Customer Reviews

Emotional Rescue

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The 1980's opened for the Rolling Stones with their Emotional Rescue album, released three days after my 12th birthday. To say that Emotional Rescue is Some Girls leftovers warmed over is somewhat harsh. Now granted, the two albums have a similar sound, rock with some disco leanings, and Some Girls is a much better album than its successor, but ER isn't an album to be totally dismissed because it pales alongside its parent album.
Far from it, this was better than expected, although I will make references to songs from Some Girls.

"Dance (Pt. 1)" opens with the funky disco beats that coloured "Miss You", but with a harder-edged sound-call it Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" meets Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Underfoot." A strong opener good for dancing and jamming to.
The reggae-flavoured "Send It To Me" seems to be a sequel to "Some Girls." Where the latter described what different kind of girls were like based on ethnicity and skin colour, the other song is kind of like a dating service. There's some humour at the end, when Mick sings "she could be Romanian, she could be Bulgarian, she could be Albanian, she could be Hungarian, she could be Ukrainian, .... she could be the Alien, send her to me." OK, Mick, you can have the Alien, I'll take the Romanian girl.

A rumbling guitar opens the rocker "Let Me Go," which is this album's "Respectable" about a girl who doesn't seem to understand the words, "it's over between us." "Indian Girl" is this album's "Beast of Burden" with some country inflections and some horns, though with the sober topic, nothing singleworthy. It's a portrait of the hardships inflicted on the indigenous population of Latin America by soldiers: " Lesson number one that you learn while you're young/Life just goes on and on getting harder and harder."

The most engaging track is the hard-driving "Where The Boys Go," which is this album's "Lies" with a chanting harmony refrain. This macho guilty pleasure gets raunchy towards the end, where the refrain goes "a little piece of..." Then it's cooling off time with some slow blues of "Down in The Hole" of hard life in the American zone (of Berlin I presume).

The title track, which reached #3, is the analogue of "Miss You," featuring some disco beats and Mick's falsetto, and is arguably one of the two best tracks. The other one, the rocker "She's So Cold," is this album's "Shattered," with the same quick-paced drums and drums. "I'm so hot for you and you're so cold," comparing her to an ice cream cone, and lines of his hand freezing when he touches her are featured in this ice queen song. This bettered "Shattered" by peaking at #26.

Emotional Rescue has been reviled alongside Black And Blue, Undercover, and It's Only Rock And Roll as one of the Stones' weakest albums, but maybe that's because it is repeatedly compared with Some Girls or Tattoo You, the albums it is chronologically sandwiched inbetween. With songs like the two singles, "Dance," and "Where The Boys Go," such is not the case. Major reevaluation required.

Emotional Rescue was originally released June 24, 1980, it went to #1 in both the UK & US. The album includes the single hits Emotional Rescue and She's So Cold. Most people know the music, so in my reviews I try to give you data on the sessions and interesting facts connected with the songs and the album. Here we go:

Interesting notes include:
.....the vinyl album was released with a large color poster of images taken of the Band with a thermographic camera that imaged the body heat instead of light.....a video was also done with thermographic cameras
.....the tracks on the album were recorded while Keith started his band The New Barbarians to fulfill his drug conviction sentence in Toronto by playing a benefit for the blind, which he did with Ron Wood and the rest of the Stones, and then did a tour (which made no money because the drug expenses were so high)....John Belushi was with the Band for most of the tour
.....Band members Ronnie Wood, Mick Taylor, and Ian McLagan all released albums (with accusations that their best work had gone into their solo efforts)

The sessions for Emotional Rescue were very productive with many unreleased songs. They started in Nassau and continued in Paris with overdub and final mixing at Electric Lady Studios in NYC during Nov & Dec of 1979 and in April 1980.
Jan 18 - Feb 12, 1979 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau
.....She's So Cold
.....All About You
Jun 10 - Aug 25 & Sep 12 - Oct 19, 1979 at Pathe Marconi/EMI Studios in Paris
.....Dance
.....Summer Romance
.....Send It To Me
.....Let Me Go
.....Indian Girl
.....Where The Boys Go
.....Down In The Hole
.....Emotional Rescue

