Off The Tracks

Off The Tracks
  • Blog
    • Interviews
    • Miscellany
    • Special Guests
    • Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • The Vinyl Countdown
  • Back Catalogue
  • About
    • About
    • About the banner image
    • On Song
October 11, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

Rolling With The Stones: A Lifelong Journey

lipsGrowing up the first two Rolling Stones albums I heard were Undercover and Dirty Work. Now, these won’t ever figure highly on lists of favourite Rolling Stones records, but I have a connection to them because, as is often the case with music, the first album/s you hear from a significant artist will remain a sentimental favourite, even if they are less important in the wider scheme of the artist’s canon. dirty

So, my mum bought those albums when they were released and I thought Undercover particularly was class – and I still like it a lot. Dirty Work I can see is less successful and the fighting that went on within the band around that record and after it suggests that if Steel Wheels had not come about we would not lionise the Stones the way we now do. That’s moot though.

Onward…

underOutside of those albums as a young kid I knew Satisfaction of course and Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Honky Tonk Woman – the sorts of songs that are just always there. On radio, in the background or the foreground, existing as public domain; always around.

However, my first real introduction to the might and worth of The Rolling Stones was courtesy of a road trip. A family vacation when I was about nine years old, we drove the length of the South Island, stopping to base in Oamaru with friends. During a quick stop in Christchurch we were allowed to buy one tape each for the car ride; I selected Pink Floyd’s A Collection Of Great Dance Songs – needless to say the family only tolerated Sheep and One Of These Days in the environment of the car once. My brother chose Rolled Gold – a double cassette that charted the Stones’ hits from 1963 to 1969. It would rolledbe the soundtrack to our journeys around the Mainland.

This music was amazing to me – as soon as I heard it. I remember not really digging some of the songs to start with, but more enjoying the fact that my parents liked it – and my brother was learning to appreciate The Rolling Stones, he’s been a lifelong student to their sound ever since. Tracks like I Wanna Be Your Man and Oh Carol sped by and I could hear the allusion to The Beatles, to Chuck Berry, to the earlier blues and R’n’B artists that had informed them and it opened up a whole new world.

And as we clocked up miles on the car the hits just kept on coming, sometimes I recognised them (at that time I spotted It’s All Over Now as being the song from an aftershave ad on NZ TV: “I used to love her/but it’s all over now” had been changed to “Insignia’s got foam and aftershave and talc as well/Deodorant so every guy’s in one all over smell”; so sad that I know that still).

My dad had played a version of 19th Nervous Breakdown in a band in the 60s and was marveling still at the rumble of the bass line as the song fades. Mum turned up the dial when Little Red Rooster began to crow. And I was blown away by Gimme Shelter and Sympathy For The Devil on first listen. I couldn’t believe how great those songs were and some times, these days, I still struggle to comprehend the genius and power of those two tracks.

I would go on to start my own Rolling Stones collection of albums from the 1970s and early 80s, first on cassette, then LP and CD. Eventually going back to the individual albums from the 1960s too.

The music – the best of it – stays with me always, but those 1960s recordings, particularly that actual compilation, Rolled Gold, takes me back to that first big car trip and first visit to the South Island. The music has helped form and hold those memories and those memories are forever soundtracked by Mick Jagger’s white-boy blues holler and harp playing; by The Human Riff; by Charlie Watts’ decision to never play the hi-hat when he is hitting the snare and by that worried grumble of Wyman’s bass.

Watching Shine A Light in the weekend just been I thought back to all of the journeys I have taken with this band and it always comes back to those beautiful South Island vistas and the feeling of sharing a band with the whole family, each member enjoying the sound equally but bringing their own experiences to it.

That’s the power of the perfect discovery behind great music. And it stays with you.gpat

Outside of that compilation (which for me will always be better than Hot Rocks, Forty Licks or any of the other double Stones discs) my favourite Stones albums are all the obvious ones: Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main Street, Some Girls, Tattoo You – I also love Steel Wheels (because I was so in the zone of listening to the Stones when that album was released) and I really dig Goat’s Head Soup.

I can’t imagine my life without the music of this band. They remain the classic example of the sum being so much more powerful than the individual parts; it has never been about the separate vestiges, but always about the band sound, the engine that rolls on through blues and rock.

When did you first roll with The Stones? What was the trigger? What made you realise that this band was so special? What are your favourite albums?

