special introductory paragraph!

England's Newest Hit Makers

12x5

Now!

Out Of Our Heads

December's Children (And Everybody's)

Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass)

Aftermath

Got Live If You Want It

Between The Buttons

Flowers

Their Satanic Majesties Request

Beggars Banquet

Let It Bleed

Get Your Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert

Metamorphosis

Sticky Fingers

Hot Rocks 1964-1971

More Hot Rocks (Big Hits And Fazed Cookies)

Exile On Main Street

Goats Head Soup

It's Only Rock 'N' Roll

Black And Blue

Love You Live

Some Girls

Accidents Will Happen

Emotional Rescue

Tattoo You

Still Life (American Concert 1981)

Undercover

Dirty Work

Steel Wheels

Flashpoint

Voodoo Lounge

Out Of Tears 7"

Stripped

Bridges To Babylon

No Security

Rarities 1971-2003

Live Licks

A Bigger Bang

Shine A Light

England's Newest Hit Makers - London 1964.

Reader Comments

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
Just as Capitol did with the Beatles' Parlophone original albums, so did London Records with the Stones' Decca originals. They pulled out some tracks, put in some single and EP songs, and in some strange way managed to release more records. More money in the pockets of the record company exectutives! Thus, the three first english originals were transformed into five american ones.

This album is basically the same as Britain's The Rolling Stones, except that "Mona" has been taken away and "Not Fade Away" (the Stones' third UK single) has been put in.

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
Yes, this is one ground-breaking album! Uncompromising, hard, power-driven, tough... an excellent start. And I adore the Beatles' early rockers, but these little gems really knock 'em off. Just for fun: compare the Beatles' version of "Carol" (on Live At The BBC) with this one here and you'll see the difference! The playing of the Stones is at least a million times more tight and compact, and Keith's Berry-licks are perfect. Chuck couldn't have played it better (in fact, I think he played it WORSE!) The ballads are also frightening ("Honest I Do" - when I first heard that harmonica it almost made me jump out of the chair), and maybe the most wonderful thing about the album is Brian Jones' "stinging" guitar on "I'm A King Bee". The only letdown about this album is that it is much too short and has too few originals. Never mind, though - most of the covers are only associated with the Stones by now! I think the Stones' debut album was even stronger than the Beatles' debut: Please Please Me was just a bit too sissyish and uncertain. It was like the guys were looking at each other in disbelief and saying: "Hey... is it really true they're letting us have an LP? Incredible! Okay, but... let's still be careful about it!" And they didn't let go. As for the Stones, they out their thunderstorm in the very, very beginning. (Sure, this has a bad side too - the following albums didn't keep up to the standard until Aftermath!)

randerson@stratos.net (Rick)
Just gotta say, I never heard anyone call any song Buddy Holly wrote "skiffle." "Not Fade Away" is one of Holly's best, and the Stones did it proud. Let's call it "Rock And Roll!"

jsb292@nyu.edu (Joel S. Bocko)
Uh, Tell Me is NOT a crappy original! It is, in fact, one of the most underrated Stones songs ever. Why is it everyone keeps knocking it--haven't they seen "Mean Streets"?

12X5 - London 1964.

Reader Comments

alynn@erols.com (Alexander Lynn)
"It's All Over Now" was written by Bobby Womack, who was a protege of Sam Cooke. It was recorded and released by his band, the Valentinos, in '63 or '64.

matt@creative-machines.com.au (Matt Ellers)
Just a bit of trivia for y'all : "Under The Boardwalk" was a rather large hit single in Australia, as was "Walking The Dog", neither of which were singles elsewhere sofar as I know.

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
This one has the same cover picture as England's No 2, but not the same songs! "It's All Over Now"/"Good Times Bad Times" was the Stones fourth UK single. "Time is on My Side", "Under the Boardwalk", "Grown up Wrong" and "Suzie Q" are all on the album "No 2". "Congratulations" is exclusive to this set. It can't be found on any British original. The rest of the songs were on an EP called 5 By 5.

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
Maybe a little weaker than the first one, I agree. But not much. The rockers still rock ("Around And Around"; "Suzie-Q"), the blues are still bluesy to the core ("Confessin' The Blues" - a fantastic vocal performance by Mick, and hey! did I ever mention Mick is the best harmonica player I know? didn't I? well now I do!), and the number of originals has swelled to four, and they are good. The sound is pretty much lighter, though. They wouldn't have put "Under The Boardwalk" on their first LP because it's too sweet. Anyway, it's good pop, not crappy at all.

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that "It's All Over Now" was their first No. 1 in Britain. Deservedly, I say; pity the earlier singles were not that respected. The guitar break is fine and certainly ripped-off by Dave Davies on "You Really Got Me". Well, maybe not. But then again, Dave was such an unimaginative freak back then, he wouldn't have thought of it all by himself. And the Stones also performed this recently, on their Voodoo Lounge tour, and Keith's guitar sounded crappy, and he'd already forgotten everything, and it was sad. Real sad!

jaimoe0@hotmail.com (James Welton)
I don't want to question someone as authoritative as George Starostin, but didn't Brian Jones handle the harmonica at this point in their career? I've heard statements to that effect, and few deny that Brian was the best musician in the group early on, but I'm really just asking for my own edification here. Anyone know?

jaimoe0@hotmail.com (James Welton)
Not quite there yet. A lot of people on this page are going to call me an idiot for writing this, but I really think the Yardbirds and the Bluesbreakers were a lot better at this kind of thing than the Stones were. They didn't become great until Jagger and Richards started writing the vast majority of the songs. That said, "Around and Around" is fun, "Time Is On My Side" is pretty effectively bluesy, and as Mark noted, "Under the Boardwalk" is embarassing. Every time these guys tackled a tune that requires tight vocal harmonies - "Boardwalk," "Just My Imagination" - they embarassed themselves. Ensemble singing is not their forte.

ehlertlassen@sbcglobal.net
"Every time these guys tackled a tune that requires tight vocal harmonies - "Boardwalk," "Just My Imagination" - they embarassed themselves. Ensemble singing is not their forte."

That's one of the very reasons I continue to enjoy listening to these songs after all of these years: The reckless abandon with which they sing their songs...

Now! - London 1965.

Reader Comments

bkohlmeier@nelson.com (Bob Kohlmeier)
The best early Stones album. Chuck's "You Can't Catch Me" is pure delight and "Down The Road Apiece" is a terrific vintage-style rocker. But the highlight is "Down Home Girl"--it works a big deep groove and has hilarious lyrics to boot--the country girl's perfume smells like pork and beans, Mick says, and adds: "I can tell by your giant steps that you been walkin' thru the cotton fields." But she's hot, she's hot!

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
This is basically the same as the UK No 2, except... "Mona" is on The Rolling Stones. "Little Red Rooster" was the Stones fifth UK single. "Oh Baby..." and "Heart of Stone" are both on Out of Our Heads in England. "Surprise, Surprise" is, again, an exclusive song which didn't turn up in the UK until (I think) the compilation No Stone Unturned.

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
Don't you go forgetting "Off The Hook" - it's the first Glimmer Twins composition with a memorable riff! If you wanna have a nice collection of Stones' riffs, you should start with this one. The album's really good, a lot better than 12X5, and the mean and dark atmosphere turns out to be incredibly hilarious in the end ("you might wake up in the morning, find your poor selves dead" - what a line, eh?) As for that Richards guy - I read that even Chuck himself was astonished by his guitarplaying on "Down The Road Apiece".

And it also seems that on the recent CD edition they included the original long, 5-minute (!) version of "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love". Groovy! Everybody Needs To Love This Album.

mmcneil@balescompany.com (Mike McNeil)
The Stones really hit their groove on NOW. You can just sense their confidence and ability in both their playing and vocal performances developing as compared to their first two releases. The interplay between Jones and Richards on guitar really gels here. Brian's slide on Little Red Rooster is absolutely memorable and Mick's harp playing shines (listen to the end of Down Home Girl). As a side note, I've read several accounts of Chuck Berry being in the studio during the recording of Down The Road Apiece. The blistering Berry-esque lead guitar work on this cut is red hot stuff. I've been listening to this album since 1965 and still can't help but wonder if the lead work on Down The Road Apiece is perhaps Mr. Berry himself rather than KR. I have not heard Keith play lead guitar that good ever since and actually feel that his skills with his instrument has declined significantly through the years.

Out Of Our Heads - London 1965.

For you are, indeed, a slice of my home.

Reader Comments

laura@gseal.mdn.com (Galen Clavio)
Great album. "The Last Time" was the first guitar lick I ever learned. Oh, by the way, Bill Wyman, Brian Jones, Mick, and Keith ALL were busy trying to screw every girl in the audience. I dunno what Charlie's problem was.

matt@creative-machines.com.au (Matt Ellers)
This is the perfect Rolling Stones Album. A million miles away from what is now "stereotypical Stones" (open G tuning, stadiums, etc.) this is what all the excitement was about in the first place. The long haired lads so mocked by "adults", so loved by "kids". The Rolling Stones are one of the few surviving links to a now alien civilization!

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
Includes mostly songs from its UK equivalent, except... "The Last Time"/"Play With Fire" was the sixth single. "Satisfaction"/"Spider&Fly" was their seventh single. "I'm Alright" can be found on the UK EP Got Live if You Want It! (not the same as the USA LP). "One More Try" is exclusive for this record.

gt909lb@prism.gatech.edu (Andrew Goldthorp)
This has always been the most underrated Stones album. "Satifaction" and "The Last Time" are the two greatest guitar riffs Keith ever came up with. And even more interesting are the blues-rock of "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" and the haunting "The Spider and the Fly".

mjhaag@webtv.net (Michael Haag)
Ocassionally on an oldies station, I'll hear a version of Satisfaction that includes a piano and acoustic guitar. I'll listen carefully other times I hear the song and don't hear a piano at all. Any rock and roll scholars out there know what this is all about?

jaimoe0@hotmail.com (James Welton)
Now they are really starting to cook. This is fantastic early Stones, and "Satisfaction" is an all-time great that is worthy of being placed on all those "best of" lists when it comes to the rock music thing. "Spider and the Fly" is one of my gal pal's all-time favorite Stones songs, therefore I like it too. It saves on the petty bickering... plus, it's really good. This is great stuff.

andy@sfslater.com (Andy Slater)
I'm listening to 'Satisfaction' as I write this, and I think once again how perfect a song this is. It's not the most ambitious song ever made, not by a long shot, so it probably didn't deserve the #1 spot on VH1's list. However, the riff is the greatest in history, the lyrics are actually very interesting: under the sexual innuendo, there's some pointed social criticism of advertising culture. As an anthem, both of teenage horniness and revolutionary attitudes, it's as good as it gets.

FLanzone@aol.com
I don't know if anyone has ever pointed this out, but on the original recording of Satisfaction, at the end if the verse, Keith plays an extra note using the Fuzz Tone. He must have stepped on the pedal and played an extra note before he went into the chorus. Let me know if you hear it.

December's Children (And Everybody's) - London 1965.

