The Rolling Stones

The Stones started as a pure rhythm & blues band doing almost entirely covers of American rock/roll/rhythm & blues.

They released three singles before their first album:

Come On (Chuck Berry)
I Wanna Be Your Man (Lennon; McCartney)
Not Fade Away (Petty; Hardin)

Not Fade Away was originally recorded by Buddy Holly, but unknown in Britain. It was a big success and became the prototype of Jaggers strutting hand-clapping performances. Shown on television, unlike the previous singles, it launched the Stones' career.

The Rolling Stones EP

The EP, "The Rolling Stones" was released about a month before Not Fade Away. It consisted of:

You Better Move On (Alexander)
Poison Ivy (Lieber; Stoller)
Bye Bye Johnny (Chuck Berry)
Money (Gordy Jr; Bradford)

This was excellent exciting music, their best work so far. You Better Move On is on December's Children, and the other tracks are on More Hot Rocks, but all the tracks are poor sound quality and not stereo.

The first two albums

The first two albums were:

The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones No 2

Even in the early sixties the Rolling Stones albums did not seem such good value for money when compared to the Beatles. They typically had only 12 short tracks, sometimes including a B-side already released.

The Rolling Stones

The first, The Rolling Stones, was mainly covers of American material, and much of it does not stand the test of time. The sound quality was also poor. Not because the technology didn't exist, but probably because Decca (who famously turned down the Beatles) didn't think this music was worthy of careful attention to sound quality. Perhaps they were right! But it would be nice to have a well conserved record of the music if only for historical interest.

The only Jagger/Richards composition is Tell Me, which is quite a good song, showing glimpses of the later As Tears Go By. Other notable tracks are I Just Want to Make Love to You, Route 66 and the excellent Little By Little which was the B-side of Not Fade Away.

The CD "The Rolling Stones, Englands Newest Hitmakers" is a close equivalent. It has in addition Not Fade Away, but at the expense of Mona which is missing. The poor sound quality is evident even on the digitally remastered CD.

Mona is available on "The Rolling Stones Now!".

Five by Five EP

The EP Five By Five was released in August 1964. All tracks are available (as you might expect) on 12x5 CD. Includes Chuck Berry's Around and Around.

The Rolling Stones No. 2

The nearest CD equivalent to The Rolling Stones No 2 is "The Rolling Stones Now!", which has 7 of the 12 tracks. Others are on "12x5", except for I Can't Be Satisfied which is on More Hot Rocks.

The extra tracks on these two CDs consist of some tracks which were singles and B-sides in Britain, but there seem to be other songs which were not released at all in Britain at the time.

Got Live If You Want It EP

The EP "Got Live If You Want It" was released in June 1965. Three of the tracks are available on the CDs Out of Our Heads and December's Children.

Although recording technology was capable of some excellent results in the early 60's, amplification equipment for live performances was not so good, and neither was the technology for recording outside the studio. These shortcomings are evident on these live recordings. Things were to change dramatically in only the next 5 years.

Out of our Heads

Out of Our Heads seemed to move away from the raw rock and roll, and consisted largely of mid-tempo soul music in the style of Sam Cooke and Jimmy Reed. Despite the fact that the title has a double meaning which seems to suggest original compositions, this had only three credited to Jagger and Richards. Heart of Stone, I'm Free and Gotta Get Away. In addition Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man is credited to Phelge, a pseudonym for the band. Everything else was of American origin. This is a good album and shows the band's great feeling for the rhythm of their music, and whilst it is still short, at least it did not duplicate any material previously released.

The USA CD version of Out of Our Heads has only about half of the original version's tracks, but has extra songs instead. The remaining tracks are on December's Children and Rolling Stones Now!.

Of the above tracks, only Heart of Stone from "Rolling Stones Now!" is in stereo.

Out of Our Heads (USA version) and December's Children are both very disappointing CDs. To begin with they have a very short playing time by modern standards of about 30 minutes. While they admittedly have some gems of tracks, only about half the tracks of each are worth having. The sound quality is poor and they are not stereo, but electronically processed. Some record companies release two albums on one CD and this could have been done with these two.

The British version of Out of Our Heads is now available.

Singles

During this period the Stones were making big progress with a succession of number one singles:

It's All Over Now
Little Red Rooster
The Last Time
Satisfaction
Get Off My Cloud
Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown

The last four of these singles were Jagger Richards compositions.

Aftermath

In 1966 the Stones released the classic landmark album Aftermath which consisted entirely of their own compositions.

Notably the original British release (on vinyl of course) had a different cover from the USA release, and significantly different track list. The British version is superior. It has the feeling of consistency you would expect from material recorded at the same session, and has a very long playing time for a vinyl album. On the original record the sound level was quite low to accommodate the long playing time, and this resulted in the album being very vulnerable to scratches etc. This would not be a problem with a CD.

The CD of Aftermath available until recently was based on the USA version, and had a different cover from the one shown above. It has the extra track Paint it Black, which was a single, and inconsistent in style to the rest of the album. This is at the expense of 4 other tracks which are missing. The British version is a full 10 minutes longer. At least the Aftermath CD tracks are in proper stereo and reasonable sound quality.

