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4.5 out of 5 stars
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Some Girls
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Top positive review
The Rolling Stones' 1978 masterpiece is expanded for the better!
September 29, 2015
The Rolling Stones' sixth studio album for their Rolling Stones Records label (distributed by Atlantic in the US and Canada and EMI elsewhere) entitled Some Girls was released in June of 1978.
After the mixed response to 1976's Black and Blue and the tour which saw guitarist Keith Richards get arrested for heroin in 1977 (while recording a live album) and their engineer Keith Harwood perished in a car crash after mixing the live document Love You Live (also a great album). Richards, as well as lead singer Mick Jagger wrote many songs to prove that The Rolling Stones would come back big and this was the first full studio album with guitarist Ron Wood. Some Girls was recorded in late 1977 in France and mixed in New York with Mick and Keith producing and Chris Kimsey handling the recording and mixing. Bass player Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts played well on this album as well (as I found out when I first heard it in October, 1989 after borrowing the original Rolling Stones/Atlantic cassette and then acquiring it in November, 1989 on Rolling Stones/Columbia).
We open with the #1 hit "Miss You" which is a disco rocker (unlike many disco songs, this had no strings nor synths) and features some harmonica by Sugar Blue and a nice sax solo by Mel Collins. Next is the rocker "When the Whip Comes Down" which just rocks and (like the track before it) had Mick, Keith and Woody all on electric guitars. Next is the band's reworking of The Temptations' "Just My Imagination" which the band turned a sappy ballad into a killer rocker with some modified lyrics from Mick and a key change. We follow with the controversial title track which is a bluesy rocker and just rocks (the lyrics may be Politically Incorrect but to Hell with politicians). We close side one with another rocker "Lies" which saw the band embrace the punk movement as well as the disco movement.
We kick the second half off with the country number "Far Away Eyes" which had Mick mocking a southern man in the vocal and this is country done right with steel guitars and hillbilly accent done perfect. Then it's another punkish rocker "Respectable" which just rocks (was not a hit but it rules). Next is the Keith sung rocker "Before They Make Me Run" which is an excellent song sung by Keith. Next is the Top 10 hit rocker "Beast of Burden" which is a great song and would become a staple for the band. The band's ode to 1970s New York and punk scene "Shattered" closes the album and what a great middle finger to the punk rockers who thought The Rolling Stones were dinosaurs.
The Some Girls album did very well hitting #1 making it the sixth Stones studio effort in a row to top Billboard (where it reigned for TWO WEEKS, remember Saturday Night Fever and Grease dominated 1978) and was the second Platinum album for the band (now their best selling US studio release at SIX MILLION). This remastered CD is excellent and it also has all original artwork restored and credits.
In 2011, the album was expanded as a 2-CD set with more outtakes from the Some Girls sessions and some having new vocals added like "No Spare Parts" which its vocals were recorded in 2011 and is an awesome song. "Claudine" sounds like early Elvis but I dig it. "So Young" is a great rocker and has new Jagger vocals for this set. "Do You Really Think I Care" is another winner which has some country elements but a great song. "When You're Gone" follows and is a great bluesy rocker again with a new Mick Jagger vocal. "Don't Be a Stranger" is another catchy song with various different stylings like blues harmonica, reggae drumming and country and rock elements. "We Had it All" has Keith on vocals and was recorded in 1978 with Keith's vocal from the period and a nice ballad. "Tallahassee Lassie" is a great rocker". "I Love You Too Much" is another great rocker. "Keep Up Blues" is a great bluesy rocker. "You Win Again" has new vocals from Mick and Keith and is a great country rocker. "Petrol Blues" is a short blues but excellent way to close this reissue. The digipak comes with a booklet with story on album's creation and photos and credits.
This album is highly recommended.
After the mixed response to 1976's Black and Blue and the tour which saw guitarist Keith Richards get arrested for heroin in 1977 (while recording a live album) and their engineer Keith Harwood perished in a car crash after mixing the live document Love You Live (also a great album). Richards, as well as lead singer Mick Jagger wrote many songs to prove that The Rolling Stones would come back big and this was the first full studio album with guitarist Ron Wood. Some Girls was recorded in late 1977 in France and mixed in New York with Mick and Keith producing and Chris Kimsey handling the recording and mixing. Bass player Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts played well on this album as well (as I found out when I first heard it in October, 1989 after borrowing the original Rolling Stones/Atlantic cassette and then acquiring it in November, 1989 on Rolling Stones/Columbia).
