Beggars Banquet

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Beggars Banquet
The Rolling Stones studio album

Publication
(s)

7th / 8th December 1968

Label (s) Decca , London , ABKCO

Format (s)

LP, CD, Hybrid-SACD

Genre (s)

Rock , blues , country

Title (number)

10

running time

39:47

occupation


  • Rocky Dijon - (con)
  • Jimmy Miller - (back voc)
  • Watts Street Gospel Choir - (back voc)

production

Jimmy Miller

Studio (s)

March 17th - July 25th 1968, Olympic Studios , London

chronology
Their Satanic Majesties Request
(1967) 		Beggars Banquet Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2)
(1969)

Beggars Banquet (English; German "Beggar Banquet") is the seventh studio album by the Rolling Stones released in Great Britain .

The album

With Beggars Banquet , the Rolling Stones returned to their roots after their psychedelic album Their Satanic Majesties Request . Wyman calls it a "focused, blues- based tour de force". When recording Beggars Banquet , the Stones first worked with Jimmy Miller as a producer. This collaboration began on February 21, 1968 with the first rehearsal sessions for this album and ended in July 1973 with the recording of Goats Head Soup . The Jimmy Miller era is seen by many critics and fans as the culmination of the Rolling Stones' work. The album was completed within three weeks in July 1968 in Los Angeles when Miller and Glyn Johns did the final mix under the supervision of Jagger at Sunset Sound Studios.

Beggars Banquet was after long disputes with the record company Decca Records released on December 7 in the US and on December 8, 1968 in the UK, shortly after the White Album of Beatles , released on 22 November. This meant that the Rolling Stones' chances of advancing to number 1 on the British charts were very limited; finally Beggars Banquet reached number 3 on December 21st and stayed in the charts for 12 weeks. In 2nd place: a best of compilation of the Seekers . In the United States, it only rose to number 5, but stayed on the charts for 13 weeks.

With one exception, all of the songs were written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and recorded between March and July 1968 at Olympic Studios in London . The “banquet” opens with Sympathy for the Devil , with which the Stones continue their argument with the devil from the previous album (both albums are also linked by the invitation character). This song will become a classic for the band. The song Prodigal Son, based on the biblical story of the prodigal son, was written by the Reverend Robert Wilkins . Born in Hernando, Mississippi in 1896, the black singer and songwriter recorded the song under the title That's No Way to Get Along in 1929. In 1964 he was in the wake of the folk - blues - Revivals rediscovered. An ordained priest since the 1930s, Wilkins had changed the "unholy" text of this song to the biblical theme and henceforth called The Prodigal Son. However, Jagger and Richards were incorrectly named as authors on the first publications of Beggars Banquet . Wilkins, who recorded a song called Rolling Stone himself in 1928 , died in 1987.

The Stones guitarist Brian Jones hardly appeared on the album because he was severely damaged by his drug abuse and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards isolated him because of that, either not recording his contributions or deleting them afterwards. With the track No Expectations "Brian Jones' skill and brilliance flashes once again," said Steve Appleford about this song. Despite his drug problems and troubled health, No Expectations proves that Jones was still able to add deeply moving embellishments and to crown each piece. “That was the last time I saw Brian fully engaged, involved in something that was really worth something. Then he just lost interest in everything, ”Jagger told Rolling Stone magazine in 1995.

The song Dear Doctor documents the Rolling Stones 'growing and deepening interest in country music , based on Richards' longstanding admiration for the music of Hank Williams and Merle Haggard . Working with Gram Parsons , this development should continue to Exile on Main Street . At the same time, the American folk band The Byrds, under the influence of Parsons, had dealt with country music and released the album Sweetheart of the Rodeo .

In the longing song Parachute Woman (“Parachute Woman”), old blues metaphors flow according to Peter Appleford: “Jagger proclaims his message with lascivious happiness and a rolling tongue - rough sexual innuendos. Wyman played a fretless acoustic bass guitar, Watts hit a set of street drums, Jagger played percussion, Richards the acoustic guitar and Jones tried various instruments, including a sitar. "

Street Fighting Man is seen as a statement by the Stones about the youth rebellion that was taking place at the time, the flare-up of which the band "tended to accompany from outside" (Appleford). At least they proved their ability to “ask questions that neither side liked to hear”: “But what can a poor boy do…” opens up a series of musical statements and self-definitions by the band on the relationship between politics and music; This series will be continued in You Can't Always Get What You Want on the follow-up record Let It Bleed and came to a preliminary conclusion in the mid-seventies: It's only Rock'n Roll ... Street Fighting Man was made in the USA during the Democratic Party Congressnot playedby Chicago radio stations. While Jig-Saw Puzzle is heavily influenced by Bob Dylan , the dark Stray Cat Blues has its role models in titles like Sister Ray and Heroin from The Velvet Underground , "dark analyzes of humanity, music full of powerful rhythms and unusual distortions". After Factory Girl, a country song by Jagger about a working class girl, the final song begins. Keith Richards engaged gospel singers from Los Angeles for the choir singing at the hymn Salt of the Earth . The song begins with a disarmingly simple sound: Richards sings in a smoky voice and plays acoustic guitar. "He sits in the pub and raises his glass to the working class: 'Let's drink to the hard-working people'". The song then develops into an epic gospel , with a choir and a gorgeous piano melody. In December 1968Jagger and Richards sangthe songlive to a playback on the television show Rock and Roll Circus .

