The Rolling Stones: Some Girls versie op vinyl LP in remastered editie. Deze specifieke uitgave werd uitgebracht in Europa en VS bij uitgeverij Rolling Stones Records op 26. juni 2020.

With "Some Girls," Jagger and co. confronted punk in London and disco in New York. Der Nachfolger von "Black And Blue" befreite die Stones 1978, in Zeiten der Sex Pistols und des Studio-54, vom Stigma der Dinosaurier-Band, konsolidierte ihren Ruhm, installierte sie als rebellische, angepunkte Glamour-Hardrocker. "Some Girls" sei das beste Stones-Album seit "Exile On Main St.", schrieb kurz nach der Erstveröffentlichung die internationale Musikkritik. Mit gut sechsfachem Platin-Status ist "Some Girls" mittlerweile auch noch die kommerziell erfolgreichste Stones-LP aller Zeiten. In Paris, quasi ohne Gastmusiker, back to basics, als reine Gitarrenband, mit Blut und Schweiß spielten die Stones ein "Rock´n´Roll-Noir"-Werk ein, mit politisch unkorrekten, sexistischen Zeilen wie etwa: "Black Girls just want to get f****ed all night / I just don´t have that much jam" des Titelsongs. Kontrapunktiert von ihrer #1-Single "Miss You", dem größten Disco-Song, den je eine Rockband aufnahm. Ähnlich toll und dabei ganz anders: die Top-10-Single "Beast of Burden", unlängst gecovert von The Kooks. The Rolling Stones' fourteenth studio album was recorded in Paris, but written and mixed in disco-crazed New York as the sounds of a gritty new genre called punk rock began to penetrate the public consciousness. The result of this melting pot is a remarkable, deeply enjoyable record that let the world know that the Stones were still very much alive and kicking. The year is 1977. Elvis is dead. Most of Lynyrd Skynyrd is dead. Marc Bolan is dead. Fans of progressive bands, hippies and rock and roll will soon be dead. They are being hounded, spat upon and beaten to death by hordes of angry teenagers with green hair, safety pins in their faces and symbols of anarchy carved into their foreheads. Peace, love and understanding have ended and violence has set in. The world is on fire and the air is filled with the screams and shrieks of soundless hoarseness sung by singers who can't sing and discordant guitars played by guitarists who can't play - nowhere more so than at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, where Mick Jagger is attending the opening of the legendary hard core punk club Studio 54... Wait, that's not right. Studio 54 is a disco. And Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer have just recorded I Feel Love, one of the most influential dance records of all time. And Saturday Night Fever, arguably the greatest mainstream disco record of all time, is number one worldwide. According to Joe Strummer, London is on fire, but here in New York, it's like punk isn't happening. Strange times - especially for Keith Richards, who at this point is asking you to better come back next week because he's kind of at a loss, crashing cars, getting arrested for cocaine (guilty) and LSD (not guilty) and then actually getting arrested for dope in Canada and facing a long jail sentence. What's next for the Rolling Stones in this maelstrom of musical meltdowns and personnel pandemonium? Something like Some Girls - an extremely fresh, energetic and perfect response to the ambient sounds of clashing cultures and the fall of band members. Some Girls is a raunchy, cheeky, dance and gig classic, with the trademark tongue firmly planted in cheek and everywhere it can reach. It manages to combine the aggression and dynamism of the London/Paris new wave AND the dance-funk-sex-sleaze combo of the hedonistic New York disco scene without losing the essential rhythm and bluesy pulse that is the soul of The Rolling Stones. It's hard enough to describe: stop and think about the alchemy it took to make it happen. When the whip comes down, the badasses get going. This is groovy, wired, hard, fun music. Just the sound of it conjures up images and feelings of grinding groins, wiggling hips, hints of lip-licking and hot breaths. Then you hear the words: "I was gay in New York/I was a fag in LA," screams Mick, while Keith and - especially - Ronnie Wood brew a steaming guitar concoction with an almost unprecedentedly demonic energy. "When the shit hits the fan/I'll be sitting on the can," Mick adds, helpfully filling out the deeply distasteful picture of New York's 53rd Street subculture with the kind of detail that would make Lou Reed proud to include on a contemporary Street Hassle. Astonishingly, some critics have accused Jagger of not being completely honest with his audience when he pretends to live like a street hustler: "...why is the man lying when he's obviously happy as thunder with himself and getting a roomful of satisfaction?" It's amazing that anyone can take that at face value. The Rolling Stones tell stories. And just as Hunter S. Thompson noted when he quoted William Faulkner, the best kind of fiction is always "truer" than any kind of nonfiction. Just because they make it up doesn't mean it's not true. Sure, the Rolling Stones were making a big deal out of everything - including themselves - in the song Some Girls. But it's equally certain that they - especially Mick - mean every note and every word when they sing it. When he wails, "To have a girl like her is a dream come true/And of all the girls in New York, she loves me true" in Just My Imagination, a cover of the Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield classic, you believe him and you believe he means it. And then, when Charlie starts upping the rhythm and Messrs. Richards and Wood, weavers of the world's finest electric guitar