The Rolling Stones Top 75 Countdown (#27-25) & This Week's Statistics

Back to our Rolling Stones countdown, this week's statistics, and the answer to yesterday's quiz. Let's go!

Tony Ronald

My 27th favorite song of the Rolling Stones is the title track of their excellent album Let It Bleed (1969). The Stones worked on the track for so long that Richards' fingers literally started bleeding from playing its acoustic-guitar riff over and over. Yet the finished product has an intimate raggedness, with Ian Stewart's roadhouse piano and Taylor's country-tinged leads perfectly complementing Jagger's evocations of degradation and salvation.

The lyrics include a number of drug and sexual references, including an invitation for "coke and sympathy," a reference to a "junkie nurse" and Jagger's suggestions that we all need someone to "bleed on," "cream on" and "come on" him. However, to Allmusic critic Richie Unterberger, the song is mainly about "emotional dependency," with Jagger willing to accept a partner who wants to lean "on him for emotional support."

Unterberger also asserts that Let It Bleed may be "the best illustration" of the way the Rolling Stones make "a slightly sloppy approach work for them rather than against them." He also praises Jagger's vocals, stating the song represents "one of his best vocals, with a supremely lazy approach that seems to be both affectionate and mocking at the same time."

And what about that titular similarity to the Beatles' Let It Be? "Not a thing," Richards told Rolling Stone in 1971. "Let it bleed was just one line in that song Mick wrote." Hmmm, OK...

At #26 is another track from a great album: Sweet Virginia is the sixth track on Exile On Main St (1972). This beautifully shambling acoustic jam is another song reflecting the Country influence of Gram Parsons, along with the druggy atmosphere at Nellcôte, where it was recorded. It name-checks California wine, alludes to pills ("Drop your reds, drop your greens and blues"), and in what might be the album's most memorable line – "Got to scrape that shit right off your shoes!" – riffs off Richards' slang term for low-grade heroin ("Mexican shoe scrapings"). Taylor's liquid guitar runs make it a candidate for the greatest acoustic song in the Stones catalog.

Finally for today, at #25, we have another song from Let It Bleed. It may not be my favorite album (it's my third), but it certainly contains my favorite songs: except for today's two, there'll be three more, much higher on our list. Is there a discrepancy in that? I don't think so. Sticky Fingers was their most cohesive album, demonstrating the precision and power of the Stones' punch. Exile On Main St was inspired chaos, an album that could have been one of their worst, but it's one of their best instead. One can't help but marvel at the magical way in which the Stones managed to bring it all together. Let It Bleed, on the other hand, is a case where the whole is not greater than its parts. The songs often fail to feed off each other in order to elevate the album to the level of complete greatness. It's still a grade A album though, one of my all-time favorites, so these are really just minor details.

Anyway, back to the song at #25: Midnight Rambler is a song that, according to Keith Richards, "nobody else could have written."

"Nobody went in there with the idea of doing a blues opera," Richards said in 2002. "That's just the way it turned out." Written by Jagger and Richards on an Italian vacation with the idea of tempo-changing Chicago blues, the seven-minute epic is a live highlight to this day. It was recorded in March 1969, with Richards spending five nights overdubbing his menacing slide-guitar part and Jones on percussion, one of his last recordings with the band. ("A last flare from the shipwreck," Richards later wrote.)

Though it was written with "Boston Strangler" Albert DeSalvo in mind, it took on new resonance after the Manson Family murders that year. But it truly came alive in concert, as heard on the 1970 live album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, with Jagger conjuring a crazed killer, using his belt as a whip on the stage. Said Jagger, "Why we should write such a dark song in this beautiful, sunny place, I really don't know."

Here's the studio version:

And here's the live version from Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out:

Now, on to the week's statistics. Something extraordinary happened, during the last couple of hours: in this short time period, Ireland visited the site en masse, in fact there were 6 times as many visits in one hour than in the last two weeks. My Irish friends, you are absolutely unpredictable! In other news, the most frequent owner of the all-time #10 spot, Portugal, should pay attention. Italy mainly, but also Ukraine, had a great week. Australia, Spain, China And the United Arab Emirates had a good week, slightly better than Portugal. They are all contenders for Portugal's position. Another notable fact was Russia's poor performance: it actually just missed this week's Top 10. It's a very long time since this happened. A special mention must also go to Japan's presence, which was stronger than usual: it also only just missed the week's Top 10.

The full Top 10 is as follows (there is a 2-way tie at #3):

1. the United States

2. Greece

3. Germany

3. Ireland

5. France

6. Italy

7. Canada

8. Cyprus

9. Ukraine

10. the United Kingdom

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence this week (alphabetically): Australia, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates. Happy to have you all!

Here's the all-time list.

1. the United States = 47.4%

2. Greece = 19.1%

3. Russia = 10.5%

4. Germany = 3.5%

5. France = 2.4%

6. the United Kingdom = 2.0%

7. Canada = 1.18%

8. Ireland = 1.13%

9. Cyprus = 0.77%

10. Portugal = 0.47%

Last but not least, this week's quiz: our quizmaster AFHI got it right, it's Tony Ronald with Help (Get Me Some Help) from 1971.

Tony Ronald was born on October 27, 1941 in Arnhem, the Netherlands as Siegfried Anthonius Den Boer Kramer. He died from cancer on March 3, 2013 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Ronald moved to Barcelona in the late 50s. He initially collaborated with the Basque guitarist José Luis Bolivar in an outfit called the Kroner's Dúo and later with Charley Kurt as the duo Tony and Charley. After that he was lead singer of Tony Ronald y sus Kroner's, a band that mainly sang cover versions of the Beatles' songs. After the break-up of Tony Ronald y sus Kroner's, he began a solo career. He especially made recordings in Spanish and English, but also in Catalan, German, French, Dutch and Italian.

Ronald represented the Netherlands at this Festival del Atlantico in Tenerife in 1971. He won. The song was Help, Ayudame, which became an international hit. The song has become known under the English title Help (Get Me Some Help). Here it is:

That's all folks. I wish you all a healthy and happy new week!