Vinyl Record
The Rolling Stones - Dirty Work
The Rolling Stones - Dirty Work on LP vinyl. A 1986 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.
LP ยท 1986
Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.
Buyer notes: 1986 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.
Dirty Work is The Rolling Stones in 1986, caught in one of the band's most strained internal moments and refusing to sound polite about it. The album arrived after Undercover and before the late-1980s reset of Steel Wheels, with Mick Jagger's solo ambitions, Keith Richards' frustration and the broader 1980s studio climate all pressing against the group at once. That tension is audible in One Hit (To The Body), Fight, Hold Back and the title track, where the guitars are hard, bright and combative rather than loose in the Exile sense. Harlem Shuffle, a cover of the Bob & Earl R&B song, became the most visible single, while Too Rude points back toward reggae and Had It With You carries some of the album's sour humour. The closing Key To The Highway fragment matters because it honours Ian Stewart, the Stones' founding keyboard presence, who died shortly before release. Dirty Work is not the easy consensus classic; it is the record where the world's most durable rock band sounds genuinely damaged, over-coloured by the decade, and still too proud to disappear.
Dirty Work matters because it documents the mid-1980s breaking point before the Stones rebuilt themselves as a touring institution again. Its reputation is complicated, but that is part of its value: the album shows how ego, grief, production fashion and survival pressure entered the catalogue at once.
For collectors, Dirty Work is the difficult 1986 chapter that makes the later comeback make more sense. This catalog entry should be owned for album context rather than edition mythology: Harlem Shuffle, One Hit, the Jagger/Richards tension and the Ian Stewart dedication give it a specific place on the shelf.
Mid-1980s Rolling Stones with hard digital-era drums, sharp guitar attack, snarling vocals, R&B cover energy, reggae residue, glossy production edges and a tense band-room atmosphere.
Recommended for: Collectors filling the complete post-1970s Rolling Stones studio run; Listeners interested in the band's most conflicted 1980s moment; Fans of Harlem Shuffle, One Hit and the tougher side of late Stones rock.
When was Dirty Work released? Dirty Work was released in 1986, during a tense period between Undercover and the later Steel Wheels reunion cycle. Which songs define Dirty Work? Harlem Shuffle, One Hit (To The Body), Fight, Too Rude and Had It With You are central to the album's identity. Why is Ian Stewart connected to Dirty Work? The album is dedicated to Ian Stewart, the Stones' early keyboardist and long-time musical anchor, who died before the album appeared.