Also recorded during the Emotional Rescue sessions were:
.....Little T & A (released on Tattoo You)
.....Hang Fire (released on Tattoo You)
.....Worried About You (released on Tattoo You)
.....If I Was A Dancer (Dance, Pt. 2) (released as a 12" single)
.....Black Limousine (released on Tattoo You)
.....No Use In Crying (released on Tattoo You)

Tracks from these sessions that were never released included Gangster's Moll, I'll Let You Know, Linda Lu, Lonely At the Top, It Won't Be Long, Still In Love, Sweet Home Chicago, What's The Matter, You're So Beautiful (But You Gotta Die Someday), Break Away, and Sands Of Time.

This information comes from "It's Only Rock And Roll: The Ultimate Guide To The Rolling Stones" by Karnbach and Bernson and from my own collection, with some of the notes from Davis' "Old Gods Almost Dead." Both books are available from amazon.com.

Emotional Rescue is basically a sequel to Some Girls and if it is not quite as good as that landmark, more in the same vein is not at all a bad thing. Song for song it is not as good as Tattoo You but probably a notch above Undercover and miles better than Steel Wheels, Voodoo Lounge or Bridges to Babylon.

1. Dance Pt.1 is a disco-rock song of its era with some funny Mick jive vocals. The kind of thing Mick probably felt compelled to create to impress his Studio 54 pals. Interestingly, the band resurrected this track for their Licks Tour club shows and it still sounds pretty good (just don't tell Keith he is playing disco).

2. Summer Romance is a fun rocking song. Sort of a throwback to a 50's-style rocker with a fast tempo echoing the punk rock of the time. Overall, very enjoyable.

3. Send It To Me: A not at all bad pop rock song with a bit of a groove to it. In the tradition of songs like Luxury that attempt Reggae, miss the mark, but end up enjoyable anyway.

4. Let Me Go: Okay, the version here is a fine if not too memorable pop rock song. However, for the 1981 tour the band goosed the tempo and really made this one come alive. See the Still Life live album for the definitive version of this song.

5. Indian Girl: I cannot defend this one. In my opinion, Indian Girl ties In Another Land from the SMR record for weirdest Stones song of all time. It is a lazy, sleepy ode to the female child of a mother / father team of Cuban guerrilla fighters battling somewhere in Angola. Huh? I had no idea Keith and Ronnie were so skilled in the art of Mariachi.

6. Where The Boys Go: A fast, punkish,rocker featuring faux cockney vocal stylings from a slumming Mick Jagger. The good fun quotient is upped a notch by the squealing girl-group backup singers

7. Down in the Hole: Very good, introspective blues song trippy in that the blues the protagonist has seems to be brought on by the fact that he is living in occupied West Berlin in the immediate aftermath of WWII! A total downer in a really good way

8. Emotional Rescue: A big hit that the band seems to disown. This is an epic dance groover ala Miss You. Nifty dreamy talk-sing section where Mick goes on about romantic knighthood in the Arabian desert! This one screams for inclusion on their upcoming tour. Dust this one off boys

9. She's So Cold: My favorite track on the album. Classic Stones rocker that stands toe to toe with their best. It was a great addition to the '81 tour but for some reason they did not include it on Still Life and have never played it since. Love Wyman's bass and Charlie's cymbal clash's on this song and throughout the record.

10. All About You: Fine world-weary Keith ballad

So there you go. Give this one another chance it has hidden depths.

Why this album is so maligned among Stones fans will forever baffle me. Maybe because it was the follow-up to Some Girls and some feel it pales in comparison? Maybe because there happens to be no major statements from the authors of "Gimme Shelter", "Street Fighting Man", "Wild Horses" (and plenty of others)? Because they feel there's a surplus of filler?

These are valid arguments, but what it overlooks is that this is the sound of the Stones simply enjoying themselves. It's worth noting that during this period not only were the Stones enjoying the fruits of their commerical and artistic triumph with Some Girls, but also that both Mick and Keith had new love interests in their lives, and Keith was a free man, having recently gotten off his Canadian charges for possession of heroin with intent to traffic.

