Voodoo Lounge

Voodoo Lounge
Studio album by The Rolling Stones
Released	11 July 1994
Recorded	September, 3 November – 11 December 1993 and 15 January – 23 April 1994
Genre	Rock
Length	62:08
Language	English
Label	Virgin
Producer	Don Was, The Glimmer Twins
Professional reviews
Allmusic [1] Robert Christgau [2] Rolling Stone [3] Vox (8/10)[4]
The Rolling Stones chronology
Steel Wheels (1989) Voodoo Lounge (1994) Bridges to Babylon (1997) Singles from Voodoo Lounge "Love Is Strong" Released: 5 July 1994 "You Got Me Rocking" Released: 26 September 1994 "Out of Tears" Released: 1 November 1994 "I Go Wild" Released: 1995

Voodoo Lounge is an album by The Rolling Stones, released in July 1994. As their first new release under their new alliance with Virgin Records, it ended a five-year gap since their last studio album, Steel Wheels in 1989. Voodoo Lounge is also The Rolling Stones' first album without founding bassist Bill Wyman, who departed the line-up in early 1993. In 2009, Voodoo Lounge was remastered and reissued by Universal Music.

Background

Following the release of Keith Richards' Main Offender and Mick Jagger's Wandering Spirit in 1992 and 1993 respectively, both leaders of The Rolling Stones began composing new songs in April 1993, deciding upon Don Was as co-producer for the upcoming sessions. In November, after rehearsing and recording at Ronnie Wood's house in Ireland that September, The Rolling Stones shifted their gear to Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin and began cutting Voodoo Lounge. Although not joining the band officially, Darryl Jones would be taking Bill Wyman's place as the group's regular bassist.

Producer Don Was—noted for his retro rock production sensibilities—was reportedly responsible for pushing the band towards more conventional territory in an attempt to reproduce the archetypal "Rolling Stones" sound. Although this approach pleased critics and the Stones rock-oriented fanbase, Jagger in particular expressed some dissatisfaction with Was' aesthetic, commenting in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone;

"...there were a lot of things that we wrote for “Voodoo Lounge” that Don steered us away from: groove songs, African influences and things like that. And he steered us very clear of all that. And I think it was a mistake."^[5]

Was responded that he was not, "...anti-groove, just anti-groove without substance, in the context of this album. They had a number of great grooves. But it was like, 'OK, what goes on top of it? Where does it go?' I just felt that it's not what people were looking for from the Stones. I was looking for a sign that they can great real serious about this, still play better than anybody and write better than anybody."^[6]

The result was an essentially classicist recording that drew on the blues, R&B, and country that had informed the Stones classic late 1960s/early 1970s recordings. Jagger would insist on a more diverse, contemporary production cast for the subsequent Bridges to Babylon. Nevertheless, Was (who has produced several Grammy-winning records) remains the Stones producer to this day. After a period of recording in Los Angeles in the first few months of 1994, Voodoo Lounge was complete and The Rolling Stones moved onto the rehearsals for the (yet another massive, worldwide) Voodoo Lounge Tour which would begin in August.

Critical reception

Writing for Vox magazine in August 1994, Steven Dalton thought that the album's strongest tracks were filled with "echoes of the band's halcyon days", most notably 1972's Exile on Main Street and 1978's Some Girls.^[4] He went on to surmise that Voodoo Lounge "reminds us why we liked the Stones in the first place", and singled out "New Faces", "Out of Tears" and "Blinded By Rainbows" as the album's highlights, despite also stating that the record contained "too many sketchy, arsing-around-in-the-studio jobs" to be considered one of the group's overall best albums.^[4]

Accolades

In early 1995, while the Voodoo Lounge Tour was still in full force (not finishing until August that year) Voodoo Lounge won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.

Singles

"Love Is Strong"—which was inspired by Richards' solo "Wicked As It Seems"—was released as the first single, reaching #14 in the UK. However, although the track was a hit on US rock radio, it stalled on the overall US singles charts at #91, and (at least in the US) became The Rolling Stones' worst performing lead single from an album to that time. Two follow-up US singles also received strong rock radio airplay, but failed to cross over into top 40 hits: "Out of Tears" peaked at #60, and "You Got Me Rocking" fared even worse, peaking at #113. Consequently, Voodoo Lounge would be the first Rolling Stones album to not produce significant hits in America. In the UK, meanwhile, "Love Is Strong", "You Got Me Rocking", "Out Of Tears", and "I Go Wild" were all top 40 chart hits.

Track listing

All songs by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

1. "Love Is Strong" – 3:46
2. "You Got Me Rocking" – 3:34
3. "Sparks Will Fly" – 3:14
4. "The Worst" – 2:24
5. "New Faces" – 2:50
6. "Moon Is Up" – 3:41
7. "Out of Tears" – 5:25
8. "I Go Wild" – 4:19
9. "Brand New Car" - 4:13
10. "Sweethearts Together" – 4:46
11. "Suck On The Jugular" - 4:26
12. "Blinded by Rainbows" – 4:32
13. "Baby Break It Down" - 4:07
14. "Thru and Thru" – 5:59
15. "Mean Disposition" – 4:09

Personnel

The Rolling Stones

• Mick Jagger – lead and backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitar, harmonica, maracas, castanets
• Keith Richards – electric and acoustic guitar, lead and backing vocals, piano, bass guitar, tambourine
• Charlie Watts – drums, tambourine
• Ronnie Wood – electric, pedal steel, acoustic, slide, and lap steel guitar, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Max Baca – bajo sexto
• David Campbell – string arrangement
• Lenny Castro – percussion
• Pierre de Beauport – acoustic guitar
• Bernard Fowler – backing vocals
• Frankie Gavin – fiddle, pennywhistle
• Mark Isham – trumpet
• Luis Jardim – percussion, shaker
• Flaco Jimenez – accordion
• Darryl Jones – bass guitar
• Phil Jones – percussion
• Chuck Leavell – piano, organ, harmonium, harpsichord
• David McMurray – saxophone
• Ivan Neville – backing vocals, organ
• Benmont Tench – organ, piano, accordion
• Bobby Womack – backing vocals

Chart performance

Album

Released in July 1994, Voodoo Lounge received strong reviews and debuted at #1 in the UK (their first chart-topper there since 1980's Emotional Rescue) and #2 in the US where it went double platinum.

Singles

PC game

A Windows/Macintosh game entitled Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge CD ROM was published by GTE Interactive Media in 1995.^[20]

References