I got this album with its sanitized cover for Christmas in 1968, along with the Beatles White Album, and at the time preferred it. You want your profundity, you got Sympathy for the Devil. You want your social commentary, you got Salt of the Earth. You want the Stones vote on bein' a radical, you got the awesome and unique Street Fighting Man. Time passed, and I lost the album. Picking up the CD today, what strikes me is that this is probably their richest album MUSICALLY, and indeed it is timeless. The headliner songs are still great, but what makes this album worth owning (rather than just cherrypicking the hits on best of albums) are the other cuts, which are primarily acoustic and slide blues. Cuts like Prodigal Son and Parachute Woman, and the sublime No Expectations don't get anthologized, and don't get played on the radio, but they are the very soul of the Rolling Stones, the calling card they will present when they knock on the door of St. Peter's. A rewarding musical experience.

Though The Stones recording were well-revered at the time,Beggars Banquet is where this group shows they can reach the next level of musical progression.Coming after the ill concieved,yet quirkily brilliant psychedelic foray Their Satanic Majesties Request,they come out with BB which brings them back in touch with their blues roots as well as open new doors.Sympathy For The Devil and Street Fighting Man must of been a shock to the ears of ill prepared listeners who soaked up the non album preview single Jumping Jack Flash.But its also songs like No Expectations,Jigsaw Puzzle,Stray Cat Blues & Salt Of The Earth that fortifies this albums classic stature.Factory Girl,Prodigal Son and Parachute Woman makes you wish they'd return to this genre today instead of using their music to promote their concerts.At the time when most groups were spewing out SGT Pepper rip-offs or even falling apart(Cream and even The Beatles themselves)The Rolling Stones were ready to take the mantle,and Beggars Banquet was their first victory.

The Stones were truly one of the greatest rock bands to come out of the early '60's, the time when rock music took flight, and "Beggar's Banquet" is one of their best pieces of work. After the psychedelic side-trip of "Satanic Majesties", the single "Jumpin' Jack Flash", followed by this LP, came as a great relief. It represented both a return to the band's R&B roots and their first extension into country-based rock. It also showcased a new depth in Jagger's lyrics.

While "Sympathy..." and "Street..." have traditionally gotten all the airplay from this set, there are numerous other gems. "Dear Doctor", "Prodigal Son" and "Factory Girl" display the country influence in both music and homey, working-man lyrics. "Salt of the Earth" is a rock hymn to everyman. "Parachute Woman" is an R&B-based rocker.

This is one of my ten favorite album/CDs of all-time. Nobody who likes rock music should be without it.

There are good bands and there are great bands, and then there are the Rolling Stones, surely the greatest rock and roll band ever. Having emerged from the shadow of the Beatles in the first wave of the British Invasion, the lads from London struggled to remain true to their American R&B roots, and still expand their repertoire to include catchy "pop"-sounding songs, as well as dip into their magic bag of influences, which were hardly all musical in nature. The record opens with the notoriously misunderstood "Sympathy For The Devil," a hootchie-koo of Brazilian samba mixed with Charlie Watts' pummeling drums and Mick Jagger's bayou-witch vocals; the wonder of the song is that is so terrifying, so impossible to escape--and entirely played on acoustic instruments. The record takes you on a psychic tour of the Mississippi Delta, with folksy-woodsy numbers such as "Factory Girl," "No Expectations" and the menacing "Parachute Woman," before exploding, on side two, with "Street Fighting Man," another acoustic song so powerful and controversial that American radio stations often banned it from airplay, and plowing all the way to "Salt of the Earth," a kind of common-man's anthem that owes at least as much to Reconstuction-era gospel and blues as it does to hippie anti-Vietnam War sentiments, which were bubbling to a boil, on both sides of the Atlantic. There is perhaps no finer record than this one, on which to sample the brilliance and majesty of the Stones. Keith Richards, considered a satellite to Jagger and Jones before this record, clearly emerges as its driving force, with his razor-edged guitar riffs and unshakable sense of rhythm and melody; his burgeoning friendship with, and admiration of, American folk rocker Gram PArsons, who would shortly join Hendrix and Joplin on the growing list of rock's drug fatalities, inspired him to dunk the British band into the cool waters of American Southern music, with the glorious results audible on every track. "Beggars Banquet" simply cannot be ignored in any serious list of the greatest albums of rock; it's that good, it's that raw, it's that real, and it cannot be denied. As a commentary on the dying dreams of the Sixties and the emerging global impact of the Rolling Stones, it is absolutely indispensable. Please allow them to introduce themselves, they're men of wealth and taste---great musical taste!

I've noticed that there is an unseemly amount of sniping between so-called "Beatles fans" and so-called "Stones fans," operating under the misguided and ignorant assumption that if you like one band you have to slam the other. Sorry, gang, but that is woefully wrong. In 1968 two fabuolous, legendary albums were released, *The Beatles* (aka "The White Album") and *Beggar's Banquet* by the Rolling Stones. Both albums would represent the best of the late 60s and remain numbered among the finest albums in rock history. I have both albums, and listen to them with equal frequency and equal enjoyment. By and large, I regard myself a Beatles fan, and when push comes to shove, it is the Beatles I choose as the greatest ever. Even so, the Rolling Stones are definitely in their league (along with The Who and about maybe a handful of other great bands), and must be regarded as one rock's seminal bands - with The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and a few others. Listen to *Beggar's* and *White Album* with an open mind, and enjoy two legendary forces in the formation and expansion of rock. John Lennon himself said it when he compared the 60s to a ship, and in the crow's nest,looking out at the horizon, were the Beatles and their FRIENDS the Rolling Stones. As usual, Lennon sums it up better than most - TOGETHER The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, helped by James Brown, Dylan, Joplin and Hendrix, The Who, Cream and Zeppelin, The Doors and Credence, re-created the whole of popular music, and for the better. *Beggar's Banquet* is worthy of five stars, as is its contemporary, *The Beatles*. Buy them both, open your minds and, and learn something about art and rock-and-roll. Peace and love.