Album Review: The Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds (2023)

I may be a little late to the party with this, but here's my two cents worth of rockcrit blather about the Rolling Stones' recently-released Hackney Diamonds album. I still dislike the first single; "Angry" is hopelessly inane as sung by a wealthy 80-year-old rock star, but it plays better without the absurd music video they hacked together to accompany the song.

There's a few things that I like a lot here..."Whole Wide World" sounds like an edgier version of the energetic Some Girls version of the Stones with some cool avant-garde guitar squonk. Mick's vox on "Dreamy Skies" are a little too featherweight, but I like the song's dominant, sleazy Exile-era vibe and bluesy guitar grease. "Live By the Sword" offers up some scorching guitar pyrotechnics and one of Charlie's last recorded performances... they're really gonna miss Mr. Watts if they carry on.

"Sweet Sounds of Heaven," with Lady Gaga, has really grown on me and probably should have been the album's initial single release, and the band is always gonna bring it on a Delta throwback like "Rolling Stone Blues," with Mick still trying to sound like Muddy Waters after all these decades.
 
I'm of mixed feelings about the chinzy album cover artwork, which assaults the eyeballs like some cheap-o late '80s heavy metal album, or maybe some of the worst visual abominations that came out of Master P's No Limits label in the late 1990s and early '00s. The album production is a wee too clean and tidy for my taste but, overall, Hackney Diamonds is better than I expected, tho' not anywhere near a "Second Coming"...it's a solid late-period Stones effort that reminds one of the band's long-enduring greatness but doesn't add much to their already massive rock 'n' roll legacy... (Geffen Records, released September 6th, 2023)

Archive Review: The Rolling Stones’ Undercover (1983)

Mick the Boneman, Keef, and all of da boys have been billed as the “Greatest Fucking Rock ‘n’ Roll Band In Da Whole Wide World” for so long that we tend to take da boys for granted. The truth is, the Stones are the most flexible band, perhaps, in the world; like a psychotic chameleon, they’ve survived twenty years at the helm of the biggest bunch o’ misfits playin’ the most dangerous game in town – that’s rock ‘n’ roll to you, mister, and they’ve kept up with the changes in time like nobody’s biznis…

So now it’s damn near ’84, the year of Orwell’s worth nightmare (by the way, go back and read the damn book again; I know you haven’t picked it up since English Lit 101 but if you’ve half a brain, it’s scare the bejeebies out of ya!); and the Stones, fer da lova god, release a song with a political statement like “Undercover of the Night,” proving for once and fer all that there is life after forty, ya know.
 
The rest of the album ain’t too bad, either, Bunkie! “She’s So Hot” sorta flows offa yer turntable and inserts itself into your own bad ear; the reggae-influenced beat of “Feel On Baby” will shake, rattle and roll yer wisdom teeth; while on side numero dos, such little pretties as da super-funky “Too Much Blood” lay chill on yer spinal fluid. All in all, pretty potent stuff from a buncha guys old enough to be some of you reader’s fathers. After twenty-something odd years that have spanned three decades, I think the Stones have earned any title they’re given. Undercover retains their crown… (Rolling Stones Records, 1983)

Review originally published by Anthem zine, December 1983

Buy the CD from Amazon: The Rolling Stones’ Undercover

Archive Review: The Rolling Stones' No Security (1998)

Throughout their lengthy and illustrious career, the Rolling Stones have always been known primarily as a live band. Strangely enough, however, they’ve never really released a great live album. From historic shows like Leeds, Oakland ‘69 or New Orleans ‘78, their best onstage moments have always been caught on tape (and subsequently put on vinyl and/or CD) by bootleggers. Even Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, arguably the band’s best live effort, has been eclipsed now that the entire show, taken from the original acetates, has recently been bootlegged by Japan’s Stones-crazy Vinyl Gang. Unfortunately, the release of No Security, the Stones’ umpteenth live disc, will do nothing to add to the Stones’ live legacy.

