- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- I viewed Beggars Banquet to be the Stones’ actual answer to Sgt. Pepper, as a gorgeous set of songs that is among the finest work ever put on vinyl.
The Greatest Music
Ever Recorded!
The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet (1968): The Rolling Stones’ relatively brief excursion into psychedelia peaked with Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967), the band’s under-rated answer to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The unfortunate title is a takeoff on a line from the boilerplate on a British passport that begins: “Their Britannic Majesties . . . request . . .”. From the beginning, I viewed Beggars Banquet to be the Stones’ actual answer to Sgt. Pepper, not so much from a content or musical standpoint, but as a simply gorgeous set of songs that is among the finest work that the Rolling Stones or anybody else ever put on vinyl. Each song stands alone as a masterpiece, and the tracks are so different from one another that it is hard to believe they came from the same band, yet the songs all bear the unmistakable stamp of the Rolling Stones.
The band continues in a satanic direction in the opening song “Sympathy for the Devil”; despite the unsettling theme – the song is actually about what human beings do to each other rather than the actual Devil – the song is a tour de force on every level. Probably my favorite song on the album, “Street Fighting Man” has a mock-political tone to it: “Ev’rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy / ’Cause summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy / But what can a poor boy do / Except to sing for a rock ’n’ roll band / ’Cause in sleepy London town / There’s just no place for a street fighting man, no”. In his autobiography Life (2010), Keith Richards writes about the development of this song; the bulk of “Street Fighting Man” was made using acoustic instruments – including a tiny practice drum kit dating from the 1930’s that folded into a suitcase – and the music was recorded on a first-generation cassette player turned all the way up to maximize the distortion. Amazingly, the bass guitar that was added later is the only electric instrument in the entire song! “Dear Doctor” has a country flavor and is hilarious, “Prodigal Son” is based on Jesus’ parable, “No Expectations” has a bluesy feel with lovely slide guitar, “Salt of the Earth” is a heartfelt paean to ordinary people using multiple background singers – each song has a different theme and a completely different sound. The only cover on the album is “Prodigal Son”, even though the Stones claim songwriting credits; the original version of “Prodigal Son” by Rev. Robert Wilkins is on The Blues at Newport, 1964, Volume 2 (1964). Beggars Banquet is one of my very favorite albums, certainly in my all-time Top 20, if not Top 10.