"BEGGAR'S BANQUET" (Decca SKL4955)(stereo edition) December 5th, 1968.
My favourite Rolling Stones LP. I concede that they probably made better albums, with "Sticky Fingers" being generally more rounded and better recorded, and "Exile On Main St" being, well, "Exile On Main St", but in the 38 minutes which "Beggar's Banquet" fills, the Stones at last deliver the music.
The best part of a year had lapsed since this record was completed before it appeared on the shelves, due to a standoff between the Stones and Decca Records over the cover artwork. The band wanted to use a photograph of a toilet cubicle with graffiti strewn walls, taken in a garage in Los Angeles. Decca considered this to be offensive, and would not issue the record. It was noted at the time that the same company had recently released an album entitled "A-Tom-ic Jones", with a cover depicting the mushroom cloud produced by a nuclear explosion. Whether or not a toilet was more obscene than an atom bomb was purely academic: Decca would not budge. The album was finally released in a sleeve with no photograph at all on the front, but with a truly fantastic gatefold sleeve, which opened to reveal the now famous 'banquet' picture (which you can see at the top of this page), by Michael Joseph, of the Stones lounging decadently with not a toilet in sight.
This was the first of the Stones LPs to be produced by Jimmy Miller. Had there not been such a lengthy delay in it's release, it would probably have included "Jumpin' Jack Flash". A band which can afford to forego putting it's most recent hit single on it's latest album, especially one as strong as "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (which, as everyone knows, is the greatest rock and roll 45 ever to have been pressed) is not a band lacking in confidence. A band which produces an album which opens with a song as astonishing as "Sympathy For The Devil" is, obviously, a great band.
The old showbiz adage 'never start with your showstopper' is ignored by opening the album with "Sympathy...", and is pretty much proved to be true; the album comes nowhere near to it's dizzying peak again. All of it is top quality, however, with "Salt Of The Earth" being the only possible exception. It's just short of the rousing finale which "You Can't Always Get What You Want" would provide "Let It Bleed" with one year later. Other highlights are "Parachute Woman", which is pure Elmore James; the fantastically recorded "Street Fighting Man" (which has no electrically amplified instruments apart from the bass) and the filth and the fury that is "Stray Cat Blues"- a number so full of dangerous elements that it actually starts seething as it's fading out. "Factory Girl" is a short sketch about waiting for your girlfriend in the rain and is nice. "Dear Doctor" is darkly comic, and describes narrowly avoiding having to get wed to a 'bow legged sow'. "No Expectations" is a sweet, concise gem, and features Brian Jones playing slide so deftly you'd think there was nowt the matter with him. "Prodigal Son" is played beautifully. "Jig-Saw Puzzle" is Dylan-ish, and probably a wee bit over ambitious, but is played and sung incredibly well.
You need to hear this record.
Other/related:** When the Stones commenced work on "Sympathy For The Devil" in the summer of '68, only one Kennedy had been killed. The tragic slaying of Robert Kennedy occurred right in the middle of the sessions which saw the song completed. There was never any question of the reference to America's most famous political dynasty being removed from the song. It remained, and remains, one of the very best lines of song ever sung. True then and true now. If U2 worked for another ten decades, they still couldn't come up with anything even like as powerful.
**The "many friends" credited for playing on the album are widely held to have included Eric Clapton and Dave Mason.
My favourite Rolling Stones LP. I concede that they probably made better albums, with "Sticky Fingers" being generally more rounded and better recorded, and "Exile On Main St" being, well, "Exile On Main St", but in the 38 minutes which "Beggar's Banquet" fills, the Stones at last deliver the music.
The best part of a year had lapsed since this record was completed before it appeared on the shelves, due to a standoff between the Stones and Decca Records over the cover artwork. The band wanted to use a photograph of a toilet cubicle with graffiti strewn walls, taken in a garage in Los Angeles. Decca considered this to be offensive, and would not issue the record. It was noted at the time that the same company had recently released an album entitled "A-Tom-ic Jones", with a cover depicting the mushroom cloud produced by a nuclear explosion. Whether or not a toilet was more obscene than an atom bomb was purely academic: Decca would not budge. The album was finally released in a sleeve with no photograph at all on the front, but with a truly fantastic gatefold sleeve, which opened to reveal the now famous 'banquet' picture (which you can see at the top of this page), by Michael Joseph, of the Stones lounging decadently with not a toilet in sight.
This was the first of the Stones LPs to be produced by Jimmy Miller. Had there not been such a lengthy delay in it's release, it would probably have included "Jumpin' Jack Flash". A band which can afford to forego putting it's most recent hit single on it's latest album, especially one as strong as "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (which, as everyone knows, is the greatest rock and roll 45 ever to have been pressed) is not a band lacking in confidence. A band which produces an album which opens with a song as astonishing as "Sympathy For The Devil" is, obviously, a great band.
The old showbiz adage 'never start with your showstopper' is ignored by opening the album with "Sympathy...", and is pretty much proved to be true; the album comes nowhere near to it's dizzying peak again. All of it is top quality, however, with "Salt Of The Earth" being the only possible exception. It's just short of the rousing finale which "You Can't Always Get What You Want" would provide "Let It Bleed" with one year later. Other highlights are "Parachute Woman", which is pure Elmore James; the fantastically recorded "Street Fighting Man" (which has no electrically amplified instruments apart from the bass) and the filth and the fury that is "Stray Cat Blues"- a number so full of dangerous elements that it actually starts seething as it's fading out. "Factory Girl" is a short sketch about waiting for your girlfriend in the rain and is nice. "Dear Doctor" is darkly comic, and describes narrowly avoiding having to get wed to a 'bow legged sow'. "No Expectations" is a sweet, concise gem, and features Brian Jones playing slide so deftly you'd think there was nowt the matter with him. "Prodigal Son" is played beautifully. "Jig-Saw Puzzle" is Dylan-ish, and probably a wee bit over ambitious, but is played and sung incredibly well.
You need to hear this record.
Other/related:** When the Stones commenced work on "Sympathy For The Devil" in the summer of '68, only one Kennedy had been killed. The tragic slaying of Robert Kennedy occurred right in the middle of the sessions which saw the song completed. There was never any question of the reference to America's most famous political dynasty being removed from the song. It remained, and remains, one of the very best lines of song ever sung. True then and true now. If U2 worked for another ten decades, they still couldn't come up with anything even like as powerful.
**The "many friends" credited for playing on the album are widely held to have included Eric Clapton and Dave Mason.
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