Album #41 : The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet

The Rolling Stones

Beggars Banquet (1968)

I can't remember where I saw it....maybe it was an actual conversation I had, perhaps it was some movie....but I'm sure I've seen or been part of a conversation that puts fans of 60s British rock music into two categories.

You're either Beatles or Stones. You can't be both.

Well, I've always been Beatles. I've had an appreciation for the Stones' well known work, but in 33 years I have never - not once - listened to a Rolling Stones album from start to finish.

That changed today with the 1968 release, Beggars Banquet. Marking a return to the band's bluesy roots after 1967's attempt to keep up with the Beatles (Their Satanic Majesties' Request), the album nonetheless provided music with two of the band's best known tracks - Sympathy for the Devil and Street Fighting Man. It is also considered to be the beginning of a period where the Stones would produce their finest albums.

For me that seemed like a natural starting place. I've got 33 years of catching up to do.

The Album

Beggars Banquet is largely a blues/roots album. Most tracks are either pure blues or have bluesy tinges to them. In addition, the sound of the album is largely an acoustic one - only rarely does Keith Richards turn up that grotty 60s distortion, preferring instead to load up on acoustic and slide guitar sounds. It makes Beggars Banquet a relaxed, yet intriguing, listen.

In terms of the bluesy numbers, Stray Cat Blues is the undisputed highlight, a sleazy and brilliant tune where no one component dominates; Nicky Hopkins' piano, that dirty Richards guitar, the steadiness of Watts and Wyman, and of course a vocal from Jagger that is full of his trademark swagger, all blend together perfectly. There's some outstanding Chicago blues in the form of Parachute Woman; blues guitar and harmonica galore, plus Jagger sashaying his way through the most blatant innuendo in history. The recording of the track on a double-tracked cassette player adds to the song's old-school bluesy feel. Prodigal Son covers a Robert Wilkins country blues song with great respect and reverence, giving it all the Stones touches while keeping the original's Biblical theme and toe-tapping tempo. Of slower, more reflective tempo is the brilliant No Expectations; a morose, smooth Jagger vocal supported beautifully by Brian Jones's sweetly touching acoustic slide guitar. It is a song that shows the Stones to be more than just swagger-laden rockers; it proves that they were capable of composing songs with every bit as much beauty as their Liverpudlian contemporaries.

The album also touches on country music; Factory Girl was described by Jagger as a 'country pastiche' and that's accurate. Country fiddle mixes with Mellotron lines, a country rock acoustic guitar and, for some reason, a tabla. Dear Doctor is pure country, right down to Jagger's faux-Southern American accent and the mournful harmonica provided by Brian Jones. Even so, it does contain in a couple of sections a very short, and most definitely un-country, guitar chord progression (listen just before the verse key change, and again at the end).

There's even a touch of gospel with Salt of the Earth, which begins with a Keith Richards vocal (not the strongest singer it must be said) and ends up a full-blown gospel anthem, resplendent with a great piano contribution from Nicky Hopkins, while Jig-Saw Puzzle seems to represent the culmination of most of the album's styles. A little blues, a little country, a little rock, and even a little honky-tonk with Hopkins' piano in the last couple of minutes. It takes a cheeky, affectionate swipe at each individual member of the band as well. It's another pretty good song, even if by its conclusion you wonder whether it would have been better pruned.

That leaves the two songs I mentioned in the introduction...and what songs they are! Street Fighting Man's distinctive hollow, drum and guitar-heavy sound are again a result of the band recording the tune on a cassette deck, along with the unusual use of a 1930s toy practice drum kit. The track burns with raw energy and the occasional squeal of feedback just adds to the effect. The choruses in particular, with Jagger spitting fire and the guitar/sitar combo, are magical. Even if the lyrics are ambigious (according to the band), their subject matter certainly make it easy to see why 'protest rockers' such as Bruce Springsteen and Rage Against The Machine have covered the track. Finally, Sympathy For The Devil retains one thing from the band's previous album - those funky Afro-rhythms. The rest of the track fits this album perfectly. Hopkins' piano drives the song along with that outstanding rhythm work, Keith Richards' bass work is sublime, as are his two electric guitar solos which crackle through the air like lightning, and Jagger smashes one of his very finest vocal performances to a fucking inspired set of lyrics. It remains one of the band's very finest works, if not one of the finest works in rock history.  In three words, it's fucking brilliant.

The Verdict

Clearly never listening to the Rolling Stones closely marks me as some sort of an idiot. This is a really good album, even if I found the country tracks a little grating at times. I suppose I'd never given the band credit for anything other than being fairly straight-forward English blues rockers, but this album has set me straight. Yes, they are that, for sure. But they mix their sound up so much more than I'd anticipated.

And at the end of the day, even if you don't really like some of the other tracks, Sympathy For The Devil is worth at least four stars on its own.

In summary, that stuff about either Beatles or Stones? Fuck that. 

On the evidence of Beggars Banquet, I'd rather be both.

My rating: ****

Standout Tracks

Street Fighting Man

No Expectations

Sympathy For The Devil

Tomorrow, a debut album from one of my recent favourite English indie rock bands, while I convert the next few albums after that from the FLAC format they are currently in....