How do you rank Steel Wheels? How did you like it when it first came out - and how does it hold up for you today?

To be honest, I think it was the last Stones record I really enjoyed from start to finish. Voodoo Lounge is good, but a bit too long and afterward is just kind of Stones By Numbers.

Too 80's sound for me....never play it and other then Almost Hear You Sigh don't have a tune that I think about....

i have mixed emotions about it

Loved it when it came out - possibly because by around 1987 I never expected to hear a new Rolling Stones album again.

Like most 80s albums, it has aged badly. I prefer the sound of the monitor mixes.  Its still pretty decent though.

It does however include two absolute all time classic Stones songs - Continental Drift and Almost Hear You Sigh. Slipping Away is pretty special too - if Keith has sang more beautifully on a Stones record than the last verse of that song, then I simply havent heard it.

I've always maintained that if Almost Hear You Sigh had been released 20 years earlier, it would be talked about now in the same glowing terms as Wild Horses is today.

He seems ok... But you never really know about people, do you? Especially online.

The album was ok too. Not a fave but I don't hate it either.

Freya Gin wrote on Mar 26^th, 2017 at 11:02pm:

He seems ok... But you never really know about people, do you? Especially online. The album was ok too. Not a fave but I don't hate it either.

Ha!

Steel Wheels is one of my all-time favorite albums.

It's when my love for the stones started,
so in a way it's their greatest album ever.

Egon wrote on Mar 27^th, 2017 at 6:56am:

It's when my love for the stones started, so in a way it's their greatest album ever.

Same here. 1989 was a magical year. It was the return of the greatest rock and roll band.

Loved it when it came out and still do. The production almost destroyed some absolute blinders. If half of those songs had been recorded in the 70s or 60s, they would be classics. Continental Drift is a perfect example for me. The production almost destroys a solid gold classic that would be talked about in legendary terms if it had not had the 80s polish on it. Mick could have done a little better with the lyrics, but it's still one of the greatest things they have ever done.

It's a really good album but like dirty work it suffers from eighties production, that makes it sound dated... the book end albums of those two don't suffer from it, thanks god.

My Top 5
 
SAD SAD SAD - great amusing lyrics - The elephant's in the bedroom
Throwing all his weight about
And I'm locked in the bathroom
Your screams are gonna drown me out
 
MIXED EMOTIONS - very funny visual - So get off the fence, It's creasing your butt, Life is a party, Let's get out and strut
 

HEARTS FOR SALE - I have always loved this song!
Hearts for sale
Going cheap
Hearts for sale
Lovers' leap
    Everyone knows what lover's leap is, right?
 
ALMOST HEAR YOU SIGH
I can feel your tongue on mine
Silky smooth like wine
yeah MICK I can feel it too I can almost hear you sigh, When you made sweet love to me
  oh yeah MICK in my dreams

SLIPPING AWAY - this is classic humble KEEF - All I want is ecstasy
But I ain't getting much
Just getting off on misery
It seems I've lost my touch

Bitcholino -
I believe that the lyrics to Sad Sad Sad have been regularly misquoted and that it's actually "The infant's in the bedroo', throwin' all his weight abou'. Yeah".
A reference to little Jimbo?

"Fi', fi', fi; mi', mi', mi'" is a cracker, also.

Educated and dedicated, longtime poster on this board.

A real quality guy.

Edith Grove wrote on Mar 30^th, 2017 at 5:44am:

Educated and dedicated, longtime poster on this board. A real quality guy.

I wouldn't go that far.

Freya Gin wrote on Mar 30^th, 2017 at 8:08am:

Edith Grove wrote on Mar 30th, 2017 at 5:44am: Educated and dedicated, longtime poster on this board. A real quality guy. I wouldn't go that far.

Why?

LOL

This is my favorite thread of all time!

Blooming Aida, Freya
Fair enough, yet now I suspect you have SCL imagining that it was me - rather than some other monkey - who, earlier in the year, vulgarly requested polaroids of you in your split-crotch scanties (or whatever it was).

Steel Wheels wrote on Mar 30^th, 2017 at 7:33pm:

LOL This is my favorite thread of all time!

:willya

sweetcharmedlife wrote on Mar 30^th, 2017 at 6:34pm:

Freya Gin wrote on Mar 30th, 2017 at 8:08am: Edith Grove wrote on Mar 30th, 2017 at 5:44am: Educated and dedicated, longtime poster on this board. A real quality guy. I wouldn't go that far. Why?

We don't want him to think he's cool and we like him or anything. Isn't that ego puffed up enough already?


