Have they got blues for you! As the Stones release their first new album in a decade ADRIAN THRILLS says its 12 cover versions are raw and uncompromising
The Rolling Stones use the artwork accompanying their first album in more than ten years to add a neat twist to the iconic Lips and Tongue logo that has been their trademark since 1971.
Rather than its customary red, the band’s emblem is now electric blue — and it’s a revealing pointer.
The story of how former classmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (right) bonded over a mutual love of American blues during a chance encounter at Dartford railway station in 1961 has become the stuff of rock folklore. And it’s refreshing to hear them getting back to their blues roots 55 years on.
The Stones (pictured playing a gig in California in October) have still 'got it'
The Stones are no strangers to putting their own spin on the genre, but Blue & Lonesome, a collection of a dozen covers, is their first full-on homage. It’s also their most spontaneous record in decades and their strongest since the slow-burning roots-rock of 1994’s Voodoo Lounge.
The album is raw and uncompromising: Jagger hollers, howls and plays spellbinding harmonica; the scraggy guitars of Richards and Ronnie Wood mesh instinctively; Charlie Watts drums with an air of brooding menace; there are two solos by guest blues crusader Eric Clapton.
The record was made in three days in Mark Knopfler’s London studio — a swiftness that must have taken the Stones back to their formative years — and it shows. Producer Don Was doesn’t add anything fancy, focusing on the essence of the songs.
A respected American known for his tact in dealing with egotistical stars, the quirky Was brings the best out of the combustible partnership of Mick and Keith, and it’s been a long time since the Glimmer Twins sounded this harmonious.
The band, playing with a tough dexterity that evokes modern blues masters such as The White Stripes and The Black Keys, come up with a carefully- chosen selection. They pay homage to legendary names, including Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon, but many songs here will be unfamiliar to all but dedicated blues buffs.
Opening track Just Your Fool is one of four numbers associated with Chicago bluesman Little Walter. A gnarly, 12-bar stomp, it lasts just over two minutes, but sets a vibrant tone for what follows.
Having lived lives punctuated by triumph and tragedy, the Stones can adopt the world-weary mantle of old bluesmen without sounding phoney, and an energised Jagger imbues the material with an authenticity that would be beyond a younger man.
The slow title track, written by Memphis Slim, but also associated with Little Walter, is a sorrowful tale that finds him casting his troubles into the deep blue sea. On Howlin’ Wolf’s Commit A Crime, he rails against a dastardly lover who ‘put poison in my coffee instead of milk or cream’.
The band play with a tough dexterity that evokes modern blues masters such as The White Stripes and The Black Keys
The album deviates from its blues template just twice. I Gotta Go lies on the cusp of Fifties rhythm ’n’ blues and rock, while Little Johnny Taylor’s Everybody Knows About My Good Thing is a 1971 soul single that sounds slightly out of place despite a bluesy makeover.
The latter song features a cameo from Clapton, who was working in an adjacent studio. He also illuminates the scintillating take on Willie Dixon’s I Can’t Quit You Baby, which closes the album with Jagger ad-libbing and the band relishing playing live in the studio.
As the last note fades, sharp-eared listeners will hear the singer asking: ‘Was that OK?’
In adding another fascinating chapter to the history of the world’s greatest rock ’n’ roll band, Blue & Lonesome is more than OK.
Blue & Lonesome out today on CD, vinyl and download.
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