How An Album Of Blues Covers Became The Rolling Stones' Best Work In Decades

25 November 2016 | 10:18 am | Bryget Chrisfield

"We can’t even estimate the amount of hours these cats have devoted to their perfecting their craft."

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The Rolling Stones

Blue & Lonesome

Polydor

Recorded in just over three days at Mark Knopfler’s British Grove Studios in Chiswick, West London last December, this collection of blues covers was played live (nope, no overdubs).

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Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Woods were joined in the studio by longstanding live touring members Darryl Jones (bass) and Chuck Leavell (keyboards). Eric Clapton, who just happened to be mixing in the same studio complex, even popped in to guest on a couple of tracks (Everybody Knows About My Good Thing and I Can’t Quit You Baby). Salivating yet?  

1. Just Your Fool

Just Your Fool starts abruptly; almost as if we opened a soundproof door from the outside and discovered the Stones, mid-session, inside; they’ve got the blues and that’s alright by us. What took them so long? Mick Jagger's loose harmonica playing ushers us in, there’s honky-tonk piano. “I’m just your fool/Can’t HELP myself!” — Jagger’s seasoned vocals are just perfect for this genre.   

2. Commit A Crime

I’m gonna leave you, baby/Before I commit a crime.” You can’t help but smile while listening to these humorous lyrics unfold from Jagger's larynx (“You put poison in my coffee/Instead of cream”) while side-stepping along with Charlie Watts’ effortless, understated-but-varied drumming. Blues harp is always welcome and this arrangement peters out as if we’re closing the green room door on The Rolling Stones then walking down a corridor while their sweet sounds gradually disappear with every step we take.  

3. Blue & Lonesome

Slower in pace, Blue & Lonesome is fit for drunkenly swaying along while swigging from a half-empty bottle of the poison of your choice. This album’s title track sees Jagger in beseeching mode: “Baby, pleeeeeeaaaaase/Baby, please come on home to me.”

4. All Of Your Love

Swashbuckling bass, casual, cymbal-heavy beats and insistent guitar riffs prove irresistible throughout All Of Your Love. The piano solo? We dare you to try not to pull an appreciative stank face while your head nods along — it’s physically impossible. Harmonica solo? Buckle up. Really, Charlie Watts? Now you’re just showing off with that thunderous closing drum roll.  

5. I Gotta Go

Clapping and a “One, two, three, four” count-in precede rambunctious harmonica and ascending riffs. Actually, Jagger takes more of a back seat on this one, his vocal lines acting more like another instrument.     

6. Everybody Knows About My Good Thing

Guitar-driven, this track takes it down a notch. “I was talking to the postman/He mentioned your name...” — Jagger is on fire when delivering lyrics such as these: “Call the plumber, darlin’/There must be a leak in my drain.” Everybody Knows About [His] Good Thing, alright! And we can actually visualise Keith Richards’ shit-eating grin at all times.   

7. Ride ‘Em On Down

Our attention is drawn back to Watts, but we bet he didn’t even break out a sweat while putting this one down. We’re powerless to the synergy of The Rolling Stones. Never mind Gladwell’s "10,000 hours" theory; we can’t even estimate the amount of hours these cats have devoted to their perfecting their craft.

8. Hate To See You Go

There’s something extra spontaneous about this one. Jagger's harmonica blasts just never get old; he makes this instrument shimmer and holler.   

9. Hoodoo Blues

A strutting kick drum and occasional woodblock underscore the instrumental voodoo magic on this one. There’s something comical about Jagger singing this song about a “hoodoo girl” taking all his money, which she then “spent ... all over town” — must’ve taken a while, huh?

10. Little Rain

Just guitars and vocals, this simple arrangement is eventually complemented by the majesty of Watts. Harp wails are punctuated by a gong(?) that sounds like a loud, echoing exhalation: “AAAAaah!”   

11. Just Like I Treat You

Some say you will/Some say you won’t...” — it’s all so effortless; the listener is transported into a tiny basement club where The Rolling Stones jam un-self-consciously (one can only dream).   

12. I Can’t Quit You Baby

WEEEEEELLLLL I can’t quit you baby/But I’m gonna have to put you down for a while.” Clapton’s delicately forlorn guitar contributions match Jagger’s despairing delivery. Here, Jagger is lovesick putty in our hands, yelping. Fluttering ivories add further pathos and cymbal crashes from Watts underscore another ripping guitar solo. Jagger embodies this one: “It HURTS me deep down inside.” Faint applause and “Yeah, boy/s!” signals the band’s satisfaction.

Blue & Lonesome demonstrates the world’s greatest and longest-serving rock band’s passion for this musical form. Without blues, the Stones wouldn’t exist.