What the record is and where it came from
Some Girls is a 1978 Rolling Stones album recorded between October 1977 and March 1978 at Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris. It is the band’s deliberate response to punk and disco — a return to the core quintet after years of guest-heavy sessions, made quickly, live-in-studio, with new gear and no safety net.
How it sounds, and how it was made
It sounds bright, direct, and aggressive. The Mesa/Boogie Mark I amplifiers replace Ampeg SVTs. Chris Kimsey uses a direct recording method in a small 16-track studio at Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris. The core quintet — Jagger, Richards, Wood, Watts, Wyman — play almost all parts. Ian McLagan adds keyboards; Sugar Blue, harmonica; Mel Collins, saxophone; Simon Kirke, percussion. No Ian Stewart piano. No studio musicians beyond those named.
What lands
‘Miss You’ lands with its disco bassline and clipped guitar stabs. ‘Respectable’ lands with its fast, basic, guitar-driven attack. ‘Beast of Burden’ lands with its layered vocal harmonies and unhurried groove. ‘Shattered’ lands with its jagged, talk-sung delivery and chaotic outro. ‘Far Away Eyes’ lands with its pedal steel and deadpan country drawl.
What does not
It does not linger in abstraction. It does not rely on orchestration or extended solos. It does not use tape manipulation, effects-heavy production, or non-band instrumentation beyond the four named guests. It does not revisit past glories — no blues pastiche, no psychedelic drift, no baroque arrangements.
The ideas inside it
It is a band reasserting its voice by absorbing what surrounds it: disco’s pulse, punk’s brevity, country’s twang, soul’s phrasing — all filtered through five players in one room, writing day-by-day, rejecting excess.
Who should hear it, and who should not
People who want rock and roll that moves, shifts tone, and stays lean. Not people who need conceptual unity, lyrical depth, or sonic experimentation beyond what five players can generate in real time.
Is it worth your time
Yes. It delivers concentrated, high-contrast rock and roll with no dead air. Every track serves the album’s tight, reactive energy — disco, country, punk, blues — without dilution or detour.
