My Top 100 Albums: #83 - The Rolling Stones, ‘Beggars Banquet’
83.
The Rolling Stones, ‘Beggars Banquet’
Decca, 1968
In the UK, the musical scene of the 1960s is often, rather reductively, defined by the battle between The Beatles and the Rolling Stones for chart supremacy. In many ways, this rivalry can be interpreted by the two bands’ various influences. While Lennon and McCartney were drawn together by their passion for early rock-and-roll, the Rolling Stones’ main creative pair, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, bonded over their love of Muddy Waters and blues roots music. After experimenting with psychedelic music in the mid-1960s, Beggars Banquet saw the band really flesh out their blues influences and produce something which demonstrates profound creative thought, refined experimentation, and careful reverence. The blues roots influence is present throughout this record, but it would be remissive to ignore the variety and nuanced songwriting on display here. Beginning with the explosive Sympathy for the Devil, probably the album’s most enduring individual track, the Stones establish a project with a specific focus on rhythm and a restless groove, with Charlie Watts’ drum recordings taking centre stage from the off. No Expectations is a more reflective ballad-type track before the vibrant bluegrass-style Dear Doctor, which cements the band’s commitment to experimentation with a playful harmonica melody and Jagger’s unexpected mimicry of a feminine Southern drawl towards the back half of the song. The upbeat Jigsaw Puzzle is a particular highlight of the record’s A-side - a Dylanesque folk tune with strummed guitar and chordal honkytonk piano backing. The B-side on this record is captivating from the very first track, the inimitable Street Fighting Man. Recorded on an old Philips cassette deck, the track’s instrumentals are murky and harsh; the crowded instrumentation, practically contrapuntal at times and representing the politically-charged subject of the song, is disjointed and chaotic, giving off an almost claustrophobic effect. The following Prodigal Son is a Robert Wilkins cover that testifies to the band’s blues roots influence, with a driving, high-tempo bass drum that drags the listener inexorably to the more interpretative Stray Cat Blues, a contemporary rhythm-and-blues offering that repudiates any claim that the album is too backwards-looking. This feeling is corroborated on the penultimate track Factory Girl, an acoustic song based on an Appalachian folk tune, before we end with the more ruminative, gospel-inspired Salt of the Earth, which points to a style that the Stones would develop in their later work. Beggars Banquet was Brian Jones’ last full work with the Rolling Stones before his tragic, drug-fuelled passing in 1969, and in many ways the album is a transitive project - a tribute to the band’s roots and influences with nods to a post-Jones future, a passion project with a deep appreciation for both zeitgeist and experimentation. From my perspective, it is the album that represents the pinnacle of the Stones’ vast catalogue.
Hidden Highlight: Jigsaw Puzzle
Sympathy for the Devil
No Expectations
Dear Doctor
Parachute Woman
Jigsaw Puzzle
Street Fighting Man
Prodigal Son
Stray Cat Blues
Factory Girl
Salt of the Earth