Flatout Across America

1970 - 1980, with the opening chords of Brown Sugar the Stones roar like a chevy pickup racing flatout across America.  Mick Taylor has replaced Brian Jones and the band is hot and tight.  Featuring select tracks from Sticky Fingers, Exiles on Main St, Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock'n'Roll, Black & Blue, Some Girls and Emotional Rescue. Sticky Fingers, released February 1971, is considered to be their strongest album with rockers like Brown Sugar, Bitch and Can't You Hear Me Knocking.  The ballads Moonlight Mile and Wild Horses are emotionally charged with the former having an oriental flavor of missing love and/or drugs.  Dead Flowers is a brilliant country romp through a basement drug den while I Got the Blues is a gut wrenching blues classic.  However, it is the guitar playing of Mick Taylor and Jagger's extraordinary vocals that drive this record to the top.

Exiles on Main St, released May 12 1972, is a record that defines rock music, it is a benchmark by which others judge their success and their failure.  In the mythology of rock it was recorded in the basement of Nellcôte, the villa that Keith rented in the South of France; the truth is that significant portions of it were recorded at Stargroves, Mick’s home in England as well as at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles.  From Rocks Off, the opening track on side one of the first record through to the closing of side two, Soul Survivor, the Stones conjure up a rock tapestry that leaves nothing to the imagination, and yet it leaves everything. Goats Head Soup released August 1973, includes another classic Stones ballad, Angie.  The track, inspired by Keith’s newborn daughter Angela, was released as a single and it became their seventh No.1 record in America.  Keith gives his best ever vocal performance on Coming Down Again, a song he wrote about his stealing away Anita Pallenberg from his best friend Brian Jones. It's Only Rock'n'Roll, released October 1974, spawned the production duo The Glimmer Twins, a.k.a. Jagger and Richards.  Keith: Mick and I felt that we wanted to try and do it ourselves because we really felt we knew much more about techniques and recording and had our own ideas of how we wanted things to go.  It also marks the first appearance on a Stones album by Ronnie Wood as he plays 12 string guitar on It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll.  The earliest versions of this iconic song were recorded in Ronnie’s home studio and he is credited with inspiring the song.  Mick Taylor left the band shortly after the albums release.

Black and Blue, released April 1976.  Work on the album began prior to the Tour of the Americas the previous year and continued in various locations until it was completed in New York City in February 1976.  It’s Ronnie Wood’s first studio album as a band member (replacing Mick Taylor), but it also features guitarists Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel, both of whom can be heard on the classic ballad, Memory Hotel on which Mick and Keith trade vocals.  Melody, a jazz influenced track, was inspired by Billy Preston, who as well as appearing live with the band during this period is heard on the album playing piano, organ and synthesizer. Some Girls, released June 1978, has the distinction of being the studio album that spent the longest time on the American charts - 82 weeks.  Its success in America was helped by Miss You with a disco beat driven by Billy Wyman's bass guitar.  Beast of Burden, a Top Ten single in the Autumn and Mick's rocking romp through New York City Shattered.

Emotional Rescue, released for the summer, June 1980.  The biggest selling single on the album was Emotional Rescue, featuring Mick with a disco/Begee styled falsetto vocal delivery.  The songs on this album really blend in well, especially Send It To Me, Summer Romance, Let Me Go and She's so Cold.  Flatout across America closes with Mick Down in the Hole, in the American zone, bumming for cigarettes and nylons.

favorite lines from Emotional Rescue: I was dreaming last night Last night I was dreaming How you'd be mine, but I was crying Like a child, yeah, I was crying Crying like a child You will be mine mine, mine, mine, mine, all mine You could be mine, could be mine Be mine, all mine I come to you, so silent in the night So stealthy, so animal quiet I'll be your savior, steadfast and true I'll come to your emotional rescue

Wanderin' Spirit
October, 2012
"Flatout Across America"

This page has been made for viewing in Internet Explorer.  In order for all audio to play in Chrome or Firefox you will need to install the IE Tab extension and add https://www.angelfire.com/* to the Auto URL list, thank you.