Richards, Jagger reflect on re-release of ’Some Girls’
Keith Richards equates the rush to release the Rolling Stones’ seminal album “Some Girls” as “the same as cutting off your baby’s head.”
“We couldn’t release a double album and we were on deadline,” the guitarist said of the 1978 recording. “Sometimes you’re really getting into tracks you want to finish, but they don’t make [it] because time was up.”
Now many of those songs have been included with the re-release of the album as a double disc on Monday, according to the Associated Press. A box set from the album also was released.
Mick Jagger said “Some Girls” was a pivotal album for the band.
“The records that came before this were not as good. This was better,” Mr. Jagger said, referencing the heavily produced “Goats Head Soup,” and “It’s Only Rock and Roll,” which preceded it.
At the time, punk rock and disco were threatening the old “dinosaur rockers,” as Mr. Richards said, so the band had to get back to its basic stripped-down sound.
“The punks started to kick us … the Sex Pistols, and the Clash, and other bands were coming out and we realized we were already in a second generation,” Mr. Richards said.
One of the album’s biggest hits, and also the most criticized at the time, was the dance track “Miss You.”
“It’s not like we wanted to make a career out of disco; it just happened to be that beat, and Mick came up with this beautiful idea. If you’re ever going to do disco, you got to do it now. It was like a one-off,” Mr. Richards said.
Mr. Jagger, who says he loves all forms of dance music from the 1930s to house music, didn’t know why it mattered.
“I never thought for one minute that people would criticize you for doing something with a dance beat,” Mr. Jagger said. “So the idea of it being ’Bob Dylan going electric’ never occurred to me.”
The song went to No. 1 on the Billboard chart and spawned a variety of dance mixes.
Next year, the band will celebrate its 50th anniversary, and there’s a great deal of speculation as to whether the band will tour for the milestone.
“I’m hoping to do something about it. Right now, I don’t want to go too much into it. I’m pulling the boys together and [will] see what happens. It’s a work in progress. I’m not Nostradamus on this, but we all want to do something for the big 5-0,” Mr. Richards said.
All Mr. Jagger would say is that “we have a lot of things planned. Who knows what will come to fruition?”
Mr. Richards said he and Mr. Jagger recently mended fences after Mr. Richards revealed too much about his songwriting partner in his autobiography released this year.
“He’s a brother, a best friend and probably the most contentious person I know. All collaborations are like that. Nothing goes totally smoothly, but we always patch it up. We patched it up now. The thing is we enjoy working with each other; it’s the idea of it that’s frightening,” Mr. Richards said with a laugh.
Beyonce worried fans would figure out baby secret
It’s tough to keep a pregnancy a secret when you’re in the public eye, and for a while, Beyonce thought the jig was up.
“The whole time I definitely was thinking, ’Everyone knows, everyone can see,’ ” the singer said before the screening of her new concert DVD Sunday in New York.
According to the Associated Press, it became particularly difficult for the Grammy winner to hide her growing baby bump when she performed for four nights to sold-out crowds at New York’s Roseland Theater in August.
“When you’re pregnant, it’s a little bit harder to breathe, so it was hard doing all the choreography and singing at the same time,” the 30-year-old singer said in an onstage interview.
Fans who didn’t get a chance to catch “The Intimate Nights” shows - what Beyonce said was her last concert performance of the year - can get a behind-the-scenes look in her new “Live at Roseland” DVD, available exclusively at Wal-Mart this week. The deluxe two-DVD set will be available everywhere on Tuesday.
Along with classics from her Destiny’s Child days and major hits from her solo career, the DVD includes interviews with the singer, home footage of rehearsals and special family moments - even shots of Beyonce in a wedding gown.
She said she also hopes the film will serve as a time capsule for her unborn child, a chance for him or her to say, “I can’t believe I was in that belly,” she said.
’The Help’s’ Davis lends support to R.I. library
The public library in Central Falls, R.I., that was closed temporarily because of the city’s dire finances is expanding its hours again after receiving a donation from actress Viola Davis and a state grant.
The Adams Memorial Library said Monday that it received a $1,000 check from Miss Davis, who grew up in Central Falls. Miss Davis appeared recently in the movie “The Help” and was nominated for an Oscar for her role in 2008’s “Doubt.”
The library also received a $3,500 grant with the help of state Sen. Elizabeth Crowley.
Actor Alec Baldwin donated $10,000 to the library last month.
The library has raised $61,000 since it was shuttered in July ahead of the city’s bankruptcy filing. It has reopened part time with the help of volunteers. Beginning Dec. 1, it will be open six days a week.
• Compiled from Web and wire reports.
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