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BEGGARS BANQUET IS BEST by Bob Lefsetz Beggars Banquet was the second Stones album I bought. I bought every Beatles album as soon as it was released. But I didn't need the Stones albums. Actually, at this point, I was one of the few people who even BOUGHT albums. Most everybody else bought singles. But I gave up singles with the Four Seasons. You see, singles didn't make economic sense. Furthermore, as a fan, I wanted ALL the material. I didn't see the albums as two hits and filler; rather I saw them as an example of the act's oeuvre. Hell, I didn't even buy "She's Just My Style" as a single; rather I bought the Gary Lewis & the Playboys album containing it! Almost nobody I knew had the Stones albums. And when I found them at a friend's house and played them, except for the hits, they seemed somewhat backward, with the R&B influences. The album tracks weren't catchy, like those of the Beatles. And when you had an interest in an act, but couldn't rationalize buying its albums, you waited for the greatest-hits record. I did this with the Kinks. Gerry & the Pacemakers. And the Stones. The name of the record was Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass). High Tide and Green Grass contained the big hit "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." The ubiquitous radio singles "Get Off My Cloud" and "19th Nervous Breakdown." And "Time Is on My Side." And I played those, along with "As Tears Go By" and "Tell Me," the first track of the Stones that ever captured me. (I saw them perform it on I think it was Shivaree. Bill Wyman held his bass upright. Brian Jones was so cool and good-looking, I wanted to be a girl to f*ck him. And Mick Jagger mugged, but not in the cartoon fashion he does today. They were otherworldly, different, DANGEROUS!) But those weren't the songs that truly penetrated me on High Tide and Green Grass. The ones I played over and over again. No, that elevated status was saved for the absolutely CREEPY "Play With Fire." With the reference to Stepney. It all seemed so REAL! And the rocking romp "It's All Over Now" (still better than Rod Stewart's, but not by much). And the piece de resistance, "The Last Time." That guitar lick, it was like riding an inverted roller coaster. You couldn't ignore it, you were along for the journey, you were RIVETED! I learned to play the riff on my Japanese electric guitar. Like every other pubescent male. Playing it on those stiff strings removed me from the workaday world, put me on another planet. In England. With these amazing MUSICIANS! Now I got Flowers for Hanukkah the following year. And it contained the sweet but far from wimpy "Ruby Tuesday." And "Mother's Little Helper." It didn't contain arguably the best Stones track EVER, "Under My Thumb," but hell you got only one record for Hanukkah. And I wasn't about to buy Aftermath with my own money. Nor did I buy Between the Buttons. Or the Sgt. Pepper imitation Their Satanic Majesties Request. But by the time the following year rolled around, the rock press had finally come of age. And EVERYBODY, even The New York Times, said Beggars Banquet was better than the Beatles' White Album, released the same day. But I didn't buy it immediately. For I had to spend my pennies on the Beatles' double opus. But in the beginning of January '69, when I saw in The New York Times that it was on sale at Korvette's, I popped. The critics said this wasn't a pastiche like the Stones albums before it. It was a cohesive whole. A STATEMENT! |
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