Thirty years ago this month, the Rolling Stones entered the 1990s with Voodoo Lounge. Very few bands have been as adaptable as the Stones: they were one of the few massive bands of the ’60s to survive and thrive in the ’70s. They were able to adapt to the ’80s; they were a pretty frequent presence on MTV in the ’80s (and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ respective solo efforts got a lot of love as well).
It was the second album since their reboot of sorts with 1989’s Steel Wheels. And more to the point, it was their second album of the CD era. Compact discs allowed artists to pack more songs onto an album, and on the surface, that seemed like a good thing. If you love an artist, it follows that you’d prefer having more songs for the same amount of money, rather than less.
Here’s another way to look at it: our time is valuable. Also, every “filler” track on an album takes it that much farther away from classic status. It’s incredible that, three decades in, the Stones still had gas in the tank (and course, that still seems true three additional decades later: 2023’s Hackney Diamonds was a great album).
But Voodoo Lounge clocked in at one hour and one minute long; it was the Stones’ second-longest album. The first, of course, was 1972’s Exile On Main Street. Released during the LP era, it was an hour and seven minutes long and came during the peak of the Stones’ powers. It came on the heels of 1968’s Beggar’s Banquet (just under 40 minutes), 1969’s Let It Bleed (42 minutes) and 1971’s Sticky Fingers (a lengthy 46 and a half minutes). Other classics had similar runtimes: 1978’s Some Girls just broke the 40 minute mark; 1981’s Tattoo You was a lengthy 44 minutes. In the early ’60s, they barely went past a half hour: 1964’s England’s Newest Hit Makers was 31 minutes, 1964’s 12×5 was 32 minutes and 1965’s The Rolling Stones, Now! was nearly 36 minutes.
By 1994, surely a part of new producer Don Was’s job was to keep the peace and not bruise any egos, and given that CDs contained more space, it probably made sense to not turn down too many songs. But it has resulted in a much less memorable album, and there are some real gems to be found on Voodoo Lounge. So here, we’re cutting the album in half. You’ll note that we aren’t including “You Got Me Rockin’,” a song the band has given entirely too much love to (and which sounds like a lesser cousin to the Steel Wheels hit “Mixed Emotions”). Per Setlist.fm, they’ve performed the song over 450 times, and it’s their 16th most performed song (at press time).
