Beggars Banquet | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 6 December 1968 | |||
Recorded | 17 March – 25 July 1968 | |||
Studio | Olympic, London; [1] Sunset Sound, Los Angeles | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 39:44 | |||
Label | Decca (UK) · London (US) | |||
Producer | Jimmy Miller | |||
The Rolling Stones chronology | ||||
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Alternate cover | ||||
Singles from Beggars Banquet | ||||
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Beggars Banquet is the seventh studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones,released on 6 December 1968 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and by London Records in the United States. It was the first Rolling Stones album produced by Jimmy Miller,whose production work formed a key aspect of the group's sound throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Brian Jones,the band's co-founder and early leader,had become increasingly unreliable in the studio due to his drug use,and it was the last Rolling Stones album to be released during his lifetime,though he also contributed to two songs on their next album Let It Bleed ,which was released after his death (Jones also contributed to the group's hit song "Jumpin' Jack Flash",which was part of the same sessions,and released in May 1968). Nearly all rhythm and lead guitar parts were recorded by Keith Richards,the Rolling Stones' other guitarist and the primary songwriting partner of their lead singer Mick Jagger;together the two wrote all but one of the tracks on the album. Rounding out the instrumentation were bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts,though all members contributed on a variety of instruments. As with most albums of the period,frequent collaborator Nicky Hopkins played piano on many of the tracks.
Beggars Banquet marked a change in direction for the band following the psychedelic pop of their previous two albums, Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request . [2] Styles such as roots rock and a return to the blues rock sound that had marked early Stones recordings dominate the record,and the album is among the most instrumentally experimental of the band's career,as they use Latin beats and instruments like the claves alongside South Asian sounds from the tanpura,tabla and shehnai,and African music-influenced conga rhythms.
Beggars Banquet was a top-ten album in many markets,including a number 5 position in the US—where it has been certified platinum—and a number 3 position in the band's native UK. It received a highly favourable response from music critics,who deemed it a return to form. While the album lacked a hit single at the time of its release,songs such as "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Street Fighting Man" became rock radio staples for decades to come. The album has appeared on many lists of the greatest albums of all time,including by Rolling Stone ,and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Glyn Johns,the album's recording engineer and a longtime collaborator of the band,said that Beggars Banquet signalled "the Rolling Stones' coming of age. ... I think that the material was far better than anything they'd ever done before. The whole mood of the record was far stronger to me musically." [6] Producer Jimmy Miller described guitarist Keith Richards as "a real workhorse" while recording the album,mostly due to the infrequent presence of Brian Jones. When he did show up at the sessions,Jones behaved erratically due to his drug use and emotional problems. [6] Miller said that Jones would "show up occasionally when he was in the mood to play,and he could never really be relied on:
When he would show up at a session—let's say he had just bought a sitar that day, he'd feel like playing it, so he'd look in his calendar to see if the Stones were in. Now he may have missed the previous four sessions. We'd be doing let's say, a blues thing. He'd walk in with a sitar, which was totally irrelevant to what we were doing, and want to play it. I used to try to accommodate him. I would isolate him, put him in a booth and not record him onto any track that we really needed. And the others, particularly Mick and Keith, would often say to me, 'Just tell him to piss off and get the hell out of here'. [6]
Jones contributed to eight tracks on the album, playing sitar [7] [8] and tanpura on "Street Fighting Man", [9] slide guitar on "No Expectations", harmonica on "Parachute Woman", "Dear Doctor" and "Prodigal Son", [10] acoustic guitar and backing vocals on "Sympathy for the Devil", [11] and Mellotron on "Jigsaw Puzzle" and "Stray Cat Blues". [12] In a television interview, Mick Jagger recalled that Jones' slide guitar performance on "No Expectations" was the last time he contributed something with care. Other than Jones, the principal band members appeared extensively, with Richards providing nearly all of the lead and rhythm guitar work, as well as playing bass on two others, in the place of Bill Wyman, who appears on the rest. Drummer Charlie Watts plays the drum kit on all but two tracks, as well as other percussion on the tracks that do not feature a full drum kit. Additional parts were played by keyboardist and frequent Rolling Stones collaborator Nicky Hopkins and percussionist Rocky Dijon, among others.