WaiteringOnAFiend wrote on Mar 30^th, 2017 at 9:02pm:

Blooming Aida, Freya Fair enough, yet now I suspect you have SCL imagining that it was me - rather than some other monkey - who, earlier in the year, vulgarly requested polaroids of you in your split-crotch scanties (or whatever it was).

I can't be held responsible for what SCL might be imagining. But we all know what a perv you are, WoaF. It's no secret.

Stages have come a long way....
Remember the stage for Steel Wheels?
On a Hot summer day at Rich Stadium, Buffalo-
the Place Sold Out.
A R/Roll fest once again.
Wouldn't ya know just pulled the CD and its Missing  :'(
GR8 Tunes.
 

WaiteringOnAFiend wrote on Mar 30^th, 2017 at 2:13am:

Bitcholino - I believe that the lyrics to Sad Sad Sad have been regularly misquoted and that it's actually "The infant's in the bedroo', throwin' all his weight abou'. Yeah". A reference to little Jimbo? "Fi', fi', fi; mi', mi', mi'" is a cracker, also.

I always thought it was elephant. here's my interpretation ~ the elephant is the fat husband catching his wife fvcking MICK, and he's throwing a fit about it, as MICK is hiding in the bathroom trying not to get his ass kicked.  ;D ;D

Bitch wrote on Apr 1^st, 2017 at 9:24pm:

WaiteringOnAFiend wrote on Mar 30th, 2017 at 2:13am: Bitcholino - I believe that the lyrics to Sad Sad Sad have been regularly misquoted and that it's actually "The infant's in the bedroo', throwin' all his weight abou'. Yeah". A reference to little Jimbo? "Fi', fi', fi; mi', mi', mi'" is a cracker, also. I always thought it was elephant. here's my interpretation ~ the elephant is the fat husband catching his wife fvcking MICK, and he's throwing a fit about it, as MICK is hiding in the bathroom trying not to get his ass kicked.  ;D ;D

I thought it was elephant too, though I interpreted it to mean that the proverbial elephant in the room was becoming harder to ignore. But your interpretation is probably right, Bitch. We all know what a slut Mick is, after all.

Steel Wheels not a patch on **EMOTIONAL RESCUE**

Would've sold better if they'd called it **EMOTIONAL RESCUE II**

There is no such thing as a bad Stones album, but this comes the closest.

The correct lyric is elephant.

I remember that in a review of Voodoo Lounge, a critic wrote that Steel Wheels sounded "like the Stones cut out the middleman and recorded the whole thing in a bank vault."

Talking of elephants, there's the old Indian story of the 'Blind Men & The Elephant' - which is about a number of blind men each having  a feel of a different part of an elephant and each coming to a different conclusion as to what it & therefore the whole is.
This is one reason I esp like both the Stoonz's lyrics and Jigger's singing style - the way multiple interpretations can result / are allowed and why I'm not too keen on lyrics being printed in the initial packaging accompanying albums (such as with 'A Bigger Bong'). Didn't Jogger once say that it's only necessary for one in three words to be heard clearly when singing? Also, many Stoonz songs seem to develop from recordings in which Jiggler sings vowel sounds as a way of developing a lyric, making up for the fact that lyrics are incomplete and as a way of 'conducting' the band.
Gawd knows what exactly he's crooning during the original Monserrat take of Sad Sad Sad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RnjZ6qO0YA - but there are multiple differences from the released version.

Anyway, Bitch, I didn't mean to undercut what your ear-holes hear or your bwain gets from hearing 'Sad Sad Sad'. Apologies if it came over this way. I just wanted to add a thoughtlette into the mix.

However, if the lyric is indeed 'elephant in the room', wiouldn't this be more likely to be referring to a young lady's father rather than their hubby?

It still sounds like 'infant in the bedroom' to me, but maybe that's partly because I was amused to read that both Marsha H and Jerry H said that Jangler was 'annoyed' at some point by them breast-feeding at the expense of paying attention to him. Trick cyclists might (arrogantly?) claim that this partly derived from childhood issues concerning young bro Chris' arrival on the scene. I wouldn't mention this if MJ hadn't claimed (in the '70s) that he's a Freudian.

Sorry to have rattled on but I'm the sort of person who can see  seven or more layers of meaning and irony in even 'Let's Work'.


Happy days.

'Elephant in the room' is also a phrase often used in drug & alcohol addiction therapy.

WaiteringOnAFiend wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2017 at 9:42pm:

'Elephant in the room' is also a phrase often used in drug & alcohol addiction therapy.