It has also been said that the mixing is different on the two, one aspect being that the British version has more extreme stereo separation.

The British version has mostly been unavailable on CD, but I have read that it has been available intermittently over the years. I think it is shameful that this British group should have turned their back on their heritage of early success in Britain, and chosen to base their CDs on the derived American versions, not the original British versions. At last the british version is now available with the traditional cover as shown above.

This approach of basing the CD on American versions of the LP was evident on other CDs. None of the first 3 albums which preceded Aftermath was available on CD in their original form until recently.

Apart from mix differences it should be possible to 'reconstruct' the British version of Aftermath from tracks which appear on other albums.

From these sources, all tracks are available in good stereo, except Mother's Little Helper and What to Do.

* The version of Lady Jane on Flowers is good stereo. The version on Aftermath CD is either very narrow stereo or processed mono.

* Out Of Time appeared in a shorter version on Flowers and More Hot Rocks, but as far as I know is unavailable on CD in its original full length version of 5 min 36 secs. A more elaborate re-work of Out Of Time appeared later on Metamorphosis.

Take It or Leave It was released as a single by the Searchers in 1966, and is very good, arguably better than the Stones version, but was unsuccessful.

Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)

The compilation album Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) was released in November 1966.

Since Aftermath there had been two more singles:

Paint It Black
Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing In The Shadow

Big Hits was their first compilation album. (Many many more were to follow!). This one had worthwhile and justifiable content at the time and includes every single (A-side) up to date, except the elusive I Wanna Be Your Man. It also has a selection of their better other songs, Heart of Stone, As Tears Go By, Lady Jane, and Time is on My Side.

I have seen two different vinyl versions of this album, both labelled Stereo. One appears to be true stereo throughout, the other (more recent I think) has asterisks against nearly every track saying they are mono but reprocessed for simulated stereo. (Why?)

Soon after Big Hits, in January 1967, another single was released:

Let's Spend The Night Together/Ruby Tuesday.

Between the Buttons

I remember when this album first came out, but surprisingly, hearing any of it has eluded me until now, 2002. If you had heard Aftermath and Satanic Majesties, so different, you might think it impossible that anything could simultaneously have things in common with both, but strangely this album does show such a transition. (Complicated?).

It is much more in the style of 60s pop than anything else the Stones have done. It resembles the music of the Kinks at times, but unfortunately is not as good. More Carnaby St. than Bourbon St. I really had no idea the stones had ever done anything like this. They seem to have lost their way. Keith Richards comes to the rescue on the last track with something of a singing debut, and its the best on the album!

In August 1967 another single was released:

We Love You/Dandelion.

Their Satanic Majesties Request

Their Satanic Majesties Request was something of a concept album. It seems to have been influenced by the Beatles earlier release of Sergeant Peppers, (John Lennon thought so), but musically is totally different. The original LP had a cover with its picture made of plastic grating which gave a moving image when tilted. It is now a rare collectors' item.

In May 1968 another single was released:

Jumpin' Jack Flash.

Beggars Banquet

Beggars Banquet was a return to more conventional rock and blues. It is an excellent album without a bad track on it, and containing some of the Stones' classic tracks which continued to form part of their live act for years afterwards, Sympathy for the Devil, and Street Fighting Man.

This album marks the start of the Rolling Stones becoming a seriously good band. They go back to their blues roots, in fact to earlier blues roots than ever before, as they have a much greater element of early country blues influence, rather than the Chicago blues style of their first 2 albums. It seems to have something of a 'heavy' image, being loved by bikers and such people, yet there is a surprising amount of acoustic music on it, making much use of acoustic guitars and piano. It also shows the Stones trying out some ideas which were developed further on Let It Bleed, i.e. Keith Richards singing the lead in places (but not a whole song), the use of a solo violin, and the use of a choir.

It was the last album with any significant contribution from Brian Jones.

In June 1969 Brian Jones left the band. I don't think it was his choice to leave. He was replaced almost immediately by the young modern guitarist Mick Taylor. Brian Jones died soon afterwards.

In July 1969 another single was released:

Honky Tonk Women/You Can't Always Get What You Want.

The Singles - comments.

In The early sixties the record market was dominated by singles. Albums were often just collections of inferior songs. Later in the sixties serious rock bands were releasing their major work as albums.

The Stones followed this trend, and from now on stopped releasing 'separate' singles. Subsequent singles were taken from their albums.

Nearly all singles released so far are available on Hot Rocks and More Hot Rocks, but it is worth noticing that they could have all been put on one (single) CD. There are only about 14 tracks involved. The Beatles put 27 singles on one CD! The Stones seem to be continuing their policy of making the record buyer buy several CDs where one would do.

What makes it even worse is that I Wanna Be Your Man is particularly hard to get on CD, for some years being only available on "The London Years" 3 CD set, and perhaps another similar collection. Later it became available on Rolled Gold when this was eventually released as a CD version of the vinyl album from many years ago.

