The Rolling Stones - Made In the Shade (1975)

The Rolling Stones' successful separations in 1970 from manager Allen Klein and from Decca Records in the U.K. and London Records in the U.S. led to the band founding their own label, Rolling Stones Records (since discontinued), and to taking complete control of their work going forward into the seventies. The music the Stones produced in that decade included some of their greatest efforts, including some tough, harrowing blues, but also a good deal of conventional, standard, radio-friendly guitar rock that was more suitable for lounging around with on a hot summer day than for espousing rebellion. So the cover of their first greatest-hits album to document part of this period, showing a sunbathing woman wearing headphones, seems somewhat appropriate.

Made In the Shade recapitulates the first four Rolling Stones albums from the 1970s (Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main Street, Goat's Head Soup, and It's Only Rock and Roll), and the song selection was an indication of just how mainstream and non-threatening the Stones had become by the time this record came out in 1975.  Its three Sticky Fingers tracks ("Brown Sugar," their caustic take on the seamier side of interracial sex, "Wild Horses" and "Bitch"), the oldest ones here, provide the best examples of their old malice. By comparison, the three tracks here from Exile On Main Street, widely regarded as their classic album for its muddy production and biting music, are actually the friendlier numbers from that record ("Tumbling Dice," "Happy," and the highly danceable "Rip This Joint").  The selections from Goat's Head Soup and It's Only Rock and Roll are obvious; the Stones chose the two hits from the former LP, "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" and the U.S. number one single "Angie," neither of which are all that inspired, and while you can't go wrong with the cheeky "It's Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)" and the energetic "Dance Little Sister," from the latter LP, these two good songs suffer a bit in comparison to the earliest work showcased here.

Still, Made In the Shade is a decent, solid retrospective of a crucial point in the Stones' careers, as they slowly moved toward total freedom; after having five of their band's LPs produced by Jimmy Miller, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards co-produced It's Only Rock and Roll, the first Stones album to be produced by the so-called "Glimmer Twins." True, if these songs were sequenced in chronological order (and they can be, if you program your CD player accordingly), you'd hear how the Stones peaked early in the seventies and then began to drift toward complacency. But even a record from a complacent Jagger and Richards with bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts backing them up is preferable to a record from other bands at their most energetic. Made In the Shade is a good record for neophyte Stones fans and classic-rock DJs, but if you already have the four albums it draws from, the only reason to buy it would be to have something reliable to play at a pool party.

All four Rolling Stones albums Made In the Shade draws from include Mick Taylor on lead guitar. By the time this album was released in June 1975, Taylor was gone, and the Stones began a U.S. concert tour with Ron Wood (who became a permanent member of the band later on), with Made In the Shade their only new product to promote. Touring to support a greatest-hits compilation? Now that's complacency. That may explain why Taylor left the group.