Reader Comments

alynn@erols.com (Alexander Lynn)
I don't think that dissing Chuck Berry's songs by calling them "generic rockers and dick jokes" is fair. Chuck's songs encompass a WIDE range of things, it's just that the best known of them ("My-ding-a-ling," "Johnny B. Goode") happen to be, respectively, either novelty embarassments, or songs that are so fundamental to our conception of rock & roll that some people dismiss them as "generic." Listen to the lyrics of "Too Much Monkey Business" or "Back in the USA" and try to tell me that these songs are generic. . .

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
Has the same cover shot as the English Out of Our Heads, but mainly other songs. "Get Of Off My Cloud"/"The Singer not the Song" was single no 8. "As Tears Go By" was the b-side of the single "19th Nervous Breakdown". "You Better Move On" is on the 1964 EP The Rolling Stones. "Route 66" is on the LP The Rolling Stones. "I'm Moving On" is on the EP Got Live.... "Look What..." and "Blue Turns..." are both exclusive for this record. I think they were written for other artists. The rest is on Out of Our Heads.

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
Actually, Daniel Reichberg obviosly never listened to this album. If he did, he would have known that "Route '66" on December's Children is a live version, and therefore taken not from their first LP, but from the EP Got Live! (not to be confused with the later LP Got Live!). As for the album itself - quite cool, but not the best of their early albums. A marking-time album, really. Had they released a couple more of such albums, the world would have forgotten all about them very quickly. Instead, they pulled themselves out of stagnation with Aftermath.

reichberg@hotmail.com (Daniel Reichberg)
George Starostin is absolutely right! I haven't heard December's Children. Simply beacuse here in Sweden you could just buy the British Decca records. It's just now in the CD age we have received the US London records. Thanks anyway for telling me about "Route 66". I had no idea it was a live version!

Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass) - London 1966.

Reader Comments

aswope@fuse.net (Bogus Andy)
Yeah I got a though the Stones just plain suck.

AdamHammack
Sometimes, one reads something of such staggering insight and genius that one absolutely must make his astonishment known. This is, indeed, one of those instances. As long as we all shall live, I'll never forget the moment (6:49pm on Friday, Dec. 12, 2003) that I read the frighteningly intelligent, paradigm shattering treatise on the inherent lack of worth of the Rolling Stones' 1966 release "Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)". I was sitting in my chair at work, not working of course, but reading Mark's review page as usual. I had a passing thought about what I might eat for dinner later in the evening. Then, suddenly, my world-view changed irrevocably. Yale educated web-reviewer/god-of-opinion "Bogus Andy" dropped the bomb, and nothing would ever be the same.

"Yeah I got a though the Stones just plain suck."

Let us examine these scholarly words for a moment. It should be obvious to anyone with an advanced degree in non-linear, syntax-free sentence construction that Mr. "Bogus" believes the quality of the Rolling Stone's catalogue to be of dubious merit. But what other new ideas can we take away from this uniquely poignant entry into the debate between Stone's aficionados and those nattering nabobs of negativity, the Stone's detractors?

!!!ABSOLUTELY NONE BECAUSE THIS "BOGUS ANDY" FUCKER ISN'T SPEAKING ENGLISH!!!

Why do you not reply to these sort of reader comment with the new "Napalm" attachment feature in Outlook Express 2004, Mark? I guess just so smart-asses like myself will have something to occupy themselves with for a couple of minutes.

Oh yeah. And did you check out that guy that was a complete asshole on the Everclear page? That guy's an ass-hole.

(Or at least I was back then.)

ddickson@rice.edu
Yeah I got a though the Stones just plain not bad.

Unfortunately, that's my op-onion as of 9/8/05. I don't agree with the Bogus up there, but I definitely sympathize. Waaaaaaay too reliant on just pure attitude and "good taste" to get my nod as "the best rock and roll band that ever did anything." As far as I can tell, they never released an out- an-out album masterpiece their entire '65-'72 period (which is all I own, because it's the one everyone says is the Height of Stuff That Rules). Even though many of the bands-that-would-never-have-existed-had-it-not-been-for- them DID. Led Zeppelin? Two masterpieces under they belt, those crazy bombastic blokes. But the Stones? Tried, but couldn't cut it. Good taste, great chops, excellent mojo, coolness, rawness, good taste, and good taste just isn't/aren't everything. But hey! They tried (a few times). And they came close (once). Exile on Main Street? Splendid. I listen to it, on average, once every 92.5267 days.

But THIS album? WHERE'S "Down Home Girl", "What a Shame", and "Surprise Surprise"??? They were the best songs off of Now!, in my opinion!! The only old Stones album I own, incidentally.

Speaking of albums, here's how I rate: Beggar's Banquet's an 8, Let it Bleed's 8.5, Sticky's 8.5, Exile's 9, Between the Button's an 8, Now!'s an 8.5, Majesty's an 8, Some Girl's's a 7.5, and Aftermath's a 7. Well, they ain't inconsistent! And they make some great singles. But I tell you this: The UK Aftermath's their only hope. If THAT ain't a masterpiece, we'll have to call it a knight in shining armor.

(checks All Music Guide)

WHAAAAA?? THOSE DICK COCK SUCKERS!! THEY TOOK IT OUT OF PRINT!!! I'M GONNA START TYPE-YELLING IN READER COMMENT-ESE!!

YEAH I GOT A THOUGH WTF LOL BTWN OMG:)(*&!!!!! UR MOOZIK SUX MANY DIFFERENT VULGAR SLANG WORDS!!!!!!

Hey, this ain't exactly a second language. Are YOU fluent? If so, could you tutor me for free??

Aftermath - London 1966.

Any problems? Yeah, one. An eleven and a half minute one. "Going Home" is a stupid, boring "blues" jam that belongs on a bootleg - not in my record collection. However, the rest of the songs promise a rosy future filled with joy and wonder and "Emotional Rescue."

Reader Comments

Glenn.Wiener@entex.com
I have to agree with you here, Mark. An excellent album accept for that 11 and 1/2 minute problem.

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
I agree, although I actually like "Going Home". I think it points the way to the masterpiece "Midnight Rambler" (Let it Bleed). Other great songs are "Doncha Bother Me" and "High And Dry". Not only was it the first time the majority of the songs were originals, but also Mick & Keith wrote ALL of the songs! The Stones' Rubber Soul...?

The American version has a completely other cover picture than the UK version. "Out of Time", "Take it or Leave it" and the opening track "Mother's Little Helper" have all been taken away. "Paint it Black", single no 9 has been put in.

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
A lot of crazy people say that the REAL Rolling Stones have only begun since Beggars' Banquet (including some of the Stones themselves: didn't Keith say something like 'we were beginning to find the Rolling Stones' by that time?). Stupid! How could they BEGIN to find the Rolling Stones on BB, when they were already beginning to LOSE them on Sticky Fingers?

The true beginning of the Stones is this fantastic LP. Many people say it's somewhat boring, especially near the end, and most of them despise "I'm Going Home" and say songs like "It's Not Easy" should have been left behind. Well, the only reasonable idea coming from these people is that the songs DO resemble each other: while on BB we witness a terrific variety of styles, the melodies and the arrangements here do not seem to stray too far away from each other. But then again, WHAT melodies! WHAT arrangements! "Paint It Black", "Under My Thumb", "Stupid Girl" - classics! And "Lady Jane" is arguably the best ballad they put forth in the sixties! "Flight 505" is a great song from the beginning (great piano introduction - I guess by Nicky Hopkins? or by Ian?) to the end; "It's Not Easy", "Think", "Doncha Bother Me" and "High And Dry" are lightweight but not less catchy then all those early silly Beatles' songs.

One more thing. I ADORE "Going Home". And not just because it was the FIRST song which exceeded the 3-minute barrier in such a terrific way. I just love Mick's screaming and screeching over that one! You HAVE to admit one gotta have a lot of talent to make so many different howls in more than seven minutes' time! And the guitars are also good. Anyway, it's much more exciting than both "Sing This All Together" and "Revolution 9". At least it's music!

Jcjh20@aol.com
Fantastic collection of songs! Every song has awesome melodies. We also hear some new instruments being used and some experimentation and its great! While nothin' may not rock hard like previous rockers they've done (like "Last Time"), it dont mean crap! Some of these songs rank with the best songs they've ever done ("Paint It Black", "Under My Thumb", "Stupid Girl", and especially the beautiful, spine chilling ballad "Lady Jane"). Every song rules! Even "Goin Home" (even though, its wayyy overlong, but i dont mind it)!! I give it a 9.

mojo5052@yahoo.com (Eddie "Mojo" in Oakland, CA)
Look man,. in 1966 the Rolling Stones were my hero as a black kid growing up in Alabama! These 5 guys from England made me proud because they were doing black blues! I was 15 in summer of '66 and Mick and the boys will always live in my heart!

Got Live If You Want It - London 1966.

Reader Comments

laura@gseal.mdn.com (Galen Clavio)
Good call. As puzzling and occasionally truncated as Got Live!!! is, it still has that "sound thing" that worked so well for them in their pre-pro days ('63-'67).

break7@localnet.com (Tim Eimiller)
Got Live If You Want It isn't half as good as Live At Leeds. Yet you give them both eight stars. That's nuts.

alynn@erols.com (Alexander Lynn)
The whole live/not live debate about this record stems from the mixed source of the songs. A few of them are studio outtakes with overdubbed crowd noise, most are actual live recordings. I don't remember which are which, as I sold my copy of this album years ago . . . the audience noise was WAY too high in the mix for my earbuds. . .

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
OK, some HARD FACTS, taken from The Complete Guide to the Music of the Rolling Stones written by James Hector:

All songs on Got Live if You Want It! were recorded live in London, Newcastle and Bristol during September and October 1966, EXCEPT "Fortune Teller" and "I've Been Loving You Too Long", which are studio recordings with crowd noise overdubs.

"Fortune Teller" was intended to be part of the second Stones single (coupled with "Poison Ivy") in 1963. Instead, they released "I Wanna Be Your Man"/"Stoned" and "Fortune" and "Ivy" were put on the shelf. Two versions of "Poison Ivy" can be found on No Stone Unturned and Collectors Only respectively. "Fortune Teller" (minus screams) can be found on an obscure compilation from -64, called Saturday Club. Maybe it's on Collectors Only, too.

"I've Been Loving You Too Long", the Otis Redding number, is a 1965 recording which was, for unknown reasons, never released.

leo1@1starnet.com (Rob and Lisa)
The crowd noise is kinda stupid. Adding crowd noise to studio tracks is what happens when a non-musician gets in the way...this is a must have live album anyway. Its the Stones in 1966! How could it suck? Lots of energy!

ryanmajor@comcast.net
The raw, almost punk rock version of "Under My Thumb" is enough to justify the purchase. The crowd noise is a drag, but the sloppy, fast takes of the songs are neat to hear. And it's a hell of a lot better than Still Life.

Between The Buttons - London 1967.