The basic track of "Street Fighting Man" was recorded on an early Philips cassette deck at London's Olympic Sound Studios, where Richards played a Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar, and Watts played on an antique, portable practice drum kit. [13] Richards and Jagger took credit as writers on "Prodigal Son", a cover of Robert Wilkins's Biblical blues song. [6]
Celebrating the completion of the album, Jagger held a party at Vesuvio's nightclub in Central London. Paul McCartney attended with an acetate copy of "Hey Jude". The song upstaged Beggars Banquet and, in author John Winn's description, "reportedly ruin[ed]" the party. [14]
According to Keith Richards, the album's title was thought up by British art dealer Christopher Gibbs. [15] The album's original front and back cover art, photographs by Barry Feinstein depicting a bathroom wall covered with graffiti, was rejected by the band's record company, [16] [17] which delayed the album's release for months. [6] Feinstein's photographs were later featured though on most vinyl, compact disc and cassette tape reissues of the album. [6] [18] On 7 June 1968, a photoshoot for the album's gatefold, with photographer Michael Joseph, was held at Sarum Chase, a mansion in Hampstead, London. [19] Previously unseen images from the shoot were exhibited at the Blink Gallery in London in November and December 2008. [20]
Beggars Banquet was first released in the United Kingdom by Decca Records on 6 December 1968, and in the United States by London Records the following day. [21] Like the band's previous album, it reached number three on the UK Albums Chart, but remained on the chart for fewer weeks. [22] The album peaked at number five on the Billboard 200. [23]
On 11–12 December 1968 the band filmed a television extravaganza titled The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus featuring John Lennon, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, The Who, Jethro Tull and Marianne Faithfull among the musical guests. [24] [25] One of the original aims of the project was to promote Beggars Banquet, but the film was shelved by the Rolling Stones until 1996, when their former manager, Allen Klein, gave it an official release. [26]
Beggars Banquet received a highly favourable response from music critics, [27] [28] who considered it a return to form for the Stones. [29] [30] Author Stephen Davis writes of its impact: "[The album was] a sharp reflection of the convulsive psychic currents coursing through the Western world. Nothing else captured the youthful spirit of Europe in 1968 like Beggars Banquet." [28]
According to music journalist Anthony DeCurtis, the "political correctness" of "Street Fighting Man", particularly the lyrics "What can a poor boy do/'Cept sing in a rock and roll band", sparked intense debate in the underground media. [6] In the description of author and critic Ian MacDonald, French director Jean-Luc Godard's filming of the sessions for "Sympathy for the Devil" contributed to the band's image as "Left Bank heroes of the European Maoist underground", with the song's "Luciferian iconoclasm" interpreted as a political message. [31]
Time described the Stones as "England's most subversive roisterers since Fagin's gang in Oliver Twist " and added: "In keeping with a widespread mood in the pop world, Beggars Banquet turns back to the raw vitality of Negro R&B and the authentic simplicity of country music." [32] Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone considered that the band's regeneration marked the return of rock'n'roll, while the Chicago Sun-Times declared: "The Stones have unleashed their rawest, rudest, most arrogant, most savage record yet. And it's beautiful." [32]
Less impressed, the writer of Melody Maker 's initial review dismissed Beggars Banquet as "mediocre" and said that, since "The Stones are Mick Jagger", it was only the singer's "remarkable recording presence that makes this LP". [33] Geoffrey Cannon of The Guardian found that the album "demonstrates [the group's] primal power at its greatest strength" and wrote admiringly of Jagger's ability to fully engage the listener on "Sympathy for the Devil", saying: "We feel horror because, at full volume, he makes us ride his carrier wave with him, experience his sensations, and awaken us to ours." [34] In his ballot for Jazz & Pop magazine's annual critics poll, Robert Christgau ranked it as the third-best album of the year, and "Salt of the Earth" the best pop song of the year. [35] In April 1969, for Esquire , he wrote that Beggars Banquet is "unflawed and lacking something", in contrast to the Beatles' latest, Abbey Road , which "is flawed and great anyway." [36]