So why not have some fun? From the first moments, "Dance" presents itself as a groove. Then Mick and Keith actually have a discussion over the track, evetually Mick getting to proclaiming "Get up, get out, get into something new". No, it's not "You Can't Always Get What you Want"...but who said it has to be? A lyric like "When I touched her, my hand just froze" from "She's So Cold" may not be "My name is called Disturbance/I'll shout and scream, I'll kill the king, and rail at his servants", but so what? It's still a killer tune.

Throughout the album, the funny, goofy, New Wave-influenced songs work best. "Send It To Me", "Let Me Go", "She's So Cold", the title track. When Mick's sense of humor is on - the goofy spoken section of the title track, the reggae-influenced laundry list of types of women Mick would like to meet (including "ukranian, albanian, even alien") - the album is absolutely engaging, charming, and absorbing.

However, with material like "Summer Romance", "Where the Boys Go" (where with a bunch teeny-bopping female back-up singers the goofiness goes a little too far), "Indian Girl' (good lyrics, banal song), and "Down in the Hole", there IS an abundance of filler. Even Send It To Me and Let Me Go can be reagrded as filler - but hugely entertaining, well-crafted filler.

The most sophisticated, sincere piece of music is the closer, Keiht's "All About You". A sensitive ballad with bitter lyrics, it's a sad, heartfelt farewell to a lost relationship. A very touching, very stirring, and emotional way to end an otherwise fun, light New-Wave album.

Emotional Rescue is hardly the Stones at their peak, but it remains a very good, enjoyable album nonetheless. Recommended listening for those late spring/early summer house parties or while driving with the top down (and maybe with a CD burner closeby to omit the filler).

It appears it wasn't until 1980 when this record was released that the Stones fully digested the massive disco, funk and soul influences of the 70's. Sure, "Miss You" is their best dance track ever, but the "Emotional Rescue" album has a much stronger overall dance vibe than any Stones record, past or present. "Dance (Pt. 1)" is their noisy, sloppy dance intro, with jagged guitars and rising horns. The disco influences appear again on "Send It To Me" and "Where The Boys Go", but they still always sound like the Stones. Mick's amateur falsetto on the title cut gives excellent weight to their attempt at funk with Wyman's bass laying down a dirty groove (the bass work on this album is considerable overall). And of course, no great Stones album would be complete without a signature Keith Richards ballad, this time Keith closes the record on a somber note.

There are the expected Stones-y tunes though. "Indian Girl" is their usual "lazy country" song, and "She's So Cold" is the obvious crank-it-up rocker. This is slightly a more adventurous album, but a great guitar-slop fest nonetheless from Mick & Co.

This is one of my favorites because of the title track and She's So Cold (which for some reason is not on the new Forty Licks hits collection). Like Goat's Head Soup this gets overlooked. Yes this album has filler but from all the albums that came out right before and after (Some Girls, Tattoo You and Undercover of the Night) I listen to this album the most. It is a real fun album by the Stones which makes it cool to listen to.

A lot of listeners are divided about this record, which is the middle part of a trilogy of albums (starting with 'Some Girls' and ending with 'Tattoo You') that were written and recorded during the same time frame. True, the stonger songs probably ended up on the other two records, but 'Emotional Rescue' deserves repeated listens as it is initially too easy too dismiss. First of all, "She's So Cold" is one of their best songs ever -- very underrated. Many of the other songs are interesting, including Keith's "All About You", which he said was written about his dog but could also be directed at an ex-lover. If you choose this over "Some Girls", "Exile On Main Street", or "Sticky Fingers", you'll probably be disappointed. But its better than "Undercover", "Dirty Work" (which is awful), and "Goat's Head Soup".