[If you don’t like The Rolling Stones don’t post a comment. There’s no point].
lips-bigBetween late 2007 and early 2016 I wrote a daily music blog at Stuff.co.nz called Blog On The Tracks. I’m reposting some of the entries here because the discussion is still valid or entertaining or because you might have missed them the first time.

There’s no link for the original post but this was first published in November 2008.

Posted in Blog, Miscellany and tagged with A Lifelong Journey, Archives, Beggar's Banquet, Black And Blue, Blog, Blog Archives, Blog On The Tracks, Dirty Work, Exile, Exile On Main Street, Goat's Head Soup, Journeying With The Stones, Let It Bleed, Rolled Gold, Rolling With The Stones, Rolling With The Stones: A Lifelong Journey, Some Girls, Steel Wheels, Sticky Fingers, Stuff.co.nz, Tattoo You, The Rolling Stones, Undercover. RSS 2.0 feed.
« WWE: No Mercy 2016
The Vinyl Countdown # 617 »

3 Responses to Rolling With The Stones: A Lifelong Journey

  1. Nick Butcher says:
    October 11, 2016 at 9:36 pm

    First LP I ever bought was Still Life – live, the rest – pretty much the same LP favourites, beggars banquet, let it bleed, sticky fingers, goats head soup. I also love black and blue, exile on mainstreet I’m still yet to own on vinyl. I also owned the rolled gold double cassette in the days of cassettes and love the chuck berry covers along with the awsome stones originals. With music – when all else fails to impress on any given day, I go back to the Stones…

  2. keef says:
    October 13, 2016 at 2:12 am

    i grew up in the 60’s hearing those songs as they came out, starting from Satisfaction when I was about 10 or 11 – that song was quite a game changer! They would get up to no.1 on the charts in between the Beatles, Kinks, Animals, The Who, Hendrix etc… The first album I bought was Exile but I thought it was a bit too raw and preferred the more polished sound of Goats Head Soup – now I prefer Exile. I saw them perform at Western Springs in 1973 – I remember Jagger doing cartwheels across the stage and telling us we were “very sweet” rather sarcastically – Kiwi audiences were pretty restrained at that time – and I remember Keith singing “Happy” – I think most of the set list was from Exile – it was a great concert. My favorite albums are the same obvious one’s plus compilations of the early songs – “Big Hits” and “Through the Past Darkly”. I went off them a bit after Tattoo You and don’t even know much of their music after that. I like “Waiting for a Friend” though.

  3. Pingback: But If You Try Sometime You Just Might Find You Get What You Need: 50 Great Things About The Rolling Stones

Popular

  • The Best Guitarist in The World: # 8 – Mark Knopfler
  • The Sad Story of Bob Welch: Fleetwood Mac’s Most Undervalued Member
  • Janna Lapidus Leblanc: Four Years In Pictures
  • The Best Guitarist in The World: # 11 – Lindsey Buckingham
  • Time Casts Its Spell: When Silver Springs Became The Secret Weapon It Had Always Threatened To Be
  • Everything Must Go: My Last Time At The Record Fair
  • Prince: Tokyo Dome 1990
  • Bono’s Book
  • Where Have All The Kiwi Soundtracks Gone?
  • Zombi: ZOMBI & Friends, Volume 1

Archives

Tags

Album Review Auckland Blog Book Book Review Chat Compilation DJ DVD DVD Review EP Film Film Review Gig Gig Review Guest Blog Guitar Interview Jazz Live Live Gig LP Movie Music NZ Podcast Poem Poetry Record Records Simon Sweetman Soundtrack Spines Spotify Stub Stubs Sweetman Podcast The Vinyl Countdown Vinyl Want more? Check out my Substack You can also support Off The Tracks via PressPatron Wellington Wgtn Writing You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron [OST]

Categories

  • Back Catalogue
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • Miscellany
  • Mixtapes
  • Playlists
  • Podcasts
  • Reviews
  • Scene Of The Day
  • Special Guests
  • The Vinyl Countdown

Off The Tracks is the home of Sweetman Podcast, a weekly interview/chat-based pod. It's also home to my reviews across film, TV, music and books and some creative writing as well.

Off The Tracks aims to provide quality reviews and essays, regular blog updates about the shows, albums, books and movies you should be experiencing.

It's a passion project. Your support will help to keep Off The Tracks online.

All content © 2022 by Off The Tracks. WordPress Themes by Graph Paper Press