"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Saturday, January 5, 2013

The Regular Guy's List of the Top 20 Rolling Stones Songs (#8)

We're getting into the top 10 now.   So far, we've got this list of great, great songs:

20. Loving Cup (Exile on Main Street)
19. Wild Horses (Sticky Fingers)
18. Bitch (Sticky Fingers)
17. Monkey Man (Let it Bleed)
16. Let it Loose (Exile)
15. Prodigal Son (Beggar's Banquet)
14. Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Sticky Fingers)
13. Shattered (Some Girls)
12. Happy (Exile)
11. Rocks Off (Exile)
10. (tie) Jumping Jack Flash (single only)
10. (tie) Street Fighting Man (Beggar's Banquet)
9. You Can't Always Get What You Want (Let It Bleed)

You may have noticed that the bulk are from the "golden age" of Stones albums from 1968's Beggar's Banquet to 1972's Exile on Main Street.  To break it down by album, we've got

4     Exile on Main Street
3     Sticky Fingers
2     Let It Bleed
2     Beggar's Banquet
1     Some Girls (1978)
1     Single only

For our number 8 Stones song we return to that great 1960s tradition -- now back with a vengeance in the iTunes universe -- of songs that were released as singles independent from any album.   Ladies and gentlemen, I give you....

8. Honky Tonk Woman





The Stones are underestimated as lyricists because, for the most part, they weren't trying to be deeply deep... they were just trying to tell good stories and tell them well.   They weren't pretentious, but they were funny and clever and smart.  This one has one of the best Stones lines that captures the dangerous fun of rock-and-roll... "I just can't seem to drink you off my mind..."  ... that's just about perfect, and hilarious.

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