And they exploit the "stereo" thing wonderfully. Take "Connection," for example, which features the rhythm section in the left speaker and piano and guitar in the right. Apart, they sound moronic, but together, they're boppier than a fistful of angry buzzing hornets! Also, for the first time, they display a keen understanding of musical dynamics - keeping the guitar out of the picture during bass/piano/percussion masterpieces like "She Smiled Sweetly" and "Ruby Tuesday" (which also boasts the most beautiful flute line this side of some foreigner country where they play the flute a lot), and highlighting the wonder and majesty of an amazing new guitar tone during the solo breaks in "Miss Amanda Jones." Probably the best-produced Stones record ever (aside from Sticky Fingers), but not their absolute best because, well, it's piano pop. And that's not exactly their forte. Buy it, though! And listen to it often! And throw away all those crappy Billy Joel records!

Reader Comments

jtklosek@MIT.EDU (Justin Klosek)
The instrument that you call a "flute" on "Ruby Tuesday" is actually a recorder, played by Brian Jones in one of his rare lucid moments. By the way, what are your credentials to judge records?

laura@gseal.mdn.com (Galen Clavio)
Advice: Listen to this album on VINYL. Don't buy the CD, buy it on VINYL. What sounds brilliantly produced through a needle sounds like something my dog produced through a laser. But on LP, this is a kickass album.

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
Between the Buttons is a fantastic record. Few other records capture Carnaby Street semi-psychedelia better. (The Who Sell Out is in the same league). "She Smiled Sweetly" shows what the Stones could do with a very banal song. And the great "Connection" shows what they could do with... practically nothing!

On the American version, "Please Go Home" and "Back Street Girl" have been taken away in favour of "Let's Spend..." and "Ruby Tuesday", a- and b-sides on the 11th UK single.

starostin@geocities.com (George Starostin)
Buttons is the Stones' most weird album, maybe even weirder than Satanic. Satanic is at least talked over and over again, it's always a point for controversy, and occasionally they even play songs out of it live. But Buttons is an unjustly forgotten album - forgotten even by the band. If we remember that the hit single 'Let's Spend The Night Together/Ruby Tuesday' was an American innovation which substituted 'Back Street Girl' and 'Please Go Home', then it's a fact: NOT A SINGLE track off this album was ever played live (except probably 'Yesterday's Papers', which was briefly performed live in 1967). NOT A SINGLE track off this album ever appears in hits compilations. People just close their eyes on this album. And yet - it's beautiful. I could even give it a 9. WHY?

Because it's so English. Because it's the Stones imitating the Kinks. Just look - most of the lyrics deal with debunking the mythology of the English lady: 'Cool, Calm & Collected'; 'Complicated'; 'Miss Amanda Jones'; 'Backstreet Girl', everything! This is combined with direct Dylan influences which are also seen in 90% of the songs. And the melodies? English music hall! Does this tie in with the Stones' later hardrocking-cocksucking image? Nope! That's why the boys are a bit shy of this album themselves. A shame - it's so great. And they don't want to play it live. Imagine that.

WyldLash@aol.com (John)
My favorite of their pre-Altamont output.

And for heaven's sake buy it on vinyl. Because nothing matches the sonic glory of clicks, pops, hisses, skips and scratches.

Vinyl snobs make me ill. Your technology has passed. Cope.

Me? I'm gonna go listen to my extensive collection of Edison Cylinders. Tom's "Mary Had A Little Lamb" completely rips on Cylinder! Much better than that crappy 78.

ratkinson@epicrealm.com (Ryan Atkinson)
George sez that they never played any of this live. Well, first off, they really didn't tour between BTB and Let it Bleed.

But, anyhoo, Keef played 'Connection' with the X-pensive Winos. And it rocked...very underrated song.

Jcjh20@aol.com
Like George said above, this record is usually unjustly forgotten. Why!? This is definatly one of my favorite 'Stones records. Every song here is absolutely awesome (except the out of place "Miss Amanda Jones", which is just merely good), especially the ones that don't even sound like the Stones, like "Something Happened To Me Yesterday", "Cool Calm And Collected", and the beautiful Dylan-ish "Whos Been Sleeping Here". Sure, none of this stuff may be groundbreaking like the stuff they did before or after, but these songs just rule too much. Plus, this kind of music is my absolute favorite anyways. The 2 hits "Lets Spend The Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday" are definatly a few of the most perfect songs ever written. "Yesterday's Papers" is also an extremely underrated song. The only complaint i have is that "Backstreet Girl" should of been on all copys dammit! THAT song is definatly one of my most personal favorites. A brilliant tune, with a great mix of achingly beautiful music and absolutely cruel and sexist lyrics. I wish there were more experimental type songs like the songs on the UK version on the US version instead of songs like "Connection" and "Miss Amanda Jones", but they are still catchy rockin' tunes. Definatly a high 9 from me.

AdamHammack
-------------------------------------------------------
jtklosek@MIT.EDU (Justin Klosek)
"...By the way, what are your credentials to judge records?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh no, Mark! Some cocksucker from MIT is going to report you to the online-reviewer police because you don't have the proper credentials to have an opinion.

How I admire you for subjecting yourself to such idiocy just for the sake of giving a few of us who aren't elitist jerks {I REALLY HAVE CHANGED SINCE THAT EVERCLEAR INCIDENT! I PROMISE!!!} some light entertainment and some insight into some music we might not have heard yet.

P.S. -- This album is proof that Mick Jagger is indeed sissy enough to let David Bowie give it to him in the pooper like Bowie's wife says. Piano-pop on a Stones album, indeed! Feh!

Still really good though. I bet you didn't write it, did you? Justin Klosek? DID YOU???

kd5dfm@bellsouth.net
for Justin , brain was more lucid than you think . ever notice the stones sounded very different after beggars banquet ???? maybe brain wasn't there no more so they couldn't be as musical or such wonderful melodies , well muck and keffs stupid words are still there , childish at best . between the buttons is the stones best album and don't just take it form me ask most people what is there favorite stones album , it always comes out between the buttons unless there some disco emotional rescue freak ;-) btw what are your credentials for judging others credentials ... oh yea your a snob ;-)

Flowers - London 1967.

Heck, maybe you won't like it.

Hmmm, I think this is a compilation, come to think of it. So forget everything I just said.

Reader Comments

laura@gseal.mdn.com (Galen Clavio)
I wish Decca would get off their ASS and release the British LP versions here in america, and ditch Flowers. That way my copy would be worth more money.

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
Flowers is an American compilation with two exclusive tracks, "Ride on Baby" and "Sittin' on a Fence". The latter was released on the British version of Through the Past Darkly.

I've read that the Stones were themselves disappointed with their American releases, since they didn't show the right chronology. It IS a bit weird that "You better Move On" from the debut EP is found on the FIFTH American LP! And why was "Route 66" used twice??? It's even more strange that the Stones have put out the American albums as CD's if they are so disappointed...

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
Just as I prefer the Beatles' British catalogue, for the Stones I prefer the American one. Why? Simple. The British catalogue for the Beatles includes 13 albums with almost no coinciding tracks PLUS several albums of Singles/Rarities (or 2 volumes of Past Masters if taken on CD), so that all of the songs can easily be acquired with the minimal expenses. On the other hand, if you stick to the Stones' British catalogue, you will automatically lose an enormous amount of single and EP tracks that were very rarely included on LP's. You either have to kiss them goodbye or get a dozen or so compilation albums, each one for two or three tracks. Then again, since the CD's came out, there are almost no original British releases on them.

And a good thing it is, too! If we take the Stones first two years, we'll see that they only had 3 albums in Britain (which are The Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones No. 2 and Out Of Our Heads), while in America they pumped out FIVE (Hitmakers, 12*5, Now!, Out Of Our Heads, December's Children). That means you have an easy access to a lot of songs which were NOT available on original LP's in Britain - among them such gems as "Satisfaction", "The Last Time", "Play With Fire", "Around And Around", "Little Red Rooster", "Time Is On My Side" and lots of others! The American catalogue is thus much more rational. It's a good thing they stuck to this one!

The only complaint is about their late sixties singles, such as "We Love You", "Dandelion", "Honky Tonk Women", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", etc., and more obscure British B-sides ("Who's Driving Your Plane", which I've never heard!) The only album where you can acquire ALL of them in one place is the 3-CD Singles Collection set. But I don't want to! It's very expensive and most of its tracks I don't need - they're British singles, see, so they're all on the American LP Catalogue!

I wish somebody would compile a 1-CD American Rarities set, which would resemble the Beatles' Past Masters!

Oh yeah, I'm already getting muddled myself. But 'tis not my fault. I've spent almost five years trying to find out how in the world could I possess two different albums both called Aftermath and which one was the right one, and when I finally found out, 'twas small consolation.

reichberg@hotmail.com (Daniel Reichberg)
George Starostin, I think you're right about the convenience thing. Of course it's very convenient to buy five CD's and then get all of the Stones' pre-Aftermath catalogue.

But convenience isn't everything. What about artistic integrity? When an album is released it's supposed to include a specific selection of songs. That's what the artist wants. Cutting and pasting, as the Americans did with the Beatles, Stones and Who records, is a violation to artistic integrity. Because of that, I still prefer the UK originals.

I mean, it would be very convenient to have "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Child Of The Moon" on Beggar's Banquet. But then it wouldn't be Beggar's Banquet anymore!

I find it very weird to find songs such as "Satisfaction" and "The Last Time" on an album!

About "Who's Driving Your Plane" - you can find the blues tune on the album"No Stone Unturned. But maybe that one isn't released on CD?

starostin@geocities.com (George Starostin)
Daniel, I guess you're right about the integrity, too. However, I am really in great doubt over whether the word 'integrity' is appliable to most pre-conceptual albums. Of course, mixing up records like Sgt. Pepper or Satanic would be a terrible crime. But mixing up the early Stones output does not seem much of a crime to me. Everybody knows the recording sessions were a horrible muddle: unlike The Beatles, who steadily recorded an album in one place and over a short period of time, The Stones kept recording in Britain, in America, here and there, sometimes in Europe, too. Some of the American releases actually preceded the British ones: Now, for example, jumped the gun with 'Heart Of Stone'; the American 12*5 preceded the roughly corresponding British No. 2 by FOUR months (so that you can't say that such songs as 'Time Is On My Side', 'Under The Boardwalk', etc., belong to No. 2 - chronologically they belong to 12*5).

This is just the reason for which I think the Stones' American releases are at least ethically equal to British ones. Also, until Aftermath there was not a single sign of conceptuality on any Stones album: they just stuck their tracks one onto another until there'd be enough. In fact, the only American release that REALLY bugs me is Between The Buttons. This album has lots of conceptuality, and the hit single 'Let's Spend The Night Together/Ruby Tuesday' just does not fit in. This release should certainly be replaced by the British one. All of the others can definitely stay.

Anyway, maybe it's just a matter of personal taste and custom. And yes I agree that ABKCO is one of the biggest moneygrabbers in the world, and that Allen Klein should rot in hell (along with Shel Talmy who still keeps The Who's My Generation out of my reach).

bgreenstein@nctimes.net (Ben Greenstein)
I'll admit one thing before this, my first comment on a Stones album: I really don't like the band's bluesy stuff. It does zip for me. However...

Flowers is the best Stones album ever! Not really a compilation, it packs all of my favourite songs by the group (well, almost) onto one very short CD. It's got "Backstreet Girl" on it, which alone should merit a ten. And "Mother's Little Helper" - which I still think of as a "greatest hit" just because I love it so! The feedback-drenched ones are superb, too - "Haveyouseenyourmotherbabystandingintheshadow" (as George Starostin says) and "Please Go Home" are essential early acid rock. Cool, cool stuff.

