Is also legendarily awful, syndrums agogo for Mick's incisive commentary on the murderous behaviour of juntas in South America in the eighties. The video as well as slo-mo satin sheet and wafty curtain totty action also features executions, balaclava'd hit squads etc. I seem to recall this 'important statement' was shown in cinemas as a short at the time (83) - a standard statement that this was much more than a mere music video, it was art.

off the last album takes some beating, terrible lyrics about corporations running the governments of the world and turgid music to match.

This bloody well nearly ruins an almost perfect album, Aftermath. Buried among some of the sharpest, darkest and most concise pop songs of all time is this 11 minute blues jam, which would be inoffensive if it were a quarter of the length. It appears at the end or slap bang in the middle, depending on which edition you have, and it is so irritating because its inclusion reeks of nothing but misguided arrogance. Why did they include it, you ask? Depressingly: because they could. The worst reason for doing anything.

I remember hearing You Got Me Rocking on the radio and thinking it was one of the worst songs I'd ever heard by anyone, let alone the Stones. Got a nasty feeling it might have been one of those remixes that only Radio 1 in the 1990s would have gone near.

I also happen to think that their version of Like A Rolling Stone is so, so misguided. And not because I'm some kind of humourless Dylan purist. I just think it's bad bad bad.

and I say most tunes on the second disc http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forty-Licks-Definitive-Collection-1962-2002/dp/B...

I think it's brilliant. The lyrics may not be up to much but it has a tremendous urgency and atmosphere. Highwire has a half decent tune.

I'm with Pat C, Sweet Neo Con has zero redeeming features. There are half a dozen decent tracks on that album though.

to pick on later Stones tracks. Even then, I've always had a soft spot for Highwire (if you ignore the lyrics); there was another studio track on Flashpoint, though, think it had 'sex' in the title, and that was truly awful. Note: using the word 'sex' in lyrics or title is an almost cast-iron guarantee of unsexiness. Possible exemption for Marvin.

And 'Undercover' has a great, great riff.

No, to get this right, I think you go for bad early Stones. I'm with Lucas, start with Going Home. Never the greatest of straight blues bands, this is interminable.

Next up, Factory Girl, which at least has the virtue of brevity.

And pride of place goes to Country Honk, a frankly baffling recasting of Honky Tonk Women, which removes everything that was fantastic about the single, starting with Charlie's unbelievably funky drum part. What were they thinking?

Sympathy for the Devil, I mean WTF is all that hoo-hoo about?
It sounds awful and anytime Planet Rock play it (rather too often) I switch station.
To me it says drugs, money and hanging out with the arty set do not equal talent.

as you were

... but I really hate Under My Thumb.

Sadly I like Brown Sugar.

Consistent? Moi?

that I struggle to keep up with what I do like; I can't be doing with memorising the stuff I don't like as well. "Lady in Red" is the worst song of all time ever in the entire galactic history of the world as we know it. Beyond that, who cares? My favourite is "Time waits For No One" but that never gets in Stones' 'best of' lists so it'll probably crop here. I'll still like it.

the cover of "Cherry Oh Baby" from Black and Blue takes some beating. Actually, there's never enough beating for it.

Just annoys me - all that "aaah aaah aaahing" and "what's the matter wit' you boy?" stuff

AaaaaAngie. Has someone trodden on his toe?

the best Rolling Stones song NOT by The Rolling Stones

I spent much of my childhood LOVING the really early stuff, covers 'n' all. But, largely, these covers disappear into oblivion when confronted with the originals. As soon as I heard Marvin Gaye's Can I Get A Witness, The Drifters' Under The Boardwalk (yes, yes, I know...), and Irma Thomas' Time Is On My Side (although I returned to the Stones' version with open arms recently and found it utterly sublime), I really had no need for those Stones versions any more.

However - and you can tell I've not really thought this through - I listened to their version of Solomon Burke's Cry To Me the other day and it's really, really good. In fact, I'll have Carol and Route 66 over the originals. But not Down The Road Apiece.

Beg your pardon. It appears I don't have a point. One more cup of coffee.

Mixed Emotions always sounds like something Rod Stewart and Tina Turner would've duetted on in the mid-80s. Dreadful. And Emotional Rescue makes me feel ill. Miss You is great, though.

A very personal opinion that I don't expect any support for. I just can't square the subject matter vs. the way it's delivered. The soulful 'Oh baby baby' type of singing, except about rape and murder. This coming from a band who thought it was a good idea to buddy up with the Hells Angels.

There's plenty of their songs I do like, dotted around their catalog in unexpected places. Hand of Fate might be my top pick.

..I can tell by the titles alone that I'm going to have a jolly good chortle when I put this lot onto a playlist this weekend.

Part of the appeal of the Stones is the fine line they walk between the sublime and the ridiculous and for me this makes them one of the few bands for whom digging out the dodgy stuff can be a real pleasure.

Although, I admit, that is stretching the definition of the term 'song' to its outer limits.