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We counted down the Stones’ complete 1970’s studio catalog, and now we take on the band’s output during the decadent decade of the 1980’s. This period found the Stones sometimes funky, sometimes fiery, but always feisty. Keep in mind, the countdown

The complete list to date.

The Last Five:

15. “Tops” (from Tattoo You)

14. “Let Me Go” (from Emotional Rescue)

13. “Can’t Be Seen” (from Steel Wheels)

12. “Hang Fire” (from Tattoo You)

11. “All About You” (from Emotional Rescue)

10. “Undercover Of The Night”

From Undercover

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This is probably one of the most divisive songs that The Rolling Stones ever released. At the time of its release, it did all right, reaching the U.S. Top 10, although Mick Jagger speculated that the song’s political overtones may have ruined its long-term chances. I think some fans see it now as a tipping point that signaled the decline of the band from the peak of Tattoo You in 1981.

What I hear is a song that, while very much of its time, still holds up pretty damn well today. The bass line and exotic percussion certainly makes it one of the funkier Stones’ tracks, Jagger’s falsetto scatting seeming like an offshoot of the rhythm. But Keith Richards’ sledgehammer guitar, accentuated by echo effects, brings the thunder. The music strikes the same balance as the lyrics: Part allure, part menace.

Jagger paints the situation in Central and South America by focusing on random snapshots in the seedy night, both the soldiers and politicos wielding the power and the everyday folks trampled underfoot. Eventually the scene gets too much for him to bear: “The smell of sex, the smell of suicide/All these things I just can’t keep inside.”

I think this is a case where people might be surprised when they take a second to give “Undercover Of The Night” another listen. They might not hear the end of the Stones as we knew them. They’ll likely hear a powerful song that’s gotten a bad rap.

9. “One Hit (To The Body)”

From Dirty Work

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I’ve been relatively harsh on Dirty Work throughout this project, as have many fans and critics alike in the time that has passed since its 1986 release. But I’d like to clarify. I don’t have a problem with the album’s concentration on aggressive music, although I do think a little more variety would have served it well.

My problem was that much of the music was force without brains. “One Hit (To The Body),” famous for its video featuring the Glimmer Twins acting out their frustrations by pretending to beat each other up, does not suffer from that problem. It’s in-your-face and imposing, but it’s well-constructed and doesn’t skimp on the songwriting.

It also benefits from one of the unlikeliest guest appearances in the group’s history, as Jimmy Page happened into the session and added some unhinged lead guitar that works beautifully with the song’s theme of how easily passion and violence are closely entwined. Meanwhile there is excellent interplay between Ronnie Wood’s acoustic riff and Keith’s crunching power chords.

You can hear, in “One Hit,” what Dirty Work might have been if the band had been hitting on all cylinders. Instead, it stands out as an exception on a misguided album.

8. “Sad Sad Sad”

From Steel Wheels

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There is an undeniable brightness in the see-sawing chords at the start of “Sad Sad Sad,” which kicks off Steel Wheels, that lets you know right away that many of the clouds that had hung so low over the Stones had parted. This song has a breeziness about it that hearkens back to the ramshackle brilliance of Exile On Main St.

In fact, don’t let the title fool you. Mick is actually advising a down-hearted girl to not let the problems in her life overwhelm her. In other words, this too shall pass. The sing-along chorus is indeed pretty convincing, and the band is in top form, even with Ronnie Wood filling in on bass for an absent Bill Wyman.

Most heartening of all is the message that the song sends us out on: Jagger singing over and over, “You’re gonna be fine.” After so many years of animus within the group, hearing them delivering a positive message was indication that the Stones had healed themselves enough to return to the task of providing a musical balm for their listeners.

7. “She Was Hot”

From Undercover

LISTEN HERE  

One of the best things about doing these countdowns is rediscovering songs that might have fallen through the cracks in a band’s catalog. When you’ve got a catalog as extensive and imposing as the Stones, it can happen quite easily.

Case in point: “She Was Hot.” I vaguely remembered it as a follow-up single to “Undercover Of The Night,” but it didn’t register too much. (Apparently, it didn’t register much with the public either, failing to reach the top 40.) Imagine my surprise when I listened to it again as research for this list and I heard it practically bust down the speaker with its ebullience and power.

Jagger contrasts the verses, which are all about his loneliness in the middle of a stretch of cold weather, with the sizzling choruses, which recall a particularly heated one-night stand. Things get might steamy in those sections, described in sweaty detail by Mick. Well, you know what they say: Write what you know. And he makes no excuse for his dalliance, as he explains: “Always take the passion where you find it.” That’s the only way to survive in “the human zoo.”

The music mirrors this split personality. In the verses, it chugs along with a workmanlike, vaguely honky-tonk feel, before exploding to life in the choruses, with Charlie Watts pounding on his drums with tribal abandon. By the time Jagger finishes things off with the “She was hot, hot, hot” refrain, well, you might need to turn up the air conditioner wherever you are. Not too bad for a forgotten song.

6. “Worried About You”

From Tattoo You

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Something about those opening electric piano chords, played by the late, great Billy Preston, lets us know that we’re in for a classic Stones’ weeper. First recorded during the Black And Blue sessions, and then revived brilliantly for Tattoo You, “Worried About You” shows none of the strain you might expect from a recording spread over several years. On the contrary, it sounds startlingly coherent, as if the band had churned it out in one magic take.

Credit needs to be given not only to Preston for his inimitably soulful work on the keyboards, but also to Wayne Perkins, who turned in the excellent guitar solo while auditioning for a job in the band, a job that would eventually go to Ronnie Wood.

But this is Mick Jagger’s show, a showcase for his falsetto, here used to drain every ounce of melancholy from this sad sack’s tale. Going through the motions with new women but unable to escape the hold of his former flame, the narrator tries to put on a brave face and look toward the future even though his past just won’t understand. In the chorus, the falsetto drops away, and Mick rips into the line “I’m worried” with real desperation. It’s a soulful and heartfelt performance from one of rock’s best singers ever, and the main reason “Worried About You” is on the short list for the Stones’ best ever ballads.

The complete list to date.

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