riffs, fill the air with some of their best work, you realize that "...she doesn't really know me." Who knew? Mick Jagger, the love nut. Miss You is a straightforward take on a disco song with themes of love and sex, and it hits the mark. Bill Wyman deserves praise here for a sultry bass line that's hard not to dance to even when you're sitting down, as well as Charlie's Philly-flavored drums. The intricate multi-part vocal is uncomplicatedly brilliant, the lyrics telling another New York tale of loneliness, lust and Puerto Rican girls, while the chorus of Ooh Yeahs and Uh Huhs echoes with voices in the night. The guitars keep the rhythm and harmonies groovy and do some talking themselves, but here they recede into the background as Sugar Blue's harmonica and Mel Collins' sax illuminate the song like a Manhattan skyline. It's exquisite and obviously heartfelt. Not so with the title track. Here Mick turns the "taking napkins" knob on Volume 11 and sings in tones so overtly lascivious and self-deprecating - "I don't have that much jaaaam" - that he can only be joking. On "Lies" (the clue's in the title), the whole band delivers a thrash so impeccably paced that, apart from being willing to believe it could be The Clash, you almost feel for them because they're innocent, wronged victims. There's even more going on in Respectable: fast, raw punk rock and roll within a fictional framework, a blistering solo for Ronnie and Keith, a manic three-chord rhythm section of Mick, Bill and Charlie that keeps it all on the rails even as it threatens to tip over to the high side at the turns. In Before They Make Me Run, after an introduction that is uncannily - or rather artfully - similar to the opening bars of Exile On Main Street/Rocks Off, we get another glimpse of the truth about how the band are faring at this particular time, especially Keith, who effectively gives us his Rolling Stones-style version of 'My Way': 'Well after all is said and done I didn't hide, had my fun And I will walk before they make me run'. Let's face it: believe me, he'll do it. If you're going to turn a losing streak into a musical victory, this is how you do it: smile and keep it real. Beast Of Burden, the second single from Some Girls (after Miss You), is slower, more soulful and again open to interpretation. Who is the beast and what is the burden? This is another song that's been taken to pieces and criticized for being anti-feminist, as well as covered a few times; but really, it's just what it sounds like: a song - a proper one, with verses, choruses, riffs, harmonies and sweet melodies - about a man who wants to go to bed with a girl. The rest is, as it tends to be in the Rolling Stones world, about all the things that might or might not go with that seduction. The album closes with Shattered, the last extraordinary musical commentary on the times, the music and the streets of New York in 1977 and 1978. Accompanied by an urgent, jangle-free underground guitar line, Mick raps - literally raps - about how his brain splattered all over Manhattan, while Ronnie Wood, in one of his finest moments as a Rolling Stone, plays drums, bass, electric and pedal steel guitar. This is an amazing, wonderfully unusual song that gets dance, punk and good old rock and roll into the studio, kicks all three - in a good way - and then makes them play together like their lives depend on it. It could be argued that the Rolling Stones' life as a successful pop band really depended on Some Girls getting it right. Times were changing fast and the Stones could easily have been left behind at this point, relegated to their own outdated genre, respected but no longer relevant. Instead, they threw themselves into the game and got way ahead of it, mocking everyone and everything while putting everything they could find into the sound and distilling the mix into some of their best songs, performances and recordings ever. Hindsight is the critic's friend, presence his enemy. Looking at some reviews of Some Girls with the hindsight of more than thirty years, we find that much of what was written and said about the album at the time is so obviously, narrowly, and myopically contemporary that it's hard not to sympathize with the hijinks that must have been wagered on Some Girls' long-term quality in real time. How could they have known that it would be relatively quickly recognised as a stone classic, a bold, passionate, dexterous, sexy, immensely energetic and clever record that manages to bridge two shifting musical continents - disco and punk - while retaining the solid rock foundations on which it was built? It wasn't at all obvious. Clearly, it's a tough nut to crack, betting on the changing tastes of generations yet unborn. Poor critics who got it wrong. But on the other hand, let them get a leg up, shall we? Losers. The Rolling Stones couldn't see into the future either. Instead, they decided to create one. Some Girls let the world know a few things about the band and about music in general, the most important of which was that the Rolling Stones, like rock and roll, would be far more resilient, protean and indelible than anyone realized. Some Girls marks a new beginning - not the first and not the last, but the Rolling Stones have once again pulled together, smashed it, and released a stunning record. We don't play favorites here at rollingstones.com, but there are some notable milestones in such an extensive portfolio that should be recognized as such. Some Girls is one of them. (rollingstones.com)

Album valt binnen het genre Rock, Blues-Rock, Rock & Roll, Classic Rock en Disco. 180g Remastered Half Speed Master Vinyl.