We open with the #1 hit "Miss You" which is a disco rocker (unlike many disco songs, this had no strings nor synths) and features some harmonica by Sugar Blue and a nice sax solo by Mel Collins. Next is the rocker "When the Whip Comes Down" which just rocks and (like the track before it) had Mick, Keith and Woody all on electric guitars. Next is the band's reworking of The Temptations' "Just My Imagination" which the band turned a sappy ballad into a killer rocker with some modified lyrics from Mick and a key change. We follow with the controversial title track which is a bluesy rocker and just rocks (the lyrics may be Politically Incorrect but to Hell with politicians). We close side one with another rocker "Lies" which saw the band embrace the punk movement as well as the disco movement.
We kick the second half off with the country number "Far Away Eyes" which had Mick mocking a southern man in the vocal and this is country done right with steel guitars and hillbilly accent done perfect. Then it's another punkish rocker "Respectable" which just rocks (was not a hit but it rules). Next is the Keith sung rocker "Before They Make Me Run" which is an excellent song sung by Keith. Next is the Top 10 hit rocker "Beast of Burden" which is a great song and would become a staple for the band. The band's ode to 1970s New York and punk scene "Shattered" closes the album and what a great middle finger to the punk rockers who thought The Rolling Stones were dinosaurs.
The Some Girls album did very well hitting #1 making it the sixth Stones studio effort in a row to top Billboard (where it reigned for TWO WEEKS, remember Saturday Night Fever and Grease dominated 1978) and was the second Platinum album for the band (now their best selling US studio release at SIX MILLION). This remastered CD is excellent and it also has all original artwork restored and credits.
In 2011, the album was expanded as a 2-CD set with more outtakes from the Some Girls sessions and some having new vocals added like "No Spare Parts" which its vocals were recorded in 2011 and is an awesome song. "Claudine" sounds like early Elvis but I dig it. "So Young" is a great rocker and has new Jagger vocals for this set. "Do You Really Think I Care" is another winner which has some country elements but a great song. "When You're Gone" follows and is a great bluesy rocker again with a new Mick Jagger vocal. "Don't Be a Stranger" is another catchy song with various different stylings like blues harmonica, reggae drumming and country and rock elements. "We Had it All" has Keith on vocals and was recorded in 1978 with Keith's vocal from the period and a nice ballad. "Tallahassee Lassie" is a great rocker". "I Love You Too Much" is another great rocker. "Keep Up Blues" is a great bluesy rocker. "You Win Again" has new vocals from Mick and Keith and is a great country rocker. "Petrol Blues" is a short blues but excellent way to close this reissue. The digipak comes with a booklet with story on album's creation and photos and credits.
This album is highly recommended.
26 people found this helpful
Top critical review
Absolutely tremendous album, but the vinyl re-release has its issues.
July 17, 2017
Another victim of the recent 'loudness' explosion in classic rock remasters. Eventually these engineers need to listen to the consumer and realize that 'loudness' does not equal quality. This album has seven tremendous songs, which is unheard of in today's music landscape. However, the remaster engineer has turned up the instruments so loud that they are overpowering, even on a high-quality audiophile system. It's too bad, because this is one of the Stones' better efforts.
23 people found this helpful
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July 17, 2017
Another victim of the recent 'loudness' explosion in classic rock remasters. Eventually these engineers need to listen to the consumer and realize that 'loudness' does not equal quality. This album has seven tremendous songs, which is unheard of in today's music landscape. However, the remaster engineer has turned up the instruments so loud that they are overpowering, even on a high-quality audiophile system. It's too bad, because this is one of the Stones' better efforts.
December 12, 2011
Wow, this is a terrible remaster of the main album. That's the bad news. The good news is that the bonus disk sounds much better and most of the new songs are worth hearing.
I don't know if the Some Girls original tapes are poor and can't be improved upon or if the Stones just didn't carefully oversee the final production of this deluxe edition. I wasn't expecting a revelatory improvement over the original release (like, say R.E.M.'s Murmur Deluxe Edition) but I was hoping for some more bass -- any bass -- that this recording has lacked in the past. But as soon as the deluxe album's first cut, "Miss You," came on, I knew I was in for a major disappointment. The sound was thin, compressed and no matter how far to the right I turned my receiver's bass knob, the overly bright sound did not improve. With all of the new technology available, the Glimmer Twins and Universal Music International couldn't improve the low end of this classic? C'mon!
Still, despite the awful sound of the main disk, I give this a 3-star rating. Much of the bonus material is very good. In fact, it's some of the best new Stones material to come out since, well, the tinny sounding, bassless Some Girls.
