Octo_Russ

The Rolling Stones ['Jump Back' The Best Of The Rolling Stones 1971-1993] 

This is the Stones 'middle' best of album, they changed labels, and their previous greatest hits package was called 'Hot Rocks' 1964-1971, of course they eventually came out with the double disc set which roughly amalgamated the two with 'Forty Licks', however i find this middle greatest hits package better than either, i dunno, it has a certain something about it, even some of their lesser successful studio albums always seem to have a hit on them, and they're nicely represented here, my favourite Stones studio album is Steel Wheels, it's just perfect.

The Rolling Stones are a British Rock band formed in 1962, unlike the Beatles, they have much more slowly evolved and become great, i feel there's always a rivalry between the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, my own verdict is that the Beatles were a great Pop group, but the Rolling Stones are a great Rock band, and they're still going strong.

This album got me really rocking, it just goes to show how versatile the Rolling Stones really are, there's slow ballads alongside Hard Rock songs, funky numbers alongside Reggae-ish tracks, the tracks that impressed me the most were 1, 5-6, 8-10, 12, 15 & 17-18, surprisingly i liked track 18 'Undercover of the Night' the best, from an album that doesn't exactly scream 'hit', the Rolling Stones were almost reduced to creating one really brilliant song per album, and that's where a greatest hits package like this truly comes into its own.

'Undercover of the Night' is a fantastic song, and it's a fairly weird Stones song, it's all over the place, a funky jungle sound, it starts off very percussive, with a machine gun snap, a lovely deep beat to it, with judicious organ swirls, and even bongos, and lots of 'in & out' reverb [0:13-0:19], i really love the way the intro almost comes to a stop [0:20], and then starts up with an even deeper bassy beat, supposedly there was a timpani drum lying about in the recording studio, so they decided to use it, Mick Jagger truly gets the gist of the feel with his vocal delivery, lead guitar is perfect, and so is bass guitar, one of the excellent things about this song, is the fact it has four verses, and each time a new one starts, there's a heightened sense of musical satisfaction, the track really rocks, with very political lyrics, the last verse is my favourite,

Down in the bars, the girls are painted blue

Done up in lace, done up in rubber

The john's are jerky little G.I. Joe's

On R & R from Cuba and Russia

The smell of sex, the smell of suicide

All these dream things i can't keep inside

as the song comes to a close, i like the way Mick Jagger sings the words 'Undercover of the Night' in the background in a deeper talky voice [3:57-4:04], ha!, what a great little number, it makes me want to get to know some more Stones songs.

Here's the Rolling Stones singing 'Undercover of the Night' on YouTube.