And does anyone else notice the irony of a junkie, casual-sex loving group like Jagger and friends performing a song like "Ride On, Baby," a rejection song directed at a drugged-out groupie? Who cares, it's my favourite on here! In fact, I'm going to listen to it right now!

A ten!

jaimoe0@hotmail.com (James Welton)
Okay, these guys really should have had someone on the payroll whose only responsibility was to tell them not to do Motown covers, because "My Girl" mars what is otherwise a damn fine album. This is also one of those ad hoc, American market albums designed to make extra cash, but for an album that pulls tracks from all over the place, this thing sounds amazingly consistent and of a piece. I think it shows the Stones as a 60's pop band while managing to sound nothing at all like the Beatles. I absolutely love "Have You Seen Your Mother..." That alone would earn this album high marks from me. Go out and get it!

noamdd@hotmail.com
I don't know when you did those reviews, but there are (at least now) import versions of the albums with numerous bonus tracks, eliminating a need for Flowers and US versions of the albums.

bdoleac@nhrelocation.com
The only proper way to deal with differing UK/US editions of albums is to compile tracks from both versions onto the reissues. Of course, most record companies will never do this – knowing full well how much money there is to be made from forcing consumers to shill out for both, they do what’s in their best interests (have you seen how Sony has handled the Clash? You want all the 1977 stuff, and you’ve got to get three fucking CDs with overlapping contents; three late non-LP tracks appear only on “The Singles,” which otherwise consists of tracks previously featured on US and UK albums; and none of the reissued albums feature bonus tracks, with the exception of the unnecessarily bloated “deluxe” edition of “London Calling”). And labels wonder why illegal file sharing persists…

Their Satanic Majesties Request - London 1967.

The lovely piano-and-string-and-stupid-lyrics popper "She's A Rainbow" is the only semi-classic, but "Citadel" is rudimentary noisy guitar rock at its weirdest (complete with an eardrum-busting "ting!" noise during every chorus), "2000 Light Years From Home" sounds like it may have been the blueprint for Pink Floyd's entire second record, "2000 Man" is a splendid acoustic science fiction tale until it turns into crappy generic rock about halfway through (influencing Kiss in the process), the two "Sing This All Together" tracks represent druggy community at its most laughable (do we really need to hear one of the band members ask, "uhhh, where's that joint?" at the beginning of the song?), "In Another Land" is Bill Wyman's entertaining songwriting (and singing!) debut (which, while we're on the subject, is tons better than his disco solo albums, shockingly), "The Lantern" and "Gomper" are Moody Blues-ish classically-influenced yawn songs, and "On With The Show" is a bit of carnival magic left over from Between The Buttons.

You shouldn't complain about this record. The eight-minute noise thing is kinda dumb, but the rest of them, I feel, are extremely memorable. In fact, it's my brother's favorite Stones record! Take that to the bank and cash it! I mean, it's goofy, but it was 1967, for chrissake! What did you think they were gonna do? Fusion? Come on now. And try to get an original copy - with the funny 3-D cover.

Reader Comments

laura@gseal.mdn.com (Galen Clavio)
I'm sick of people constantly crapping all over this record. Except for the second "Sing This All Together" and the last 2 or so minutes of "Gomper," this is a hell of a lot better than anything they put out after Some Girls.

rabin@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU
what is a gomper?

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
Samuel Gompers was an American labour leader during the 19th century, but does "Gomper" have to do with that?

You're completely right! Maybe THE most underrated record in the history of mankind. Away with all that "Sgt Pepper rip-off" bullshit. It doesn't sound like Sgt Pepper at all.

All of Satanic is great! "Citadel" has one of the coolest Keith riffs ever, and both "Gomper" and "The Lantern" create a very comfortable meditative atmosphere.

Oh, you're wrong on one point: There is one more classic here: "2000 Light Years from Home". It was even played on the "Steel Wheels" and "Urban Jungle" tours. ("She's a Rainbow" is occasionally played on the current tour).

And at last! from now on all American and European releases are identical!

xfoundationx@mail.geocities.com (Dean Reis)
Ok, i do admit that i wince with pain and a little bit of laughter every time i look at the cover to this album. Mick jagger as the grand wizard, whatever. And whoever doesn't admit that it is a sgt pepper ripoff (maybe not totally in the music but definitely in the layout and atmosphere of the album) is just plain naive. But hey, everybody was doing it at the time. Despite all this, it remains as my favorite stones album of all time. "citadel" is awesome, "in another land" is my favorite stones song and one of my favorite songs in general, and "2000 light years from home" is one kick ass song. if it wasn't for "sing this all together 2", this album should get a ten.

Glenn.Wiener@entex.com
Well, I finally bought Satanic Majesties Request and it's definitely different and in a pretty darn good way at that. Some of the songs actually seem well developed specifically "Sing This All Together", "2000 Light Years From Home", "On With The Show", and "She's A Rainbow". It does stray quite a bit from conventional rock n roll but the output is possibly their most creative work if not my favorite.

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
Right! The album is great, and most serious people cannot deny it. Sure, the Stones did not invent psychodelics, and it wasn't so close to them as it was to the Beatles. "Satanic" is a tribute to fashion: "Everybody's gone done that, so it's our turn now". But this record actually proves the Stones' greatness: that they could pick up a subject so alien to them and make it their own! Really, everything was turning to gold in these guys' hands!

The long "eight-minute noise thing" is much more interesting than "Revolution 9", but still forgettable. But most of the other tracks are fantastic! My personal favorites here are "The Lantern", with some of the most emotional lyrics Mick has ever written or sung, and "2000 Light Years From Home" - majestic and scary! The only problem with the album is that they overdid the trick. Even the Beatles did not make "Pepper" entirely psychodelic: there are songs like "She's Leaving Home" and "When I'm Sixty-Four" to enliven the bizarre acid atmosphere. On "Satanic" there are no such tracks: "pictures of us sitting in our caves" are followed by "flags flying dollar bills", then "in another land where the castles were blue", "oh daddy be proud of your planet", and so on. No escape from the acid! Well, maybe in the end, where we have that cabaret canticle "On With The Show", but everybody should admit it's rather lame. It takes time to get used to the album. But once you do, you'll be on cloud nine.

BrianMac48@aol.com
This album has been ripped to shreds by just about every music critic in the business and quite frankly I can't understand why. I love this album. It was a very successful attempt at trying something different - a period piece which was very representative of the times. If you were around in 1967 I'm sure you'll know exactly what I mean. Some of their most creative and imaginative work was on this album. "Citadel", "2000 Man", "The Lantern", "She's A Rainbow" and "2000 Light Years From Home" stand as some of the finest music The Glimmer Twins have created, despite the fact that these songs break from the usual Stones formula. (Oh yeah, how can I forget Bill Wyman's great contribution, "In Another Land".) Despite all the criticism this album has received, I feel it was definitely one record that The Stones had to make, and was an important step in their musical progression. I do agree that the 8 minute "Sing This All Together" is a bit labored, but one can excuse this minor setback considering all the great music that is on this album. The only regret I have is losing my original LP with the 3D hologram cover.

reichberg@hotmail.com (Daniel Reichberg)
I've said it once and I say it again - Satanic Majesties is NOT a Sgt Pepper rip-off.

Just listen to the music. There aren't ANY similarities between the two albums. Maybe someone would say "Gomper" sounds like "Within You Without You", but the differences are enormous.

If the Stones stole Satanic from Sgt Pepper, then where on Pepper do you find anything similar to "Citadel"? Or "The Lantern"? Or "2000 Light Years From Home"?

Let's leave the "Sgt Pepper rip-off" myth behind us and be rational! Remember that neither the Beatles or the Stones were first with the psychedelic stuff. Both the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead were before them.

Lan.Tu@infoseek.com
Uh...I think "Parachute" is a good album.

binro@webtv.net (Marc Paskvan)
I know I read somewhere that Mick said this album is simply (to paraphrase) "our Sgt. Pepper", which is to say, they were doing their usual "we're the AntiBeatles " thing for the press to play up. It was more like "hey, we can do this experimental stuff too." They dipped their toes in the psychedelic genre and beat out a lot of other bands at it, IMO. I always wished they'd do this genre hopping more often, but they likely believed the critics and album sales and stuck with what they did best. Da blooz.

If you go in to listen to this, and try to forget for a while who made it, you'll be surprised when you think back to who the Stones were back then. My fave cut is "2000 light years from home" and is likely a classic to lovers of space rock.

(It is to me.) Not too many other bands of that day could reference "Aldebaran" in a lyric and actually know what it was. The 3-D album cover with the tipping motion is a trip. I found one with a lousy LP in bad shape for $20, but it's worth having for the cover alone, even if the songs were crap, which they sure aren't.

fiber_optiq@yahoo.com (Alex Temple)
Hey, I *like* the 2nd _Sing This All Together_! It's really spooky.

jaimoe0@hotmail.com (James Welton)
Uh, no. This is, to me, the first time the Stones sounded like they were jumping on a bandwagon, and it didn't work to well. Like most classic "psychadelic" albums, it hasn't aged particularly well, and as an example of "psychadelic" music, this isn't great. It's like paint-by-numbers pyschadelia. Put a plinky noise here, some noisy background vocals there, an eastern influence in that space to the right, talk in veiled and not so veiled terms about drugs... tah dah! A psychadelic record! The weird thing is, I fully consider the Stones, especially classic Stones, to be a druggy band, but I think of coke, heroin and booze, not paisley hallucinogens. So my problem with the album is part image and part uninvolving, uninspired songwriting. I know this album has its share of defenders, but I ain't one of them. Still, as a snapshot of a band at a certain time, and an aural record of the era, you should probably own it. You should probably own every Stones album up to Some Girls, but whatever. Don't get this one first if you haven't started on your Stones collection yet.

jcjh@sparklingriver.com (Joe H.)
As a lover of psychadelic music, and the music of the mid-60's (in fact, 1966 and 1967 are my favorite years in music history), i can't help but love the hell out of this album! I think it is so awesome that the Stones attempted a full out psychadelic album like that, and i'm actually really grateful they did. I know it sounds crazy, but i actually prefer this album to Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed ANY day (despite my old praises on the site of those albums, i really am not a big fan of those records at all anymore aside from a few songs). It was really unfairly criticised for being a shameless Sgt Pepper rip off at the time too, which is ridiculous if you ask me because this album mostly sounds a lot more like Piper At The Gates Of Dawn or any other psychadelic album released the same year. People didn't expect the Stones to play this crazy psychadelic music, i guess, despite the fact they've flirted with it already on the previous 2 albums! Fortunately, a lot of people see it's greatness now a days, just like those later Beach Boys albums.