Reception of the album

Beggars Banquet is rated by many critics as one of the best albums in rock music . In the November 2004 issue, the German Rolling Stone voted the album at number 21 on its list of the 500 best albums of all time . The US edition of Rolling Stone placed the album at 58.

Some radio stations refused to play the song Street Fighting Man because they saw it as a call to violence.

The filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard filmed the creation of the song Sympathy for the Devil , which was influenced by the voodoo cult, and thus brought out the dark sides of the Rolling Stones music. An 18-minute live version, played together with African drummers, formed the culmination and climax of the legendary Stones concert in London's Hyde Park on July 5, 1969.

Of the ten songs on the album Beggars Banquet were two never played live: Dear Doctor and the influence of Bob Dylan declining Jig-Saw Puzzle . Rod Stewart had an early hit with his version of Street Fighting Man , Bryan Ferry recorded his own version of Sympathy for the Devil . The politically active band Rage Against the Machine covered the song Street Fighting Man and dressed it up musically. It then appeared on their Renegades album .

The cover

The Stones intended to have a graffiti- painted wall and toilet on the cover of the LP . Photographer Barry Feinstein later recalled, “I was hanging out with Mick in Hollywood and we were figuring out what to record for the album. We then went to my auto mechanic in the workshop. I had to go there anyway. Then we smeared the album title on the wall in red in the toilet. ”The record company didn't want to publish this cover, so the decision was made to print the LP with a beige cover with a gold-colored border that only had the words Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet RSVP contributed to the market ( RSVP stands in French for " r épondez s ' il v ous p laît" as a polite request for a reply to the host on invitations). The cover of the record can be opened, the inner double page shows the band members at a mighty table, in bold clothes, sitting and sometimes lying down, during a pompous feeding orgy. Today the plate is available again in the originally planned version with the image of the toilet. Issues with the beige cover have therefore become coveted collector's items.

The controversy over the cover design delayed the edition of the album again and again in 1968; On September 7th, the band's spokesman announced: "There is still no release date." The Daily Mail reported on October 30th: "The Stones could not prevail in the fight for the photo with the toilet sayings."

The artistic director of the cover design was Tom Wilkes .

Track list

All songs are by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, unless otherwise noted.

Page 1:

  1. Sympathy for the Devil (6:18)
  2. No Expectations (3:56)
  3. Dear Doctor (3:22)
  4. Parachute Woman (2:20)
  5. Jig-Saw Puzzle (6:06)

Page 2:

  1. Street Fighting Man (3:16)
  2. Prodigal Son ( Reverend Robert Wilkins ) (2:52)
  3. Stray Cat Blues (4:37)
  4. Factory Girl (2:09)
  5. Salt of the Earth (4:47)

literature

  • Steve Appleford: The Rolling Stones. Rip this joint. The story for every song . Rockbuch Verlag, Schlüchtern 2003, ISBN 3-927638-11-0 .
  • Bill Wyman: Bill Wyman's Rolling Stones Story . Dorling Kindersley, Starnberg 2002, ISBN 3-8310-0391-2 .
  • The Rolling Stones. Songbook. 155 songs [1963–1977] with sheet music. German by Teja Schwaner, Jörg Fauser and Carl Weissner . With 75 alternative translations by Helmut Salzinger . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 1977, pp. 180-203, 585-629 and 939-940.

Web links

Notes / evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/19681222/7502/
  2. ^ Information from B. Wyman, p. 314 f.
  3. ^ Information from B. Wyman, p. 315
  4. ↑ cit. after Appleford, p. 75.
  5. ↑ See Appleford, p. 76 f.
  6. ↑ cit. after Appleford, p. 77.
  7. ↑ cit. P. 79
  8. ↑ cf. Appleford, p. 80
  9. ↑ cit. after Appleford, p. 81.
  10. ↑ Levy, Joe (Ed.): Rolling Stone. The 500 best albums of all time . (Original edition: Rolling Stone. The 500 Greatest Albums of all Time . Wenner Media 2005). Translation: Karin Hofmann. Wiesbaden: White Star Verlag, 2011, p. 75
  11. ↑ cit. According to Andrian Kreys : It's me . Süddeutsche Zeitung , No. 196 from 23./24. August 2008
  12. ↑ cit. after B. Wyman, p. 315