothing like a perfect mate/And I ain’t looking for no wedding cake.‘
Neither is any room for manoeuvre given to the lady summoned up in the title track, (‘And do you think that you’re the only girl around?/I bet you think that you’re the only woman in town‘), but by that stage of the song she has already been taken to task:
‘If I could dig down deep in my heart/Spill it all over the stage/It wouldn’t satisfy your cheatin’ heart/Would it help to ease my pain?/Ease my pain.’
The framework of the track originated at sessions for a Ron Wood solo album the previous year, performances from Faces drummer Kenny Jones, bassist Willie Weeks and Wood (12-string guitar) left in place to be supplemented by the piano work of ‘sixth’ Stone Ian Stewart and an affecting Jagger vocal.
Despite the celebratory tone of the chorus and engaging shuffle of the melody – at times Wood and the overdubbed lead guitar of Richards sound like they belong in separate songs – when released as a single it was a top ten U.K. hit although surprisingly reached no higher than 16 on the U.S. charts.
Between those two tracks was placed their rendition of ‘Ain’t Too Proud to Beg‘, previously a 1966 hit for The Temptations. Recorded for the proposed covers album, it serves purpose in adding variety, (an entire LP of such may have over-egged the pudding), the keyboard skills of Billy Preston are brought to the fore and set alongside fine playing from Richards as Taylor is once again absent.
Four years down the road they would return to The Temptations songbook and include ‘Just My Imagination‘ (Running Away With Me) on ‘Some Girls‘ when Jagger would again deliver an expressive vocal – but whether 1974 or 1978, it is hard to imagine contemporaries such as The Who or The Kinks including a Motown cover on a studio album.
Having scored a worldwide hit single with the acoustic ballad ‘Angie‘ from ‘Goat’s Head Soup‘, Jagger and Richards (and Taylor in deference to subsequent claims), return to similar territory for ‘Till the Next Goodbye‘, a melancholy tale of lovers struggling to keep their relationship afloat:
‘Honey, is there any place that you would like to eat?/I know a coffee shop down on Fifty-Second Street/
And I don’t need no fancy food, and I don’t need no fancy wine/And I sure don’t need the tears you cry.’
In depicting the heartache felt by both parties, Jagger evokes the scenery and sad sentiments, (‘Yeah, a movie house on Forty-Second Street/Ain’t a very likely place for you and I to meet/Watching the snow swirl around your hair and around your feet/And I’m thinking to myself she surely looks a treat‘), his aching vocal underpinned by the delicate piano chords of Nicky Hopkins and more pertinently, Taylor performing wonders on acoustic guitar.
The guitarist also contended the melodic structure of side one closer ‘Time Waits for No One‘ was down to him (‘maybe he threw in a couple of chords‘ remarked Jagger dismissively in an interview with Rolling Stone twenty years later). Lyrically it contains reflective, world weary observations and clocking in closer to seven minutes than six is the longest track on the album.
Built upon Cooper and Hopkins doing their respective turns on percussion and piano, the song takes on a Latin flavour as the singer contemplates just how fast the years have passed, (‘Time can tear down a building/Or destroy a woman’s face/Hours are like diamonds/Don’t let them waste‘), aware these days there is less to fritter away – the era when he sang ‘Time Is on My Side‘ now a long way back down the road.
Taylor is given time and space to assert himself through a lengthy electric guitar solo that carries the song almost to a conclusion, the end signified by the metronome sound of Watts registering the passing seconds with singular wraps on his snare drum.
Things take a downturn with side two opener ‘Luxury‘ a breezy, reggae-infused cut unsure if it wants to be a cheery reflection on the everyday life of a working man or list of complaints bemoaning his lot.
Jagger adds to the confusion by adopting a Caribbean accent in describing the unfairness of it all, ‘I think it’s such a strange thing, giving me concern/Half the world, it got nothing, the other, they’ve got money to burn’, the track short on genuine empathy, but at just over five minutes too long for its own good.
Nowhere to be heard on the previous cut, Taylor returns to provide gritty electric guitar on the Chuck Berry homage ‘Dance Little Sister.’ There is no shortage of exuberance, or for that matter repetition, on a track that instantly sounds familiar given the number of the times they have drawn from this well, the lyrics, ‘On Friday night, she all decked out/Her high heel shoes/Her dress so tight/Dance, dance, little sister, dance‘, quickly to the crux of the matter.