Lots of great songs on this one, like "Sing This All Together" which is a really silly and catchy and fun sing-a-long song with all kinds of crazy percussion and group singing which is a lot more fun and engaging than the Beatles's own "Bungalow Bill" from the following year. "In Another Land" is a hell of a great song for Bill Wyman's debut at songwriting. I can't help but think of Syd Barrett when i hear his tremelo'ed vocals on this song! "2000 Man" is a really underrated Rolling Stones song as well, as i think it manages to be both beautiful and very very catchy and rocking. That line "ohh daddy proud of your planet, ohh mommy proud of your sun" always gets stuck in my head after i listen to it. "The Lantern", "2000 Light Years From Home", and "Gomper" are fuckin' trippy as hell, and are psychadelia at it's best and "She's A Rainbow" is positively gorgeous and i think it is really awesome the band attempted a song like this. What the hell is with people anyway? Don't they like diversity? I think it's great the Stones attempted a totally different multi-instrumental (thanks to Brian Jones!) experimental sound they weren't much accustomed to before.

I give this album a 9/10 rating. It might not be a masterpiece and among the best albums of all time, but it's definately one of my personal favorite Rolling Stones albums ever, no doubt in my mind. These guys sure as hell know what they were doing too, so it's not like this album is full of a bunch of amaturish crappy psychadelia, which is what people tend to think this is for some reason. I mean, some of these songs creep me the hell out! And i really don't think much of this sounds dated at all either; i was actually quite surprised at how well this was produced, but then again i love psychadelic music so no matter how dated it is i really don't care because i love the sound! I recommend this album to any fan of mid-60's music, even all Stones fans.

jonthes@mindspring.com (John Ellis, NYC)
The funny thing about "Satanic Majesties" is how much of a put-on it is (as well as a careful marketing move). It's very clear from hearing the remastered CD that it has a lot in common with Zappa's "We're Only in It for the Money" in it's intentions, the Stones were too earthy and grounded to take anything - even drug-induced style - too seriously. And money was a factor, also fear of being left behind in the pop market - so it's a bridge between "Sgt. Pepper's" and Zappa's scathing parody. That's the problem with it in the end, it is having it both ways with some success, but still pales next to "Beggar's Banquet" or "Let It Bleed", and miles behind "Exile". Sincere art will in the end nearly always leave parody behind. From this distance of time you suspect Jagger would have liked to have really spit in the face of it all like Zappa did, but for the Stones that would have been very dangerous at the time. Of course, the album that actually was successful both as great psychedelic musical art and as a devastating parody was Captain Beefheart's "Unconditionally Guaranteed" (it's "Beatle Bones and Smokin' Stones" cost Don VV his relationship with John Lennon, who had covered his London apartment chest with "Safe as Milk" stickers); but as the US version's sound was ruined for thirty years it only really existed for English ears at the time.

PS The Stones shouldn't have left Wyman's "Shades of Orange" off - it's way ahead of about a third of the tracks.

slb23@shaw.ca
Well, i bought this once (the recently remastered CD version), listened to it a couple of times, then sold it. That was a few years ago. Recently I bought it again (recently remastered LP supposedly "limited edition" version).

"Why you ask?". That's a good question, my friends, that's a good question.....

It seems to me that my opinion has not changed regarding this album between the first and second times i bought it.

I still think it's sometimes moderately interesting, there are some neat effects here and there, and the occasional good song, ("2000 man", "2000 Light years from Home", "She's a Rainbow", "On with the show" ---- i'm not joking about that last one, call me crazy, but i quite like it.)

What is this album??

--- jumpin' on the bandwagon?

--- an imitation of SGT. PEPPER?

--- the stones actually legitimately experimenting with a different sound?

--- a "we're too stoned out of out minds to think coherently, so let's write a bunch of songs" album?

--- the stones trying to experiment with the new musical style of the day, except that it goes horribly, horribly wrong?

--- or just a big joke, like METAL MACHINE MUSIC?

I like to think the album is a little bit of all of them.

4/10

thepublicimage79@hotmail.com
To Mr. John Ellis - I respect your quip about Beefheart, but the album with his psychedelic classic "Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin' Stones" was 1968's "Strictly Personal." John Lennon was indeed pretty pissed off about the use of the phrase "strawberry fields," but I didn't know that he stopped listening to Beefheart because of it. The album "Unconditionally Guaranteed" was one of his two 1974 vomitpiles - 1974 for Beefheart was like the mid-'80's for David Bowie, except that Bowie made millions off his artistic bankruptcy while Beefheart and his musicians got jack shit as usual. But anyway, on to the Stones album I'm about to review badly.

This is fun, but in the end, it's not that great. But, some of these songs rule! "2000 Light Years From Home" is science fiction psychedelia at its creepiest (that beginning still sounds terrifying...Brian Jones had it going on for this album), and '68 Pink Floyd would have killed to have written that song, which is a true Stones classic and the best song on the album by a mile. "In Another Land" is goofy, but fun, "Citadel" is fucking awesome, and "She's a Rainbow" is still the weirdest single the Stones EVER released...hippy-dippy Nicky Hopkins-assisted piano-pop with nauseating avant-garde orchestration (arranged by none other than John Paul Jones, pre-Led Zeppelin) and acoustic rhythm guitar that sounds like it's being played with a switchblade. And that ending, with the freaky violin high notes and the huge, baleful electric guitar power chord rising over everything and getting cut off just as it stops peaking? What the fuck? Bizarre...and real psychedelic, too. "Gomper" is fun enough - I like the varied instrumentation - and "On With The Show" is catchy psychedelic music-hall, and notably has a sidesplitting Mick vocal, a hilarious and sweet-natured Ray Davies parody that manages to sound like a tribute and a raspberry at the same time. Hey, it reminds me of Ray Davies, may remind you of someone else. Some of these songs are just good and others are underrated Stones classix.

Unfortunately, there are some misfires. Both versions of "Sing This All Together" blow ass out loud, "The Lantern" is pure shit, and "2000 Man" starts off great, but blows it in the middle with some bad by-the-numbers rocking. Which reminds me - another thing that's fascinating about the album is how little input Keith had. Though he wrote a lot of the music, he was more just the guitarist this time out. This view is probably wrong and underthought-out, but this feels very much like Mick and Brian's album, no doubt. All the weird instrumentation is Brian Jones. Brian in general was underrated as a musician and composer; there is significant evidence - from Mick and Keith themselves - that Brian was the actual composer of a lot of "Ruby Tuesday" (which ain't all that surprising when you think about it), that he should have gotten a co-credit for "Paint It Black" (again, not all that surprising) and that "Gomper" was also co-written. (From Wikipedia article on Brian Jones.) But he wasn't credited due to contractual reasons. Brian could be pretty scummy - he was the Stones' original business manager before Oldham came on board, and had it written so that he got paid 5 pounds sterling more than the rest of the group - but he was underrated as a musician, probably because of how often he switched around on different instruments. If there was any classic rock star with musical ADD, it would be Brian Jones. Brian played hardly any guitar on the album...which means Keith was more present as a contributor than I thought. Whatever. It's fun but hardly a true-blue set-in-stone classic like the real essential Stones albums. I'll give it an 8 and leave it at that. "2000 Light Years From Home" rocks my socks off.

Some more facts about this album: The Small Faces' Steve Marriott played guitar on "In Another Land" and sang backing vocals along with Ronnie Lane, Jagger and Richards. Hendrix's engineer Eddie Kramer plays claves on "2000 Light Years From Home." John Lennon and Paul McCartney sing backing vocals on the first "Sing This All Together." "Sing This All Together (See What Happens)" includes a severely tape-manipulated rendition of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas."

emanuelfromny@webtv.net
I think its a great lp.It bears no resemblence to sargent peppers,so its not a pepper rip off,and like pepper its full of great songs.Its a cd that sounds like they used every instrument in the world,and it works.

Beggars Banquet - London 1968.

First off, how much better can an album begin than with "Sympathy For The Devil," probably the most popular Stones song of all time? The groovy bongos, the piano, the "woo-woo"s, the sensationalistic violent lyrics - man, it's bitchin' hella killer, main! That Mick, when he's in the mood, he can make a dang song come alive! Imagine the Bush guy or the Gin Blossoms guy acting this macho in a song without sounding like a total dope! Very few can pull it off. Mick could in his prime. Bon Scott of AC/DC could, cuz he was funny enough to joke and brag at the same time. Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin could in his prime, 'cause he wasn't afraid to strain his voice and scratch up his throat in the name of an interesting vocal (see "The Crunge," "The Wanton Song," or pretty much anything on Presence). David Coverdale of Whitesnake couldn't. No sir. Never. Sounded like a dork. David Lee Roth could; Sammy Hagar can't. Simple lesson. Some guys have personality; some guys just sound dumb and sexist.

Thenaroonie, "No Expectations" shows the other side of this new Rolling Stones coin, slow and dripping with messy stinging slide guitar and desolate love-long-lost lyrics; very depressing (especially if you've ever lost a lover) and fitting in exactly with country-blues tradition. Next is the jokey redneck thumper "Dear Doctor" which is improved ten-fold by Keith's high-tone harmony vocals, followed by the short screaming harmonica rocker "Parachute Woman" and the second (and perhaps better) epic rocker "Jigsaw Puzzle," a dazzling, building tale of rockers and outlaws that inexplicably was never released as a single or picked up by classic rock radio. Maybe 'cause the slide guitar is such a tuneless mess? Brian Jones was apparently completely drug-obsessed and musically incompetent by this point, which might explain why it sounds like he's actually trying to destroy this godlike song with his crappy playing. It doesn't work; it's still an amazing song.

Then you turn the record over and you get "Street Fighting Man!" A loud acoustic/electric rock 'n' roll cry for revolution! Then a kickbutt skiffle cover called "Prodigal Son," the sleazy thowin'-it-to-little-girls smut rocker "Stray Cat Blues," the pretty-but-ruined-by-out-of-tune-vocals country ballad "Factory Girl," and the epic (or at least overblown) love-everybody-even-if-they're-not-a-big-rock-star anthem "Salt Of The Earth." And you got yourself a darn-near-perfect rock album. The mix is rough, but perchance it should be. You don't hear ME complaining.

Reader Comments

laura@gseal.mdn.com (Galen Clavio)
Why does Keith's riff on "Street Fighting Man" sound so cool, but so hard to produce? Because Keith originally recorded it on a pissant little cassette recorder, the kind you'd have sitting around your house. He brought the tape in, and everyone liked the sound, but they couldn't replicate it. So the whole guitar riff is played through a cassette recorder. And the whole song, except for the bass, is COMPLETELY acoustic.

Glenn.Wiener@entex.com
One of the classic recordings of all time.

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
Stop this bullshit about David Coverdale! If you say he hasn't got personality, you've probably just listened to his 1987 and Slip of the Tongue albums. Listen to Purple's Stormbringer, his own Northwinds Coverdale/Page or the latest Restless Heart, and you'll realise he's one of the most sincere and personal singers in rock history. Even if he's often sexist and sometimes dumb. The one who calls David a dork is the biggest dork himself.

If you hadn't written such crap about David, I would have given your review on Beggars Banquet a 10/10. You're very right on all points regarding the album. "Sympathy" is a monstrous classic and all of the rest is marvellous! Once, The Stones played "Salt of the Earth" together with Izzy and Axl from Guns 'n' Roses. It was a brilliant version, but then it was sadly laid to rest again. And I can't understand why "Jigsaw Puzzle" isn't on every Stones live set list. Those three mentioned songs may well be the best three Stones songs ever.

