The cover is by rock and roll artist Guy Peellaert > many of his works are in the excellent book Rock Dreams
- Songs
1. If You Can’t Rock Me
2. Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
3. It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll
4. Till the Next Goodbye
5. Time Waits for No One6. Luxury
7. Dance Little Sister
8. If You Really Want to be My Friend
9. Short and Curlies
10. Fingerprint File
It's Only rock 'n' Roll
Solid rock, a hot soul song and soaring guitar solo from Mick Taylor are highlights. It’s Only Rock and Roll > but they sure can play it.
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- October, 2016
- Rock On Rock Recommends:
It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll; Time Waits for No One; Fingerprint File; Ain’t Too Proud to Beg; If You Really Want to be My Friend; Dance Little Sister; If You Can’t Rock Me.
THE Rolling Stones emerged torn and frayed from police victimisation and drug-induced rock and roll excess > but standing defiant and their music abilities intact.
The “It’s Only Rock and Roll” logo was graffitied around London in a publicity campaign for the album > the first to be produced under the moniker of the Glimmer Twins > aka Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
THE SONGS
Guitar interplay buzzes along on the rock songs as does Charlie Watts’ drumming > from album opener If You Can’t Rock Me to the razor riff and wah-wah guitar of end song Fingerprint File.
Rockers Dance Little Sister and the anthemic It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll are sandwiched in between > Keith Richards ripping rhythm runs slicing their way through the album’s title song as Mick Jagger questions what it takes to sate audiences.
Dance Little Sister > surprisingly > has Mick Taylor punching out the rhythm, a fact Richards would proudly declare to the press > putting to rest the belief that his axe partner wasn’t up to the hard stuff.
And Taylor’s soaring lead on Time Waits For No One is > along with the guitar solo on Can’t You Hear Me Knocking from the Sticky Fingers album > his two most fan-cherished Rolling Stones works. “Time can tear down a building/or destroy a woman’s face,” Jagger declares.
This would unfortunately be Mick Taylor’s last album with the Stones > having joined as a 21-year-old five and a bit years earlier after the departure and subsequent shock death of founding member Brian Jones.
The Rolling Stones give the rock treatment to The Temptations soul standard Ain’t Too Proud to Beg > a rousing rendition faster paced than the original and kicked along > like many songs on the It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll album > by celebrated session man Nicky Hopkins on piano.
Hopkins goes mellow on twisted and love-torn soul ballad If You Really Want To Be My Friend > with vocal group Blue Magic on harmonies.
The Stones bash out their first reggae song Luxury > with a Mexican man fed up about having keep his wife in a manner in which she would like to become accustomed.
Reggae is a sound the Rolling Stones continued to sporadically experiment with and this is one of their better efforts.
Short and Curlies verges on country rock and mocks all those miserable men locked in a relationship they wish they never started > and can’t get out of. The lyrics are the highlight >”too bad, she’s got you b y the balls”.
Tales of espionage and paranoia abound on final song > the Bill Wyman bass-driven Fingerprint File > as the Stones play around a funk beat.
IT’S ONLY ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
If I could stick a knife in my heart
Suicide right on stage
Would it be enough for your teenage lust
Would it help to ease the pain?
Ease your brain?
Jagger/Richards
GUITARIST MICK TAYLOR LEAVES BAND
Mick Taylor’s press statement upon leaving the Rolling Stones in December 1974 read: “The last five-and-a-half years with the Stones have been very exciting and proved to be a most inspiring period. And as far as my attitude to the other four members is concerned, it is one of respect for them, both as musicians and as people. I have nothing but admiration for the group, but I feel now is the time to move on and do something new”.
Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone magazine: “I’m sorry to see him go, but I think people should be free to do what they want”.
Mick Taylor (pictured) briefly joined a group formed by bass player Jack Bruce, who used to play with Eric Clapton in Cream > but this and other musical adventures he became involved with never really took off.
Taylor joined the Rolling Stones for guest appearances at gigs during the band’s 50th anniversary worldwide tour in 2013.
> WRITTEN by MALCOLM LIVERMORE
