MARK’S MUSIC NOTES FOR DECEMBER 2011… The Black Keys follow up their excellent 2010 album Brothers with the upbeat El Camino, another great album that commercial radio will probably ignore just like it did with Brothers. In a day and age where CD sales are on the decline, record labels continue to re-issue classic titles with proven track records in new incarnations that include unreleased material, re-mastered sound, and often lavish box sets. Though not yet included in Music Notes, Pink Floyd and Queen both had their entire catalogs re-vamped this year, and they sound great. Jethro Tull’s classic Aqualung album has been expanded, re-mixed and re-mastered with the level of care and quality that should be the standard for all re-issues. The Rolling Stones have already released expanded remasters and box sets on Exile On Main Street and Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, and now their top selling album, Some Girls has received the same treatment. Be Bop Deluxe is a 1970’s band that most readers will be unfamiliar with. They never had any mainstream success in the U.S., but the band had several great albums, and their entire studio catalog has recently been remastered and compiled into a concise box set. The Black Keys – El Camino Vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and Drummer Patrick Carney of The Black Keys, have said that they have been listening to a lot of Rolling Stones lately, and they set out to record a more direct rock and roll album than their last album, Brothers was. The duo has succeeded, and El Camino definitely rocks, but just as importantly (and unlike most modern rock), it rolls as well. Perhaps that’s partly why they named the album El Camino, which means the road in Spanish. The band’s sense of humor plays into the album cover, which pictures a heavily worn minivan with missing hubcaps, when one might expect a cool Chevrolet El Camino instead. El Camino was recorded in Auerbach’s new studio in Nashville between March and August 2011, while The Black Keys were still hot from the success of Brothers. Carney has said that he and Auerbach were no longer thinking on a smaller scale as they had up until, and during the recording of Brothers. After their well-earned and deserved breakthrough success with Brothers, The Black Keys are more confident than ever. The success of Brothers was due to internet and satellite radio airplay, heavy usage in numerous TV shows, sporting events and TV commercials, as well as good old-fashioned word of mouth. While it was easy to doubt that The Black Keys would be able to produce a follow up to Brothers that would be as good, they have done just that, and they’ve done it without any retreads or rip-offs. They may have been inspired by The Rolling Stones, and this album definitely has the swagger of the late 1960’s to early 1970’s Stones albums, but this is all Black Keys. Anyone that liked Brothers or 2006’s Magic Potion, should like El Camino. It’s faster paced than Brothers and not as heavy as Magic Potion. It is 11 songs long, which is short compared to Brothers’ 15 songs, but it’s roughly 39 minutes long, which is a good running length for an album. The songs on El Camino are all well written, and have lots of hooks, musical melodies and singable choruses. As on Brothers, the sparse bass and keyboards add a great deal to The Black Keys’ sound, but are never overbearing or intrusive. There are lots of different guitar tones on El Camino, from the buzz saw riffing on the first single, Lonely Boy, to the Clash-like strumming in Dead And Gone, Auerbach never disappoints. There is even a little bit of acoustic guitar as well as some talk-box guitar (though it’s strictly musical with no talking). El Camino is refreshing and vibrant, and it may very well wind up being my favorite album of 2011. It is available on vinyl (which includes a copy of the album on CD), CD and download. The Rolling Stones – Some Girls First released in June of 1978, Some Girls is The Rolling Stones’ 16th studio album (14th in the U.K.). It was released at a time when punk rock, new wave and disco were all the rage. Blues- based hard rock had swiftly gone out of style, and The Rolling Stones were one of the prime targets, along with Led Zeppelin, of what punk rockers referred to as dinosaur rock bands that were no longer relevant (though both punk rock and new wave were heavily influenced by the Stones’ music of the 1960’s). Some Girls followed 1976’s lackluster Black and Blue album, which had been recorded with several guest guitarists. Ron Wood had since officially become the replacement guitarist for Mick Taylor, though he had played on Black and Blue and even appeared on the cover. The Stones wanted to prove their relevance in 1978 and that they had picked the right guitarist to replace Taylor. They succeeded by recording their most controversial and top selling album that is still popular today. Mick Jagger was the primary creative force behind Some Girls, as Keith Richards was bogged down by his heroin bust in 1977. Jagger was influenced by the music scene in New York City, which was dominated by bands like The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie and Television, as well as myriads of punk bands and disco. The resulting sound was leaner and tougher, but the album also included a dance song, as well as a straight country song. Miss You had been released as a single in May, and had caused a huge sensation as it was labeled the Rolling Stones’ disco song, and it received airplay on rock, pop and disco radio stations. The song was inescapable. Local DJ Ron Olson pulled a stunt on FM100 by locking himself in the studio and playing Miss You repeatedly until he was “fired” by station management. I can’t remember how long it was before he was “re-hired”, but I do remember that he met the band when the Some Girls tour came to Memphis. The songs Beast of Burden and Shattered both became big hits in addition to Miss You, and the country song Far Away Eyes and Keith Richards’ rocking Before They Make Me Run both received rock radio airplay as well. There is a great cover of the Temptations’ Just My Imagination, and the rest of the album is snarling rock and roll that has punk leanings. In retrospect, it isn’t really stylistically all that different from some of the Stones’ other 70’s songs, but it was the best material that they had recorded since It’s Only Rock And Roll in 1974. There was no stopping the Some Girls album, it went on to become a 6X Multi-Platinum seller. The controversial album cover of Some Girls is a parody of a wig ad, and originally included the band members’ faces along with those of Lucille Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Judy Garland, Raquel Welch and Marilyn Monroe. After threats of legal action, the actresses’ faces were removed and replaced with blank colors and the text Pardon Our Appearance – Cover Under Re-construction. The Beast Of Burden single had a vintage circus picture of a lion sitting on a woman who may or may not have been clothed (the lion blocked her torso), and it was banned due to pressure from women’s groups. It is now a very rare and expensive collectible, and it’s laughable to think that it was deemed offensive at all. Perhaps the biggest controversy, however, were with the lyrics to Some Girls, which makes many tongue in cheek sexist comments about the characteristics of women of various races. This even prompted Jesse Jackson to picket the Rolling Stones’ office in New York! When the band was on Saturday Night Live, Garrett Morris performed a skit in which he initially appeared to be criticizing the Stones, but then he said “I have one thing to say to you, Mr. Jagger – where are these women”? It was hilarious, and I’m sure that all of the critics felt ridiculed when they realized that the song was a joke making fun of how some men view women, and not how the band actually views them. I got the joke, but hated that the song was #4 on side one of the vinyl, because I had to get up and move the stylus over to song #5, because my mom would have hit the roof if she had heard it, and may have even banned it herself, though she did like The Stones. The song Lies was too good to skip (and had some controversial lyrics as well), so I got up and skipped the song Some Girls every time I played that album at home. The Some Girls album has just been expanded and re-released in various versions along with a second disc of 12 outtakes. Just as they did with the Exile On Main Street bonus tracks from last year, many of these songs had to have vocals added to them recently, as they were never completely finished in the 1970’s. The bonus songs include a straight country cover of Hank Williams’ You Win Again that is closer to Jerry Lee Lewis’ version, but most of the songs are the blues based rock that The Stones are mostly known for, which is why they were left off of the album in the first place.