Beggar's Banquet : the Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones gathered in London in March of 1968 to begin work on the album that would eventually be Beggar's Banquet. They recorded a lot of material and released Jumpin' Jack Flash as a single. This kept the song off the album which is a shame because the album while considered great, even without the song Rolling Stone magazine places it at # 57 in it's all time list, with this classic song the album would have been even more highly regarded.

They had broken up with their long time producer Andrew Loog Oldham and had bought in Jimmy Miller who was closely identified with his work with Stevie Winwood band's The Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. The band stretches out and works in a variety of styles but with Sympathy For the Devil and Street Fighting Man the band further cemented their well deserved reputation as a hard driving rock band.

The band was having serious problems at the time. Various members had run ins with the law over drug use and Brian Jones had deteriorated from his drug usage. This was the last Rolling Stones project that Brian Jones was in on from beginning to end, he was dead within a year after the albums completion.

The band had shaken off the psychedelic influences that had fueled their previous album, "Their Satanic Majesties Request", and not only did the album include the two straight ahead rock songs but was infused with a variety of influences including blues and country.

The album also has guest performances from Nicky Hopkins and Dave Mason and Rich Grech who had worked with producer Miller on Traffic recordings.

No Expectations clearly showed the bands interest in country music an avenue they would explore in the next few years with songs like Honky Tonk Woman. The album also continued the Rolling Stones movement towards Jagger/Richards written songs with only the song Prodigal Son not being authored by them.

After the attack on the World Trade Center Mick Jagger and Keith Richards performed Salt Of The Earth at the Concert For New York City.

The album comes with two covers, the band wanted to use a cover that was a painting of a graffiti stained bathroom stall but their record label refused to release it. The band refused to back down and months went by before they finally did and a new cover was produced. When the album was released on CD in 1984 the original cover was finally made available to the public.

In 2002 a remastered version was released.