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15. “Loving Cup”

From Exile on Main St.

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“I’m the man who walks the hillside in the sweet, summer sun/I’m the man who brings you flowers when you ain’t got none.” Those pastoral images are not what you would normally associate with the Rolling Stones, but that’s part of what makes this Exile track such a breath of fresh air. It’s a kick to picture the jet-setting Mick Jagger with a muddy face, torn shirt, and a car that won’t start, and yet he never sounded more peaceful and happy than on this track.

And what a superlative track it is. The MVP would have to be pianist Nicky Hopkins, who sets the tone at the start with gospel chords but switches over to the devil’s music by the end with thrilling boogie runs. Charlie Watts is also outstanding here, peppering the refrains with fills that lift the song into another realm.

There’s a lot to love in “Loving Cup.” As I said above, Jagger really seems to relish this character, and his enjoyment spreads to the rest of the band. The arrangement is brilliant as well, the product of a band operating with utmost confidence. This would be a good time to mention the underrated contributions of producer Jimmy Miller. You could say that he was a producer in name only with the Glimmer Twins around, but I defy you to find me a track from the second half of the decade, when Mick and Keith took the duties over, as well-assembled as this.

The soulful bridge is the perfect spotlight for longtime Stones’ horn players Bobby Keys and Jim Price, and it also makes the main part that much more powerful when it kicks back in. It all wraps up with that breakdown at the end, as all the disparate parts unite in thrilling fashion. Suddenly that humble farmer transforms back into Mick Jagger, the rock singer, and he brings his band home to paydirt. The Stones produce pure, utter jubilation here.

14. “Bitch”

From Sticky Fingers

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When you think of the Stones’ sound, there is an appealingly loose feel to it that other bands could never really replicate; it’s a simple matter of chemistry. (The entire Exile on Main St. album is this phenomenon in microcosm.) But there’s not an ounce of flab on “Bitch,” a ferocious rocker found on Sticky Fingers. It’s as tight a song as the band has ever produced.

Take three guesses who devised the riff, and the first two don’t count. Keith Richards’ creation here sounds like something from the theme song from a gritty cop show that got pulled off the air for its excessive violence and vulgarity. It’s breathless and lean, but Charlie Watts keeps the tempo without batting an eye. The horns throw left jabs throughout, softening up the body before some powerful uppercuts late finish the job.

As for Mick Jagger, no one has ever been able to match his ability to sound both flustered and menacing all at once. All his efforts to figure out the source of his particular unease only lead him to that timeless revelation: “Love…it’s a bitch.” When all else fails, he has his band to fall back on, screaming out his “hey, hey” refrain as it all goes down in flames. Let me create a new word to describe this song: Nitroglyceriffic.

13. “Beast of Burden”

From Some Girls

LISTEN HERE  

If you’ve never done it before, take a listen to this Top 10 smash with the headphones on and check out the amazingly intricate guitar interplay between Keith Richards and Ron Wood. Notice how they find endlessly inventive ways to complement both the main melody and each other. They never show off once; every little lick and chord is in the service of the song.

I think that marvelous interplay might be at the heart of the song’s enduring quality. But there’s really nothing not to like about this performance. The guitars couldn’t have been as effective without Bill Wyman’s soulful bass and Charlie Watts’ snapping drums. Meanwhile, Mick Jagger is at his most persuasive, using every trick in his vocal book to make his point: A soulful croon here, a desperate bark there, and when all else fails, the seductive falsetto is unleashed.

You can easily misread the refrain to hear the song as demeaning to women, but closer inspection actually shows that the singer is looking for a relationship on equal footing. Actually, he’s just looking for a roll in the hay to make all the other problems go away, but he’s doing it in a respectful way.

Richards wrote most of the song, with Jagger filling in the blanks on some of the lyrics. Most powerful of all are the lines toward the end: “All your sickness I can suck it up/Throw it all at me I can shrug at me.” If you choose to read the song at large as Richards’ reaffirmation to Jagger that he could once again handle the load after kicking his drug habit, then you can hear these specific lines as Jagger’s response to his pal that he can handle anything thrown his way. That fascinating tension has always been at the heart of what makes the Stones great, and it’s the subtext of this great ballad. But, of course, you can chuck all the subtext and just enjoy those guitars.

