December 6: Rolling Stones released Beggars Banquet in 1968

Beggars Banquet is the seventh British and ninth American studio album The Rolling Stones. It was released 6th December 1968 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records in the United States. The album was a return to a more rootsy rock for the band after the psychedelic “experiment”, Their Satanic Majesties Request.

The Rolling Stones – No Expectations (live Hyde Park, 1969):

In 2003, the album was ranked number 57 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In the same year the TV network VH1 named Beggars Banquet the 67th greatest album of all time.

It should, of course, be higher ranked. It is one of the best albums by Rolling Stones and also one of the best albums ever made!

“The Stones forsook psychedelic experimentation to return to their blues roots on this celebrated album, which was immediately acclaimed as one of their landmark achievements. A strong acoustic Delta blues flavor colors much of the material, particularly “Salt of the Earth” and “No Expectations,” which features some beautiful slide guitar work. Basic rock & roll was not forgotten, however: “Street Fighting Man,” a reflection of the political turbulence of 1968, was one of their most innovative singles, and “Sympathy for the Devil,” with its fire-dancing guitar licks, leering Jagger vocals, African rhythms, and explicitly satanic lyrics, was an image-defining epic. On “Stray Cat Blues,” Jagger and crew began to explore the kind of decadent sexual sleaze that they would take to the point of self-parody by the mid-’70s. At the time, though, the approach was still fresh, and the lyrical bite of most of the material ensured Beggars Banquet’s place as one of the top blues-based rock records of all time.” 
– Richie Unterberger (allmusic)

 

Looking at the track list, it reads like a greatest hits collection. The anger and the urgency is exciting even to this day. Stones had humor as well, and the irony seeps out from several tracks. It is good fun rock’n roll and a classic album.

The Rolling Stones – Street Fighting Man (live, 1969):

and here is the album on Spotify, The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet (1968):

– Hallgeir