The Rolling Stones’ No Security

Not that No Security is entirely bad, mind you. It doesn’t reinvent the band as the semi-live, semi-acoustic Stripped did, but it’s probably the band’s best live effort since Ya-Ya’s, which isn’t really saying much. Some of the performances here are golden – Mick’s duet with Dave Matthews on “Memory Motel,” the great Taj Mahal guesting on a cover of his “Corinna,” and Joshua Redman’s sax flourishes complimenting Mick’s vocals on “Waiting On A Friend” come to mind. “Thief In the Night enjoys a particularly soulful rendition.

Other cuts on No Security are luckluster enough to be sleep-inducing, however – Jagger cakewalks through a morose rendering of “Gimme Shelter,” a song that once held so much primal power and raw energy that people lived (and died) by it. The band just sounds tired on cuts like “Sister Morphine” and “The Last Time,” and the couple of songs included here from Bridges To Babylon are so unremarkable as to be practically anonymous. Part of the problem is that No Security was compiled from songs from five different shows, thereby losing whatever cohesion and continuity the performances had in the first place. Another part of the problem is that the Stones have always been a visual band, one best enjoyed while sitting right in front of them…an intangible that doesn’t translate well to CD. 

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Mick, Keith, tell you what, boys – next time out (and there will be a next time, you can bet on it!) just record a bunch of shows, pick the best one and release it in its entirety, flaws and all. Either that or dip into the vaults and release a legitimate version of one of those often bootlegged shows. Until then, we’ll make do with No Security, the latest not-so-great live album from the world’s greatest live band, the Rolling Stones. (Virgin Records, released November 2nd, 1998)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 1998

Buy the CD from Amazon: The Rolling Stones’ No Security

Also on That Devil Music:
The Rolling Stones’ Blue & Lonesome CD review

The Rolling Stones are Confessin’ The Blues

It’s not really a secret on either side of the Atlantic that British rock legends the Rolling Stones have long been fans and supporters of American blues music. The named themselves after a song by Chicago blues great Muddy Waters, and started their time-defying career in the early ‘60s as a blues and R&B covers band. The Stones have flirted with the blues ever since, celebrating their lengthy love affair with the release of the 2016 album Blue & Lonesome, a collection of heartfelt covers of classic blues tunes.

Given their relationship with, and knowledge of the blues, it only makes sense that the Stones’ band members could curate an authoritative collection of blues music. On November 9th, 2018 BMG and Universal Music will release Confessin’ The Blues, a 42-track collection of classic blues music chosen by the Stones and featuring red-hot tracks by folks like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Chuck Berry, and many others. Confessin’ The Blues will be released in two-CD, double-vinyl, and a 5”x10” vinyl book-pack that mimics the original 78rpm releases. All versions feature liner notes by music journalist Colin Larkin while the book-pack includes removable art card prints by noted blues illustrator Christoph Mueller. The album’s cover was painted by Stones guitarist and resident artist Ron Wood.

The band and BMG decided that 10% of the label’s net receipts from the sale of the album will be donated to Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation, an educational non-profit organization that keeps the history and spirit of the blues alive. Named after the legendary blues musician, songwriter, and producer Willie Dixon, the organization’s President and CEO Jacqueline Dixon says in a press release for the new album, “we are extremely honoured, grateful and humbled that Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation has been included in such an astonishing project. It means so much that my father’s dream of creating an organisation that promotes, protects and preserves the Blues for future generations is being recognised and supported by artists that have achieved so much.”

Rolling Stones founding member and guitarist Keith Richards says it best, “if you don't know the blues... there’s no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music.” The blues is where it all began and, judging the complete track listing below, Confessin’ The Blues includes some of the best music the genre has to offer. 

