Today we start the Rolling Stones. Formed in 1962 in London, they are one of the most influential musical artists of all time, often only ranked behind the Beatles and Bob Dylan. They are my most anticipated artist to go through this year (2020) and their 1972 album Exile on Main St., ranked as the 7th greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine, is one of my 3 most anticipated albums to listen to this year. I expect we'll do full reviews up to Goats Head Soup at least. Some of my readers are probably going "wait you haven't listened to the Rolling Stones yet??" Nope, and I'm glad actually, because I've never been a better music listener and I have very good context with which to understand them. So, without further ado, let's get into them!
The rough recording quality, although not likely intentional, fits the band's bad boy persona and enhances the atmosphere of the album. Keith Richard's low register guitar and Mick Jagger's often inexpressive voice also work well to establish a unique, instantly recognizable sound for the band. That said, the band needs to work on their songwriting--from what I can tell, they didn't make any significant changes to the songs they covered and I knew "Carol" was a Chuck Berry cover within seconds of it starting. In addition, "Tell Me," the one song penned by the songwriting duo of Jagger and Richards, is not particularly impressive, although it's not a poor effort either. Two songs to check out: "Mona (I Need You Baby)," the most impressive song here, and "Walking the Dog," in which Jagger affectionately offers to show you how to walk a dog in case you don't know how. B- [Later: B]
