Happy Birthday Keith Richards *Stonesmania-The Stones Live- The Urban Jungle World Tour, 1989

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of The Rolling Stones performing "Little Red Rooster".

CD Review

RollingStonesFlashpoint: The Urban Jungle World Tour, The Rolling Stones, Virgin Records, 1989

I will repeat here what I have mentioned in other reviews of the early work of The Rolling Stones…. “Hey, in 2009 no one, including this reviewer, NEEDS to comment on the fact that The Rolling Stones, pound for pound, have over forty plus years earned their place as the number one band in the rock ‘n’ roll pantheon.”

Previously in this space I have reviewed various Stones compilations that featured one or more combination of their “greatest hits”. In this world tour CD we get those well-known and deservedly-covered hits and a few new pieces composed for the tour but mainly we get The Stones live, which is always a treat when one see the group in person or, as here, through a recording made up of tracks, presumably the best ones, from various stops on this 1989 tour. Stands out here are the Willie Dixon classic made famous by Howlin’ Wolf, "Little Red Rooster”, their “Factory Girl” and “Sympathy For The Devil” and a couple of new (at least to me) tunes, “Highwire” and “Sex Drive”.

Happy Birthday Kieth Richards -*Stonesmania- No Beggars At This Banquet- The Rolling Stones, Once Again

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of The Rolling Stones performing "Street Fighting Man" in 1968. Natural choice for a Stones song on this site, right?

CD Review

Beggar’s Banquet, The Rolling Stones, ABKCO Records, 1968

Hey, in 2009 no one, including this reviewer, NEEDS to comment on the fact that The Rolling Stones, pound for pound, have over forty plus years earned their place as the number one band in the rock ‘n’ roll pantheon. Still, it is interesting to listen once again to the guys when they were at the height of their musical powers (and as high, most of the time, as Georgia pines). This album from the 1964 to 1971 period, moreover, unlike let us say Bob Dylan who has produced more creative work for longer, is the ‘golden era” of the Stone Age. While this CD has a rather definitive selection of some of “greatest hits" from this period so there are no bad tracks here the stick outs are the super-rock classic “Sympathy For The Devil"(as always), the very epitome of the 1960s quasi-revolutionary style “Street Fighting Man”, the bluesy "No Expectations" and a song that has risen in my estimation over the years, "Factory Girl". Need I say more-no beggars need apply here.

FACTORY GIRL
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)

Waiting for a girl who's got curlers in her hair
Waiting for a girl she has no money anywhere
We get buses everywhere
Waiting for a factory girl

Waiting for a girl and her knees are much too fat
Waiting for a girl who wears scarves instead of hats
Her zipper's broken down the back
Waiting for a factory girl

Waiting for a girl and she gets me into fights
Waiting for a girl we get drunk on Friday night
She's a sight for sore eyes
Waiting for a factory girl

Waiting for a girl and she's got stains all down her dress
Waiting for a girl and my feet are getting wet
She ain't come out yet
Waiting for a factory girl

From "The Rag Blog"- Carl Davidson : Winter of Our Discontent?

Click on the headline to line to The Rag Blog entry listed in the headline.