The Rolling Stones’ “Angie” hit #1

Angie The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards (see lyrics here) Released: August 20, 1973 First Charted: September 1, 1973 Peak: 11 US, 1 1 CB, 15 GR, 1 2 HR, 1 4 RR, 38 AC, 1 CL, 5 UK, 15 CN, 1 5 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.2 UK, 1.2 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 189.32 video, 316.49 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: At a time when the Rolling Stones typical material “was hard and aggressive,” SF this was “a numb-but-sensitive breakup ballad, a plea for everything to be over.” SG It is “one of the better Rolling Stones’ ballads with a lush melody and a very vulnerable Mick Jagger.” TC The song was written primarily by guitarist Keith Richards FB “about the end stages of a relationship, the time when you’re still in love but making each other miserable. It’s written and sung with sad empathy.” SG Cynically, it can be viewed as “a song directly targeted to the Stones’ female fans who wanted to view them as broken angels rather than amoral libertine wanderers.” SG However, it “was the song that the Stones needed at that moment. It was…their last grand-scale pop moment for a while.” SG It would be five years before they’d reach the top of the charts again. As for the song’s subject, there are different rumors. One is that David Bowie’s wife Angela caught her husband in bed with Jagger and the Stones bribed her to keep quiet by writing a song for her. Another suggests that it was about Anita Pallenberg, Richards’ longtime girlfriend. It’s also been said it was about actress Angie Dickinson. In his autobiography Life, Richards said he wrote it while in a Swiss rehab facility when his withdrawl symptoms starting wearing off and he could move his fingers again well enough to strum his guitar. “Anita was down the road having our daughter.” SF She was named Dandelion Angela, although Richards says the song “was not about any particular person…I didn’t know Angela was going to be called Angela when I wrote ‘Angie.’ In those days you didn’t know what sex the thing was going to be until it popped out.” SF Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Rolling Stones FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 346. TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 15-6. SF Songfacts SG Stereogum “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 10/26/2021; last updated 9/19/2023.

 

The Wailers released Burnin’

Burnin’ The Wailers

Released: October 19, 1973 Peak: 151 US, 41 RB Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.06 UK, 2.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: reggae

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Get Up, Stand Up (9/73, --) Hallelujah Time I Shot the Sheriff (2/12/1973, --) Burnin’ and Lootin’ Put It On (4/66, --) Small Axe (2/71, --) Pass It On Duppy Conqueror (12/70, --) One Foundation Rastaman Chant Total Running Time: 38:28 The Players: Bob Marley (vocals, guitar) Peter Tosh (guitar, vocals, keyboards) Bunny Wailer (percussion, vocals) Aston “Family Man” Barrett (bass) Carlton “Carlie” Barrett (drums) Earl Lindo (keyboards)

Rating: 4.079 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings) Quotable: -- Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Burnin', was the Wailers “second for Island Records, released only six months after its predecessor, Catch a Fire. Given that speed, it's not surprising that several tracks — Put It On, Small Axe, and Duppy Conqueror — are re-recordings of songs dating back a few years. But they fit in seamlessly with the newer material, matching its religious militancy and anthemic style.” AMG “The confrontational nature of the group's message is apparent immediately in the opening track, Get Up, Stand Up, as stirring a song as any that emerged from the American Civil Rights movement a decade before. The Wailers are explicit in their call to violence, a complete reversal from their own 1960s ‘Simmer Down’ philosophy. Here, on Burnin’ and Lootin’, they take issue with fellow Jamaican Jimmy Cliff's song of the previous year, ‘Many Rivers to Cross,’ asking impatiently, ‘How many rivers do we have to cross/Before we can talk to the boss?’” AMG “I Shot the Sheriff, the album’s most celebrated song, which became a number one hit in the hands of Eric Clapton in 1974, claims self-defense, admits consequences (‘If I am guilty I will pay’), and emphasizes the isolated nature of the killing (‘I didn't shoot no deputy’), but its central image is violent.” AMG “Such songs illuminated the desperation of poor Jamaican life, but they also looked forward to religious salvation, their themes accentuated by the compelling rhythms and the alternating vocals of the three singers. Bob Marley was a first among equals, of course, and after this album his partners, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, quit the group, which thereafter was renamed Bob Marley and the Wailers.” AMG Notes: The 2001 reissue adds three bonus tracks – “Reincarnated Souls,” “No Sympathy,” and “The Oppressed Song” – all by “Tosh and Wailer, though recorded at the album's sessions” (Ruhlmann). The 2004 Deluxe Edition adds a second live disc recorded 11/23/73.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bob Marley AMG All Music Guide review by William Ruhlmann First posted 3/26/2008; updated 5/10/2021.