In fact, "Salt of the Earth" as a duet between Mick Jagger and David Coverdale would be qiute nice!

gt909lb@prism.gatech.edu (Andrew Goldthorp)
This album took a while to get used to. Extremely dark and depressing, only "Salt of the Earth" is up beat. "Sympathy for the Devil" remains the Stones greatest set of lyrics and the raw anger of "Street Fighting Man" and "Stray Cat Blues" make this one a keeper.

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
A wonderful album. Not as perfect as Let It Bleed (mainly because of the inclusion of the rather lame "Salt Of The Earth" at the end). And if I could, I would edit out the last verse in "Jigsaw Puzzle" (about the queen and the landlords and stuff: it sounds like a parody on Dylan and is actually DOUBLE - I just can't wait to hear the refrain!). But the other songs are great! By the way, the album is structured very close to Let It Bleed: both albums begin with a scary satanic/demonic epic thingamajig ("Sympathy For The Devil" - "Gimmie Shelter") and immediately follow it with a beautiful pessimistic ballad ("No Expectations" - "Love In Vain"), then segue into a country tune ("Dear Doctor" - "Country Honk"), continue with a rocker ("Parachute Woman" - "Live With Me") and end with a kind of social comment ("Jigsaw Puzzle" - "Let It Bleed"). Side B begins with a "dark personality" song ("Street Fighting Man" - "Midnight Rambler") and ends with another social comment ("Salt Of The Earth" - "You Can't..."). This can't be a coincidence! Had they worked out a kind of pattern for album-making, or what? Anyway, I don't give a damn. This album is so beautiful, I just cried all over it - even over "Jigsaw Puzzle", which is not really a sad song at all. And I love "Prodigal Son" (groovy! New Testament For Modern Rocker), and "Factory Girl" is funny and not at all bad. A deserved 9!

randerson@stratos.net (Rick)
Laura's right on "SFM". "Jigsaw Puzzle" works better on the boot RSVP, that out of tune slide is buried nicely. But what's with the skiffle thing? "Prodigal Son" is a blues song. It's so far removed from any British music that I would think of all the Stones' songs ever recorded, that would be the least likely to be called a skiffle song. Could you imagine Lonnie Donegan doing "Prodigal Son?" Eeeyyyeww!

eeinhorn@home.com (Eric Einhorn)
This album sucks.

Now that I've gotten that out of my way, I will say that I love "Sympathy", and "No Expectations" and "Street Fighting Man" are decent (although I don't really like the latter, I admit it's pretty good). But the rest of the album is very weak. "Dear Doctor" is just stupid, almost as bad as "Lean on Me". "Parachute Woman" is a waste of a couple of minutes - nothing but a repeated line and a riff or two. "Jigsaw Puzzle" is noteworthy, but it drags on far too long and you get the sense that it deserves more playingwise - it's boring the way they play it. "Prodigal Son" and "Factory Girl" have nothing to recommend themselves, and "Stray Cat Blues" is just stupid. "Salt of the Earth" would be listenable if it were not smeared with female backing vocalists and schmaltzy arrangements. So that wraps it up. In a good mood, I give it a 4.

Where the hell's the bass?

limeginger@yahoo.com
Thanks for your great site!

I love Beggar's Banquet too--recently re-bought it on vinyl. One comment. I humbly disagree that Salt of the Earth is a "love-everybody-even-if-they're-not-a-big-rock-star anthem." It's a great song, but it's tongue-in-cheek (not unlike You Can't Always Get What You Want), and completely awash in cynicism. To me, it's thematically Kinksish, in its sense of irony (ex - Death of a Clown, Autumn Almanac, or Village Green Preservation Society)--the Stones are swiping at the what they consider the pathetic working and middle classes. Mick and the boys didn't give a shit about the "hardworking people," "the stay-at-home voter/His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows," "the rag taggy people," or the "lowly of birth"! It's a boozy tune, an end of the night song when you're so bombed and filled with alcohol-induced magnanamity you're toasting everybody and his sister (or his wife and his children).

Jcjh20@aol.com
Ohh yeah, this album is great. The mix sounds like a demo or something, but thats just all a part of the gritty rock 'n roll. "No Expectations" never fails to give me the chills, very beautiful song. Probably my favorite track on the album. "Street Fighting Man", "Stray Cat Blues", "Jig-Saw Puzzle" all rock very much, "Dear Doctor" is a great country-ish number with great harmony vocals, and of course the classic "Sympathy For The Devil", which is complimented very nicely by the dark production. I dont get Eric Einhorn's beef with this album, this is just amazing shit. 10/10.

drazy@gatecity.com
I feel a source of pride when I tell people the first album I ever bought was this one. Actually, it's a lie, my Mom bought it for me after a whined for ten minutes in the local Shenandoah, Iowa Woolworth's store. The same technique also got me the "Jesus Christ Superstar" original Broadway cast album and "Sgt. Pepper's." Two out of three ain't bad. Fuck Meatloaf, let's get to the Stones. Their first essential album and one of the greatest rock albums of all time. After fucking up royally with "Request," the Stones attempt to produce an album that sounds like it was recorded on tin foil in Alabama circa 1932. Here's a low-fi album before there was even a name for it! In the middle of Keith's cassette recordings, Charlie's toy drum kits, and all the non-Dolby hiss are some of the best riffs, lyrics, and attitude ever put to wax. While others during this time were marveling at studio magic and overdubs, the Stones brought it all back home with this one. Don't tell me it's in stereo, don't bitch about the mix (can you blame 'em for burying Bill's fretwork after his pouting about how they didn't promote "In Another Land" as a single? It's because it sucked Bill!), and don't even bring up David Coverversion (this is not the forum for promoting Whitesnake dude, now get back to your Metal Edge and shut the fuck up). I'm getting all worked up here, and there's nothing that anyone can say to change my mind: A perfect 10.

bdoleac@mail.wesleyan.edu (Benjamin Doleac)
Geez, talk about an overrated band. The Stones did make some great singles-yeah, they made some great singles, but albums? Ehhh... "The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band" and their fans may get off on recycling the standard blues progression for a whole side, but I don't buy it. They were a singles band. And, to be perfectly honest, their albums- Exile on Main Street possibly excepted- didn't amount to shit next to those of the Beatles or even the Beach Boys. Swallow that, kiddies.

j.vargas@aznar.es (Jaime Vargas)
Hum. When people complain about the slide guitar on this song, do they refer to the proper slide guitar, or the syth thingie that comes in the instrumental breaks? If the former, the slopiness is not due to Brian's state - it was played by Keith, and he was just learning to play slide - he would later play it much better in all the songs in Let It Bleed, but as he says, "in the band there's always been a better slide player than me".

fedefer@fibertel.com.ar (Federico Fernández)
OK there, this album is FUCKING OVERRATED.

Man! "Sympathy For The Devil" is OK but is not the best Stones song, not the best song on this record, the Richards solo is average, the crescendo is overlong and plainly even from beggining to end. It is original and hellish, yes, but I'd prefer "Gimmie Shelter" and "Midnight Rambler" a hundredtimes!!! Why the hell people rave with this song I DON'T KNOW.

Apart from that, most of the songs here are pretty small and redundant. Not bad, but not great either, just little, minor, cute, well played tunes that can't accomplish a real masterpiece. The only excellent ones are the rockers; "Stray Cat Blues" really kiss ass and "Street Fighting Man" is God! acoustic hard rock!!!

FUCKING OVERRATED. Try Let It Bleed instead.

leahcim666@juno.com (Michael E. Rodriguez)
Yo Mark, It`s a Ten. Beggers Banquet was the first album to splatter the notion of flower power, it captured the violence of a world in chaos and exposed the terrible truth that everybody is capable of evil. Trancending Pop music this album brought home the nightmare of assasinations and bodybags from war. The music is threatening,the lyrics are scraped off the streets ferocious, even the redneck yodels of factory girl and Dear Doctor reflect broken dreams.The Stones do away with the pretty pop melodies , The fashionable psychedelia made popular by Sgt. Pepper and so miserably attempted by the Stones themselves is nowhere to be seen. Ultimately Beggers Banquet is pure Rolling Stones All SEX AND VIOLENCE.

thepublicimage79@hotmail.com (Mike Noto)
My favorite Stones album, "Beggars Banquet" is amazing. Every song here is practically perfect. Even though "Sticky Fingers" and "Exile" get all the critical ink, this is my fave, mainly because it's Keith's album, plain and simple. Even though Mick contributes the best lyrics he'd ever write, this is the Keith Richards Show. Keith plays almost all the guitar on this album (Brian Jones shows up for the lead slide guitar on "No Expectations"). Yeah, that's Keith on the slide guitar for "Jig-Saw Puzzle" - he was just learning how to play slide, and everyone was dealing with the fact that Brian was heading out, so all things considered, he did an OK job there. The pitch is off, the guitar is sharp, but the playing itself is fine. The album's production is rough, but also innovative - how many bands would dare to use multiple cassette recordings of an acoustic guitar for all the guitar parts on one of their best songs? (That's "Street Fighting Man", in case you're wondering.) My only problem is that "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Honky Tonk Women" weren't included on the album - there, you'd have perfection on a scale rarely equaled. "Jig-Saw Puzzle" is also the only song where each Stone is described in verse - I wonder how Bill Wyman felt about the bass player being nervous about the girls outside. One last thing - Nicky Hopkins' piano on the album is fantastic. And Keith plays amazing lead guitar.

MatthewByrd@hotmail.com
Oh, yeah, the Stones at their best (I think so, at least, if that means more than an empty box 'o' sweet-tarts)