12. “Angie”

From Goats Head Soup

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If someone drew up a blueprint of what a #1 song by the Rolling Stones might be, “Angie” wouldn’t be it. Maybe in the Bizarro world, but not in this one. It’s restrained, tender, vulnerable, even, dare I say, sensitive. And yet, somehow it ends up quintessentially Stones.

There’s been so much speculation as to the identity of the real “Angie” that it obscures what a lovely effort this is. I’m going with the story that Keith Richards wrote the music and borrowed the title from his baby daughter, then allowed Jagger to fill in the bulk of the lyrics. The inspiration will probably never be revealed, not unless Mick writes his autobiography (and what a page-turner that would be).

Better to focus your attention on that gorgeous melody, one of the band’s most memorable. Nicky Hopkins’ piano is resplendent, and the strings, arranged by Nicky Harrison, are just the right touch here.

The conversational lyrics sound like they could be uttered during that awful breakup talk that comes at the end of a worthwhile relationship that just cannot sustain. Jagger delivers these lyrics with little of the flourishes he uses to embellish other material. Instead, he sticks to the melody, pleading with his woman to see that, despite their best intentions, their love is running on fumes. It’s a mature message delivered tastefully, but not lacking emotion. The cracks in the brave façade are clear. Whoever Angie may have been, she at least got a moving send-off.

11. “Tumbling Dice”

From Some Girls

LISTEN HERE  

It starts with the riff, Keith Richards once again hooking us before we even have time to get our bearings. Charlie Watts’ drums come crashing in, followed by Mick Jagger giving a “woo-yeah” as if he was nodding approval while female backing vocalists Clydie King and Vannetta Fields soar skyward. Had “Tumbling Dice” faded out there, it likely would have achieved immortality anyway.

Of course it does go on, giving the Stones a Top 10 hit on both sides of the pond with a song that still keeps the inherent coolness of an album cut. There is no aggression or tension here, just a rollicking groove that is simply indestructible. What’s ironic is that the Stones apparently worked on the track for innumerable takes; all of that laxity was awfully hard-earned.

Here Jagger plays the role of a man harried by women at all turns, realizing that love is the greatest gamble of all. It’s impossible to deconstruct the indefinable, so the greatness of the song is somehow elusive; even Jagger felt that the mix was a mess. But time has proven otherwise, because “Tumbling Dice,” rolling to that building finish, is like a miracle card on the River: Unexpected, unforgettable, and, musically in this case, lucrative.

10. “Shattered”

From Some Girls

LISTEN HERE  

Mick Jagger supposedly wrote this scuzzy classic off Some Girls during a New York City cab ride. Let’s just assume that the cabbie took Mick on all the back roads to get to his destination, because “Shattered” is a travelogue that will never be used by the Chamber of Commerce.

And yet, even with all the rats, crime, and maggots, there’s still somehow admiration to be found in Mick’s descriptions, in the way that he implies that only the strong can survive the city. I know that Blondie’s “Rapture” often gets the credit for bringing rap to the Top 40, but Mick’s talk-singing here has more than a little flow itself. Notice how many times during the song he repeats words several times in succession (e.g. the crime rate doesn’t just go up, it goes “up, up, up, up, UP!”) All of this repetition mirrors the excess on display in NYC.

Keith Richards contributes a grimy riff that sounds as if it’s been breathing the congested air of rush-hour traffic. Richards also gets the credit for the idea of the brilliant “Shadoobie” backing vocals; they give the track a twinkle in its eye, letting people know that the Stones love the city, warts and all.

After all, Jagger essentially tells the Big Apple to bring it on with his subversively brilliant final line: “Pile it up, pile it high on the platter.” Just what he wants to be piled up, well, I’ll leave that to your imagination.

9. “Shine a Light”

From Exile on Main St.

LISTEN HERE  

The saga of Brian Jones is one of the saddest in rock history. He started the Rolling Stones only to be marginalized by the powerful personalities elsewhere in the band, his lack of songwriting acumen, and his own drug use. When he died of mysterious circumstances in 1969, he had already been fired from the band he helped to found.

The interesting thing about “Shine A Light,” Mick Jagger’s tribute to his former bandmate, is that the essence of the song was written in 1968, a year before Jones’ death. That means Jagger showed unfortunately accurate foresight with his lyrics. In the end, Jones was indeed left alone by his “late-night friends” in the “cold, gray dawn.” And, in the end, Jagger never could “get a line” on his doomed friend. The heartbreak and frustration at the useless inevitability of it all is evident in his vocal.