 

David Bowie Pin-Ups released

Pin-Ups David Bowie

Released: October 19, 1973 Peak: 23 US, 15 UK, -- CN, 4 AU Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.1 UK, 3.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: glam rock/classic rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Rosalyn (Duncan/Farley) [2:21] Here Comes the Night (Berns) [3:09] I Wish You Would (Arnold) [2:49] See Emily Play (Barrett) [4:11] Everything’s Alright (Crouch/Konrad/Stavely/James/Karlson) [2:28] I Can’t Explain (Townshend) [2:11] Friday on My Mind (Young/Vanda) [2:56] (21 CL, 36 CO) Sorrow (Feldman/Goldstein/Gottehrer) [2:53] (9/28/73, 69 CB, 18 CL, 6 CO, 3 UK, 1 AU) Don’t Bring Me Down (Dee) [2:06] Shapes of Things (Samwell-Smith/McCarty/Relf) [2:53] Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere (Townshend/Daltrey) [3:07] Where Have All the Good Times Gone? (Davies) [2:41] Total Running Time: 40:30 The Players: David Bowie (vocals, guitar, saxophone, harmonica, Moog synthesizer) Mick Ronson (guitar, piano) Trevor Bolder (bass) Mike Garson (keyboards) Aynsley Dunbar (drums) Ken Fordham (baritone saxophone) G.A. MacCormack (backing vocals)

Rating: 3.283 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings)

About the Album: After establishing himself as a glam-rock superstar with Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, David Bowie wanted his next project to be an adaptation of George Orwell’s 1949 novel 1984. Under pressure from his record company to get new product out quicker, he released this stopgap covers album. WK Over time, the album has been frowned on by critics who echo the sentiment of Rolling Stone’s Greg Shaw: “Although many of the tracks are excellent, none stand up to the originals.” WK As All Music Guide’s Bruce Eder said, “Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane had established Bowie as perhaps the most fiercely original of all England’s glam rockers…so an album of covers didn't make any sense.” AMG The original idea was to release two albums. The first would focus on 1960s’ British hits and the second would focus on American hits. The second project never surfaced. WK Of the songs that made the cut, Bowie said “these songs are among my favourites from the ’64-’67 period of London.” WK The lead single, Sorrow, was a cover of a song first recorded by the McCoys in 1965. ‘Sorrow,’ which benefited from a new saxophone break, was actually a distinct improvement over the original, managing to be edgier and more elegant all at once.” AMG “Aside from the Easybeats’ Friday on My Mind and the Yardbirds’Shapes of Things, little here was among the biggest hits of their respective artists’ careers.” AMG “The Who’s I Can't Explain and Anyway Anyhow Anywhere were the only ones whose original versions were easily available or played very often on the radio.” AMG The album opens with the Pretty Things’ high-energy Bo Diddley homage Rosalyn” AMG followed by “a hard, surging rendition of Them’s version of Bert Berns’ Here Comes the Night, filled with crunchy guitars.” AMG “I Wish You Would and ‘Shapes of Things’ were both showcases for Bowie’s and Mick Ronson’s guitars” AMG while Pink Floyd’s See Emily Play “emphasized the punkish (as opposed to the psychedelic) side of the song.” AMG While Pin-Ups was dismissed as “a quick album of oldies covers to buy some time,” AMG it served its purpose. It “was an artistic statement, of sorts, with some thought behind it” AMG and “marked the swan song for the Spiders From Mars” AMG who’d been so instrumental in establishing Bowie’s sound on Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. This served as “something of an interlude between the first and second phases of his international career; the next, beginning with Diamond Dogs, would be a break from his glam rock phase, going off in new directions. It's not a bad bridge between the two, and it has endured across the decades.” AMG Notes: Bonus tracks on the 1990 Rykodisc reissue included covers of “Port of Amsterdam” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Growin’ Up.”

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for David Bowie AMG All Music Guide review by Bruce Eder WK Wikipedia First posted 2/20/2008; last updated 7/30/2021.