I don't think I would make a very good professional critic of either music or film. I tend to look at and appreciate things subjectively as well as objectively. As I say, there's a difference between what I like and what I think is good.
I had a discussion once with a friend of mine over Beatles music. I said my favourite album of theirs--in fact my favourite album of all time--is Abbey Road. He started immediately wondering why and dissing my choice. He gave me all sorts of reasons why it was a bad album... or at the very least not their best. (I don't even remember what his pick was--probably Revolver or something.)
Now, I will disagree with him over whether or not Abbey Road is a good album. Objectively speaking, I think it is. Most actual critics seem to agree with me. The album frequently appears on lists of the greatest albums of all time. But the reason it's my favourite has little to do with how objectively good I think it is. It's my favourite because of how it makes me feel.
The older I get, the more nostalgia plays a part in what I listen to. As you might guess if you read these "sermons" regularly, music has always been a major part of my life. Most of my memories, good and bad, featured some song or another playing in the background. I'll frequently hear a song and remember where I was when I first heard it or recall some fond memory in which it played in the background. A song doesn't have to necessarily be good to evoke those memories--it just had to be playing when the memory formed.
By that standard, I feel it's necessary this week to share an album that is universally derided, but still brings me a lot of pleasure when I listen to it.
The album is considered by many to be not just the worst album the band ever released, but one of the worst albums of the 1980s. I'll be the first to admit it's not their best--I certainly wouldn't give it any Grammys or anything. But I still get a nostalgic glow when I listen to it. I first bought it on vinyl on 18 April, 1992--the eve of both Easter and my eighteenth birthday. It was the last vinyl record I ever bought before owning my first CD player. I couldn't tell you how many times I played that record during my last month of high school and I'm frequently transported back to that era when I hear it.
Okay... I have to take this moment to actually defend the album objectively. I disagree with many who regard this as the band's worst album. I believe that their previous album--Undercover, released in 1983--is actually their worst album. And I certainly don't believe it's one of the worst of the entire decade.
When the album was released in March of 1986, the band was kind of in a state of chaos. Principal songwriters Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were often having heated disagreements about the direction of the band after nearly 25 years. Jagger had released a solo album in 1985 that did not sit well with Richards and the rest of the band recorded the bulk of their contributions separately. Guitarist Ronnie Wood once said that you can tell it's a bad album because he got a co-writing credit on four of the songs. Most critics had written them off as... well, frankly, old. With the exception of Wood, they were, after all, in their forties at the time.
That being said, I actually believe that tension made the album a lot better than it gets credit for being. It certainly adds to the emotional feel of many of the songs on the album. Richards sang two songs on the album--"Sleep Tonight" is an amazing ballad and the cover of "Too Rude," originally recorded by the Jamaican artist Half Pint, allowed him to explore his love of reggae. I also think the group's cover of Bob and Earl's "Harlem Shuffle" is, in my opinion, one of the greatest covers ever recorded in spite of the cheesy video.
The album features musical and vocal contributions from Jimmy Page, Don Covay, Tom Waits, Patti Scialfa, Bobby Womack, Kirsty MacColl, and Ivan Neville, and is dedicated to original bandmate and longtime pianist Ian "Stu" Stewart who passed away in December of 1985 (a 30-second "hidden track" of him playing Big Bill Broonzy's "Key to the Highway" closes out the album).
Given the state of the band at that time, it's almost amazing to think that not only did they manage to persevere through that period as a band, but here we are forty years after that and they will be releasing a new album in a couple of weeks. After nearly 65 years, the Stones are still rolling. Who says that rock 'n' roll is a young person's game?
So this week, I submit a humble defense of and encourage a re-examination of their 1986 album Dirty Work.
Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Yours in peace, love and rock 'n' roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
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