Luxury Fingerprint File Short And Curlies The Rolling Stones

Luxury Album: It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (1974) Side 2 Track 6
Fingerprint File Side 2 Track 10
Short and Curlies Side 2 Track 9
by the Rolling Stones

Work began on It's Only Rock 'n Roll following the Rolling Stones' autumn 1973 European tour. Production began in November at Munich, Germany's Musicland Studios. According to guitarist Keith Richards, "We were really hot (off the road) and ready just to play some new material." The recording sessions were attended by Belgian painter Guy Peellaert, who Mick Jagger invited to do the album cover after seeing his work in the book Rock Dreams, which featured illustrations of various rock musicians such as the Rolling Stones. Peellaert eventually painted the band as "rock deities", descending a temple staircase, surrounded by young girls and women worshiping them in Grecian clothing. The cover bears a very strong resemblance to Henri Gervex's painting, The Coronation of Nicolas II (1896). The artist refused to sign a deal of exclusivity, and in 1974 provided the album art for David Bowie's Diamond Dogs.

The album was at first developed as a half-live, half-studio production with one side of the album featuring live performances from the Stones' European tour while the other side was to be composed of newly recorded cover versions of the band's favourite R&B songs. Covers recorded included a take of Dobie Gray's "Drift Away", Jimmy Reed's "Shame Shame Shame", and the Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud to Beg". Soon the band began working off riffs by Richards and new ideas by Mick Jagger and the original concept was scrapped in favour of an album with all-new material. The cover of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" was the only recording to make the cut, while the "Drift Away" cover is a popular bootleg.[6]

It's Only Rock 'n Roll marked the Stones' first effort in the producer's chair since Their Satanic Majesties Request, and the first for Jagger and Richards under their pseudonym "The Glimmer Twins". On the choice to produce, Richards said at the time:

"I think we'd come to a point with Jimmy (Miller) where the contribution level had dropped because it'd got to be a habit, a way of life, for Jimmy to do one Stones album a year. He'd got over the initial sort of excitement which you can feel on Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed. Also, Mick and I felt that we wanted to try and do it ourselves because we really felt we knew much more about techniques and recording and had our own ideas of how we wanted things to go. Goats Head Soup hadn't turned out as we wanted to – not blaming Jimmy or anything like that... But it was obvious that it was time for a change in that particular part of the process of making records."[2]

Starting with this release, all future Rolling Stones albums would either be produced by themselves or in collaboration with an outside producer.

Most of the album's backing tracks were recorded first at Musicland; solo vocals were recorded later by Jagger, about whom Richards would say, "he often comes up with his best stuff alone in the studio with just an engineer."[2]

The song "Luxury" showed the band's growing interest in reggae music, while "Till the Next Goodbye" and "If You Really Want to Be My Friend" continued their immersion in ballads. Seven of the album's 10 songs crack the four-minute mark, a feature that would come to be disparaged during the rising punk rock scene of the late 1970s.

Ronnie Wood, a long-time acquaintance of the band, began to get closer to the Rolling Stones during these sessions after he invited Mick Taylor to play on his debut album, I've Got My Own Album to Do. Taylor spent some time recording and hanging out at Wood's house, The Wick. By chance, Richards was asked one night by Wood's wife at the time, Krissy, to join them at the guitarist's home. While there, Richards recorded some tracks with Wood and quickly developed a close friendship, with Richards going as far as moving into Wood's guest room. Jagger soon entered the mix and it was here that the album's lead single and title track, "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)", was first recorded. Wood worked closely on the track with Jagger, who subsequently took the song and title for their album. The released version of this song features Wood on 12-string acoustic guitar.

It's Only Rock 'n Roll was Mick Taylor's last album with the Rolling Stones. Similar to receiving no writing credits on the Stones' previous album, Goats Head Soup, Taylor reportedly had made songwriting contributions to "Till the Next Goodbye" and "Time Waits for No One", but on the album jacket, all original songs were credited to Jagger/Richards. Taylor said in 1997:

"I did have a falling out with Mick Jagger over some songs I felt I should have been credited with co-writing on It's Only Rock 'n Roll. We were quite close friends and co-operated quite closely on getting that album made. By that time Mick and Keith weren't really working together as a team so I'd spend a lot of time in the studio."

Taylor's statement contradicts Jagger's earlier comment concerning the album. Jagger stated in a 1995 Rolling Stone interview about "Time Waits for No One" that Taylor "maybe threw in a couple of chords".

