By
Jesse Kornbluth
Published: May 19, 2010
Category:
Rock
The "world’s greatest rock band" has been a parody of itself for so long that even those of us who were around when they earned the title have trouble explaining the Stones to younger friends. The overpriced tours of recent years are exactly what we thought rock’s self-proclaimed "bad boys" would never do — reprise their greatest hits under makeup so thick that Mick Jagger looks like he’s wearing a death mask. His most recent solo CD didn’t even sell a thousand copies in England — doesn’t he get that it’s time to hang it up? And the beautifully paneled Connecticut library where Keith Richards stocks his collection of World War II books looks like an excellent place for the guitar guru to sit down and sip Jack Daniels in peace.
As I write, The Stones have just released a re-mastered "Exile on Main Street" (an 18-song CD for a bargain $9.99 at Amazon.com, $7.99 for the MP3 download; there’s a deluxe edition for $19.99 or $18.06 for the MP3.) For those who were there, it will take you back to 1972, when this two-record blast from the Stones was a total repudiation of pretty much everything in sight. It was drunk and disorderly, raw and bluesy, an invitation to kick out the jams and screw in the alley. If you were young and had the vaguest ability to roll a joint, it was strong, welcome medicine, and you played it — loud — till you wore it out.
“Exile” is getting lots of attention, and needs no more from me. I’d like to take you back to 1966 and suggest you reconsider “Aftermath” (11 song CD or MP3 download).
Let me set the scene, so you understand how this CD sits in rock history. Back then, the Big Three were The Stones, The Beatles and Dylan. With each new song, with each album, they challenged one another — a friendly competition that benefited both the musicians and their ever-expanding audience. The early months of 1966 brought Revolver from The Beatles and Blonde on Blonde from Dylan — two of the greatest albums ever released. "Aftermath" was a worthy competitor: the first Stones album that featured only songs they wrote, their first album recorded in stereo and the album most influenced by the brilliant but doomed Brian Jones (he’d die two years later).
This is the album that saw The Stones move from presenting themselves as an English version of a black Chicago blues band to a pure rock band — this is the start of The Stones as a badass gang whose behavior you can’t predict. That’s certainly true of the musical mix. You get misogyny in "Under My Thumb" and "Stupid Girl." You get George Harrison-influenced sitar in "I Am Waiting” and a beautiful ballad in "Lady Jane." And then there’s the weird, druggy, 11-minute song called "Going Home" which offers some hints that The Doors would pick up a year or so later — if, like me, you listened to this after a jug of Almaden Chablis or that fizzy Portuguese white, you may remember with some nostalgia how the room spun and you fell off the couch.
"Aftermath" is where The Stones first showed the attitude that would blossom over the next few years and insure them of a place among The Immortals. Many of these songs have the feel of classics. You’ll dance in your chair. You’ll smile. You’ll be taken back to a time that was fun and creative — and even innocent. And you’ll get, again, why they call these tottering pensioners "the world’s greatest rock band."
