I'm going through the Rolling Stones' entire discography at the moment.

This was inspired by a conversation I had with Sara recently... apparently she went to a record store with a friend, who found the Sticky Fingers LP--complete with zipper and all--for a reasonable price, which I felt the slightest bit of envy for. Then later on that day, we made our way to a thrift store where I found none other than the zippered Sticky Fingers LP for a cool, brisk $1. Or $1.05, if you want to be accurate.

I've only made it through their first few albums, most of which are from their period where they rhythm and blues men playing your usual covers. It's largely unimpressive from a modern standpoint, where blues songs mostly sound trite at this point. But then slowly but surely Jagger and Richards started writing their own originals, and the songs become much more notable and lively.

The four songs I'm posting were all released--for the most part--consecutively as singles during a period in 1965.



Their first #1 in the UK that Jagger/Richards wrote, although really it's based off of a traditional arrangement by the Staple Singers. But honestly, the reason to pay attention to this song is the riff that Keith Richards came up with, which might rank up there as one of my favorite riffs written by Richards.

Honestly, I don't know who would comprise any list I'd make of the "greatest guitarists of all time", but Richards would have to be up there. It's not as if he was virtuosic in the Hendrix/Clapton sense where you think they could play anything with their guitars... but in terms of churning out precise riffs and possessing an absolutely impeccable sense of rhythm... I doubt anyone's better.



I don't know if there's really anything to say about this one. Considered one of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time. Keith Richards came up with the riff in his sleep.

Honestly, it's not my favorite. I'm really only including it because it connects the songs I do want to write about in terms of single release order, but it *is* a good song. Just the fact that I've heard it millions of times makes it lose its luster a little bit.



This was written as a follow-up to "Satisfaction". But it's better. The riff is a little more playful (even if you can barely hear it in the mix), the drumming is impeccably solid, and in general it sounds like there's more swagger in Jagger's voice this time around.

It's also one of the songs that will just randomly pop up in my head from time to time, and I have to fight a terrible urge to belt out the chorus as loud as I can. It's not even a *great* chorus--but the call and response is great. I have sometimes tried to get others to participate in the call and response, as I'll just shout out "I said HEY" and let the others respond. It never works.



OK. So here's the thing. I'm much more interested in the Rolling Stones' "pop" period than I am in any of their normal bluesy rock stuff. It's generally looked down upon because essentially, they were just trying to duplicate the success and growth of the Beatles. Which especially for a band that had more of a "purer" rock and roll sound than the Beatles, makes it seem more like selling out than growing artistically.

And to be honest, they probably did go in this direction because the Beatles were heading this way. But I guess since I like their output from this period, I see it more as trying to prove that they can do everything the Beatles were doing, instead of just trying to copy their sound.

As far as this song... I mean, the Stones were probably not best suited to be writing soft ballads with sweeping strings. And people (wrongly) describe it as their attempt to write their own Yesterday, which doesn't help matters. But give this song to Donovan or any other troubadour pop outfit of the 60s, and everyone loves it. It's just that you don't really buy Mick Jagger singing this.

Nevertheless, it's a nice pop exercise. And it's the first song ever penned by Jagger/Richards (it was a while before they actually recorded).

I'll probably write more about the rest of their albums at some later point this week. I don't care if no one wants me to. It's interesting to me.