I don't know if the Some Girls original tapes are poor and can't be improved upon or if the Stones just didn't carefully oversee the final production of this deluxe edition. I wasn't expecting a revelatory improvement over the original release (like, say R.E.M.'s Murmur Deluxe Edition) but I was hoping for some more bass -- any bass -- that this recording has lacked in the past. But as soon as the deluxe album's first cut, "Miss You," came on, I knew I was in for a major disappointment. The sound was thin, compressed and no matter how far to the right I turned my receiver's bass knob, the overly bright sound did not improve. With all of the new technology available, the Glimmer Twins and Universal Music International couldn't improve the low end of this classic? C'mon!
Still, despite the awful sound of the main disk, I give this a 3-star rating. Much of the bonus material is very good. In fact, it's some of the best new Stones material to come out since, well, the tinny sounding, bassless Some Girls.
December 19, 2011
I'll just go ahead and say that I am not a 57 year old Stones fanatic, and so I don't own any of the 45's or 78's that others are mentioning in their posts. I also don't hear anything at all wrong in the sound quality of either disc. I do agree with what others have said that the 2nd CD could have included a little more, but what was included was stuff that I don't already own and I enjoyed a lot. (Favorites include 'No Spare Parts' and 'So Young')
That said, I hate this flimsy cardboard box. I'm way anal-retentive about my CDs and CD cases, and this thing is going to get torn up. Worst part is that the art is the box itself, so I can't even transfer it to a slim 2-CD case (Like I did with my Hot Rocks set oh so many ages ago).
The liner notes? May as well not even be there. They are strictly credits for who did what on which song and nothing else. Oh boy... You know I could forgive crummy cardboard packaging if there was a booklet worth having. (See the AC/DC rereleases from 2001 I believe. Cardboard packaging, but very nicely presented.) I'm ever so bothered by the fact that the -lyrics- aren't even included for the album proper. (I might not be a completist, but I am a dork about reading lyrics.)
I do hate to give this less than five stars because the album itself is gold. One of my favorites easily. Perhaps I just feel it deserved a little better than what it got. What can you do?
That said, I hate this flimsy cardboard box. I'm way anal-retentive about my CDs and CD cases, and this thing is going to get torn up. Worst part is that the art is the box itself, so I can't even transfer it to a slim 2-CD case (Like I did with my Hot Rocks set oh so many ages ago).
The liner notes? May as well not even be there. They are strictly credits for who did what on which song and nothing else. Oh boy... You know I could forgive crummy cardboard packaging if there was a booklet worth having. (See the AC/DC rereleases from 2001 I believe. Cardboard packaging, but very nicely presented.) I'm ever so bothered by the fact that the -lyrics- aren't even included for the album proper. (I might not be a completist, but I am a dork about reading lyrics.)
I do hate to give this less than five stars because the album itself is gold. One of my favorites easily. Perhaps I just feel it deserved a little better than what it got. What can you do?
February 27, 2006
I remember well the orginal LP (that my brother brought home and said "don't let Dad hear this!") with the reversable sleeve to change the faces under the wigs. I love this recording and agree with most of the positive reviews here, however I'm writing this as 3 stars because I am deeply disappointed in the remastered version, and since most people looking at this CD are probably already familiar with these songs (unless they've been living in a cave without a radio for the last 25 years). The remastered version just sounds flat on everything from my Event studio monitors to the boom box in my garage. What happened to the let it bleed concept? Where is the air that gave the Stones such a great sound? It is there on my record, but not on this CD release. I think I'm going to find and play the record straight into the computer and make my own CD with NO remastering. Anyway 4 stars to the STones, -1 to those responsible for squashing the sound.
January 17, 2017
Not as good as original. I haven't had a "remastered" cd yet that was as good as original. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! have enjoyed the extra tracks, however.
November 13, 2012
I've got four of the other Stones albums on the Virgin remasters from '94 and bought this UM release brand new thinking it would be at least equal to that, but no .. the sound quality of this release is just plain not-good. It does not compare to the quality of the '94 remasters. It sounded extra lousy in my car. Plus, my Sony Blu-Ray player couldn't even ID this disk using it's online music service. That's how little respect this version deserves. If you want this album on CD, please look at the box showing the other versions and click on the '94 remaster and get one of those used. After listening to this one that's what I did. Five stars for the content, one star for the hatchet job divided by two equals three stars.
February 11, 2013
The bonus disc is full of material that didn't make the album and it's clear why. It's mildly amusing to hear these songs as they have the sound of the late 70's NYC but don't get your hopes up for anything great.
September 22, 2015
Needs another remix. Sound thin and harsh to me.
September 9, 2013
I suppose if you are a "DIEHARD" Stones fanatic - you just may like it. Personally, for me it was just a so-so album. I would not recommend it to my friends. Sorry, I didn't like it much.
