500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 351 The Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue

 

The Stones ceased to have any reonance or coherence after Some Girls. Certainly no romance. The response they proviked in me was generally, 'Urgh! What horrible old men. Why are they still concerned with trying to convince people they can still get it up? ' They made no sense and had largely lost their mojo. To call them counter culture was patently ridiculous. 

They were the mainstreamnow and when they played a song with a genuine visceral thrill like Paint It Black, Street Fighting Man or Gimme Shelter it was to make people clad in leather and shades re-experience their rengade youth and cock a middle finger once more at the Man. Emotional Rescue finds them moving to Stella Street and throw some shapes like an embarassing set of uncles invading the dance floor at a family wedding. The title track still sounds good.