Confessin’ The Blues track listing: 

Disc One:
01. Muddy Waters - Rollin’ Stone
02. Howlin’ Wolf - Little Red Rooster
03. John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillen
04. Little Walter - Hate To See You Go
05. Chuck Berry - Little Queenie
06. Bo Diddley - You Can’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover
07. Eddie Taylor - Ride ‘Em On Down
08. Slim Harpo - I’m A King Bee
09. Magic Sam - All Your Love
10. Elmore James - Dust My Broom
11. Little Walter - Just Your Fool
12. Muddy Waters - I Want To Be Loved
13. Big Bill Broonzy - Key To The Highway
14. Robert Johnson - Love In Vain Blues
15. Mississippi Fred McDowell - You Gotta Move
16. Jimmy Reed - Bright Lights, Big City
17. Big Maceo - Worried Life Blues
18. Little Johnny Taylor - Everybody Knows About My Good Thing (Part 1)
19. Howlin’ Wolf - Commit A Crime
20. Otis Rush - I Can’t Quit You Baby
21. Jay McShann & Walter Brown - Confessin’ The Blues

Disc Two:
1. Howlin’ Wolf - Just Like I Treat You
2. Little Walter - I Got To Go
3. Chuck Berry - Carol
4. Bo Diddley - Mona
5. Muddy Waters - I Just Want To Make Love To You
6. Elmore James - Blues Before Sunrise
7. Eddie Taylor - Bad Boy
8. Boy Blue - Boogie Children
9. Jimmy Reed - Little Rain
10. Robert Johnson - Stop Breakin’ Down Blues
11. Reverend Robert Wilkins - The Prodigal Son
12. Lightnin’ Slim - Hoodoo Blues
13. Billy Boy Arnold - Don’t Stay Out All Night
14. Bo Diddley - Craw Dad
15. Dale Hawkins - Suzie Q
16. Amos Milburn - Down The Road Apiece
17. Howlin’ Wolf - Little Baby
18. Little Walter - Blue and Lonesome
19. B.B. King - Rock Me Baby
20. Buddy Guy - Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues
21. Muddy Waters - Mannish Boy

Also on That Devil Music.com:
The Rolling Stones - Blue & Lonesome CD review

Book Review: Greg Prevost and Andy Babiuk's Rolling Stones Gear (2014)

Greg Prevost and Andy Babiuk spent better than three decades together in the legendary “psychedelic blues” outfit the Chesterfield Kings. During this time, the band recorded almost a dozen albums and spent several thousand nights on the road, but their best performance to date may be the creation of Rolling Stones Gear. A massive, oversized, thick 672-page, profusely-illustrated hardback book, Rolling Stones Gear is pricey ($60 list, $45 retail online) but essential for any Stones fan or music gearhead, delivering more than its cover price in history and information.

Aside from their hands-on experience playing in one of the most underrated American rock ‘n’ roll bands of the 1980s and ‘90s, these two writers are eminently qualified to pen Rolling Stones Gear. A few years ago, Babiuk published Beatles Gear, a similarly massive tome that offered insight into “All the Fab Four’s Gear From Stage to Studio,” the book becoming a surprise best-seller. Babiuk is also a world-renowned authority on vintage guitars and the owner of Andy Babiuk’s Fab Gear, a boutique guitar store located near Rochester, New York.

Greg Prevost and Andy Babiuk’s Rolling Stones Gear

Greg Prevost, of course, should need no introduction – we reviewed his Universal Vagrant album a couple years ago. Aside from Prevost’s lengthy stint at the front of the Chesterfield Kings, the singer, songwriter, and guitarist is a well-respected music journalist, with material published in dozens of magazines and music fanzines worldwide, including Shindig! (U.K.) and Ugly Things. Prevost is considered an authority on 1960s and ‘70s era rock and blues music, and is well-known as a rabid Rolling Stones fan.

Together, Prevost and Babiuk have put together a truly beautiful book, Rolling Stones Gear offering more than just a mere overview of the band’s instruments through the years. The book provides a lengthy and insightful history of the Stones’ half-century of making rock ‘n’ roll, from in-depth writing on the band’s formation in 1962 and background on all the Stones’ individual members to early musical influences and supporters like Alexis Korner, arguably the founding father of the British blues-rock scene.