10/10 on my scale

3.5/5 on the recommended scale

Best Song: Sympathy For The Devil

Other Standouts: Jig-Saw Puzzle, Street Fightin' Man, Stray-Cat Blues

Well, first I'd like to say that the reason why this album got a 3 on the recommended scale is becuase........ well, the songs aren't immediately acessible. 'Street Figtin' Man' is the only song which really sounds like a hit, and really, it wasn't much of a hit. Many of the songs acoustic blues-rockers or country. 'Parachute Woman' 'Dear Doctor' and 'Factory Girl' especially aren't catchy. They take a while to like, well, at least for me. Even the song 'Sympathy For The Devil'.......... it's 'Help!' that's for sure, but what it is is INTERESTING. The idea is a clever idea, and one that is, like I said, supremely interesting. Mick Jagger pulls off being satan in fine style. The wild African beats in the background, the pounding piano, the guitar solo and, of course, satan telling us what he has been a part of throughout the centuries. Unforgettable, my favorite song. Well, I have heard that, in reality, Mick is playing the human race and not the devil, that works too. Well, enough of that, why is Beggar's Banquet the best Stones album? Well, after psychedelia, the Stones decide to paint a nice serenic picture of the delta swamps. They play blues/country/rock in a way which works perfectly, there is rarely, if ever a moment where things are awkward. Sticky Fingers has too many of those moments, that's why I don't regard that as the Stones at their best, Let It Bleed is about as close as you can come to Beggar's Banquet, as long as you buy 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' and the delightful, but questionable 'Monkey Man'. Beggar's Banquet DOES have one such moment, that's with 'Salt Of The Earth' but it doesn't keep it from being unenjoyable. Jig-Saw Puzzle is a song which I have never heard the likes of in any other Stones song, it is a track which seems to have been forgotten, when people mention the best of the Stones, they rarely mention this fascinating narration. Stray-Cat Blues is the Stones at their sleezy best, Mick's voice is excellent and the sleeziness is controlled with taste (ha ha, is that possible?). Dear Doctor is a hilarious country song about an ill-fated marriage. AND, the country sounds natural, that is something special in-and-of itself. Street Fightin' Man is a furious rocker in the style of 'Brown Sugar' and 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' it's filled with political uneasiness. Prodigal Son is a hugely enjoyable blues song (a cover, I think). It's based on the Bible story of the prodigal son. No Expectations has an oceanic feel with a VERY nice acoustic guitar, Jagger's vocals are great. Paracute Woman and Factory Girl are both short, and bluesy affairs, they are a bit of a bore at first listen, but the grow on you, I think they're great now. Finally, Salt Of The Earth is the Stones ending on a positive note, a salute to the working man. It's filled with nice background vocals and a great piano arrangement, but, it just doesn't feel like a Stones song, it feels somewhat forced, I don't know. It's still an entertaining song, by a LONG shot, it does add to the score so, overall, the song is a winner. So, this is the Stones sounding their best at what the Stones wanted to play, they rarely sound forced and the thing isn't commercial sounding. It's the Stones being the Stones, not repeating past triumphs with new songs with forced lyrics and emotions, not a competition with the Beatles and definently not an excersise in showmanship. It reminds me of just a group of guys sitting in a church in Louisiana or on the porch of Robert Johnson's house, singing to the swamp and whoever wants to listen. Absolutely stunning, one of Rock's best records.

Wadedh14@aol.com
So, Eric, "Where the hell's the bass?", huh? More like "Where are your fecking ears?". Listen to "Sympathy", "Expectations", "Jig-Saw", or "Stray Cat" and tell me you don't hear some absolutely KICKASS bass work going on there. That's Bill Wyman for yeh! Incredible bass player.

With that little bitch of mine out of the way, this album is a 9/10. "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Street Fighting Man" are the two most popular on here, but they're really no better than the rest of this material, as it's all great. "No Expectations" is beautiful, "Dear Doctor" is jokey, good-time country and fun at that. "Parachute Woman" has absurdly obscene lyrics (though not as bad as the ones that would later "come" on "Let it Bleed"), and is a neat little blues there. "Jig-Saw Puzzle" is amazing...MAN, what a song. Crazy that energy and gorgeous playing, huh? "Prodigal Son" is pretty neat; I really didn't think that was Mick singing at first, as it actually does sound like a black guy! "Stray Cat Blues" just kicks my ass all over the room; what an energetic, rock-out song! "Factory Girl" is kinda stupid, but still enjoyable. And "Salt of the Earth"...well, it woulda been better without the gospely women singers. But it's still good! It all is! At its worst, it's good. Once again, 9/10 (haha, that rhymes -- I'm a loser). Thank you, and good night.

DenBlake29@aol.com
cmon mark, this lp needs a 10. don't nitpick over this song and that. the overall sound and feel is one of a kind. never find another lp that sounds like this one. let it bleed is dissipated already. this one is still open and raw. i haven't sen it yet but i bet let it bleed gets a 10. this here is the stuff. one of the truly greats of all time. top 20 for sure.

matthew byrd is on the money. one of the greatest. try finding another record made by any rock outfit that sounds like this. with this one the stones put most rock acts to shame

slb23@shaw.ca
I got this album as a remastered (supposedly "limited edition") vinyl version released in 2003 by ABKCO Records. I must say the presentation of the album/disc is superb. Nice thick somewhat glossy sleeve, nice thick, heavy record with a picture label.

I think the cover design (both back and front) is really neat, really sets the time period of the release: 'homages' and jokes to musicians and bands of the time: ie: John and Yoko, "Music From Big Brown" (ha! that cracks me up! take that, The Band!! No, that's not very fair, actually I quite like The Band. Especially their first two albums), Bob Dylan's dream, Love (possible reference to the band of the same name?). etc. etc.

Anyway, onto the record itself.

Apparently I was mislead. I THOUGHT this was a back-to-rock w/ electric guitars release for the Stolling Rones. But no. I was half right. It's a back-to-rock w/ ACOUSTIC guitars release. Interestingly enough, the best songs on this album (imo) kick off both sides A and B. Yup, you guessed it ----- "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Street Fighting Man". Hey.....weren't those the hits off the album? << shuffles imaginary papers around >> Well golly gee, they were!!

Well, i'm pretty sure the majority of the songs on here are acoustic songs. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing the Stones when they go acoustic, I like the acoustic/electric ballads on Sticky Fingers. A lot, in fact. I just think a few just-acoustic numbers in a row like there are on this album is a bit too uninteresting and underwhelming for me.

You, dear reader, may be thinking, "Hey, this guy seems to have no attention span if he can't appreciate a short acoustic song!"

Well, here i am to prove you wrong: i've listened to each of the following in one sitting at least once in my life: Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull, Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes, The Wall by Pink Floyd, Alchemy by Dire Straits, among others.

I'm not one to boast, so do not take the previous statement that way, i was just trying to prove a point.

In my opinion, i think the Stones should have just not released Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed (please hear me out before you start throwing tomatoes) BUT INSTEAD, have culled the best from those two albums into one album to be released. (and years later, they could put those "unreleased" tracks onto a special "rarities" disc for those who go for those types of compilations.)

What would the tracklist of this *imaginary* album look like, you might ask?

1. Sympathy for the Devil
2. Street Fighting Man
3. Stray Cat Blues
4. No Expectations
5. Salt of the Earth
6. Gimmie Shelter
7. Love In Vain
8. Live With Me
9. Midnight Rambler
10. You Can't Always Get What You Want

Anyway, you can probably tell from this imaginary track list which songs are my favourites from both albums.

Over all i think that both albums (BB and LiB) are both (gasp!) overrated. Though they both have a bunch of classic RS songs, and/or classic songs of the late 60's.

6/10 for BB and 7.5 for LiB.

thepublicimage79@hotmail.com
This was, for a long time, my favorite Stones album, but I'm not so sure now...I mean, ALL the albums from 1968 to 1972 are practically straight A+'s across the board. But, without doubt, this is the album that is probably the most important in the Stones' discography. "Beggars Banquet" was the album that revitalized them, their first absolute, no-holds barred, all-out masterpiece, and first used techniques that would prove essential in the masterpieces that came with frightening regularity until 1973. The mix is pretty lo-fi in places, but that never matters; in fact, I'd say that the roughness gives the album an authority that slick studio gloss would have obliterated. Besides, it's not that lo-fi, anyway - it's better produced than any of the Velvet Underground's albums.

But let's discuss this brilliant cornerstone of rock music track-by-track, shall we?

(Note: all my facts have been taken from the BRILLIANT and irreplaceable TrackTalk section of the best Rolling Stones website, Time Is On Our Side: http://www.timeisonourside.com.)

Sympathy For The Devil - The best incorporation of samba in rock, with one of the catchiest and most difficult drum parts ever thought of and recorded (have you seen Charlie playing this? It's crazy!), and man, just everything about it's a classic, from Charlie's groovin' drumming, Rocky Dijon's congas, Bill Wyman's maracas, Keith's bassline, and Nicky Hopkins' piano, to Keith's masterful, minimalist, literally scorching lead guitar (I've never heard anything like that white-hot tone to this day...I know he used a vintage three-humbucker Les Paul Custom for it, though, cause I saw him with it in the live version from the 1968 "Rock and Roll Circus" film, and the tone is the same), those goofy and inspired group backing vocals (Mick, Keith, Bill, Brian Jones, Nicky Hopkins, Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, and producer Jimmy Miller), and the capper, Mick's absolutely brilliant lyrics, probably the best he ever penned, and his immortal lead vocal. Absolute genius.

No Expectations - The last Stones song Brian Jones was heavily involved with, and it may be the best performance he ever recorded (aside from "Paint It Black," that is). Mark says in the review that "Brian Jones was apparently completely drug-obsessed and musically incompetent by this point," but that obviously isn't true, as Brian's the lead slide guitarist here, and plays with beautiful, truly understated grace. It sounds like there's a very minimal, one-note organ drone in the background, which I've never heard anyone mention; it is hard to hear, but it's there all right. You can hear it at 2:35 into the song, when Mick starts singing, "our love was like the water..." My guess is that Brian put it on there, if only because he was the really well known multi-instrumentalist in the group. The lineup here is Mick singing, Keith on acoustic rhythm, Brian on lead slide guitar and possibly one-note organ, Bill on bass, Charlie on claves, and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Mick says they recorded this live, sitting in a circle on the studio floor.

Dear Doctor - Keith and Traffic's Dave Mason are the acoustic guitarists on here. The rhythm section is totally old-time country, with Bill on acoustic bass and Charlie sticking to the tambourine on top of the hi-hat and possibly a brushed snare drum. Brian plays some great harmonica here, and Nicky Hopkins plays some fantastically old-timey tack piano (aka honky-tonk piano) here, but he's shoved off a little too far in the left speaker for my liking. The lyrics and Mick/Keith's dual vocals are hilaarrrious, telling the story of a poor unfortunate whose mother is forcing him to marry a girl with a face that could stop a clock, and the unexpected prevention of his horrid fate. Brilliant.

Parachute Woman - Short, sweet, and completely lascivious, this is a prototypical Stones sex rocker. Most of this one was apparently recorded on a small Phillips cassette recorder, which was then transferred to studio tape. This happened with a couple of other tracks on this album. The way the Stones would transfer the cassette recording to studio tape was pretty interesting; Keith would...well, I'll let Keith tell it: "I bought one of the first cassette machines - a must for a budding songwriter - and then day in, day out recorded on it. Then I began to get interested in the actual sound of the machine, how close you could put the microphone to the guitar and what effect you could get out of it... When we were in the studio I would bring in that little Philips cassette recorder, get a wooden extension speaker, plug that into the back of the recorder, shove a microphone in front of the speaker in the middle of the studio and record it. W e would all sit back and watch this little microphone record the cassette machine in the middle of the studio at Olympic, which was the size of Salder's Wells. Then we'd go back, listen to it, play over it, mash it up and there was the track." This technique was used extensively on the studio recordings of this song and "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and almost exclusively for "Street Fighting Man."

Jig-Saw Puzzle - Sounds like it was influenced lyrically by Dylan. At least that's a possible explanation for the wildest and most improbable images in a set of Stones lyrics ever. Really good, with a great rhythm and fantastic piano. Mick's vocal is a little wavery, but works really well anyway. The question here is the slide guitar part. I think Keith was trying to learn how to be a better slide guitarist during the "Beggars Banquet" sessions, and that it's actually Keith playing the slide guitar. The only problem with his playing is that the guitar is out of tune - the thing is so sharp that it sounds like it's in a different key. It's an interesting sound, but ultimately hurts the song a bit. Brian may have contributed some slide guitar, but I don't think he did - he's playing the high-pitched Mellotron, or possibly synthesizer, in the left speaker. I guess it's a Mellotron, because I don't know how far synthesizer technology had come in 1968, and the Stones were definitely using Mellotron around this time (Their Satanic Majesties Request, anyone?).