Retrospective professional reviews | |
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Aggregate scores | |
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 87/100 (50th anniversary) [37] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [29] |
And It Don't Stop | A [38] |
Boston Herald | [39] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [40] |
Entertainment Weekly | A [41] |
The Great Rock Discography | 10/10 [42] |
MusicHound Rock | 4.5/5 [43] |
NME | 8/10 [44] |
Rolling Stone | [6] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [45] |
In a retrospective review for Wondering Sound , Ben Fong-Torres called Beggars Banquet "an album flush with masterful and growling instant classics", and said that it "responds more to the chaos of '68 and to themselves than to any fellow artists ... the mood is one of dissolution and resignation, in the guise of a voice of an ambivalent authority." [46] Colin Larkin, in his Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2006), viewed the album as "a return to strength" which included "the socio-political 'Street Fighting Man' and the brilliantly macabre 'Sympathy for the Devil', in which Jagger's seductive vocal was backed by hypnotic Afro-rhythms and dervish yelps". [40] Writing for MusicHound in 1999, Greg Kot opined that the same two songs were the "weakest cuts", adding: "Otherwise, the disc is a tour de force of acoustic-tinged savagery and slumming sexuality, particularly the gleefully flippant 'Stray Cat Blues.'" [43] Larry Katz from the Boston Herald called Beggars Banquet "both a return to basics and leap forward". [39]
In his 1997 review for Rolling Stone, DeCurtis said the album was "filled with distinctive and original touches", and remarked on its legacy: "For the album, the Stones had gone to great lengths to toughen their sound and banish the haze of psychedelia, and in doing so, they launched a five-year period in which they would produce their very greatest records." [6] Author Martin C. Strong similarly considers Beggars Banquet to be the first album in the band's "staggering burst of creativity" over 1968–72 that ultimately comprised four of the best rock albums of all time. [42] Writing in 2007, Daryl Easlea of BBC Music said that, although in places it fails to maintain the quality of its opening song, Beggars Banquet represented the Rolling Stones at their sharpest. [47]
Beggars Banquet has appeared on professional listings of the greatest albums. It was included in the "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981). [48] In 2000, it was voted number 282 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums . [49] In 2003, it was ranked at number 57 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, [50] ranked at number 58 in a 2012 revised list, [51] and ranked at number 185 in a 2020 revised list. [52] Also in 2003, the TV network VH1 named Beggars Banquet the 67th greatest album of all time. The album is also featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . [53] In 1999, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. [54]
In August 2002, ABKCO Records reissued Beggars Banquet as a newly remastered LP and SACD/CD hybrid disk. [55] This release corrected a flaw in the original album by restoring each song to its proper, slightly faster speed. Due to an error in the mastering, Beggars Banquet was heard for over thirty years at a slower speed than it was recorded. This had the effect of altering not only the tempo of each song, but the song's key as well. These differences were subtle but important, and the remastered version is about 30 seconds shorter than the original release.
Also in 2002 the Russian label CD-Maximum unofficially released the limited edition Beggars Banquet + 7 Bonus, which was also bootlegged on a German counterfeit-DECCA label as Beggars Banquet (the Mono Beggars).
It was released once again in 2010 by Universal Music Enterprises in a Japanese-only SHM-SACDversion and on 24 November 2010 ABKCO Records released a SHM-CD version.
On 28 May 2013 ABKCO Records reissued the LP on vinyl.
In 2018, the album was reissued for its 50th anniversary. [56]
Record Store Day Edition appeared on the British market on Saturday, 22 April 2023. [57]
All tracks are written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, except "Prodigal Son" by Robert Wilkins.
