I know it’s kinda accepted wisdom that the Stones ‘jumped the shark’ at some point in the seventies, but I still think there were moments of genius.
This is very good, very funky and extremely political. The title track of their 1983 album Undercover. Much better than ‘She was Hot.’ U2 were taking notes…
Rolling Stones -‘Undercover Of The Night.’
There’s a link to another Stones song here ‘She’s So Cold.’ (what is the point of disabling the embedding if you can still see it?!?!) This is from Emotional Rescue.
The very first time I ever remember seeing a Stones song on TV (deprived childhood) was this on Top Of The Pops in 1986. Keep putting off buying Dirty Work, there’s something offputting about the sleeve…
Rolling Stones -‘Harlem Shuffle.’
1994’s Voodoo Lounge seemed a return to form in some ways after the eighties excesses that marred Steel Wheels. Charlie Watts seems to look completely perplexed in the video! This was the first post-Bill Wyman album. (Actually I once met Bill Wyman; he did a signing in the bookshop where I weas working at the time, so I spent half an hour chatting to him about stuff.)
The Stones ended up sharing a writing credit with k.d.lang for this song, after one of the Stones kids commented on the similarity to lang’s song ‘Constant Craving.’ This is from 1997’s Bridges To Babylon. Not an amazing album – but better than many of their latter-day albums.
Rolling Stones – ‘Anybody Seen My Baby.’
Finally, when I met Bill Wyman, I couldn’t not ask him about this video. It sounded terrifying!
Rolling Stones -‘It’s Only Rock’n’ Roll.’