It didn’t take four and a half decades to certify Some Girls (released 6/9/78) as one of the high points of The Rolling Stones’ discography. At the time of its release in 1978, it was accorded acclaim on multiple fronts. Hailed as a return to form with a vengeance for a band that had, in the years just prior, issued forth some rather prosaic efforts in the form of Goats Head Soup, It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, and Black and Blue, it was also perceived as a purposeful rebuke to punk rock’s dismissal of the Stones’ generation of bands. Still, it’s also worth noting, in practical terms, that Some Girls is the first Stones long-player to feature guitarist Ronnie Wood throughout the LP (he had first joined three years prior).
The wide commercial success of its first single “Miss You” is only the most superficial aspect of the project and its aftermath. Yet was hardly surprising it became a Number One hit: the Stones seamlessly mixed rhythmic elements from disco music, with timeless blues elements at the very foundation of the British group’s style, the latter in the form of Sugar Blue’s wailing harp.
Suspect as it might sound at first, in its nod to the dance craze of the times, “Miss You” boasts even further distinctions of the Rolling Stones as a band. Drummer Charlie Watts swings, bassist Bill Wyman pulses right in time with his rhythm section partner and Mick Jagger’s lascivious vocal is the group’s famous tongue and lips logo come alive. Meanwhile, the Keith Richards/Ronnie Wood guitars are grounded in understatement.
Evidence of an instrumental partnership that had been fermenting since the latter’s recruitment away from Rod Stewart and the Faces in 1975, their fretboards whipsaw in time at an absolutely furious tempo on “When The Whip Comes Down,” another in a long-line of co-producers The Glimmer Twins songwriting depictions of culture class (hear “Mother’s Little Helper”).
Even more raw rock appears in the form of the almost identical rapid-fire churning of “Lies” and “Respectable.” Such hell-bent intensity was Some Girls’ hallmark, much more so than the kerfuffle over the original cover art; that passing controversy, however, was right in line with the Rolling Stones’ history of outrage: see the sleeve photo on 1966 single “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?.”
Timing out at just over forty minutes, this long player is something of a condensed version of the eclectics that is Exile on Main Street from six years prior. Way tongue-in-cheek as Jagger delivers it, “Far Away Eyes” is an affectionate homage to country music (though not so well-wrought or authentic as “Dead Flowers” on Sticky Fingers). Meanwhile, the musicians sound genuinely invigorated, singing and playing a Motown cover in the form of The Temptations’ “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me).”
The title song is a blue-soul amalgam of a different sort, its self-parodying machismo a corollary to the self-pity below the resolute surface of the yearning neo-soul that is “Beast of Burden.” Of course, it stands to reason the sole tune sung (and mostly written) by Richards, “Before They Make Me Run,” would represent an amalgam of style all its own; as with its predecessors “You Got The Silver” (off Let It Bleed) and “Happy” (from the aforementioned ’72 double album), its author’s sanguine croak of a vocal takes full precedence.
The 2011 Deluxe Edition of Some Girls contains a second CD with a dozen tracks. Superficially a testament to the Stones’ prolific output at the time of writing and recording, it’s also indicative of the savvy self-discipline required to leave these songs out of the original ten-cut sequence that finishes with such panache via “Shattered.”
With vocal nods to doo-wop (or Lou Reed?) intermingling with Jagger’s caterwauling, the solidity and abandon of the core ensemble take precedence in this screed aimed at New York City. Additional musicians were few and far between on the 77-78 sessions in Paris, so the friendly presence of Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan only solidified the unity of those who did participate.
The tour in support of Some Girls was comparatively modest, at least compared to the mammoth operations that evolved in its wake. Notwithstanding its commercial success–especially compared to its predecessor of a year before, Emotional Rescue— 1981’s Tattoo You was an assembly of tracks going back as far as a decade, collated and overdubbed for the sake of product to promote. Arguably proof of Mick’s time at the London School of Economics, the impetus there was at least as mercenary as it was creative (and it did pay off via “Start Me Up” and “Waiting For A Friend”).
1989’s Steel Wheels arguably transcended the base overtones of the enterprise, Yet it was nevertheless a harbinger of the machine-like operation of the Stones in the years to come (even if in retrospect it was more important as a restoration of the personal and artistic equilibrium between Jagger and Richards).
Still, in the retrospect of forty-five years, that overspill of the Rolling Stones’ “Mixed Emotions” on that long player barely compared to feelings just as often barbed as bittersweet (not to mention pointedly personal) captured over a decade before on Some Girls. Little wonder it endures today as such a personal statement from ‘ the greatest rock and roll band in the world.’