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Sympathy for the Devil" | 6:18 |
2. | "No Expectations" | 3:56 |
3. | "Dear Doctor" | 3:28 |
4. | "Parachute Woman" | 2:20 |
5. | "Jigsaw Puzzle" | 6:06 |
Total length: | 22:08 |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Street Fighting Man" | 3:16 |
2. | "Prodigal Son" | 2:51 |
3. | "Stray Cat Blues" | 4:38 |
4. | "Factory Girl" | 2:09 |
5. | "Salt of the Earth" | 4:48 |
Total length: | 17:42 |
The Rolling Stones
Additional personnel
Chart (1968–1969) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) [62] | 3 |
Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [63] | 3 |
Finland (The Official Finnish Charts) [64] | 4 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [65] | 8 |
Japanese Albums (Oricon) [66] | 124 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [67] | 2 |
Sweden (Kvällstoppen) [68] | 16 |
UK Albums (OCC) [69] | 3 |
US Billboard 200 [70] | 5 |
Chart (2007) | Peak position |
---|---|
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [71] | 43 |
Chart (2012) | Peak position |
---|---|
French Albums (SNEP) [72] | 197 |
Chart (2018) | Peak position |
---|---|
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [73] | 44 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [74] | 156 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [75] | 67 |
Chart (2024) | Peak position |
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Croatian International Albums (HDU) [76] | 8 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [77] | Gold | 35,000‡ |
Canada (Music Canada) [78] | Gold | 50,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [79] release of 2006 | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [80] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pioneered the gritty, rhythmically driven sound that came to define hard rock. Their first stable line-up consisted of vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. During their early years, Jones was the primary leader. Andrew Loog Oldham became their manager in 1963 and encouraged them to write their own songs. The Jagger–Richards partnership soon became the band's primary songwriting and creative force.
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. His songwriting partnership with the band's lead vocalist Mick Jagger is one of the most successful in history. His career spans over six decades, and his guitar playing style has been a trademark of the Rolling Stones throughout the band's career. Richards gained press notoriety for his romantic involvements and illicit drug use, and he was often portrayed as a countercultural figure. First professionally known as Keith Richard, by the early 1970s he had fully asserted his family name.
Exile on Main St. is the tenth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 12 May 1972, by Rolling Stones Records. The 10th released in the UK and 12th in the US, it is viewed as a culmination of a string of the band's most critically successful albums, following Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969) and Sticky Fingers (1971). Exile on Main St. is known for its murky, inconsistent sound due to more disjointed musicianship and production, along with a party-like atmosphere heard in several tracks.
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released as a non-album single in 1968. Called "supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London" by Rolling Stone magazine, the song was seen as the band's return to their blues roots after the baroque pop and psychedelia heard on their preceding albums Aftermath (1966), Between the Buttons (1967) and especially Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967). One of the group's most popular and recognisable songs, it has been featured in films and covered by numerous performers, notably Thelma Houston, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Peter Frampton, Johnny Winter, Leon Russell and Alex Chilton. To date, it is the band's most-performed song; they have played it over 1,100 times in concert.
Let It Bleed is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 28 November 1969 by London Records in the United States and on 5 December 1969 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom. Released during the band's 1969 American Tour, it is the follow-up to Beggars Banquet (1968), and like that album is a return to the group's more blues-oriented approach that was prominent in the pre-Aftermath (1966) period of their career. Additional sounds on the album draw influence from gospel, country blues and country rock.
Nanker Phelge was a collective pseudonym used between 1963 and 1965 for several Rolling Stones group compositions. According to manager Andrew Loog Oldham the 'Nanker Phelge' credit was mostly used for tracks where the origin lay in blues standards from the 1950s they heard when visiting the Chess studios in Chicago. It also enabled Oldham to benefit from writing credits.
Sticky Fingers is the ninth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was released on 23 April 1971 on the Rolling Stones' new label, Rolling Stones Records. The Rolling Stones had been contracted by Decca Records and London Records in the UK and the US since 1963. On this album, Mick Taylor made his second full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album. It was the first studio album without Brian Jones, who died two years earlier. The original cover artwork, conceived by Andy Warhol and photographed and designed by members of his art collective, the Factory, showed a picture of a man in tight jeans, and had a working zip that opened to reveal underwear fabric. The cover was expensive to produce and damaged the vinyl record, so the size of the zipper adjustment was made by John Kosh at ABKCO records. Later re-issues featured just the outer photograph of the jeans.
