Maps of Music

Voodoo Lounge (1994)

Where the lyrics of Voodoo Lounge take you, and where it was really made.

This is the first Rolling Stones album without bassist Bill Wyman, who left in early 1991, though the band did not announce his departure until two years later.

Key places

Recording moves to Dublin (1994)

Recording site Windmill Lane Studios — The Stones moved to Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin in November 1993 and began cutting the album there, after rehearsing and recording at Ronnie Wood's house in Ireland that September. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Voodoo Lounge: studio album by the Rolling Stones
• Twentieth studio album in the UK, twenty-second in the US
• Released on 11 July 1994
• First release under the band's new alliance with Virgin Records
• First studio album in five years, after Steel Wheels in 1989
• First album without original bassist Bill Wyman
• Released as a double LP on vinyl and as a single CD and cassette
• Remastered and reissued by Universal Music in 2009

Background

• The band chose not to officially replace Wyman and continued as a four-piece
• Four-piece line-up: Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood
• Wyman left in early 1991
• Darryl Jones worked as an unofficial replacement, performing as a contracted player
• Chuck Leavell supplied keyboards
• Don Was produced the album alongside Jagger and Richards
• Richards' Main Offender (1992) and Jagger's Wandering Spirit (1993) came out before the new songwriting began
• Both leaders began composing new songs in April 1993

Recording

• Rehearsing and recording took place at Ronnie Wood's house in Ireland in September 1993
• In November 1993 the band moved to Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin and began cutting the album
• Recording continued in Los Angeles during the first few months of 1994
• Four songs leaked in June 1994 and were played on radio station KRZZ
• Virgin asked the station to keep the material off the air

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1962 as an English rock band; their first stable line-up was Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts.
• Jones named the band after a Muddy Waters song; they were rooted in blues and rock and roll.
• Manager Andrew Loog Oldham encouraged them to write their own songs, and the Jagger–Richards partnership became their main creative force.

Members

• Current: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood (joined 1975).
• Former: Brian Jones (died 1969), Mick Taylor (1969–1974), Bill Wyman (1962–1993), Charlie Watts (1963–2021, died 2021).
• Steve Jordan became their drummer after Watts' death.

Career

• Hits included "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965), "Paint It Black" (1966) and "Start Me Up" (1981).
• Their 1969 Hyde Park show and Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. are key points of their career.
• Formed Rolling Stones Records in 1970, whose tongue-and-lips logo became their band logo.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989; the band has sold more than 250 million albums.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Voodoo Lounge received generally positive reviews when it came out in July 1994
• Q Magazine's David Cavanagh wrote that the fifteen songs show the Stones at their least newsworthy, calling the album no classic but not a failed one
• Cavanagh found the three opening rockers exuberant and warm, and the next four songs a very good stretch
• Cavanagh was disappointed by the inconsistency of the second half
• Vox's Steven Dalton (August 1994) heard echoes of the band's early 1970s and late 1970s records in the strongest tracks
• Dalton singled out 'New Faces', 'Out of Tears' and 'Blinded by Rainbows' as the highlights
• Dalton said the album had too many sketchy studio jobs to count among the group's best
• The New York Times' Jon Pareles found the album disappointing and said it rang hollow
• Pareles criticized the songwriting as generic love songs
• Robert Christgau gave it only an honorable mention and called the Stones the world's greatest roots-rock band
• Tom Hull also listed it as an honorable mention, saying the band seemed to be just going through the motions

Reappraisal

• Alexis Petridis of The Guardian later ranked Voodoo Lounge among the band's weakest albums
• Petridis wrote that the album sounded like the product of craft rather than inspiration
• Petridis also said the 62-minute running time was much too long
• David Marchese of New York wrote that the album would have worked better at 45 minutes, reviewing it track by track

Records

• Debuted at No. 1 in the UK, the band's first chart-topper there since Emotional Rescue in 1980
• Debuted at No. 2 in the US, behind the soundtrack to The Lion King, and went double platinum
• Reached Gold or Platinum status in several countries
• Produced no US top 40 hit
• 'Love Is Strong' peaked at No. 14 in the UK and 'You Got Me Rocking' at No. 23
• In the US 'Love Is Strong' peaked at No. 91, 'Out of Tears' at No. 60 and 'You Got Me Rocking' at No. 113
• Won the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 1995
• Reported to have sold two million copies in the US

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Richards adopted a stray cat in Barbados during the recording and named it Voodoo, and he dubbed the terrace of the house Voodoo's Lounge
• 'Sparks Will Fly' was written after Richards had a blow-up with Jerry Lee Lewis in Ireland
• Lewis took the session seriously and began picking apart Richards' band when the playback started, which outraged Richards
• 'Love Is Strong' was inspired by Richards' solo track 'Wicked as It Seems'
• Sections of Richards' 'Thru and Thru' from the album appear in The Sopranos' second-season finale 'Funhouse'
• Guitar World placed Voodoo Lounge at number 42 in its 2014 'Superunknown' list of albums that defined 1994

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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