The most controversial album by the Stones, considered by many the weakest and/or the worst

I like many tracks there so let's celebrate Dirty work you B&B

Time to repost Maxlugar's poem for it

http://www.rocksoff.org/maxlugar1983.jpg
http://www.rocksoff.org/Archives/01-12-2002/

Dirty Work

Thanks to you.
I'm hardly ever blue.
Upon the morning dew.
I caress your hard rockin' stew.
It always feels new.
You make me purr and koo.
And if you all had a clue.
Tonight, you'd play Had It With You.

Maxlugar 1/11/02
Photo is Maxy Von Kinky Kink Kinko Kinkily in 1983

The early days of all the Stones message boards had many discussions, some heavy duty😆😳 about the pros and cons of DW.
Very very little pros, a shitload of cons keeps this album buried deep at the bottom of their album rankings.
What it does do at this point is remind me of those dark days of most of the 80s when the odds were so high that they were done as a band. Most would have never believed that they not only came back from the abyss let alone getting ready to see them on tour 30 years on.

Rick......Stones fanatic from the very beginning.

The tingle never ever goes away.

Weaker than Undercover?

andrews27 wrote on Mar 24^th, 2019 at 7:34pm:

Weaker than Undercover?

Easily.  They were still a band when they made Undercover.

Its telling that the two Stones albums that are the most disliked - DW and Satanic Majesties - are the ones made when there were outside issues causing a lot of friction - be it their legal issues in 1967 or Jagger/Richards' awful relationship in 1985.

Brian being a mess in 1967 and Charlie being a smackhead in 1985 didnt exactly help matters either. 

Other thing is that the Jagger-Richards-Wood tracks should have been Wood only

The covers are great, really great

People I knew found the Undercover cover puerile and derivative of their past attempts at naughtiness.  To be fair, there probably wasn't an image that would enliven that dull, Hall-and-Oates title.  The high points of that album don't even reach the mark of the best parts of Emotional Rescue.

The great parts of Dirty Work are undeniably great, which is better than the mediocre whole of Undercover.  DW's problem is that the better Jagger tracks were left in the can, unfinished, while tracks among Keith's best were denied their place.  It wouldn't have killed the band, or Jagger, to release a Keith-heavy record.

Face it - Undercover sucks.  Song for song, She's The Boss is a more memorable record.

The hurt has not healed.

andrews27 wrote on Mar 25^th, 2019 at 7:49am:

People I knew found the Undercover cover puerile and derivative of their past attempts at naughtiness.  To be fair, there probably wasn't an image that would enliven that dull, Hall-and-Oates title.  The high points of that album don't even reach the mark of the best parts of Emotional Rescue. The great parts of Dirty Work are undeniably great, which is better than the mediocre whole of Undercover.  DW's problem is that the better Jagger tracks were left in the can, unfinished, while tracks among Keith's best were denied their place.  It wouldn't have killed the band, or Jagger, to release a Keith-heavy record. Face it - Undercover sucks.  Song for song, She's The Boss is a more memorable record.

CBS had just given them over $30 million (a world record) to make four albums - with the proviso that at least one would be a Mick solo record (in the end, they got two)

This was the first Stones album under their new contract. Columbia would have shit a brick if the band had delivered an album where half the songs had Keith singing on them. (even though I agree the outtakes make for a more enjoyable listen). Even worse, the band had no intention of touring to promote the record.

Mick didnt bring that much to the table for Dirty Work, having just finished Shes The Boss. The songs are mostly Richards/Wood collaborations.

It shows.

Maxlugar!

Despite looking a bit like (but much better than) a seasoned Duran Durthing on the Leib' cover, I know folk who consider 'Dirty' a fast and dandy album. The effects of Ian S's demise must have been another horrendousness but they - and their trousers - survived. 'Find some grease-ball', 'Slash ya with a raz'r', 'Every man have a picture of chew' and 'On the banks of the Delaware, don't hold baack' are splendid lyrics.
Jogger said that some of the band couldn't tour at that time, that they couldn't even walk across the Champs Elysssses. I think he said 'walk'.

An unlisted and uncredited excerpt from "Key to the Highway" (Big Bill Broonzy, Charles Segar - 0:33) closes the album. It was played by Ian Stewart, who died a few months after recording sessions for the album had ended.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Work_(The_Rolling_Stones_album)

I've said it before and i'll say it again: it would have been a wonderful EP

cocaine days and nights

It is better than Steel Wheels.

Take away:

[list bull-redball]

Fight
[list bull-greenball]

Winning Ugly
[list bull-blueball]

Back To Zero

-- And it's geeeeeeen-yezzzzzz!

It's shite, but it's better than Streets of Shite.

To achieve victory after putting in a lot of effort and unglamorous technique and enduring many hardships or overcoming many obstacles. (As opposed to winning with ease, grace, or style.)

Here's a podcast re-examining Dirty Work.  It's not made by fans, but is a good mixed bag of thoughtful points and infuriating mistakes:

http://www.thesecondspin.com/episode-5-dirty-work-by-the-rolling-stones/

The Wick wrote on Mar 27^th, 2019 at 7:17am:

It's shite, but it's better than Streets of Shite.

It beats the shite out of ABB, which gets my vote for worst Stones album.

Had it With You comes out of left field...like a different band altogether...and I love it...Too Rude is a swell smog and maybe another...I just cant recall which...
Winning Ugly and Back to Zero, if memory serves, I think I read where these were meant to be for a mid-80's movie soundtrack...and they sound like a closing credit song to me...and so do the titles.

Anyway, its a small blemish that we must all endure.

##

I love Undercover....always have...nothing nostalgia about it...I just love it.