It came out in 1978 and was the band's response to the punk-rock movement that had risen up and railed against the bloat of rock institutions, in which by the late '70s the Stones had been included. So Mick Jagger and company took dead aim at the youngsters, even incorporating that loathsome antithesis to punk rock, disco music, into their sound and making it their own.
This going up against the new guard was, for the Stones, both understandable and not. They were, without a doubt, an inspiration to many punk rock bands just like the Beatles were, even if it wasn't punk to admit it in 1978. Hence in some ways, the Stones deciding to "respond" on their new record was little more than posturing.
So maybe the Stones - and Jagger in particular, who's generally considered the major creative force behind Some Girls - saw something true in the punk-rock movement. Maybe it wasn't about proving the youngsters wrong, but about proving themselves still young - it's funny, by the way, to note references to the band's "old age" more than 30 years ago.
The result was Some Girls, the band's most impassioned and fiery record of the '70s, excluding (of course) Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street, which are on their own, higher plane of existence. What's so amazing about this album is that, although it dabbles in newer trends - dance beats and punk energy - it still feels very much like a Rolling Stones record, a fresh angle on their long-time loves of blues and rock 'n' roll traditions. The punks might have been throwing out the rule book, but the Stones proved there was still plenty of rebellion to be found within it.
This new deluxe edition proves this period a wildly fruitful one for the band. The second disc includes 12 outtakes from the Some Girls sessions, and they are fully formed and mostly excellent. The rollicking piano of Claudine, the grimy stomp of So Young, the bluesy vamp of When You're Gone, the smouldering guitar work of Keep Up Blues - each moment is as vital as the last. On top of these solid tracks, there's the absolute knockout No Spare Parts, a boozy ballad that is as strong (or better) than anything on the album proper.
Of these 12 tracks, none feels like a snippet or cast-off. These are complete statements and, together with the album, reveal a high-water mark in the band's creativity they would never quite capture again.
If Some Girls answered the band's growing set of critics, and silenced the punks, it didn't reinvent the band in the long term. But that, in the end, doesn't matter. What matters is that, with Some Girls, the Rolling Stones gave us one more classic album, and this new edition pays tribute to this burst of creativity by showing it to us all at once.
Many of these extras have floated around on bootlegs for a while, but here they are presented to us remastered and in pristine form, the way they were meant to be heard. So whether or not it shut the punks up, this album has kept us talking for more than 30 years, and with this new edition, the conversation is bound to continue.
Because there's still plenty to talk about, dig into and knock us out.
Some Girls: Deluxe Edition
The Rolling Stones
Universal
4.5 stars (out of 5)
