6 December 2013

6th November - The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet


Artist – Album: The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet
Released: 6th December 1968
Sounds Like: Beggars belief

After the not completely successful foray into psychedelia on Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones donned their Stetson hats and went a little bit country-blues for Beggars Banquet. And boy howdy did it work, setting the template for the most successful run of albums of their interminable career (including yesterday’s review Let It Bleed). Dominant slide guitars are married with the Stones’ natural demons to create a deliciously cool and ever so slightly sinister turn by the cockney cowboys.

As with Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet starts with an undeniably brilliant bang (‘Sympathy for the Devil’ or ‘Gimme Shelter’? Daddy or chips? Daddy or chips?) and contains another stone-cold classic (‘Street Fighting Man’ here, ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ yesterday), but the real strength of the album is that the sum is better than the parts. ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’, ‘No Expectations’ and ‘Factory Girl’ strike me as instant classics but tunes such as ‘Parachute Woman’, ‘Prodigal Son’ and ‘Salt of the Earth’ aren’t especially noteworthy alone. It’s the way they work together with the other seven songs that make Beggars Banquet one of the finest and most complete albums of the Sixties.

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       Sympathy for the Devil – 6:18
2.       No Expectations – 3:56
3.       Dear Doctor – 3:28
4.       Parachute Woman – 2:20
5.       Jigsaw Puzzle – 6:06
6.       Street Fighting Man – 3:16
7.       Prodigal Son – 2:51
8.       Stray Cat Blues – 4:38
9.       Factory Girl – 2:09
10.   Salt of the Earth – 4:48

Listen to ‘Factory Girl’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UZmtqpc6wM

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