As mentioned above, Rolling Stones Gear includes hundreds of B&W and color photos – many rare, many previously unpublished – of various instruments, album and magazine covers, band performance shots, and other flotsam and jetsam from one of the most notorious careers in rock music. With detailed documentation of the gear used by the band on every song they recorded (including demo recordings and out-takes), as well as their frequent high-profile (and lucrative tours), Rolling Stones Gear outlines the storied history of the band with enthusiasm and energy.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Featuring brilliant printing and reproduction of its lush photos, Rolling Stones Gear is simply gorgeous, a look befitting the love and labor that went into the creation of the prose that accompanies the intriguing and often informative graphics. Rolling Stones Gear is a hall of fame worthy collection, a fine document of the classic band’s story that would appeal to both the casual fan and any aficionado of vintage musical instruments. As for the hardcore Stones fan, it goes without saying...they’re going to want this book! (Backbeat Books, released January 1, 2014)

Review originally published in slightly different form by About.com Blues

Buy the book from Amazon.com: Greg Prevost and Andy Babiuk’s Rolling Stones Gear

New Music Monthly: November & December 2017 Releases

We're in the home stretch for 2017 as the number of new releases slows to a trickle, the big exception being Record Store Day's Black Friday event at the end of February (which brings more than a few vinyl goodies for we collectors!). Still, there's a wealth of crazy cool stuff coming in November/December including new albums from Billy Bragg, blues guitarist extraordinaire Ronnie Earl, and the great singer Mavis Staples, among others. We also have reissues and archive releases from the legendary Little Richard, Chuck Berry, King Crimson, Apples In Stereo, Richard Thompson, and the Rolling Stones!

If we wrote about it, there'll be a link to it in the album title; if you want an album, hit the 'Buy!' link to get it from Amazon.com...it's just that damn easy! Your purchase puts money in the Reverend's pocket that he'll use to buy more music to write about in a never-ending loop of rock 'n' roll ecstasy! Y'all have a great holiday season and we'll be back with a fresh 'New Music Monthly' column in 2018!

 
NOVEMBER 3
Anti-Flag - American Fall   BUY!
Billy Bragg - Bridges Not Walls   BUY!
Cannibal Corpse - Red Before Black   BUY!
Converge - The Dusk In Us   BUY!
Little Richard - Here's Little Richard   BUY!
The Apples In Stereo - Tone Soul Revolution [vinyl reissue]   BUY!
Strawbs - The Ferryman's Curse   BUY!
Richard Thompson - Live at Rockpalast   BUY!

NOVEMBER 10
King Crimson - Earthbound [deluxe reissue]   BUY!
Quicksand - Interiors   BUY!
R.E.M. - Automatic For The People [deluxe reissue]   BUY!

 
NOVEMBER 17
Chuck Berry - Rockit   BUY!
Dead Ending - Shoot the Messenger [vinyl]   BUY!
Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters - The Luckiest Man   BUY!
Morrissey - Low In High School   BUY!
Mavis Staples - If All I Was Was Black   BUY!

NOVEMBER 24
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Who Built The Moon?   BUY!
The Apples In Stereo - Her Wallpaper Reverie [vinyl reissue]   BUY!

DECEMBER 1
The Rolling Stones - On Air   BUY!
 
DECEMBER 8
The Searchers - Another Night: The Sire Recordings 1979-1981   BUY!

Album of the Month: The Rolling Stones' On Air is a multi-format (CD/2-CD/2-LP) collection of early-era Stones performances on various BBC programs like Saturday Club, Top Gear, and Blues In Rhythm. The single CD and vinyl formats feature 18 tracks, from the band's first single – a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Come On” – to classic tunes like “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Memphis, Tennessee,” “Mercy, Mercy,” and “Down the Road Apiece.”

(Album release dates are subject to change without notice and they don't always let me know, so there...)

The Stones Roll Back the Years

Rock ‘n’ roll legends the Rolling Stones have been kicking around since the early ‘60s, the band’s enormous and influential back catalog of music including some 30 studio albums, 23 live releases, and better than two dozen various compilations and box sets…not to mention a slew of DVDs and literally dozens of bootleg albums. The band’s early years are a sorely underrepresented part of the Stones’ milieu, an oversight that will be rectified with the December release of On Air on CD and vinyl.

