Some Girls is the final, last, absolutely, definably, great moment. From country to hard rock,, from reggae riddims to punkish outrage (at themselves) and kicked off with the last time the Stones would find themselves in touch with the zeitgeist..
If you don't love Some Girls find yourself another game, rock and roll isn't for you.
The album is a wonder of economy (40 minutes and out), the first three songs so brilliant they jump at you.
Miss You
When The Whip comes Down
and a cover
Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
but an awesome cover of the always great Temptations song and really is as wonderful and sentimental (but not weak) a vocal performance as you can imagine.
The very next song "Some Girls" took punks outrage and shoved it out. Considered a misogynist screed at the time, the "Black girls just wanna get fucked all night, I just don't have enough jam" is followed by the only close to not best song ever "Lies" and then the Stones get a breather on their second greatest country song ("Dead Flowers" is better) and it's clear sailing all the way through to "Shattered" where a ridiculously young 34 year old Mick Jagger claims to be passed it while proving he was anything but.
An answer to the punks and to everybody else, it proved that nobody was as good as the Stones.
Also, though recorded in Paris, it was an nyc album. Jagger was part of the Warhol/Studio 54 demimonde and the album opens and closes with two sliced of new york as urban legend. And somewhere in the middle, in a kiss off to the society of Princes and Politicians (and Jagger's wife) "Respectable".
Indeed it is too Some Girls credit that "Miss You" and "Shattered" don't completely overwhelm the album. The former an emotional shattering, the latter a generational beat down. And everything in between: different ways for the illusions to crack in two.
There is nothing in the deluxe version that feels NECESSARY to improve Some Girls. But "No Spare Parts", "So Young" "You win Again" and "We had It All" (ie two originals, two covers) wouldn't have hurt it. Consider that high praise. Actually, if you switch "No Spare parts" for "Lies", the album might have been a nudge better.
But in the end, the deluxe version, while fun, doesn't add much to the legend. The Exile On Mainstreet deluxe didn't either. There is no reason to whinge about it, and there is no age "No Spare Parts" wouldn't be good Stones, so time to sing it one more time "some Puerto Rican girls who are just dyyyyyyyyyyin' to metcho…"
Some Girls: A+
Deluxe Version Additional Songs: B+
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