1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die - #107. Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet (1968)

Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet (1968)

Label – Decca
Producer – Jimmy Miller
Art Direction –Tom Wilkes
Nationality –UK
Running Time –39:43

Track Listing (standout tracks listed in bold)

1. Sympathy For The Devil
2. No Expectations
3. Dear Doctor
4. Parachute Woman
5. Jigsaw Puzzle
6. Street Fighting Man
7. Prodigal Son
8. Stray Cat Blues
9. Factory Girl
10. Salt Of The Earth

To me this is where the Rolling Stones really began to find themselves and began producing some of their finest music. It’s no coincidence that this happened when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards asserted themselves and took over the band from it’s founder Brian Jones. While he is on this record, his contributions were minimal at best. Stripping away the most recent psychedelic experimentation that all bands were doing at the time, The Stones decided to return to their blues roots and the result is this one of their most celebrated albums, and is considered one of their landmark achievements. What’s not to love. The sparse production by Jimmy Miller lets the songs and performances stand on their own. There is a strong acoustic Delta blues flavor that matches the material, particularly "Salt of the Earth" and "No Expectations," which features some beautiful slide guitar work. The performances are laid back and comfortable and you could almost picture them on your front porch sipping cider and playing the blues – and they sound so good they could have been recorded yesterday.
Of course rock & roll was not forgotten, and the mega smash "Street Fighting Man," - a reflection of the political turbulence of 1968 – was and is still one of their most innovative singles. Perhaps the best know track by the Stones, "Sympathy for the Devil," complete with its fire-dancing guitar licks, and leering Jagger vocals, African pounding rhythms, and those satanic lyrics, this track was truly an image-defining epic. To be sure, “Beggars Banquet” is one of the top blues-based rock records of all time. Period.
There was some controversy over the cover however. Both Decca Records in England and London Records rejected the planned cover design - a graffiti-covered lavatory, (pictured above) which caused the band to delay the release of the the album. The Rolling Stones eventually gave in, and the record was released initially with a simple imitation invitation card cover. (pictured on the left). By 1984, all releases began using the original cover art.
Critics considered the LP as a return to form, and it was also a clear commercial success, reaching #3 in the UK and #5 in the US on the way to platinum status.
Also of note, in 2002 for the CD reissue of “Beggars Banquet” featured a new remaster of the record. This release corrected an important 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.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 57 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In the same year the TV network VH1 named Beggars Banquet the 67th greatest album of all time. It is of course HIGHLY recommended.


You can purchase the CD here.

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