Mick would transform the song for its inclusion on Exile on Main St., adding the benedictory chorus as a bit of wish fulfillment. The arrangement is just janky enough to keep things from getting too maudlin, thanks to Billy Preston’s brilliant intermingling of mournful piano and jubilant organ. There’s also the irony of Jones’ replacement in the band, young Mick Taylor, ripping through a guitar solo that rages against the dying of the light.

Nobody will ever accuse the Rolling Stones of being overly sentimental, but they got this good-bye just right. All that they ask for Brian Jones is that he be allowed his favorite music. If they got their wish, then the sweet hereafter must be wall-to-wall blues.

8. “Dead Flowers”

From Sticky Fingers

LISTEN HERE  

The Stones indulge their love of country with extraordinary facility here, playing this song with a flair that the finest in Nashville could only envy. It’s like an Allman Brothers song with all of the jammy energy harnessed into one radio-friendly, powerful package.

Jagger kisses a woman good-bye here because he knows he’ll never run in the same circles. While she’s with the rich and famous, he’s in the gutter indulging in all kinds of tawdriness. He still has the moxie to call out his ex on her wish for street cred: “I know you think you’re the queen of the underground.”

Mick Taylor is brilliant on lead guitar. For how young he was at the time, he shows remarkable restraint and uncanny timing, adding exactly the right dollops of sorrow to contrast Jagger’s straight-faced vocals. Keith Richards’ acoustic guitar and Ian Stewart’s piano are also savory elements in the mix.

It all leads to that effortlessly catchy and the final glory note, with Jagger and Richards harmonizing in shaggy glory. Music Row, eat your hearts out.

7. “Miss You”

From Some Girls

LISTEN HERE  

Call it disco, if you must. The truth is that, whatever you wish you call the sound that the Stones conjured on “Miss You,” it’s perfectly apropos for the itchy energy of Mick Jagger’s protagonist on the prowl.

If “Shattered” captured the everything, all-the-time seediness of New York, “Miss You” expertly portrays the city in all its loneliness. The itchy urge that Jagger feels, so perfectly mirrored by the main riff, cannot be satisfied by anything, not his dreams, not any sensory pleasures, not even the promise of female accompaniment. Toward the end, he sums up the source of his misery: “I guess I’m just lyin’ to myself/It’s just you and no one else.”

It’s somehow fitting that the ever-humble Bill Wyman cedes credit for one of his few moments in the forefront with the Stones. His bottom-heavy bass-line that grounds the song, according to Wyman, was conceived by Billy Preston, who was there when Jagger was writing the song. That may be true, but Wyman had to execute it, and the way he finds spaces around Charlie Watts’ four-on-the-floor beat is pure magic.

Add in the excellence of session players Sugar Blue (on harmonica) and Mel Collins (the slinky sax solos) and you’ve got a track that still sounds cool long after the genre from which it borrowed has become kitschy nostalgia.

6. “Happy”

From Exile on Main St.

LISTEN HERE  

You never know when inspiration is going to strike, especially if you’re Keith Richards, a man with a riff for every nook and cranny on that famously weathered face. When it does, you best be ready to harness the muse, even if she calls on you when none of your other band members are present.

Such was the case with “Happy,” Richards’ irresistibly good-time showcase on Exile on Main St. When he came up with the idea, Keith laid down the track with producer Jimmy Miller on drums and Bobby Keys adding saxophone and maracas. Richards himself handled all the guitars with his usual aplomb, and added his memorably craggy vocal before the other half of the Glimmer Twins could butt in.

The result is pure rock ebullience, a song so energetic that Keith claims that it has the mystical power to restore good spirits to the down-hearted. And who am I to doubt him, because it certainly tugs at the corner of my mouth every time I hear him, in unapologetically unsavory mode, asserting that the outlaw life is the only way to be free.

The song was eventually beefed up from the original track with more horns and Jagger’s good-sport backing vocals, but really all you need is Keith chunking away at that main riff and warbling with soulful abandon. He doesn’t get the opportunity often, but Richards usually produces memorable results when he plays frontman in the Stones, and “Happy” is his finest in that role.

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