Today in Music (1968): The Rolling Stones released Beggars Banquet

Beggars Banquet The Rolling Stones

Released: December 6, 1968 Peak: 5 US, 3 UK, 3 CN, 3 AU Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, -- UK, 3.0 world, 16.27 EAS Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Sympathy for the Devil (12/6/98, 97 BB, 1 CL, 14 UK, 1 DF) No Expectations (8/31/68, 45 CL, 32 DF) Dear Doctor (17 CL, 40 DF) Parachute Woman Jigsaw Puzzle Street Fighting Man (8/31/68, 48 BB, 30 CB, 35 GR, 28 HR, 4 CL, 21 UK, 32 CN, 13 AU, 6 DF) Prodigal Son (7/19/69, 18 CL) Stray Cat Blues Factory Girl (18 CL) Salt of the Earth (17 CL, 39 DF) Total Running Time: 39:44 The Players: Mick Jagger (vocals) Keith Richards (guitar) Brian Jones (guitar) Bill Wyman (bass) Charlie Watts (drums)

Rating: 4.479 out of 5.00 (average of 30 ratings) Quotable: “Americana…stripped down and rebuilt with every jagged edge exposed” – Rolling Stone Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Stones’ Coming of Age “Despite the series of drug-related arrests that had plagued the group,” RS Beggars Banquet “marked the return of the Rolling Stones,” RS a return to “basic, hard-edged rock & roll.” RS Glyn Jones, the album’s engineer, said Beggars Banquet signified “the Rolling Stones’ coming of age. I think that the material was far better than anything they’d ever done before. The whole mood of the record was far stronger to me musically.’” RS “Their previous LP, Their Santanic Majesties Request, had been mired in psychedelic experimentation of a sort for which the band had little genuine feeling,” RS but Beggars Banquet “was immediately acclaimed as one of their landmark achievements.” AM This “is a band totally at the height of their powers (or some would say just coming into them)” JSH with an album “that reeks of a haphazard nature and yet complete mastery.” JSH “The Stones had stopped following trends and were back at full force” RS “playing fast and loose.” RS The album is “full of savage riffage and Mick Jagger’s lascivious yelp” EW’12 as well as “lyrical bite.” AM It “is the pure, concentrated sound of sex, violence, and sympathy for the devil.” EW’12 “For all its decadence and disheveledness, Beggars Banquet holds together.” JSH Beggars Banquet was “rooted in rhythm & blues” RS as evidenced by the “strong acoustic Delta blues flavor [that] colors much of the material, particularly ‘Salt of the Earth’ and ‘No Expectations.’” AM With their return to raw and raunchy blues-rock and the Stones had redeemed themselves as the world’s greatest rock & roll band. It “set in motion The Rolling Stones’ golden era, a four-year period that bore four of the greatest rock LPs ever recorded.” RV It stands as “one of the top blues-based rock records of all time.” AM The Personnel “Producer Jimmy Miller describes Keith Richards as having been ‘A real workhorse’ on the album, largely because Brian Jones rarely made it into the studio and when he did, he behaved erratically, due to his drug use and emotional problems…Miller says. ‘He'd show up occasionally when he was in the mood to play…He’d walk in with a sitar, which was totally irrelevant to what we were doing…The others, particularly Mick and Keith, would often say to me, ‘Just tell him to piss off and get the hell out of here.’” RS The Cover “The album's original cover art, depicting a bathroom wall covered with graffiti, was banned. The Stones attempted unsuccessfully to fight their record company's decision – and from today's perspective, the cover seems quite harmless. Nevertheless, the dispute held up the album’s release for months.” RS The Songs The album featured “propulsive tracks like ‘Street Fighting Man,’ ‘Sympathy for the Devil,’ ‘Stray Cat Blues,’ and ‘Parachute Woman.’” RS Here’s thoughts on individual songs. “Sympathy for the Devil” “The big payoff came on Sympathy for the Devil, which married” RV “explicitly satanic” AM lyrics about the history of Lucifer” RV “with its fire-dancing guitar licks, leering Jagger vocals, [and] African rhythms.” AM It is “an absolutely BRILLIANT construction combining many different voices and instrumental motifs – piano, congas, guitars – to compound the same eternal rhythm, which goes on for 6 minutes, intensifying with each minute, which is just what truly GREAT music is supposed to do.” JSH It “was an image-defining epic,” AM “an anthem for the darkness in every human heart.” 500 “Jigsaw Puzzle” On the other end of the spectrum, “you could probably do without the six-minute Jigsaw Puzzle which, unlike the embryonic “Sympathy,” stays kinda static…but with Nicky Hopkins’ piano and Keith’s slide guitar and Mick’s always-great vocals (when he still sang instead of bellowed) it’s a pretty good kinda static.” JSH “No Expectations” Despite Brian Jones’ problems, No Expectations “features some beautiful slide guitar work” AM from him, as did “‘Parachute Woman’ and ‘Jigsw Puzzle’ His sitar – and tamboura, as well – can be heard on ‘Street Fighting Man.’” RS “Dear Doctor” and “Prodigal Son” “Richards’ record collection led the Rolling Stones back to their version of America: country music on Dear Doctor [and] the blues on Prodigal Son.” 500 As he said, “‘When we had been in the States between 1964 and ‘66, I had gathered together this enormous collection of records, but I never had any time to listen to them…In late 1966 and ‘67 I unwrapped them and actually played them.’” 500 The latter was tagged as public domain instead of being credited to Big John McDuff, which entitled the band to “arrangers’ royalties…they’d perform a similar rape-job on the estate o’ Robert Johnson a year later.” JSH “Street Fighting Man” Street Fighting Man was “a reflection of the political turbulence of 1968 [and] one of their most innovative singles.” AM “The driving basic track…was recorded on a cassette deck at Keith's house, with Keith on acoustic guitar and Charlie Watts on a toy drum kit.” RS “The political correctness of [the song] – with its ambivalent lines ‘What can a poor boy do/'Cept sing in a rock and roll band’ – was debated intensely and at great length in the underground media.” RS “Stray Cat Blues” “On Stray Cat Blues, Jagger and crew began to explore the kind of decadent sexual sleaze that they would take to the point of self-parody by the mid-‘70s. At the time, though, the approach was still fresh.” AM It “has the same kind of Bo Diddley-inspired sound as it tells of a teen-age runaway and her degradation: ‘I bet your momma don't know you scream like that / I bet your momma don't know you can bite like that.’” RV

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Rolling Stones AM AllMusic.com review by Richie Unterberger JSH Blastitude (2003). “A Loaded Proposition: Joe S. Harrington Picks the All-Time Top 100 Or…Who Pulled the Trigger?” by Joe S. Harrington EW’12 Entertainment Weekly (9/27/2012). “Top 100 Albums” RV The Review (Oct./Nov. 2001). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” by Clarke Speicher RS RollingStone.com review, posted online 6/17/97. 500 Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, posted online 11/1/03. Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 12/6/2012; last updated 10/1/2024.