The Rolling Stones 1963-1980 - On Track: Every Album, Every Song

I read this immediately after the one of the Beatles solo, and having been somewhat disappointed by that (see my review), I was more than satisfied by this.Maybe I enjoyed it because Mr Pilkington's views tend to coincide with mine.He believes, as I always have, that Some Girls is slightly overrated and that Goat's Head Soup and It's Only Rock n Roll extremely underrated. The latter two suffered critically coming as they did after Exile, which is often acclaimed as the Stones greatest album. I have always believed Sticky Fingers, Let it Bleed and Beggars Banquet all to be better, whilst Goat's Head Soup and It's Only Rock n Roll aren't as inferior as the critics have always claimed. Mr P hits the nail on the head with Exile, when he suggests, rather like the Beatles 'White' album, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. When you compare the individual songs Sticky Fingers is way ahead of Exile.I would also agree with the author that Winter from GHS and Time Waits For No One (Mick Taylor's finest moment) from It's Only R n R are two of the Stones greatest and totally overlooked songs. I'm not sure whether either have been performed live. I think Winter certainly hasn't. I would also add 100 Years Ago from GHS as another vastly underrated Stones song.I also agree with the author that Jagger, particularly on songs such as Sympathy For The Devil and Street Fighting Man, was a literate and extremely underrated lyricist. Maybe all his dancing about on stage had blinded people to his skill as a lyricist.Mr P is however not afraid to criticise Jagger where necessary. For example, his often irritating ad libs and yelps on some of the live material. I heard the Stones 1973 live at the Forest National Arena for the first time recently, and whilst the material is absolutely excellent - the Stones at their sleazy, raunchy peak - Jagger does spoil some of the songs - notably Tumbling Dice - by yelping and shrieking towards the end. The author also points out Jagger's fairly awful performance on some of the Love You Live material. As he suggests by the mid Seventies the Stones performances were rather hit and miss. The 75 LA Forum from the vaults isn't exactly stellar. Ironically, they would become slicker again by the 21st century.Pity the book ended in 1980, although Mr Pilkington does give a very cursory round up of the albums since. Although obviously the band had written and recorded all their classic material by then, there were still a handful of highlights to come.All in all an excellent book, even for those like me who thought they knew all there was to know about the Stones.

This is the 4th book in the excellent On Track series that I`ve bought, the previous ones being Yes, Genesis and Jethro Tull. This is a really well researched book written by a fan who, judging by his picture was probably there when the early albums were released, ( as was I ). Each album is reviewed on a track by track basis and also all of the non album tracks are reviewed too. Steve Pilkington also tackles the different UK/US album releases in an intelligent way .This book covers the Stones from their first release up until 1980 in other words their golden years .Although they have made good records since I think most people would agree that their earlier years were their best as far as recordings go. I have been a Stones fan since 1963 and have been delighted that this important book has been published. I can thoroughly recommend it to any fan of the Stones and 60`s music in general.

Really like the book very interesting and informative.

Absolutely loved this book. As a die-hard Stones fan, it opened up a whole new world for me. The words to the songs representing the stages and events in the lives of this iconic Rock band.Beautifully researched and written with that touch of humour synonymous with all Steve Pilkington books. Surely a Musical or even Film should follow.Fascinating read.

A large cardboard envelope arrived without contents. The envelope was sealed but no book to be found. I'll be interested to hear the response to my complaint.

Great ref. mate.

The author makes a shambles of their 1963-1965 output; Not sure whether to follow their British or American discography, he bounces back and forth between the two. I'm also perplexed by the 1980 cut-off, since 1981 release Tattoo You was made up mainly of songs recorded at the Emotional Rescue sessions or earlier, and its appraisal should have been included here.

The author omits the 1967 (US) LP Flowers, including no mention of The Stones cover of My Girl.

This could have been researched better. Some of the song titles are wrong and should have been picked up by good editing. Especially songs that were titled right and then mysteriously titled wrong. “When Tears Go By” p. 54. Brian Jones didn’t play lead guitar or the solo on Walking the Dog. Keith did. Keith didn’t play the intro and repetitive riff on The Last Time. Brian Jones did. How does the author get this wrong? Brian can be seen playing it on the Ed Sullivan show live. Shindig. Top of the Pops. Shivaree. New Musical Express Pollwinners concert. I will give the author credit though for doing this. Separating Keith and Brian’s guitar parts has never been an easy task. No one ever gets it right unless they can get Bill Wyman to shed light. He is the only Stone that remembers everything and wrote it down. I thought All the Songs was a much better book that also had its share of mistakes. This is more of a quick reference guide to the songs. All the Songs was more in depth. I was hoping this book was more in depth as well. For the price it is nice to have as a reference. If you are like me a guitar player who wants to know exactly who played what well further research will be needed.