Maps of Music

Dirty Work (1986)

Where the lyrics of Dirty Work take you, and where it was really made.

The band recorded the album while its two main songwriters were feuding, and no tour was ever held to support it.

Key places

Where the sessions began (1985)

Recording site Pathé Marconi Studios (Boulogne-Billancourt) — The recording sessions for Dirty Work began in April 1985 in this city and ran for two months. The pin uses the city-centre coordinates of Boulogne-Billancourt, not the exact studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Dirty Work: eighteenth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones
• Released 24 March 1986 on the Rolling Stones label by CBS Records
• First album under the band's new contract with Columbia Records
• Produced by Steve Lillywhite
• Four of the eight original compositions credited to Jagger/Richards/Wood

Background

• Recorded while Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' relations had soured considerably, according to Richards' autobiography Life
• The two principal songwriters had been feuding over the band's direction for most of the 1980s
• Most members spent the previous years on solo albums or side projects
• Ian Stewart, former member and frequent piano contributor, died shortly before release
• No supporting tour followed, because the animosity prevented the members from working together live onstage

Recording

• Sessions began in April 1985 in Boulogne-Billancourt and ran for two months
• Jagger had just released his first solo album, She's the Boss (1985), which annoyed Richards
• Jagger was absent from many sessions, so Dirty Work is the first album since Let It Bleed (1969) without guitar playing from him
• Steve Jordan and Anton Fig play drums on some tracks; Ronnie Wood plays drums on 'Sleep Tonight'
• Final recording in July and August 1985 included guest appearances by Jimmy Page, Bobby Womack and Tom Waits
• Stewart died on 12 December; a hidden track of him playing 'Key to the Highway' closes the album

Cover

• Original vinyl came shrinkwrapped in dark red cellophane
• Included a comic strip called 'Dirty Workout', drawn by Mark Marek
• Pitchfork included the cover in its 2005 list of the worst record covers of all time

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1962 as an English rock band; their first stable line-up was Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts.
• Jones named the band after a Muddy Waters song; they were rooted in blues and rock and roll.
• Manager Andrew Loog Oldham encouraged them to write their own songs, and the Jagger–Richards partnership became their main creative force.

Members

• Current: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood (joined 1975).
• Former: Brian Jones (died 1969), Mick Taylor (1969–1974), Bill Wyman (1962–1993), Charlie Watts (1963–2021, died 2021).
• Steve Jordan became their drummer after Watts' death.

Career

• Hits included "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965), "Paint It Black" (1966) and "Start Me Up" (1981).
• Their 1969 Hyde Park show and Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. are key points of their career.
• Formed Rolling Stones Records in 1970, whose tongue-and-lips logo became their band logo.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989; the band has sold more than 250 million albums.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Robert Christgau called Dirty Work 'a bracing and even challenging record' that innovates without kowtowing to multi-platinum fashion
• Some reviewers felt the album was slight in places, with weak, generic songwriting from Richards and Wood
• Some reviewers found Jagger's vocals puzzlingly abrasive
• Some felt Jagger was saving his best material for his solo records
• People named it one of the worst albums of 1986

Reappraisal

• Stylus Magazine's 'On Second Thoughts' feature in 2004 called it 'a tattered, embarrassed triumph'
• Stylus called it by far the most interesting Stones album since Some Girls, at every level: lyrical, conceptual, instrumental
• Stylus claimed the album features the most venomous guitar sound of the Stones' career and Jagger's most committed vocals
• Pitchfork's Brent DiCrescenzo, in its 2005 list, said no other cover goes so far to tarnish the reputation of the band

Records

• Reached No. 4 in the UK and the United States, where it went platinum
• Harlem Shuffle reached No. 13 in the UK and No. 5 in the United States
• One Hit (To the Body) was a US top-30 hit
• Reached platinum or gold status in several countries, including the United States, Canada and the UK
• Charted in the top 10 in over a dozen markets

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The Harlem Shuffle cover was the first lead single from a Stones studio album not to be a Jagger/Richards original since the band's earliest days.
• When Jagger played a solo set at Live Aid in July 1985, Richards and Wood supported Bob Dylan's set on acoustic guitars.
• Jagger later cited Charlie Watts' personal state as one reason he vetoed a tour in support of the album.
• Only 'One Hit (To the Body)' and 'Harlem Shuffle' have been played live from the album, both on the Steel Wheels tour.
• The album was first to feature two tracks with Richards on lead vocals.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Maps of Ages ↗ (mapsofages.com)

Privacy · Contact