Tag Archives: exile on main st.

#1427: The Rolling Stones – Tumbling Dice

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I’m looking at all the songs left to go, and I’m seeing too, this will be the last Rolling Stones dedication in the series. Was gonna happen sometime. Only written about four other Rolling Stones numbers on here though, which may surprise some and others maybe not so much. For me, while being able to recognise the legendary band for what they are, their whole catalogue’s never done too much for me. As you can deduce, only a few tracks here and there scratch the itch when it comes to this guy. The band’s stuff is a little too indebted to the blues and soul. ‘Least a very big majority of it. And Mick Jagger’s voice ain’t bad, Keith Richards and the musicians of the band who came and went along the ways are all great at their jobs. I’d just rather listen to the original blues and soul artists who came before ’em. So not a big love for the Stones on my end, but an appreciation for them exists. I do really like the tunes by them that I’ve written about before. And who knows, maybe I will suddenly become a massive fan. You’ll just never know about it.

I’ve been going through the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die book, listening to the albums within from the front page to the year I’m at now (1988), since 2017. Not a surprise, Exile on Main St. was listed in 1972. I’d known about the album’s wide recognition as the Stones’ peak, the double-album culmination in the golden run beginning with Beggars Banquet in 1968. I heard Exile… the first time through in 2012. ‘Rocks Off’ was the jam that stood out. And I would have heard ‘Tumbling Dice’ then, but I guess it didn’t leave much of a mark. I had the album playing in the background one time when I was working reception in my first proper office job during 2018. ‘Tumbling Dice’ played again, and there was a little something to it. But to address my initial point, it was 2021 when Exile… showed up in the 1001… book. ‘Tumbling Dice’ came round on the tracklist, and I was probably singing along to it by the second chorus. It’s weird how these things go. I’m going to put it down to an increase in age and an actual focus on the music. Yeah, actually focusing on a song will bring out the best parts of it… It’s not that weird at all, actually. The track was the lead single from Exile on Main St., released a month or so before the LP came along, and I get it. Once its groove gets going, all you have to do is slide back, nod your head to it, and you’ve got the track’s entire philosophy down.

Mick Jagger is spitting the lyrics at you with passion alongside the chugging rhythm. Without the lyrics, I wouldn’t be surprised if “Honey” and “Baby” were the only words you’d be able to make out on first listen. Maybe the “Roll me / Call me the tumbling dice” chorus, if you’re perceptive. And that would mostly be thanks to the backing vocalists who join in. But find the lyrics and you’ll see it’s a song about Jagger singing about all the women that are trying to get his attention and want to have relations with him. He doesn’t mind, but he can’t spend to long with them ’cause he’s usually got some other place he has to be being Mick Jagger and everything. It’s all underpinned by metaphors concerning gambling and casino games. Reminds me of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Crosstown Traffic’, but, you know, the metaphor’s completely different. My actual favourite little element is the guitar runs in the back that play during the choruses. It’s nice that those repeat on and on as during the song’s coda until the music eventually fades out. So yeah, enough about The Rolling Stones on here, with a song about a need of having somewhere else to be and not sticking around. Couldn’t be more suitable.

#1136: The Rolling Stones – Rocks Off

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Only the second Rolling Stones song I’ve talked about on here. A lot of people love Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, all the other members associated and the albums too. I can take them in small amounts. I feel like a lot of the songs they do are indebted to the old-time blues rock of the US, which I’ve never had much feeling for anyway. There are however some songs by the Stones that I can’t deny must be regarded as ahem… ‘stone’-cold classics. And not the obvious ones like ‘Satisfaction’ or ‘Gimme Shelter’. Even I think those are both just all right. ‘Rocks Off’ though has to be one that almost every Stones fan appreciates. Not just because it opens what’s considered to be the band’s best album, but because of its general feel-good energy and the tight performance by the group as a whole. I got ’round to listening to Exile on Main St. around the same time I was going through a Best Ever Albums list on a website of the same name. At the time the website listed the album as the band’s best piece fo work, the best of its year, and one of the greatest of the ’70s as a decade. Gotta admit, I was excited for what I was about to hear.

It all begins with ‘Rocks Off’, a track that I could hear being played in those dirty, seedy underground nightclubs that I imagine were the places to be during the ’70s. Jagger’s confident “Oh, yeeeah” that he comes out with makes me screw my face up every time, just ’cause I think I know how he’s feeling hearing the guitar work of Richards and Mick Taylor and the rhythm section bring themselves into the mix and establish the groove. This song oozes coolness in all aspects. Jagger doesn’t ham up his vocals to a large extent, taking a sort of laidback approach for the verses and saving the more unrestrained approaches for the choruses. Richards joins in on harmonies. And a big round of applause has to go to those rousing horns that take the track to a higher level entirely. This a real good album opener. Probably one of the best of all time, I’d say the best in the Stones’ discography straight up.

I said the song has a feel-good energy in the first paragraph, which it does, but accompanying the uplifting music are the musings of a narrator who’s feeling disillusioned with life. They’re sort of losing themselves in places, they’re not able to absorb and take things in like they once did. Days are coming and going, they give in to their vices. They’ve lived a life of excess to the brim that they’ve become numb to it, and the only way they’re able to get any true relief and excitement is in their sleep. Sort of goes against the whole idea of getting rocks off. But that’s the way things are going for this person. The song’s about being as jaded as you could possibly get, but man, it’s delivered in such a celebratory manner that you can be forgiven for completely missing the cynicism. I know I did.