"Sympathy for the Devil" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones. The song was written by Mick Jagger and credited to the Jagger–Richards partnership. It is the opening track on the band's 1968 album Beggars Banquet. The song has received critical acclaim and features on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list, being ranked number 106 in the 2021 edition.
Between the Buttons is the fifth British and seventh American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 20 January 1967 in the UK and 10 February in the US. Reflecting the band's brief foray into psychedelia and baroque pop balladry during the era, the album is among their most eclectic works; multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones frequently abandoned his guitar during the sessions in favour of instruments such as organ, marimba, dulcimer, vibraphone, kazoo, and theremin. Keyboard contributions came from two session players: former Rolling Stones member Ian Stewart and frequent contributor Jack Nitzsche. Between the Buttons would be the last album produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, who had, to this point, acted as the band's manager and produced all of their albums.
Out of Our Heads is the third studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released in two editions with different covers and track listings. In the US, London Records released it on 30 July 1965 as the band's fourth American album, while Decca Records released its UK edition on 24 September 1965 as the third British album.
The Rolling Stones, Now! is the third American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in March 1965 by their initial American distributor, London Records. Although it contains two previously unissued songs and an alternative version, the album mostly consists of songs released earlier in the United Kingdom, as well as the group's recent single in the United States, "Heart of Stone" backed with "What a Shame". Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote four of the songs on the album, with the balance composed by American rhythm and blues and rock and roll artists.
December's Children (And Everybody's) is the fifth American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released in December 1965. It is primarily compiled from different released tracks from across the band's recording career up to that point, including the UK version of Out of Our Heads. Bassist Bill Wyman quotes Jagger in 1968 calling the record "[not] an album, it's just a collection of songs." Accordingly, it is only briefly detailed in Wyman's otherwise exhaustive book Rolling with the Stones. It features their then-recent transatlantic hit single "Get Off of My Cloud", as well as their own remake of Marianne Faithfull's Jagger/Richards-penned hit "As Tears Go By", which was released as the album's second single in the US.
Aftermath is the fourth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. The group recorded the album at RCA Studios in California in December 1965 and March 1966, during breaks between their international tours. It was released in the United Kingdom on 15 April 1966 by Decca Records and in the United States in late June or early July 1966 by London Records. It is the band's fourth British and sixth American studio album, and closely follows a series of international hit singles that helped bring the Stones newfound wealth and fame rivalling that of their contemporaries the Beatles.
12 × 5 is the second American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released in 1964 following the success of their American debut The Rolling Stones . It is an expanded version of the EP Five by Five, which had followed their debut album in the UK.
Made in the Shade, released in 1975, is the fourth official compilation album by the Rolling Stones, and the first under their Atlantic Records contract. It covers material from Sticky Fingers (1971), Exile on Main St. (1972), Goats Head Soup (1973) and It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (1974).
Through the Past, Darkly is the third compilation album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released in September 1969 by Decca Records in the UK and London Records/ABKCO Records in the US.
Metamorphosis is the third compilation album of the Rolling Stones music released by former manager Allen Klein's ABKCO Records after the band's departure from Decca and Klein. Released in 1975, Metamorphosis centres on outtakes and alternate versions of well-known songs recorded from 1964 to 1970.
"Heart of Stone" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, credited to the songwriting partnership of Jagger/Richards. London Records first issued it as a single in the United States in December 1964. The song was subsequently included on The Rolling Stones, Now! and Out of Our Heads.
"Salt of the Earth" is the final song from English rock band the Rolling Stones album Beggars Banquet (1968). Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the song includes an opening lead vocal by Richards. It is the second official track by the group to feature him on lead vocal.
The Rolling Stones in Mono is a box set by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released by ABKCO Records in September 2016. It contains most of the group's British and American studio albums from the 1960s in mono format, on fifteen compact discs or sixteen vinyl records. All tracks were remastered using the Direct Stream Digital process by Bob Ludwig. The original recordings were produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, Jimmy Miller and the Rolling Stones.