Alongside the usual outside contributors, namely Billy Preston, Nicky Hopkins and unofficial member Ian Stewart, Elton John sideman Ray Cooper acted as percussionist for the album. Several songs were finished songs and overdubs and mixing were performed at Jagger's home, Stargroves, in the early summer of 1974.

Instead of immediately touring to promote the album, the band decided to head back into the Munich studios to record the next album, to Taylor's disappointment and subsequent resignation from the band. A tour didn't happen until the following summer in the United States, the ‘Tour of the Americas '75’, with future member Ronnie Wood taking Taylor's place on guitar.

The title track became a permanent staple of the band's live setlist, but apart from some performances of "Ain’t Too Proud to Beg" and "If You Can’t Rock Me" on the Licks Tour, none of the other tracks have been performed since 1977. As of 2023, "Till The Next Goodbye," "Time Waits For No-One," "If You Really Want To Be My Friend" and "Short and Curlies" had never been played live.

In order to promote the album, music videos were filmed for several of the songs. The most commonly seen video from the album was the one for "It’s Only Rock’n’Roll (But I Like It)," featuring the band (in U.S. Navy sailor suits) playing in a tent, which gradually fills with soap bubbles (Taylor, Watts and Wyman are all featured in the video but did not play on the actual recording). Videos were also filmed for "Ain’t Too Proud to Beg" and "Till The Next Goodbye."

Luxury is a reggae-influenced song. Most of their previous album, Goats Head Soup, was recorded in Jamaica.

Keith Richards got the idea for Luxury from a song that came on the radio while he was driving in Munich.

Luxury tells the tale of a poor laborer working long hours while his boss at the oil refinery gets rich.

The CD version of Luxury contains an extra 30 seconds which was left off the original.

Ray Cooper played percussion on Luxury. A British session musician, he played on most of Elton John's albums in the '70s, and has also recorded with Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and Roger Waters.

On Fingerprint File, Mick Jagger sings about the F.B.I. keeping a file on him. It was probably true, considering the extensive records they had on John Lennon.

The Rolling Stones used a funk sound on Fingerprint File that would emerge on their next album, Black And Blue. Unlike most of their songs, they did some improvisation on this one. Keith Richards explained in a 1975 interview with Sounds: "The middle and end part was totally off-the-cuff. It could have been a much tighter three-minute thing with just the vocal and riff but it got extended."

Fingerprint File was the last song Mick Taylor played on as a Stone. He was replaced by Ron Wood on the next album.
Mich Jagger played guitar on this track, which was something he rarely did. He also played the guitar when they performed it live.

On Keno's Rolling Stones website, Fingerprint File was voted the song by The Rolling Stones which was ahead of its time when released, for two main reasons: "It's rap like before there was rap, and was written years before the George W. Bush administration would do just about everything noted in the song."

As for the Short and Curlies... It's too bad, she's grabbed a handful. And you can't get away from it all. It's too bad, ooh, and it's painful. And you can't break away from this stall. And you can't get away from it all. It's too bad. She's got you by the balls. She's got your name. She's got your number...

Short and Curlies

“Short and Curlies” was recorded in Jamaica during the Goats Head Soup sessions. This blues-rock number with a strong boogie-woogie accent was reworked in Munich and then at Mick Jagger’s house, Stargroves, before being finalized at Island Studios in London.

The very good piano intro is played by Ian Stewart, who only played on tracks he liked, leaving Nicky
Hopkins or Billy Preston the trouble of recording the ones that did not interest him. “Stu always did what he wanted to do,” confirms Keith.

Having set up a boogie-woogie, indeed almost Dixieland, vibe, the pianist is joined almost immediately by Mick Taylor with a brilliant and very clear-toned slide guitar part, probably played on a Telecaster. Keith handles the rhythm guitar, on which he provides unwavering support, apparently leaving Mick Taylor to play lead, now with distortion.

Charlie Watts accompanies his bandmates with some excellent drumming, accentuating the shuffle rhythm with the help of Bill Wyman, the two of them very much at ease on this kind of track. As is Mick Jagger, whose performance again lives up to his reputation. He doubles himself in the vocal harmonies and is accompanied presumably by Keith.

“Short and Curlies” is a good song that resembles the melody of “Midnight Rambler” (Let It Bleed, 1969) in places.
It is a shame the Stones do not return to their roots more often.