As an offshoot to our Quarantine Blues: Musicians Killing Time In Isolation series, Mr. Jim Johnson - drummer extraordinaire & our resident Stones-ologist - came up with a list of his ten songs that would constitute a Perfect Stones Record. Then Ricki C. got wind of it and asked if he could jump on board with his ten picks. Videos seemed required, so it became a Saturday Night Special TV Party Tonight! Ladies & gentlemen, The Rolling Stones…….

Jim Johnson - OK, we all have a lot of time to kill, so I decided to put 10 Stones songs on a record, that I cannot live without.

SIDE ONE

1. Brown Sugar. -  There’s no better way to kick off a Stones record. I’ve heard it a million times, and it never gets old.

 2. Live With Me. - Nothing says “Stones” for me better than this song. Not politically correct in this day and age, talking about nasty habits and such, but it has the perfect bass line.

3. Street Fighting Man. - As relevant today as it was 50 years ago. Maybe more relevant.

4. Tumbling Dice. - They do it every tour, and I love it every time. I had to have a gambling song.

5. Moonlight Mile. - Because it’s a cool song and it reminds me why Mick Taylor was in the band.

SIDE TWO

6. Rocks Off. - Stones deliver the rock, like only they can. The perfect song to start side two.

7. Ruby Tuesday. - Because I want to remember it was Brian Jones’ band.

8. Love In Vain. - Because this song reminds me of Mike Parks on slide guitar.

9. Wild Horses.- Because when Mick sings this ballad, I tear up every time.

10. You Got The Silver. - Because it’s Keith’s best vocal on record.

I left off 20 more songs I couldn’t do without, but if I could only have 10, these are the ones I pick TODAY.

Ricki C. – I fully admit it, I wasn’t that crazy about The Rolling Stones the first time I saw them on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. (Pretty much the only place a 12-year old boy on the West Side of Columbus, Ohio, could see The Rolling Stones – or any other British Invasion band, for that matter – in 1964.) I found the Stones icky & weird. They didn’t even have matching suits like The Dave Clark 5, my then-favorite rock & roll band and ultimate yardstick for sartorial splendor. (I hadn’t seen The Who yet.)

I’m pretty sure the Stones played “Not Fade Away” that first night I saw ‘em. I remember saying to my 19-year old sister Dianne – who controlled the car radio in my dad’s Oldsmobile from her shotgun perch in the front seat while my brother & I were relegated to the back – “This is a 50’s song.” The next song I saw them do was Chuck Berry’s “Come On,” which I also knew from my age 5 to 12, pre-Beatles radio listening. I think I wrote the Stones off as an “oldies band” at that point and turned my attention back to The Dave Clark 5, The Searchers, and The Zombies. (I didn’t much care for The Beatles then either, but that’s a different story for another time.)

Anyway, sometime in ’65 “Satisfaction” happened and HOLY CHRIST! did I have to admit how wrong I was about a rock & roll band. The next Stones single was “Get Off My Cloud,” a record that quite literally saved my life. (Read about that here, if you like: Growing Old With Rock & Roll / “The Bathtub.”) After that there was “19th Nervous Breakdown,” there was “Paint It Black,” there was “Mother’s Little Helper,” there was “Ruby Tuesday,” there was “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” and about a half-dozen other PERFECT singles from the Stones.

Then there were the albums: Aftermath, Between The Buttons, Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed, Get Your Ya Ya’s Out, Sticky Fingers, Some Girls, etc. Has there ever been a greater rock & roll band? Nope. (The Who – whom I worshiped from 1966 to 1972, at least – might have been a close second, but they’ve fucked up so spectacularly from 1978 when Keith Moon died to 25 seconds ago when I started typing this sentence that I’ve written ‘em off completely.) So here’s my Perfect Stones Record (10 SONGS ONLY? Not nearly enough…..):

SIDE ONE

1) Not Fade Away - Buddy Holly wrote it, the Stones NAILED it. To this day when I tune a guitar for myself or for somebody I roadie for I use the E to A change that kicks off this tune to test the tuning.

2) Satisfaction - Sheer genius for the Stones to include the lyric “When I’m ridin’ ‘round the world and I’m doing this and I’m signing that and I’m tryin’ to make some girl who tells me, ‘Baby, better come back maybe next week, ‘cause you see I’m on a losin’ streak’” in a Number One record. For our readers under 60 years old: rock & roll tunes about Mick Jagger’s delayed sexual gratification due to his groupies’ menses situation/complication were NOT suitable fodder for AM radio listening in America in 1965. Were there NO adults listening to these songs back then?

3) Get Off My Cloud - I love every second of this song’s 2:53 length: from Charlie Watts’ perfect drum intro to the call & response chorus to the GREAT lyrics, but especially Keith’s guitar interjections at 1:29 (right before the second chorus) and at the 1:56 mark, where he apparently just gets bored with the rhythm and throws in a variation. Genius, simple & perfect.

4) Paint It Black - Another perfect pop single. AM radio NEVER got any better than this. More great lyrics from Mick, more great guitars from Brian Jones & Keith, great bass throoms from Bill Wyman on the outro, and I bet Jim could write a book about Charlie’s drumming throughout this tune.

5) Sympathy For The Devil - I’m runnin’ out of adjectives for “genius.” Just call up the track on your little streaming platforms and listen to the song. Whoo-whoo…….

SIDE TWO

6) Honky Tonk Woman - A thousand million Too Many Plays of this song on Classic Rock Radio over the decades (or is it centuries?) has somewhat blunted the impact of this song for me, but Christ how great are the guitars on this?

7) Brown Sugar - The second-best rock & roll song ever written. (“Won’t Get Fooled Again” would be number one, “Candy’s Room” number three.) Again, just go listen, I can’t explain perfection. In fact listen LOUD on headphones (ear-buds?) to this - and to the entire Get Your Ya Ya’s Out live record - to properly experience Keith Richards’ & Mick Taylor’s “two brains & four hands sounding like they’re playing one Chuck Berry-inspired maelstrom guitar melee” sonic synchronicity six-string style.

8) You Can’t Always Get What You Want - I had to choose one great Stones ballad, and leaving “Ruby Tuesday” and/or “Play With Fire” off this list was TOUGH.

9) Gimme Shelter - Would this song have made the cut if we weren’t in the middle of a global pandemic? I’m not sure, but it fits here.

10) Shattered - The great last song on the Rolling Stones’ last great album. Am I saying the Stones had no great moments after 1978? Certainly not, but they never again had as genius or cohesive a record as Some Girls, and I can think of no better song to end my Perfect Stones Record compilation.

JIM’S VIDEO PICKS

RICKI’S VIDEO PICKS

Regular readers of Pencil Storm are well-aware I’m not a fan of 11-minute plus tunes, but I wanted to have one song from each of the Stones’ twin-guitar teams. It’s Saturday night; settle in, have something to drink (or something to smoke), and ease back while the boys stretch out.

I thought I’d use my unquestioned editorial powers to throw in the 1966 non-LP b-side of “19th Nervous Breakdown” that served as my “That girl done broke my heart” tune throughout my teens. (And perhaps my twenties, for that matter.)

And finally, to bring things up to 2020, Mick Jagger on Jimmy Fallon just this past week in a pretty funny bit. (I suppose I should have put up the video of that new Stones tune “Ghost Town,” but truthfully, in only my humble opinion (whispering conspiratorially), “It’s not very good.”)