Remember when the Rolling Stones gots down with the disco funk back in 1978?I was tickled by that in high school... with all the white boys hating on Parliament.
The Who tried to get funky a few years later. But hell, even P-Funk was over by ’82. If Townshend thought he’d written the next “Miss You,” he found out otherwise.
Anyways... I can’t believe I never heard the 12-inch mix of “Miss You” before! With bonus badass guitarisms – and two scoops of Mick Jagger’s shit talk – this record smokes.
Cheers to DJ Danny G in Texas for uploading this.
^5, UBM. You've illustrated why the Stones are better than the Beatles.
ReplyDeleteMeh. Hated "Miss You" then, hate it now, although I do like the rest of the album. And for the record, I was an early convert to P-Funk, much to the dismay of some of my buddies (who had the same reaction when I started listening to The Clash).
ReplyDelete"Miss You" just seemed like pandering, and don't even get me started on "Emotional Rescue" .
The Who tried to get funky a few years later.
ReplyDeleteYep! DJ Frankie Crocker would play this on the urban contemporary station I listened to at the time. (He'd play Kiss's "I Was Made For Loving You" too.)
I liked "Miss You" inspite of the "Puerto Rican girls" shout out.
Here's a performance by the Rolling Stones on Top of the Pops from 1971, doing Brown Sugar that's pretty incredible.
ReplyDeleteMick is doing the cock strut like he just invented it (and looks higher than Keef!) He's singing the song as though he's actually knows the words mean (Let's face it, since at least 1980 he just kind of runs through it and hopes no one listens to the lyrics too closely.) Pointing at the ground saying "Down on your knees, Brown Sugar." Meanwhile, there's a Black saxophonist standing below the stage, like he's not allowed up there, and occasionally looking like he wants to wrap his sax around Mick's neck.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cZF_V6nN5SQ
Hated "Miss You" then, hate it now...
ReplyDeleteI was wondering last night, JD, whether anybody could hate "Miss You."
With all due respect, I think that's kinda like "Staying Alive"; people can talk that mess... until the record comes on.
That was my favorite version, way back when! After all, "..girls will come and go, their just like street cars..."
ReplyDeleteBig stuff to a 16 year old just learning about love in late '78.
With all due respect, I think that's kinda like "Staying Alive"; people can talk that mess... until the record comes on.
ReplyDeleteI'll grant "Stayin' Alive" is harder to resist, 'cause it has a harder beat. But I can always resist "Miss You". And I'm a Stones fan.
Big P-Funk fan and Miss You fan, but don't compare the two! Miss You was disco. P-Funk was way more than just disco. The musicianship and complexity of P-Funk was in a whole different class. Disco never pretended to be complex and musicianship wasn't important. It was all about the beat.
ReplyDelete^ We can quibble about semantics. I would call "Miss You" a funk record. Now "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"... that was straight-up disco.
ReplyDeleteTell me this, James: Would you have wanted to hear the Mob (in its prime) jamming "Miss You"?
I would have.
Lastly, according to Wikipedia, Jagger came up with the song whilst jamming with Billy Preston. (That's not Preston on the record, though... that's Ian McLagan rocking the electric piano. Funky as hell, too!)
ReplyDeleteWell, as you know, the Funk Mob almost never did covers, but as the
ReplyDeleteGodfather might have said, whatever they did would have to be FUNKY!
I can see the slowing down the bpm to about the speed of Dr. Funkenstein with Bernie and Eddie soloing all over the place. THEN I'd call Miss You funk!
I do hate to disagree with you on this one. You have the best music taste of almost anybody I'm familiar with.
It's been awhile since I've looked at my record collection, but I do believe I have this one. Sweeeeet.
ReplyDeleteI do hate to disagree with you on this one. You have the best music taste of almost anybody I'm familiar with.
ReplyDeleteThanks, James. No worries.
This is like those old debates jazz heads used to have about whether Dave Brubeck "swings" or not.
My last word on "Miss You": While the 4-4 drumming is rigid, all the stuff moving in and around the groove -- the harmonica, guitars, electric piano, walking bass -- makes it more funk than disco, to me.
Bonus Glimmer Twins funk... BAM!
ReplyDelete