Some Girls
Flower already mentioned the usual criticism of "Some Girls" - it's disco, it's fluff, it's an insult to the Stones of "Let it Bleed" and "Exile on Main Street," etc.
Fuck the critics. This is my favorite Stones album. And it is the album that led me to like the Stones as a band instead of as a historical relic.
Maybe it's because it came out when I was musically aware? Probably some truth to that, I'll admit. But we are unavoidably creatures of our time. And although I think that many of the songs on this album are timeless, "Some Girls" is unquestionably a product of a very specific time and place -- late 1970s New York City.
Jagger is generally credited (or blamed) for the album. Yes, it is disco influenced - so what? It's also punk influenced and soul influenced. Deal with it. And Mick's lyrics (I assume most of them are Mick's, since Keith was too busy getting arrested for heroin) celebrate and embrace the chaos of a city where people wore plastic trash bags while the president's mother danced at Studio 54.
Not Bob had never been to NYC before (one trip to Shea Stadium while visiting an aunt in Levittown doesn't count), but this album made it come alive. And the idea that rock royalty could write in a Not Pretentious way (hello again, Zeppelin) was new to me. "Some Girls" was also my first experience with the hateful phenomenon of "I liked [insert band name] before [latest song/album] came out."
So, what did Not Bob learn from "Some Girls"? That rock music didn't have to be so fossilized and could move and adapt. That it could speak to a specific time and a place and still be universal and timeless, and that maybe some day a group of my friends are gonna come around at twelve with some Puerto Rican girls that are just dyin' to meet me.
