Best Stones tune. You can disagree, but then I’ll brand you like you were in a sex cult. The wire hanger’s smoldering in the toaster oven. Try me.
Please take the hanger out of the toaster.
I NEED MY BRANDING TOOLS.
Just continue.
Enthusiasts, you may be wondering how the decision was reached, so I will share the rubric for BST with you:
None of that real early shit Earliest you can go with the Stones is 1967. Before that, there was too much Brian Jones. (WARNING: Rock Nerds will often champion Brian Jones as the true talent behind the Stones. When this happens to you, strike the RN on the muzzle with a rolled-up newspaper and say in a stern voice, “NO!”)
Obviously no Ron Wood stuff Don’t get TotD wrong: everyone loves Woody. The man’s a mate. Always good for a piss-up. Friendliest bloke in rock and roll; give you the pirate’s blouse off his back, Woody would. But the fact remains that his joining the group was the moment the Stones turned into their own tribute act.
So we’ve narrowed our window of possibility from fifty years’ worth of songs to six.
Can’t be a Keith tune Duh.
Wha? Huh? An axiom: You’re not supposed to understand every word. If you do, the song is by definition not the Best EVAR Rolling Stones tune. As a lyricist, Mick works best in jabs: shiny diamond phrases about fevers in funkhouses poking out from the slushy, mushy fake drawl he affects for most of the Stone’s songbook. This means the over-enunciated Sympathy for the Devil is out.
Is this my drummer? Sympathy is also out for the same reason You Can’t Always Get What You Want is out: Charlie Watts doesn’t play on it. (Jimmy Miller, the producer also responsible for the cowbell hits in Honky Tonk Women, filled in when Charlie couldn’t quite figure out the groove.) No Charlie, no Best EVAR.
The thing at the end Y’know the thing where the drums kick in? It’s gotta do that.
This leaves Salt of the Earth off Beggar’s Banquet, and Let it Bleed, but SOTE is out because…
The Rolling Stones’ Best EVAR song shouldn’t be about the maladies of the working-class It needs to be about sex. Or drugs. If I wanted to hear about poor people, I’d listen to Billy Bragg.
We have successfully whittled: Let It Bleed wins the day.
Or maybe Bitch. The horns on that shit give me a Rock Boner.
Nice extended mix video, thanks! Jagger’s harmonica work on midnight rambler puts it in the running imho. He’s 75 today eh.
By your rules? Can’t You Hear Mo Knockin’.
By my rules? Before they Make me Run.
*Me.
All fine songs my friends and fellow enthusiasts, but I may be inclined towards “It’s Only Rock and Roll. (But I like it)”
Oh yeah, and God Save the Queen.
“You’re my fuckin’ singer, and don’t you forget it!”
(going from memory)
Also, best Mick Taylor-era Stones song is an impossible choice (even putting aside all the heavy hitters from Beggar’s Banquet and Let It Bleed) — Bitch? Sway? Moonlight Mile? Time Waits for No One? It’s Only Rock & Roll? Shine a Light? I have a soft spot in my heart for Let It Loose…
Eh, Faraway Eyes nails it. But yeah, those horns in “Bitch” tho.
Rocks Off. Fight me.
An out of town buddy and I do a monthly top five list via email (inspired by the novel, Hi Fidelity). Four years ago the topic was Stones songs. My top five:
1. Monkey Man
2. Bitch
3. Heartbreaker
4. Dead Flowers
5. Beast of Burden
I tend to favor the Mick Taylor years but I love Some Girls.
Heartbreaker!
I was going to throw Sway into the mix too but just found out Keith doesn’t play on it. Mick’s rhythm guitar. Who knew?
http://thegeoffblake.com/?p=2078
Gimme Shelter – a sexy, savage song that showcases all of the Stones’ strengths (alliteration unintended).
i think they did something to Chuck’s eyebrows in addition to the Branding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKmJPnAGUJk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0CSs4Nf-64
Street Fighting Man gives me everything I would ever want from a Stones song. But actually, I could have said that about Paint It Black, but then SFM came along. Wait a minute, I certainly could have said that about Satisfaction, too, so fuckit. I’m going with Satisfaction and everything following is derivative.
Dead flowers is a fave, don’t miss the alternate mix on some reissue lately, or the band ‘maxayne’ s absolutely fantastic cover.
It is not about non-Ron or non-Brian..
The Stones are their best when acting as a supporting band for Nicky Hopkins.
So go back and re choose your selections,
Ix-Nay on Let it Bleed(the song not the album)
Does that mean Shine a Light is out of the running?
Not at all, that is a Leon Russell song and it is a great Leon Russell song with the Stones covering it.
So Can’t you hear me knocking, Sway, Let it Loose all get to stay.
I think you’re showing a bit of disrespect to Mr. Ian Stewart, my friend.
Let It Loose
Torn and Frayed
Everything else on Exile
War horse radio classic category – tumbling dice
Deeper cut – tie between stray cat blues and torn and frayed.
Child of the Moon, except when Yung Wu does it.
Let It Loose