Review Summary: Not only did Beggars Banquet function as a return to form for the Rolling Stones, it also had enough of its own identity to be a huge influence on everything the band did since
At the time of the release of Beggar's Banquet, The Stones had been experimenting with psychedelia; and while
Aftermath, Between The Buttons, and Their Satanic Majesties Request were legitimately good albums in their own right, they were missing the fantastic blues-inspired music that made people come to love the Stones in the first place. The Rolling Stones realized this, and decided to ditch their psychedelic style and return to traditional rock for their seminal release Beggar's Banquet. An album that not only was universally hailed as their opus at the time, but also is to this day held as one of the greatest albums ever released in the blues-rock genre.
If there were one word used to describe this album, it would be 'southern-fried'. This album is drenched in country, bluegrass, and gospel influences never seen before in the bands discography. Throughout the album, lead vocalist Mick Jagger tries his best to impersonate a Deep South accent, most apparent in 'Prodigal Son' where his faux accent is at its clearest. The rest of the band makes changes just as big; new instruments are brought into play, the biggest of which is a piano. From 'Sympathy for the Devil' to 'Salt of The Earth', the album is constantly given rich bluesy piano licks which blend
Banquet into a cohesive whole with the help of the harmonica, and fiddle to bring a rich feel and diversity that truly make take this album above and beyond its contemporaries.
The psychedelia isn't abandoned though, the end of 'Street Fighting Man' actually goes into an atmospheric groove. However, the influence of their previous venture shows itself most in Factory Girl, a hybrid of the country-blues theme which takes up Banquet and the psych that made up Aftermath; Indian drums and a fiddle play side by side as Mick himself sings like he's doing a combination of his 'Paint It Black' and 'Honky Tonk Woman' voice. And yet, it fits right in with the rest of the album.
That is the beauty of Beggar's Banquet, an album which serves as a patchwork of everything the Stones is about, from blues to psychedelia to country, it's here and it's fantastic. Anyone who likes Southern-fried classic blues-rock is welcome to giving this a spin.