Damn good. Damn, DAMN good. I have read only one record book so far that rates this as a hot album, and hey, what can I say? I guess in this case I'm sticking up for the underdog. "Emotional Rescue" is hot. It rocks. It varies. The only track I don't care for on the whole collection is "Where The Boys Go", and even then THAT track is merely a mildly disappointing one instead of a major piece of dreck. Once you get over laughing hysterically the first time you hear the Stones trying to impersonate the Bee Gees on the title track, ignore Mick's cracking-all-over-the-place falsetto and check out the musicianship...talk about style and class (LOVE that BASS!!!). "Summer Romance", "Let Me Go" and "She's So Cold" are genuinely blood-pulsing party grooves in the great Stones tradition, "Dance (Part 1)" is genuinely enjoyable AND genuinely narcissistic-sounding (hey, only these guys can make a disco track sound dirty, dangerous and flat-out deliciously NASTY like this...where's "Part 2"???). "Send It To Me" is a real jewel, the most thoroughly addictive song on the album--once you hear it, you WON'T be able to get this impressive chunk of ear candy out of your head for DAYS, trust me. And, of course, the whole thing closes with the wistful sigh of "All About You" one of Keith's finest performances. Fantastically written, endlessly enjoyable and yet grossly underrated, this disc is a classic that deserves more praise and attention than it's getting. Be a nonconformist. But this one and love every moment of it.

As Robert Christgau predicted in his "Consumer Guide" 25 years ago, the first Rolling Stones album of the 1980s will likely sound a lot fresher than "It's Only Rock 'n Roll" (1974)when we compare and contrast in our respective retirement homes. On first impression ER seemed rather empty and frivolous coming after 1978's powerful "Some Girls", which had real impact as a major statement from the Stones, had also been seen as a comeback of sorts, coming after with two years in which Keith Richards had been busted several times, and faced a long jail sentence due to the famous Toronto incident. Also, the punk movement changed 'real' rock 'n' roll, thus the Stones (or Led Zep, The Who, etc) but disco seemed an even more controversial (and popular) movement.
Once you forget "Some Girls" and listen, what we have in "Emotional Rescue" is a good record by a great band taking chances, and sounding not at all like the Stones of 1965 or 1971. Keith Richards and Ron Wood really do blur the rhythm/lead roles, much more than Keith and Mick Taylor did. The way they play off each other, darting in and around the beat, is masterful, and due to one or the other's various battles with addictions, medical problems, and band dynamics this hasn't always been the case. With "Steel Wheels" and the 1989 - 90tours for example, the band would lose some of this intuitive, almost jazz-like playfulness. The funk ("Dance") is vital, but the rockers are slight, punk influenced, laconic, Jagger playing with and parodying personae when he's got nothing to get worked up about, yet 'Summer Romance' and 'Where The Boys Go' are great fun, with dirty guitars and Ian Stewart, and the funkiest rhythm section in rock and roll. And if as Jagger said once, you can smell the cocaine off the grooves in the vinyl, well they end this album with an unexpected emotional wallop: Keith's lead vocal, "All About You" seems like a country ballad, with bitter, haunting lyrics ("You're the first bitch to get laid/Always the last bitch to get paid...I'm so sick and tired/hanging around with dogs like you") assumed at the time to be directed at longtime partner Anita Pallenberg, who had been in the news when this record was being made. (It almost recalls Marianne Faithfull's acerbic send-off "Why'd ya DoIt?" from 1979's "Broken English") Only "Indian Girl", with its affected spoken interludes, seems off, alternately poignant and confused. ("Think I'm Going Mad," an outtake finished and issued as a b-side in 1984, would have given this album much more heft - sometimes one or two songs can utterly alter perceptions of an album.) As it stands, this album feels disconnected at times, though the band hardly sounds jaded. The mix and the tracks sounnd terrific, and the eighteen months' work shows the Stones at a new level of mastery, yet without a lot to say. Finally, the music is alive. The rock and roll swings, the funk and reggae grooves are deep and satisfying. And with recording taking place before AND after the New Barbarians' tour, how could this not be a great guitar album, if hardly a major statement?
If you dismissed this as Some Girls redux - listen again.

I consider myself a huge Stones fan and I purchased this LP when it first came out in 1980. I was dissapointed then and I still think it is a somewhat weak album from the Stones. While I will admit it is marginally better than Tattoo You, it is very weak next to Some Girls. Really, giving it 5 stars to prove a point that it is underrated is wrong because it is just about a 3 star album. Save your five stars for Sticky Fingers, Some Girls and Let It Bleed. From the Brian Jones era I recommend Aftermath, Between The Buttons. THESE are all five stars, not this lackluster effort.