Street Fighting Man - Unbelievable but true fact: There is only ONE electric instrument on the master take of "Street Fighting Man." That is the bass guitar, which Keith overdubbed. The amazing, wailing, droning notes at the end come from Traffic's Dave Mason, who, in my eyes, has pretty much guaranteed himself rock immortality and total badassedness for playing on this song alone. It's not a guitar, though. The instrument Mason's playing is the Indian equivalent of an oboe, which is called a shehnai: it's a quadruple-reed woodwind (the reed is in the shape of an oboe reed, except there are two reeds for the top part and two reeds for the bottom), with the reed attached to a wooden tube with toneholes carved in and a brass bell (resembles the part of a clarinet where the sound comes out, for all you non-woodwind players). Charlie's massive, powerful drum sound on the track actually came from a 1930's toy drum practice set that Charlie found in an antique shop. Nicky Hopkins added piano, Brian Jones added sitar and tamboura to the massively multitracked, overrecorded, and tape-distorted acoustic guitars Keith had dubbed onto the cassette, and Mick's vocal was overdubbed after the track had been transferred to studio tape to complete the song.

Prodigal Son - Brian's harmonica is shoved waaaaayyy in the back of the recording. This was probably recorded live, as it's just Mick singing, Keith playing acoustic guitar, Charlie keeping time on the hi-hat, and Brian playing harmonica. This is a fantastic cover of a blues song that the Reverend Robert Wilkins recorded around 1930, apparently. Obviously, I've never heard the original, but this is a fantastic performance.

Stray Cat Blues - This is one of the most authentically sleazy songs the Stones ever recorded and probably one of the best rockers they ever cut. Mick says that it was influenced by the Velvet Underground, of all bands! Listen to this: "I mean, even WE'VE been influenced by the Velvet Underground... I'll tell you exactly what we pinched from (Lou Reed) too. You know Stray Cat Blues? The whole sound and the way it's paced, we pinched from the very first Velvet Underground album. You know, the sound on Heroin. Honest to God, we did!" That's pretty funny, because the song sounds nothing like the Velvets, except for maybe the lyrics, which are as sleazy or sleazier than anything the Velvets drooled out. Brian's on Mellotron again for this one. Nicky's piano is fantastic as always, and the song has a brilliant breakdown with congas and Mick scatting a little. Keith played all the guitars. To me, this one belongs to the rhythm section. Bill and Charlie have that heaving, heavy groove down, and really give the song the horndog feel it needs.

Factory Girl - This one's my least favorite on the album. Mick's vocals are way too affected, way too stereotypically rednecky, and intentionally out-of-tune. Not too good. Musically, though, the song is really nice. Dave Mason's mandolin is really good, and Family/Blind Faith member Rik Grech contributes some sweet violin to the track. I originally thought the percussion was Charlie playing congas, but apparently he's playing tablas with drumsticks, which is not the proper way to play them, but gave a cool sound nevertheless. It's okay, but if I'd had my way "Jumpin' Jack Flash" would have been here instead or ended the album. It was such a mistake NOT to include "Jumpin' Jack Flash" on the album. I mean, it would have fit perfectly as an ending track, and they certainly had the room on the LP - what gives? C'mon, guys - it's "Jumpin' Jack Flash," fer God's sake! Oh well, I burned the album with the song on there, so I'm not gonna complain anymore.

Salt Of The Earth - Mick says that this song is completely cynical, and that he's saying that "the salt of the earth" have never had any power and they never will have any power. Jeez. But I guess there's feeling there - he's also saying let's drink to them and recognize their contributions to society, cause he wouldn't be able to do his stuff without them. Also pretty condescending, but the song's great anyway. Keith sings the first verse and he sounds drunk. The Watts Street Gospel Choir, from Los Angeles, was brought in to add vocals to the track. This one has a great Nicky Hopkins-led outro. It's an okay ender, but I'd have preferred "Jumpin' Jack Flash" as the album closer.

If you don't have this album, you should stop whatever you are doing and buy it NOW. Or download it and burn it to a CD with "Jumpin' Jack Flash" on as the last song. It really improves the listening experience even more.

rockylisa@yahoo.com
Great record. The only song that doesnt do it for me is No Expectations. I can see why people like it, it just sounds too "forced", just my opinion. Too bad Jumpin Jack Flash isnt on it. Should have been included as the last song on the album. A song that some people dont like, BUT I LOVE, is Parachute Woman. I read how Bill Wyman loves the song, too. Im not sure what it is about Parachute Woman, we all know about the mini-cassette recorder thing. There is something about the song from 1:01 to 1:16 that is so cool sounding. Its sounds like the band is locked in like a freakish boiling tea-kettle, thats about to bust open. I love the double snare hits on it(listen closely at :39, :40, :44) and the way Keith groans after Mick opens up with "parachute woman land on me tonight...." The way Wyman pops those bass strings is perfect and at 1:22 where Wyamn finshes with that bass chord. I just think the songs is great. Jigsaw Puzzle has kind of grown on me over the years. I love the droning flute sounds that Jones does on it and the bass line is cool. Stray Cat Blues is one of their best tunes ever, as well.

Let It Bleed - London 1969.

But that's about the extent of it, really. If you survive that one, the rest of the record is much more welcoming. Their stunning cover of the old blues standard "Love In Vain" shows exactly how far they've come since their early days as a fast-paced "blues" combo, "Country Honk" hicks up their hit single "Honky Tonk Women," "Live With Me" has a groovy-as-horseshoes bass line, and the title track is absolutely gross ("we all need someone we can cream on / and if you want to, well, you can cream on me!"). Plus, "Monkey Man" is a cool piano-guitar rocker, "You Got The Silver" features weak vocals courtesy of Keith, and if you're looking for epics, just stop here for a moment. "Midnight Rambler" is a seven-minute celebration of mass murder set to a sinister rockin' beat (with eerie slide guitar laid on top!) and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a gospel song! A real honest-to-goodness gospel song! And good? Ho! Ever heard Joan Osborne's "What If God Was One Of Us?" Imagine the exact opposite. IT'S THAT GOOD! An earthy bluesy country real-life no B.S. American album made by a bunch of British drug addicts. Go figure. And check out the album cover. Their best ever. Better than the zipper, even.

Oh yeah. They threw out Brian Jones while they were making this album. A couple of months later, he drowned in a swimming pool.

Reader Comments

Weigelda@aol.com (Dave Weigel)
Let it Bleed is the Stones' most understated album, and a strong contender for their best. But I must warn you, if you are just getting into the band, don't get it until you a get a few other of their famous ones--this is a bleak, depressing record. And I don't mean headbanging Black Sabbath depressing, neither! I mean soft, evil country rock with slow tempos and uneasy hooks. When a record's bounciest song is "Gimme Shelter", watch the fuck out! This is atypical of the Rolling Stones' music, as there's nary a balls-out rocker to be found.

Yeah, it takes some time to get into, but you'll eventually be rewarded. "Gimme Shelter", "Midnight Rambler", "Monkey Man", and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" are all classics, but "Live with Me" and the wrenching "Love in Vain" are often overlooked. I can take or leave the other three tracks, but in this context it all seems great. In my opinion, this is the best record of 1969 and one of the best of the 60s as a whole.

break7@localnet.com (Tim Eimiller)
This album, along with Who's Next, is the most consistently brilliant rock album to ever come out of the UK. Beginning with the ominous notes of "Gimme Shelter" and concluding with the rhythmic majesty of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" this is as perfect a rock album as one could hope for. It is on this record that the Stones really arrive, and lay claim to the title of Best Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World. Sandwiched between those opening and closing classics are some of the best cuts the Stones ever recorded. "Monkey Man" opens with some delicate piano, curtesy of session great Nicky Hopkins, and then launches full-throttle into some of the most vicious electric guitar of Keith Richards' career. "Midnight Rambler" works a feverish groove that seems to go on forever yet never seems to drag. "Live With Me" rocks like the best Stones stuff while "Love in Vain" explores the Stones' deep roots in mythic american blues. "Country Honk" proves the Stones nearly as adept with country music as they are with the blues and taken side by side with "Honkey Tonk Women" illustrates what it takes to turn country into great rock 'n' roll. The title track is classic decadent Stones, showcasing that new claustrophobic Stones sound. To top it off, Keith Richards gets in the best vocal of his career on "You Got the Silver." Complaints? An ugly cover and way too many guest musicians. Charlie Watts doesn't even drum on "You Can't Always Get What You Want." All in all, though, this record demonstrates what rock 'n' roll is capable of when performed by true masters of the form.

patterson@tatrc.org
Simply a great album. The bookend tracks - "Gimme Shelter" and "You Can't Always Get WHat You Want" - are gems. The material in the middle includes Stone's classics "Let It Bleed" and "Midnight Rambler", as well as the underrated rocker "Monkey Man". I give it 4/5 "stars."

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
I fully agree with Tim. THIS is the Stones by definition, NOT Sticky Fingers! On Sticky Fingers there is already too much funk and sexual show-off (songs like "Bitch", for example). But on Let It Bleed everything is taken just in the normal proportion: some thrilling mystique ("Rambler"), some sad romance ("Love in Vain"), some social comments ("Let It Bleed", "You Can't..."), some psychodelics ("Monkey Man"), some groove ("Live With Me"), some country ("Country Honk"), and, hey, there's even some Keith singing! The playing is great, the melodies are catchy, the riffing is perfect, the arrangements are wonderful! And I even like the album cover. 10/10!

NOSPOL@aol.com
Let It Bleed is in my opinion The Stones best album. The inside of the CD jacket says "Play It Loud" and you should.

patterson@tatrc.org (Jan Michael Patterson)
Just a great album! The quality of music on this disc, as with many other Stones discs, is what others strive to achieve! I mean, this album is framed by the haunting Gimmer Shelter (with its unforgettable opening guitar line) and spectacular You Can't Always Get What You Want! The stuff in between is solid, if not spectacular. There simply is not a weak moment on this disc! In short, this is the album (along with Exile on Main St, Through the Past Darkly, etc.) I reach for after listening to much of the unoriginal, pop ear candy that gets heavy play on radio and MTV...

Homelessperson22@cs.com (Zach English)
No, Mark, you were right the first time; "Gimme Shelter" IS positively frightening, or at least as urgent a rock song as these ears have ever met. Rock fans in general don't (or maybe can't) grasp how intelligent Mick Jagger is here. All the peak Stones albums have as many (maybe even more) eerie underpinnings and themes as the Velvets did, but I think everyone in this forum can count at least a few people they've met who have brushed aside Jagger as being a "fake bluesman"; the key to their idiosyncracies is the fact that the Stones didn't TRY to sound black. They're too tied down to the basic traditions of sex, drugs, and FUN to wallow in bluesy piddle in the way B.B. King does. As for Let It Bleed, "Midnight Rambler" is, for my money, the most brutally exciting song they've ever written, and everything else is sublime. Country, rock, R & B, blah blah blah; you can't label this stuff with any other word than "stunning". 10