Rewind (1971–1984) by The Rolling Stones
Rewind (1971–1984) is a compilation album by The Rolling Stones and was released in 1984. Coming only three years after Sucking in the Seventies, the album was primarily compiled to mark the end of the band's alliance with Warner Music (in North America) and EMI (all other territories), both of whom were the distributors of Rolling Stones Records. It is the second Rolling Stones album to include a lyric sheet (after 1978's Some Girls.) For the first time since 1969's Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2), the UK and US editions of Rewind (1971–1984) would each feature altered track listings, reflecting the individual tastes of both territories. The American CD version featured the U.S. top 20 hits from 1971-1983, with the exception of Ain't Too Proud To Beg. Released in the summer of 1984, Rewind (1971–1984) was not as successful as previous compilations (due, in no small part, to the track repetitions from previous retrospectives), reaching #23 in the UK and #86 in the US, though it went gold there. The album was released on Compact Disc in the United States adding "It's Only Rock'n Roll (But I Like It)" and "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)". This was the first official US Rolling Stones CD release. See also Video Rewind released 14 November 1984. With later compilations Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones (1993) and Forty Licks (2002) superseding it, Rewind (1971–1984) is now out of print.
Part of loving 1976’s <i>Black and Blue</i>—and there’s a lot to love—is letting go of what you expect from The Rolling Stones. They were still a rock band, if rock was what you wanted: “Hand of Fate” could’ve been on <i>Beggars Banquet</i> and “Crazy Mama” on <i>Exile on Main St.</i> But where <i>Goats Head Soup</i> and <i>It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll</i> worked to keep continuity with the sound they developed in the late ’60s, <i>Black and Blue</i> didn’t bother trying.<br /> Jagger had moved to New York and fallen in love with funk and disco (“Hot Stuff”, “Hey Negrita”); Keith Richards with reggae (“Cherry Oh Baby”). Mick Taylor left the band and Ron Wood joined, stripping out the guitar solos and moving back towards pure rhythm. The songs were short, the grooves were long, and the performances—Jaggers’s, especially—combined sex and humour in ways they never had before. That “Hot Stuff” was the band’s first song to make the R&B charts since “19th Nervous Breakdown” 10 years earlier made sense: Not since their early albums had they sounded so connected to Black music, or so joyfully indebted to it.<br /> The critic Lester Bangs called it the “first meaningless Rolling Stones album”. An insult, of course—but it could’ve just as well been a compliment. After the relentless significance of the band’s late-’60s and early-’70s run—the politics, the violence, the cultural referenda—<i>Black and Blue</i> felt like a liberation, like fresh air. They sounded funny, weird and alive. And when they downshifted for the ballads (“Memory Motel” and the classic “Fool to Cry”), they did so with a softness that penetrated deeper than any heavy-handed approach might.
