Some GirlsE

The Artist

The Rolling Stones formed in London in 1962 and spent the following decade building a reputation as rock's most swaggering, blues-obsessed live band, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards driving the songwriting alongside Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, and, later, Ronnie Wood on second guitar. By the mid-1970s their momentum had cooled, weighed down by Keith's heroin troubles, a lukewarm run of albums, and the sense that punk and disco had left them behind. Some Girls, released in 1978, was their sharp response: leaner, meaner, and openly engaged with the sounds of the moment. It remains widely regarded as their last truly great record and the album that proved they could still adapt without losing their identity. Ronnie Wood's arrival as a full member also reshaped the guitar interplay that had long defined the band.

The Album

Some Girls was recorded largely at Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris across late 1977 and early 1978, with the Glimmer Twins (Jagger and Richards) producing and Chris Kimsey engineering. The band worked quickly and stripped down, favoring a raw, almost demo-like guitar sound with Jagger and Wood trading leads and rhythm parts fluidly. Its release came at a moment when the Stones were being written off as dinosaurs, and the record answered by absorbing disco, punk energy, country, and New York street grit into one bruised, sneering statement. Thematically it circles sex, sleaze, paranoia, urban decay, and the exhaustion of fame, filtered through a distinctly late-70s Manhattan lens. The original cover art and the title track also sparked immediate controversy that shadowed the album on release.

Listen For

Disco reinvention. "Miss You" opens the record on a four-on-the-floor pulse with a walking bassline and harmonica, showing the band chasing the dancefloor without abandoning their swagger.

Guitar weave. Listen to how Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood blur rhythm and lead across "When The Whip Comes Down" and "Respectable," trading parts so quickly it's hard to tell who's playing what.

Genre whiplash. The jump from the Temptations cover "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" into the title track and then "Far Away Eyes" swings from soul homage to punk sneer to straight-faced country parody.

Keith takes the mic. On "Before They Make Me Run," Richards sings lead on what plays as an unrepentant response to his drug bust, his voice cracked and defiant over one of his loosest riffs.

New York paranoia. The closing "Shattered" collages sirens, laughter, and Jagger's half-rapped delivery into a portrait of late-70s Manhattan grime that ties the whole record together.