Back in the mid-’80s, there were some people who honestly
\nbelieved that the Rolling Stones were past their prime and years
\npast when they should have retired.<\/p>\n
Of course, this was long before works of excellence like
\nBridges To Babylon<\/i>, which prove that Mick Jagger and crew
\ncan still kick it with the best. But digging back a bit in the
\nPierce Memorial Archives (long-time readers understand the name),
\none could understand why the critics were having a field day with
\nthe Stones.<\/p>\n
Two words:
\nDirty Work<\/i>. And while it has one or two semi-decent moments
\nto it, it often turns brutal.<\/p>\n
Just from the lead-off single “Harlem Shuffle,” you could tell
\nthat this album was in serious trouble. Granted, it was a change in
\ndirection from the all-out rock and roll that the Stones had tried
\nto do on albums like
\nUndercover<\/i> and
\nEmotional Rescue<\/i>, but it just wasn’t the greatest direction
\nthat the band could have moved in. Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill
\nWyman, Ron Wood and Charlie Watts sound downright uncomfortable on
\nthis track. (Though it’s been years since I saw the video, the
\nFritz The Cat<\/i>-like cartoons that went with the video didn’t
\nhelp matters much.)<\/p>\n
The other single, “One Hit (To The Body)”, holds the most
\npromise on the whole album, but even this is tainted by the overall
\nsound and feel of the album. A rocker in all senses of the term,
\nJagger gets a chance to sway like a rooster on this one, but it
\nhardly serves as a showcase for the rest of his bandmates.<\/p>\n
Even the two songs that Richards sings on
\nDirty Work<\/i>, “Too Rude” and “Sleep Tonight”, fall flat. The
\nformer is a poor attempt at reggae-flavored rock; the latter drags
\non far too long.<\/p>\n
Of course, one would think that the Rolling Stones couldn’t go
\nwrong on straight-out rock, right? Wrong. Cuts like “Fight,” “Had
\nIt With You” and the title track not only sound like they could
\nhave been outtakes from the Tattoo You sessions, but they hardly
\nqualify as the Stones’s best songwriting efforts. The sound on “Had
\nIt With You” is atrocious; I can’t make out one note that Wyman
\nplays. (Part of the blame here goes on co-producer Steve
\nLillywhite.)<\/p>\n
After experiencing an album like
\nDirty Work<\/i>, it’s easy to understand why one would think that
\nthe Stones were through. Even the moments of brilliance on
\nSteel Wheels<\/i> three years later wouldn’t totally erase the
\ndoubts that some people had. The sad fact is,
\nDirty Work<\/i> is the one job that should have been left
\nunfinished.<\/p>\n
Oh, well, there is at least one bright spot – the band didn’t
\nrelease a live album of the shows supporting this disaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5665],"rating":[5616],"class_list":["post-38722","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-rolling-stones","rating-rating-d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38722"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}