Exactly. That's what I thought it was talking about.

I remember the parable about the blind men and the elephant too. It's a wonderful metaphor for humanity's perceptions about the universe, I think.

As to understanding one in three words, I'm not sure if I agree. Sometimes even those who know every word still don't seem to get what a song is about. And it's entirely possible for mishearing just one or two critical words to throw off one"s understanding of a song, though admittedly I can't think of a well-known example of that happening.

I bought my friend an elephant for his room.

He said "Thanks"

I said "Don't mention it"

Elephant = Republican Party. In the bedroom.  Throwin' all its weight around.

My only regret is that the Stones didn't make another album soon after Steel Wheels. Hirewire and Sex Drive were funky song and I wish they had done another album circa 1991 or so, and then Mick had taken Wandering Spirit and had the Stones do it for another album in '93, and then Voodoo...Would've been an awesome second spring instead of the long wait between SW and VL.

lotsajizz wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2017 at 6:28am:

There is no such thing as a bad Stones album, but this comes the closest.

I feel it's the last album were it sounds like they were really trying and not just phoning it in most of the time outside of parts of ABB.

Egon wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2017 at 3:36am:

I bought my friend an elephant for his room. He said "Thanks" I said "Don't mention it"

I like you.

I'm gonna listen SW to honor this thread... I enjoyed the álbum so much back then... I remember listening that one with my "discman"; love it!

andrews27 wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2017 at 4:35pm:

I remember that in a review of Voodoo Lounge, a critic wrote that Steel Wheels sounded "like the Stones cut out the middleman and recorded the whole thing in a bank vault."

Was that the Village Voice? I seem to recall reading that as well...anyway...Very chaotic point in my life...one that could have lead me in an entirely different career and personal life from to day...(should not have turned left dammit!)...

SW has not aged well...but as I listened to it this morning...I would say half are fair to pretty good song with 2 stand outs in there...

With the exception of the 15 second intro Cant Be Seen is a perfect Keef song...Slipping away also get highest ranks...COntinental Drift is the best song on the album ...5 stars...Almost Hear you Sigh gets 4.5 Stars

Bringing up the rear of the better in no specif order...Break The Spell...Hold On to Your Hat...Blinded By Love...and a pass for Hearts For Sale...which could have been so much better if Jagger sang instead of GRRRRRowled his way thru the song...

The rest is all just garbage IMO...


An Ugly album cover...with a dumb name to match...never made sense to me....even the press conference riding a train into Grand Central Station...was lame...they went from tying up traffic on a flat bed truck to closing down a single track during off peak hrs onto a crowded platform...LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHk1v32C3CYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4XZwNNmtRkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkWDxU3-ZmU

A moderate album. The album was a sound track to go / coincide with a monster, groundbreaking record tour ..

Steel Wheels was a tour .. that had an album to coincide.. not an album .. supported by a world tour. The album was big news.. sure..  and it was not horrible.. it was simply high side of mediocre. Just enough to be a credible release.

The album was made fast and it was The Stones working to get their natural sound and groove back. The album sounds as it should .. It was not a disappointment .. It simply wasn't real strong. Even with all that said.. it was an important album.. with a fitting sound .. and has it's own little spot in later Stones history.

Not nearly as good as Voodoo Lounge that followed. The weakest of albums since the Stones come back (unofficial come back). It 'wasn't bad' .. It was fitting .. but that is as far as it went. Still sounds a bit forced and tight (<but not necessarily in an all good way) .. because they were tense and it was them just trying to get back to biz. Also the album was made pretty darn fast.. They were pretty rushed in making it.

There is good stuff on there.. Even some redeemable stuff... but it wasn't real strong. It was more a sound .. a sound track ... a deed that needed done to go along with a tour as it turned out. Wasn't a real strong / outstanding album on it's on. Wasn't bad ... As I recall and now looking back .. It was just good to hear them again. 

Ian

It's quite interesting - and bemusing even - how people rate the Stoonz - and other interesting, funny and special/extraordinary people - as if an exam is being held, a term report is being sent home, with grades given to different tunes they've done during different seasons, sometimes giving half-points as if only teacher knows best. Rather than seeing the whole and all the ingredients and variations.


'Giving It Up' from the Steel Wheels sessions is luvly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwCJl4rJb90

Voodoo Chile in Wonderland wrote on Apr 5^th, 2017 at 8:42pm:

I'm gonna listen SW to honor this thread... I enjoyed the álbum so much back then... I remember listening that one with my "discman"; love it!

Agreed!