Product Description

SOME GIRLS includes the hits "Beast Of Burden" and "Shattered", and one of the biggest-selling singles of the Stones' career, the disco-crossover "Miss You". The title track caused its share of controversy when its lyrics were attacked as sexist and racist.
Possibly fearing the ageing dinosaur label in the punk climate of 1978 New York City, SOME GIRLS rocked harder and more consistently than most Stones albums from the '70s. Revitalised by the chummy guitar dynamic between Keith Richards' impressionistic riffs and Ronnie Wood's perfectionist lead work, the album's merit is in the diversity of its tracks.
Starting with the disco elixir of "Miss You", SOME GIRLS marked new territory for the band. As Ronnie's second album as an official member, the album showed that the Stones' sound had reworked itself, proving there was more to their dynamic than just white boy blues. The range ofRonnie's guitar work spans from the searing country lead in"Far Away Eyes" to the near-rockabilly twang in "Shattered", and finds the Stones sounding tighter and more excited than on their previous albums.
From placing their stamp on The Temptations' "Just My Imagination" to the big-city neurosis of "When The Whip Comes Down" and "Shattered", 1978's SOME GIRLS is a wild rumpus throughout.

Track Listing

1. Miss You
2. When The Whip Comes Down
3. Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
4. Some Girls
5. Lies
6. Faraway Eyes
7. Respectable
8. Before They Make Me Run
9. Beast Of Burden
10. Shattered

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3235 in Music
• Released on: 1994-08-15
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
A fresh, uncompromising attempt to incorporate 1978 pop techniques into the band's familiar sound, Some Girls opens with the disco sass of "Miss You" and closes with the self-destructive punk of "Shattered". (Both songs, especially "Miss You", with its distinctive Mel Collins sax solo, remain live showstoppers.) So the Stones declared credibility in the dance circuit without sacrificing their hard-rock reputation. Though the anti-love "Beast of Burden" and the stylishly slow "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" continue to rack up the most airplay, the obscurities stand up surprisingly well. Worth replaying: Keith Richards's rickety rocker "Before They Make Me Run". --Steve Knopper

Customer Reviews

Even The Stones "went disco" !
In 1978, in the midst of punk there was the conflicting monster at large as well - King Kong to punk's Godzilla - in disco. Punk was a cult. Disco was massive. Over the next few years, many atists who would previously have eschewed disco as something unmentionable, dabbed in it - power chord rockers Queen with "Another One Bites The Dust" and the "Hot Space Album"; mighty Swedish poppers Abba with "Summer Night City", "Voulez Vous" and "Lay You Love On me"; The Jam with "Precious"; The Clash with "The Magnificent Seven"; why, even Led Zeppelin played around with a bit of cod-reggae/funk on "D'yer Maker". Most of these were pre-dated by some of The Stones' cuts on "Some Girls", notably the seismic "Miss You", with Bill Wyman's rubber-band bass to the fore and Jagger's vocal indulgence adding a tongue in cheek touch to this dance floor favourite (even the soul boys and their disco queen girls loved "Miss You").

"Some Girls" was not quite an "as if punk never happened" album similar to so many of the time, as many older rockers carried on regardless, oblivious to the maelstrom bubbling and swirling all around them (Queen's "News Of The World", Van Morrison's "Into The Music" and Bryan Ferry's "In Your Mind" are obvious examples). It did have its punk sensiblities - the insistent "Shattered" with its proto-rappy lyrics; the bondage(y) "When The Whip Comes Down"; "Lies" and "Respectable" in particlar. The latter including some "punky" drug references and "bad boy" street cred boasts. Even the title track had some choppy guitar and decidedly risque "attitude" lyrics. However, these tracks are balanced by the appealing cover of The Temptations' "Just My Imagination" and the hammy country nonsense of "Faraway Eyes", with Jagger's enunciation at its most lampoonable, and Keith's chuggy "rock by munbers" "Before they Make Me Run". For me, though, the essence of this album lies in "Beast Of Burden" - a masterpiece of intuitive Stonesness, flanking disco syncopations and rock langour and a soully high pitched touch to the vocal delivery.

Overall, this is a New York album, both its punkiness and disco influences are from that city. Far more CBGBs and Studio 54 than the Rainbow or the 100 Club. It is a marriage of New York punk and disco guaranteed to be popular on the East Coast and credible enough to be accepted in the UK too.


That said, despite the title track and its considerable innovation, this is basically a rocky album with not a little edge to it and therein , I suppose, lies its "nod to punk". Too many critics of The Stones use the phrase "they haven't done a good album since "Exile On Main Street". It is a cop-out to keep repeating that mantra. "Some Girls" was and is, a damn good album. It was well received at the time, and believe me, it needn't have been. All the journos and punk fanzine writers queueing up to knock The Stones heard this album and just couldn't do it. They loved "Best Of Burden" and "Miss You" along with everyone else. This album still stands high in The Stones' canon and rightly so.

Overrated!
Stones fans rate this as the last 'great' album the band ever did and the saviour after a barren string of LPs in the 70s. I disagree. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll which came before is MUCH better than this, as are Emotional Rescue, Undercover and Steel Wheels which came after. It's an ok album, not their worst but it's certainly heading that way. Plenty of filler, yet another 'humorous' country pastiche (I thought we'd left those behind years ago) and some woeful rock/disco tracks. I've no idea why this is so overrated but make no mistake, it is!

The Stones Regain Their Focus
With the album 'Some Girls' the Stones came back into favour with a contemporary audience.
The Stones managed to do this by stripping their sound of the excesses of more recent years. Longterm collaborators like Billy Preston were put to one side as they went back to a more basic and immediate sound. Of course much of this new direction related strongly with the punks primitive musical philosophy which was in full swing at the time of the album's recording. 'When The Whip Comes Down', 'Lies', 'Respectable' and 'Shattered' have some of punks primitive energy yet it's far more tempered and still very much relates to the Stones own primary influences like in the case of 'Respectable' - Chuck Berry. They also incorporate a little disco into their sound on 'Miss You' and while again still managing to maintain their own highly identifiable style. 'Faraway Eyes' is a welcome return to their occasional country sound.
'Some Girls' is the Stones most vital sounding and focused album in years thanks in part to new member Ron Wood's role with Keith Richards. They trade riffs in a far more spontaneous way than Keith had worked with his previous guitar partners - there is little division between lead and rhythm - their guitar parts almost merging as one.
However, although 'Some Girls' is a fine album i would never put it on par with the Stones greatest albums from the sixties and early seventies like some reviewers tend to do. While it undoubtedly fits in perfectly with the sounds of 1978 it lacks that extra dimension which Ron's predecessors Brian Jones and Mick Taylor (be it musical variety or sophistication) brought to the Stones. It's that extra layer that elevates an album or song from being really good to being truly great.
'Some Girls' does stand as their last really good album (along with 'Tattoo You' perhaps).