There is even less finesse attached to ‘Short and Curlies‘ a midtempo rocker constructed around the boogie-woogie piano licks of Stewart. On the plus side at less than three minutes it does not outstay its welcome, although still sounds contrived in hoping to pass muster as a naughty, novelty number (‘It’s too bad/She’s got you by the balls/She’s nailed you to the wall/Oh, it’s a shame, ah, but it’s funny/She crashed your car, she spend your money‘).
That such a crude and indulgent offering, along with the innocuous ‘Luxury‘ to an extent, were included at the expense of ‘Through the Lonely Nights‘ – a superb slice of r & b balladry tucked away on the B-side of ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll’ – suggests Jagger and Richards were either out to prove the Stones could still court controversy or just slipped up in their responsibilities for quality control.
They are not, however, found wanting on the affecting soul ballad ‘If You Really Want to Be My Friend‘ where Jagger receives exemplary background vocal support from Philadelphia soulsters Blue Magic. With an eloquent lead vocal he makes the case for occasional straying to be overlooked, his request, presumably of wife Bianca, is for infidelity, if not approved of, to at least be tolerated:
‘If you really want to be my friend/Let me live it up like I used to do/If you really want to understand me/There’s some giving up we got to do.’
With Hopkins (piano), Preston (organ) and the harmony singers each turning in fine performances, Mick pulls out all the stops, his vocal range and self-confidence both huge in scope. He displays no hesitation in delivering lines such as, ‘If you really want to understand a man/Let him off the lead/Sometimes, set him free/If you really, really want to be my friend/Give me the look of love, not jealousy‘ – this reference to turning a blind eye for the greater good of their relationship, not an approach many would be prepared to adopt.
With the implications of Watergate growing more implicit by the day Jagger conjures the current sense of paranoia, only from a personal perspective, on closing cut ‘Fingerprint File‘.
His pointed observations are heard in conjunction with the funk rock inflections of the track, Taylor in this instance showing his prowess as a bass player while Preston adds to the uneasy feeling by virtue of an intense performance on clavinet. With John Lennon currently under CIA surveillance due to a Green Card dispute with the U.S government, Jaggers makes clear inference his movements are also being monitored, ‘And there’s some little jerk in the FBI/A-keeping papers on me six feet high.’
In some sections of the piece he sings in scat fashion against the sinister tone of the music, much as he would later do on ‘Miss You‘. But in stating insistently ‘Feeling followed/Feeling tagged/Crossing water/Trying to wipe my tracks‘, the picture becomes clear to everybody listening, even those he is implying should not be – in other words agents of the state who have tapped the telephone and bugged his hotel room.
Upon release ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll‘ received far more positive response from the public than it did by the critics. While the album hit top spot on the U.S. charts and number two in their U.K. homeland, the music press were as varied in opinion as the band had been with their styles on the record. Village Voice magazine dismissed it as ‘dull‘ and ‘false‘ although in contrast British rock weekly Melody Maker thought the Stones had made an ‘indispensable‘ LP.
Writing in Rolling Stone Jon Landau, shortly to take on production duties for the Bruce Springsteen album ‘Born to Run‘, took the view it was ‘among the most intriguing and mysterious of all Rolling Stones records’ – the band themselves no strangers to intrigue in the coming weeks.
In December 1974 Taylor ended speculation surrounding him by leaving the band, his swansong album full of the vibrant, decorative playing he had become renowned for. Eventual successor Wood was not a match in terms of virtuosity, but even on his first day Woody looked more a Stone than Taylor had ever done.
Indeed, perception was now becoming a key element in the continuing adventures and aura of the Rolling Stones. The cover of ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll‘, designed by Guy Peelaert, (his other major creation in 1974 the artwork for ‘Diamond Dogs‘ by David Bowie), plays up to their rakish ambience – Jagger leading Watts, Wyman, Richards and Taylor down a red-carpeted staircase, surrounded by adoring nymphs draped in loosely fitting gowns.
Inside the sleeve is a record that has several peaks, a couple of troughs, moments where it reaches a superlative level, others when self-parody feels dangerously close.
As for the band, at this juncture they do not appear remotely bothered by the prospect of becoming a caricature of their former selves – a cutting guitar line, cocky lyric, sly grin and the whole thing starts to roll once more.
It might only be rock and roll, but in the hands of the Rolling Stones we like it – yes we do.
ROLLING STONES – IT’S ONLY ROCK ‘N’ ROLL – (Released October 16 1974):
If You Can’t Rock Me/Ain’t Too Proud to Beg/It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)/Till the Next Goodbye/Time Waits for No One/Luxury/Dance Little Sister/If You Really Want to Be My Friend/Sort and Curlies/Fingerprint File;
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