EMOTIONAL RESCUE
23 June 1980
LP (Rolling Stones Records
CUN 39111). Producer: The Glimmer Twins.
CD- November 1989 (US Columbia 40500 -UK CBS 4502032)
Highest Charts Position : US 1 - UK 1
Contributing musicians: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Ron Wood, Ian Stewart, Bobby Keys, Nicky Hopkins, Sugar Blue, Max Romeo, Michael Shrieve, Arif Mardin (arranger), Jack Nitzsche (arranger)
- Dance (MJ/KR)

- Summer Romance (MJ/KR)
- Send It To Me (MJ/KR)
- Let Me Go (MJ/KR)
- Indian Girl (MJ/KR)
- Where The Boys Go (MJ/KR)
- Down In The Hole (MJ/KR)
- Emotional Rescue (MJ/KR)
- She’s So Cold (MJ/KR)
- All About You (MJ/KR)
Coasting on the success of Some Girls, the Stones
offered more of the same on Emotional Rescue. Comprised of leftovers from the
previous album's sessions and hastily written new numbers, Emotional Rescue may
consist mainly of filler, but it's expertly written and performed filler. The
Stones toss off throwaways like the reggae-fueled, mail-order bride anthem "Send
It to Me" or rockers like "Summer Romance" and "Where the Boys Go" with an
authority that makes the record a guilty pleasure, even if it's clear that only
two songs -- the icy but sexy disco-rock of "Emotional Rescue" and the revamped
Chuck Berry rocker "She's So Cold" -- come close to being classic Stones.
Recording date:
18th January - 12th February: 1979 Nassau, Bahamas, Compass Point
Studios.
Producer: The Glimmer Twins. Sound engineer: Chris Kimsey. Additional musicians:
Boz Scaggs (voc, gtr)/Michael Shrieve (perc)/Bobby Keys (sax)/Sugar Blue
(harm)
- All About You II (MJ/KR) -’Emotional Rescue’-version
- She’s So Cold II (MJ/MJ) -’Emotional Rescue’-version
10th June - 7th July & late July - 25th August &
12th September - 19th October 1979
Boulogne-Billancourt (near Paris), France, Pathé Marconi Studios.
Producer: The
Glimmer Twins. Sound engineer: Chris Kimsey. Additional musicians: Bobby
Keys
(sax)/Sugar Blue (harm)/Martin Gordon (bass; two days in September)
- Down In The Hole II (MJ/KR) -’Emotional Rescue’-version
- Let Me Go II (MJ/KR) -’Emotional Rescue’-version
- Summer Romance VI (MJ/KR) -’Emotional Rescue’-version
- Where The Boys Go V (MJ/KR) -’Emotional Rescue’-version
early November - December 1979 New York City, Electric Lady Studios.
Mixing and some overdubbing for the upcoming album ‘Emotional Rescue’.
Producer: The Glimmer Twins. Sound engineer: Chris Kimsey. Additional
musicians: Max Romeo (bvoc on ‘Dance’)/Arif Mardin (horns-conductor)/
Jack Nitzsche (horns-arranger)
- Dance VII (MJ/KR/RW) -’Emotional Rescue’-version
- Emotional Rescue IV (MJ/KR) -’Emotional Rescue’-version
- Indian Girl III (MJ/KR) -’Emotional Rescue’-version
- Send It To Me II (MJ/KR) -’Emotional Rescue’-version
Mick: (Why that title?)
(Laughs) I was looking at Ronnie desperately...
Ron: No, this is Ronnie
saying that Mick is too embarrassed because he's a very shy lad to say that he
came up with that title. Am I right or wrong, Charlie?
Charlie: (Joking) No,
you're wrong.
Ron: Right... - wrong?
Charlie: (Laughs)
Mick: Well, it sounded nice.
Nobody came up with anything better really.
Ron: But also you find it
comes in everyday sentences these days, you know. People walk down the street,
Oh last night, I had such an emotional rescue! (laughs)
The material on Emotional Rescue was a little bit more diverse than had gone on before. If anything, it was a little more soul-orientated and laid back than the Some Girls album. A lot more relaxed. The writing for that album was a little bit more experimental. There hadn't been a long writing period. All of this built-up frustration had come out in Some Girls, but the Emotional Rescue felt a ltittle bit left over.
Ron: You have to be
prepared to lose a lot (of songs), 'cause you get attached to songs.
Bill: It's also the ones
that get finished the quickest, as well.
Mick: Yeah, that's one of
my points. You know, the ones who get finished quickest are the ones that are
gonna get used...
Bill: The other prospect,
the whole problem of... if you do 4 or 5 songs in the same key at the same
tempo, you can't use 'em all (...)
Mick: Yeah, what he's
saying is right.
Bill: You've got 2 other
really great tracks that you all love, but you can't (use them) all because
you've got Where the Boys Go.
Mick: You've got 4 similar
things is what Bill is saying.
Bill: And the same applies
to slow ballads, which we've got lots of really great ones. You can only put so
many on an album. One, maybe 2 if you're lucky.
Mick: During the whole
thing, I mean I really wish there was someone that could do a lot of this. Cause
there's a lot of donkey work making records, you know. You hear about bands
making... spending 2 years making (records.) A lot of it is donkey work 'cause
what you do is a really stupid way of making records. Instead of going in with
10 songs saying, These are the 10 songs we all know and like, you know -
they're all rehearsed, great, fantastic, here they come... (Again we did)
30! - it's like making a movie. And so... and then you start, Oh, I wish we
could use that one!, and Ronnie's going, What about that one? (laughs)
... And so you wither it down from 30 down to 10 and it's a very slow process...
Ron: (Jokes) And there's
guitar lessons for Mick, you know. They take weeks and weeks....
(Mick and Keith) fought a lot during that album because Keith thought Mick was getting his way too much, and Keith had to fight for what he believed. Keith fights for his half of the Glimmer Twins.
It seemed like Keith and Mick were a little bit more polarized at that time. There wasn't quite the same vibe when everyone was gathered together as there had been in the Exile On Main Street days.
(T)he tracks were too similar! That's why I screamed. I was the maniac on that album, always complaining, always going to battle. It's more difficult to get people to go along with certain ideas now because it's become such a fucking organization. If you're the odd one out who speaks out and says, Look, I know we can do that song better, they they turn around and say, Everybody loves it. And you end up being the agitator, the paranoiac, you know... What's HE on?
I think people are misinterpreting Emotional Rescue. It's just a lot
of fun. A humorous, tongue-in-cheek record. It's not supposed to be taken
seriously.
English people hate it 'cause they say it's all disco. That's what they think it is, you see. It's just black music.
(I)t doesn't (have the resonance of Some Girls). You know, Emotional
Rescue is a lot of
leftovers from Some Girls. Really.