In the first half of the sixties most singles were released in mono, but often recorded in stereo for release on albums. The singles released on the Hot Rocks CDs were electronically processed from mono. Furthermore their sound quality is very disappointing for a digitally remastered CD, or any CD, or even vinyl for that matter. I know for sure that Paint it Black single was released in stereo, but is in mono on the CDs. You can't always get what you want!

Let It Bleed

Let it Bleed was another good album showing the Stones as a serious modern rock band. Quite varied musically, and with a number of illustrious guest musicians. In fact the Stones for this album were really only a four-piece group. The first album without significant contribution from Brian Jones, but also (according to the credits) very little from his successor Mick Taylor either. Surely that must be Mick Taylor playing guitar on Gimmie Shelter - but he is not credited on it.

This album has several tracks which appeared later in live versions on Get Yer Ya-Yas Out, including Midnight Rambler. It is not clear which was recorded first. Both were probably 1969. Other notable tracks are the long version of You Can't Always Get What You Want, with the London Bach Choir, Country Honk, a version of Honky Tonk Women, not the first Stones track with a solo violin, but the most noticeable. You Got the Silver is a solo song by Keith Richards, sounding very English. I would guess the songwriting is mostly his work, and the first I can think of where he takes the lead vocal for the whole song. There is some excellent guitar playing on Monkey Man. I'd like to have that guitar part just on its own!

Get Yer Ya-Yas Out

This is a great, exciting album with a good long playing time. It features many of their classic live songs of the time, taken from the last two albums, Beggars Banquet and Let it Bleed. It is clearly a good representation of what the band were like live. It has a great contribution from Mick Taylor who really brought the band into the modern era. Very few British bands ever succeeded in releasing a decent live recording for most of the 60's and until now the Stones were no exception. Although studio sound quality was excellent in the 60's, live recording technology and know-how was hopeless. This album certainly makes up for it. The recording engineers had finally got their act together.

Sticky Fingers

The next significant album from the Stones. Some parts were recorded at Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama but most was done in Britain, partly using the band's mobile studio. A collection of very good tracks covering a number of styles with a strong blues and jazz influence, but still retaining a certain consistency. Excellent music, I don't think it's been equalled since. Famous cover designed by Andy Warhol, with a pair of jeans originally with a real zip in the cover. I needn't include an illustration of it - to save download time of the site, but this shouldn't imply the album is an less important. Features single Brown Sugar and Bitch. It sounds as if for large parts of the album the whole band was playing together at the time of the recording, as opposed to the practice which became common around this time of band members turning up separately to record their parts on a multi-track recorder. It makes a difference to the music.

This was the first album on their own label and saw the introduction of the famous 'lips' logo.

Exile on Main Street

Highly acclaimed by some. It was a double album on vinyl and expensive. Now available on a single CD and better value. It seems to be in a similar style to Sticky Fingers but for me its nowhere near as good. It sounds like a  load of out-takes from the Sticky Fingers recording sessions. Includes the good single Tumblin' Dice and the original version of the Keith Richards classic Happy, which has been done better later in live versions.

Goat's Head Soup

Recorded in the carribean and with a carribean or reggae style. Pandering to the current fashion. I don't think much of it myself. Mick Jagger's fake accent is starting to irritate me at this point.

The album had a particularly lavish triple gatefold cover, perhaps to make up for the music.

Black and Blue

Great cover and seems like a great concept, but somehow the music does't live up to it. Adequate but nothing special.

Its Only Rock n Roll

A good album and the best since Sticky Fingers, and some might think it has not been surpassed since. I remember it was reviewed by Hi-Fi News and rated very highly both musically and for its sound quality. Too much of a diverse mixture of styles for my liking on one album.

Some Girls

Some time later, in 1978. There had been other Stones albums in the mean time but nothing which caught my attention. At the time I had lost interest in the Stones, but this outstanding album caught my attention with the single Miss You. "Walking Central Park - people think I'm crazy". I love it and can identify with it. Later I got to like a lot of the rest of it too. The album makes extensive, but effective use of a newly available guitar effect known as a 'flanger'. I very much like Keith Richards' contribution on this album. Guitar on Respectable and singing and probable composition on Before They Make Me Run. Soul cover Just My Imagination is great. Also their own soul-like composition Beast of Burden.

Links:

Here is an excellent site with many pictures of album covers, picture disks etc, including rarities. I obtained some of the above album cover illustrations from this site.

The Rolling Stones Exhibition: www.stones.at

This site has much detailed Rolling Stones history with dates.

" All known dates, locations, facts about sessions, gigs and releases of The Rolling Stones... "

The Complete Works Website - The Rolling Stones Database: http://www.nzentgraf.de

This site has lots of detailed Rolling Stones discography information which I found useful.

Emotional Rescue: www.emotionalrescue.demon.nl

This web page, part of a bigger site, has details of availability of stereo Stones songs.

Here is a quote from the site:

"Still we must ask...
Why hasn't the Rolling Stones 60's catalog been properly presented in stereo?
Why did the remastering to CD format not include the highest quality stereo takes?"

Stereo Stones: http://www.rollingstonesnet.com/Stereo.html

A Rolling Stones discography with search capability.

www.cwi.nl/~wouter/stones.html