The advent and cultural momentum of punk in the late 1970s provided a wild new lens through which all things – especially bands – considered “corporate” were viewed with leering distain. Ironically, even The Rolling Stones were not spared this fate despite having been punks a good decade before the term became a genre of music and style.
In a sense they invited the sneers of young listeners and critics with their 1976 album Black and Blue. Gibson Les Paul virtuoso Mick Taylor had left the band, taking part of its bluesy soul with him, and the album’s second single was “Hot Stuff,” a calculated attempt to cash in on the disco craze. The good news is that the slagging the Stones received from longtime fans and the media sparked a response from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards that restored the group to at least some of its former artistic glories.
And so they created 1978’s Some Girls, an album that was – like Black and Blue – varied compositionally, but honed close to the rock ’n’ roll bones that made The Rolling Stones great. “Shattered,” “When the Whip Comes Down,” “Lies” and “Respectable” (the latter featuring a three-guitar lineup of Richards, Jagger and then-new full-time Stone Ron Wood) all stomped hard, and while “Miss You” ventured back into disco territory, the song’s lyrics were far edgier than the pulpy “Hot Stuff.”
Jagger, in particular, stepped to the fore. Using New York City’s melting pot society for inspiration, he studied the punk and club culture and came away with lyrics about alienation – a theme Richards also explored with his “Before They Make Me Run,” which was sparked by the 1977 Toronto heroin bust that placed the prospect of a jail sentence at his feet – sex, sadomasochism, class and the spirit of old-school soul.
Another reason for Some Girls’ stripped-down sass was the back-to-basics strategy the Stones adopted for the sessions in Paris’ Pathe Marconi Studios. Eschewing the conglomerations of studio musicians that had played on their albums since 1968’s Beggar’s Banquet, the Stones cut all the basics live and played the tracks themselves with a few notable exceptions: Ian McLagen, a confederate of Wood’s from the Faces; blues harmonica player Sugar Blue; saxist Mel Collins and percussionist Simon Kirke.
The recording sessions ran from October 1977 through March 1978 and reportedly included up to 50 songs. Several of the leftovers would end up on the Stones’ next two discs, Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You. And engineer Chris Kimsey was summoned, returning to the position he held for Goats Head Soup and It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll.
Some Girls’ album cover also took a cue from punk rock culture. The disc featured the band members in drag alongside a list of female celebrities that included Marilyn Monroe, Lucile Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Judy Garland and Raquel Welch, all of whom threatened legal action since proper clearances were never obtained, with Liza Minelli taking up the cause for her late mother Garland.
The disc’s first single, “Miss You,” was The Rolling Stones’ last #1 pop hit, getting dance club as well as radio play. It was a calculated effort on Jagger’s part that paid off commercially, but the rest of the album projected a sense of greater creative integrity. Some Girls reached #1 on the Billboard Top 100 Albums chart and began reaping praise in the media for its return to rock ’n’ roll form. Nonetheless, the disc’s creative stretch ran beyond rock with a cover of the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)” and “Beast of Burdon” representing hard-core soul music, and “Far Away Eyes” a tongue-in-cheek approximation of country. “When the Whip Comes Down” is singular and improbable in the Jagger-Richards cannon. It’s the story of a gay man who comes to New York seeking his fortune and becomes a trash collector.
But Some Girls’ best-written rocker is hand-down the punk-fueled “Shattered,” an edgy love note to New York City’s gritty late ’70s soul. Jagger reportedly wrote the lyrics in the back of a Manhattan cab, and Richards’ stuttering rhythm guitar riff, with a hint of phase shifter, has the command of a snarling dog.
Some Girls went on to sell six million copies. The sequel, 1980’s Emotional Rescue, sold two million and ’81’s Tattoo You sold four million copies. Together, the trio of albums marked the final years of The Rolling Stones’ golden age of recordings.
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