Gimme Some Neck- Ron Wood. One of my early Influences
-
Artist:
-
Album:
I remember when this album was released in '79. The only copy the local "Listening Booth" had was on Cassette. I still have it! I was able to purchase the wax at a used record shop years later, Maybe late 80's or early 90's. Yes I have it on CD too!
Though I "liked" Black and Blue and Some Girls, This album just struck me in way they could not. I went out and bought "A nod is a s good as a wink" and Ian McLagan's current solo "Troublemaker," and Woody's " I've got my own album to do" because of this. I was also heavily into Bill Wyman's "Monkey Grip" at the time - but i Digress....
"Neck" was everything I LOVED about the Stones and Faces. It was raw, roots rocking stuff. With a couple of great ballads. It had some great 70's touches with flangers and phase shifters lurking around the rhythm parts and the riffs. The All star cast on the recording didn't hurt either!
The album kicks off with Worry No More, a super good time pub rocker with humor. Woody's gritty vocals and the bouncy feel is just plain infectious. It made me grab for my guitar and try to figure it out and play along.
Breakin My Heart, is glazed with touches of Dylan and the Faces. Not a bad tune but it holds ones interest.
Delia, is a sweet acoustic guitar instrumental interlude. We all have those great little riffs and passages that don't quite cut it as a "song" but it was so cool that he left it in.
Woody and Keef's Duet on Buried Alive show the chemistry that proves to us Woody was a good choice for the Stones.
Come to Realize is grovin' cut with Keef's signature fills that made Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile the powerful trilogy they were.
Infekshun, is just an out and out rocker classic theme. We all know how bad it hurts when you love her that much.
Woody and Co. take on an unreleased at the time Dylan tune.. Seven Days. Much like Hendrix with All Along the Watchtower, this is ne of the very few Dylan songs that someone other Dylan "owns." It is almost a sif Dylan wrote this for Woody. Woody delivers it with his touch but much homage to Bob.
We All Get Old was one of my early favorites from this disc. Its another Stonesy Faces-esque foot tapper with a little heartache.
F.U.C. Her is plain old bad boy boogie woogie rife with dirty innuendos. No matter ow much Woody tells us to stay away from this chick, it makes you wonder if she is real or just a fictitious wild woman.
Lost and Lonely rich in phasey swirling grooves helps us wind down from the three rockers preceding it. Who hasn't been...?
Don't Worry kicks it back up a notch and closes the album with more great riffs. Anything in life can get you, if you are a rock star or the person buying the record... Don't let it eat ya! Keep Rocking.
This is just one of my all time faves. It came at a time when rock music was changing but woody stayed true to his influences and what made him who he was from his days with Jeff Beck, The Faces, and the Stones. I can hear and feel so much of these songs in my playing over 30 years later.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (8)
great album, great review. Took me awhile to get used to the idea of Ron Wood as a Rolling Stone but this album is one of the things that pushed me over the edge. I was listening to "The First Barbarians: Live From Kilburn" earlier today. has the same raw, dirty kinda feel this album does and even has Rod the Mod singing on a coupla tracks. It was recorded in '74 and if you like this album (as I do) I guarantee you'll like the Barbarians set.
I was checking the First Barbarians out too, from your Page. Great stuff. Woody revived the Barbarians around the time of "Neck" too, as I am sure you know. It took me time too to get used to Woody as a Stone, since I was and still am such a big Mick Taylor fan. Like you, this record sold me on Woody. Some Girls took a lot of getting used to, but as a DIE hard stones fan I listened to it over and over and came to really like them. Years later my faves are still Before They Make Run and Far Away Eyes. The songs that hit me as a teen, (Respectable, WWCD and Shattered, Burden) don't drive me they way they used to though. The same goes for Black and Blue, but I have to say I actually like that better than Some Girls. As far as the barbarians, I have both Live in Kilburn and Buried Alive in my library now.
great minds work alike, and this is proof of that. "Before They Make Me Run" is on my all time top 10 Stones singles list and if you ever went to a Stones concert in the '70s, I was the guy in the cheap seats yelling "Keith" as loud as I could. When I saw them at MSG in 1978, BTMMR was Keith's solo spots and the highlight of the night. I'm reading a book now called "Exile On Main St.: A Season In Hell With The Rolling Stones" by Robert Greenfield. It's not new, published in 2006, but it's a good read and lays out the whole story of how "Exile" came to be recorded. Any book that starts out with the premise that Keith is the hero of the story has got to be good. I got it at my public library. If you like reading rock & roll books, i give this one 2 thumbs up-burt
OH YEAH! Me too but I was yelling "KEEF" LOL! I will definitely check out the EOMS book- thanks for the tip. Al the jokes about him and his substance abuse etc. The guy is amazingly talented and the biggest influence on my guitar playing, more than all the others combined. I just wish I had learned to play in Open tunings back in the 70's...
did you ever hear about how Ry Cooder was offered the job and turned it down? Can you imagine how great Keith & Ry Cooder as a full time unit could have been. Think about whole albums that sound like Sister Morphine and Memo From Turner - the potential coulda been incredible. Somewhere there's probably hours of keith, ry and nicky hopkins jamming that never made it to the Jamming with Edward album. Love to be the guy who finds it
JWE was mainly sessions that were recored when Keith was too strung out to play. Funny, Keith has been quoted saying how he took Ry Cooder for every thing he could get. Ry is def. credited with teaching him Open G tuning and how to play slide. Given Ry was such a great influence on Keith between Beggar's Banquet and Sticky Fingers, I had to realize that Ry influenced me indirectly until I discovered his work years later. I join you in wanting to hear the tapes if they exist of Ry, Keith and Nicky jamming, they would be priceless.
Gosh, I remember this one. It was thought of as a lesser release at the time because it was "jammy," but I was always rather fond of it simply because it didn't come with the weight of expectation that accompanied a "real" Stones album back then....
definitely a favourite also.My fav Ron Wood album is Now Look with Ron in great voice and a great band.