On December 1st, 2017 Universal Music will release the Stones’ On Air in various formats, including single and double-CD sets and a two-disc vinyl album. The compilation collects the band’s live BBC sessions recorded between 1963 and 1965, with many of the performances previously-unreleased. The single CD and vinyl formats feature eighteen tracks that range from the band’s first single – a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Come On” – and include classic tunes like “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Memphis, Tennessee,” “Mercy, Mercy,” and “Down the Road Apiece” performed on various BBC programs like Saturday Club, Top Gear, and Blues In Rhythm.

For fans willing to cough up a few extra dollars for the double-CD set, you’ll get another fourteen songs like “Carol,” “Confessin’ the Blues,” “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” and “2120 South Michigan Avenue,” the performances highlighting the band’s blues and R&B roots. None of these tracks have appeared on CD before (although four songs were included on a 7” vinyl EP included with the band’s 2012 GRRR! compilation), and eight of the songs have never been recorded in the studio or even released by the band. Each recording has been restored via a process called “audio source separation” to provide a full, cleaner sound.

On Air is the audio companion to the recently-published The Rolling Stones on Air in the Sixties by author Richard Havers, who also co-wrote Bill Wyman’s book Rolling with the Stones. The book represents the first official, in-depth history of the Stones as viewed through their early television and radio performances and it includes many previously-unpublished documents and photos from the BBC archives. Copies of both the book and On Air are available direct from the Stones’ website as stand-alone or bundled purchases, or you can use the links below to order from Amazon.com.

The Rolling Stones’ On Air track listing:

Disc 1
1. Come On (Saturday Club, 10/26/1963)
2. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Saturday Club, 9/18/1965)
3. Roll Over Beethoven (Saturday Club, 10/26/1963)
4. The Spider and The Fly (Yeah Yeah, 8/30/1965)
5. Cops and Robbers (Blues In Rhythm, 5/9/1964)
6. It’s All Over Now (The Joe Loss Pop Show, 7/17/1964)
7. Route 66 (Blues In Rhythm, 5/9/1964)
8. Memphis, Tennessee (Saturday Club, 10/26/1963)
9. Down The Road Apiece (Top Gear, 3/6/1965)
10. The Last Time (Top Gear, 3/6/1965)
11. Cry To Me (Saturday Club, 9/18/1965)
12. Mercy, Mercy (Yeah Yeah, 8/30/1965)
13. Oh! Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin’) (Saturday Club, 9/18/1965)
14. Around and Around (Top Gear, 7/23/1964)
15. Hi Heel Sneakers (Saturday Club, 4/18/1964)
16. Fannie Mae (Saturday Club, 9/18/1965)
17. You Better Move On (Blues In Rhythm, 5/9/1964)
18. Mona (Blues In Rhythm, 5/9/1964)

Disc 2 (included with deluxe edition)
1. I Wanna Be Your Man (Saturday Club, 2/8/1964)
2.Carol (Saturday Club, 4/18/1964)
3. I’m Moving On (The Joe Loss Pop Show, 4/10/1964)
4. If You Need Me (The Joe Loss Pop Show, 7/17/1964)
5. Walking The Dog (Saturday Club, 2/8/1964)
6. Confessin’ The Blues (The Joe Loss Pop Show, 7/17/1964)
7. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love (Top Gear, 3/6/1965)
8. Little By Little (The Joe Loss Pop Show, 4/10/1964)
9. Ain’t That Loving You Baby (Rhythm and Blues, 10/31/1964)
10. Beautiful Delilah (Saturday Club, 4/18/1964)
11. Crackin’ Up (Top Gear, 7/23/1964)
12. I Can’t Be Satisfied (Top Gear, 7/23/1964)
13. I Just Want to Make Love to You (Saturday Club, 4/18/1964)
14. 2120 South Michigan Avenue (Rhythm and Blues, 10/31/1964)

Buy from Amazon.com:
The Rolling Stones’ On Air double-CD set
The Rolling Stones’ On Air double-LP vinyl set
Richard Havers’ The Rolling Stones on Air in the Sixties

Rolling Stones photo courtesy Universal Music