Fifty years ago today, The Rolling Stones released Aftermath in the UK. It is lauded as a landmark LP in the annals of Rock. Consisting of only Jagger-Richards compositions and a broader palette of instrumental flourishes, it is the point at which The Stones mature and become more than a singles band with attitude. It is regularly regarded as a masterpiece.
Naturally, when I first listened to it properly in the seventies, I was unimpressed. The main problem I had was, ironically, the songs. The first side starts very strongly but the quality falls off a cliff for the last couple and side two struggles to recover. The UK version is too long at 53 minutes, of which 11 is the long jam, Goin’ Home, a simple idea stretched way beyond its effectiveness. Then, there are the lyrics. Andrew Loog Oldham had carefully constructed The Stones bad boy image as the anti-Beatles, but that conceit spilt into nastiness on Aftermath, especially with regard to women. This was unremarked upon in 1966, but, by the early seventies, Stupid Girl swiftly followed by Under My Thumb just tasted foul.
Aftermath was recorded in two chunks, 6-8th December 1965 and 6-9th March 1966, at RCA studios, California. During those seven days, they completed twenty-one tracks. That was actually luxury for The Stones, who were used to laying down a song in under an hour. They had time to tinker with odds and ends lying about the studio, including dulcimer, sitar, clavinet, koto, harpsichord and marimba. Under the polished encouragement of Jack Nitzsche, Brian had a ball messing about with all those sounds. So did Bill. Never has his bass sounded so bouncy, even when heavily fuzzed. Often, Charlie’s stern, regimented beat seems to admonish his frivolity.
In addition to the fourteen tracks on Aftermath UK, they recorded two phenomenal singles, 19th Nervous Breakdown and Paint It Black, their B sides, the melodic Sad Day and the appealingly apologetic, shambling Long, Long While, two songs that appeared on Flowers, the baroque Ride On, Baby and the delicate Sittin’ On A Fence, and one outtake never released, Lookin’ Tired. All, bar Lookin’ Tired, would perk up Aftermath, particularly side two.
It dawned on me. Twenty tracks totalling one hour seventeen minutes is the perfect double. The six additional tracks add some real class, an element of subtlety and a pinch of much-needed levity, diluting the ‘nasty’ songs very nicely. It could have been the first Rock double album, just beating Blonde On Blonde, and it would have been a far better entity than the neither-one-thing-nor-another single album.
Side One: Paint It Black/Stupid Girl/Lady Jane/Think/It’s Not Easy/Long, Long While
Side Two: Mother’s Little Helper/Sad Day/Take It Or Leave It/Doncha Bother Me/What To Do/Ride On, Baby
Side Three: 19th Nervous Breakdown/Flight 505/Out Of Time/High And Dry/Sittin’ On A Fence
Side Four: Under My Thumb/I Am Waiting/Going Home
Such a double gives it a fighting chance with that years’s Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass) for value for money.
Have a listen to Long, Long While.
dai says
Interesting idea but no.
However a stronger album could be made by losing Goin’ Home and 3 or 4 of the filler tracks and including the non album A and B sides as you do.
BTW I found a French (?) single last year comprising of Goin’ Home parts 1 and 2 on the A and B sides respectively. Bizarre!
Tiggerlion says
They were inordinately proud of Goin’ Home, comparing its length to Bob Dylan songs, overlooking its lack of quality. They even retained it, intact, for the U.S. version released in June, which required the presence of the current hit, Paint It Black, and a reduced running time. I find it just about tolerable because Jagger makes a decent fist of improvising some vocal noises and Brian’s harmonica playing is pretty spooky.
deramdaze says
I should adore ‘Aftermath’ but it’s too long (a strength of 50s/60s L.P.s was their 30-35 minute length), and ‘Goin’ Home’, compared to similar excursions by Dylan, Love, The Doors and The Butterfield Blues Band, is just quite dull.
The much discussed Jagger-Richard writing partnership still doesn’t change the fact that my own favourites are the first three albums, in any order, the E.P.s and the early, pre-‘The Last Time’, 45s.
That said, its saving grace is –
1. Brian, who IS the Stones and the best bits of ‘Aftermath’ have his paw prints all over it. Where it’s less ‘ornate’, it’s, like the post-60s Stones themselves, far less interesting.
2. The wonderful artwork.
3. I still much prefer it to ‘Exile’ or the awful ‘Sticky Fingers’.
4. It had a wonderful stand-alone single, a feature of the Golden Age.
5. And even given my less than slavish devotion to it, and its lesser importance to, say, ‘Revolver’ or ‘Pet Sounds’ or ‘Blonde on Blonde’ from the same year, it will piss on anything released this century!
Funnily enough, always preferred ‘Between the Buttons’.
Tiggerlion says
Did I ever tell you that I love you?
There is a lot you say that I disagree with but I am impressed by the way you argue your case and your resolute adherence to your principles.
Totally agree with points 1,2 & 4.
duco01 says
A nice piece, Tigger. Thanks.
My familiarity with 1960s Stones album material really is lamentably poor.
As a brief aside about “Under my Thumb”, I dislike that song so much, that even when it was covered by one of my favourite singers, Jackie Leven (Doll by Doll), I still didn’t care for it.
Tiggerlion says
Under My Thumb is still a live favourite. It does have a compelling riff. Its sister song, Out Of Time, is similar but so much better. There is a gentle soulfulness in it that undermines its dismissive lyric. I like the fact it goes on for five minutes. Musically, there isn’t a moment in it musically that I don’t enjoy. Inexplicably, it was dropped from the US version of the LP & isn’t played live very often.
Tiggerlion says
Too much ‘music’ in there for a Stones track!
retropath2 says
Under My Thumb cover by Jackie Leven? Point me where, Duco, please……
duco01 says
It’s on “Grand Passion,” the final album credited to ‘Doll by Doll,’ but a Jackie Leven (and Helen Turner) album in all but name, as Jo Shaw and David Macintosh had left by then.
It’s not one of the essential items in the Leven catalogue, but it still has some decent songs on it:
Cool Skies
Eternal
Lonely Kind of Show
Natural
Grand Passion
So Long Kid
… and it also has “Under My Thumb”:
SixDog says
Honestly, honestly don’t think there’s ever been an astonishing double lp.
Just allows that extra space for artistic self indulgence that always needs a good strong producer/editor to talk the band out of.
The White Album, Blonde on Blonde, Physical Graffiti, Quadrophenia, London Calling – all patchy to a degree.
Bah humbug
Tiggerlion says
My point is that all the self indulgence is there in the original UK version. The additional six tracks are all powerful & focussed in their different ways.
MC Escher says
Sign o The Times. Even the live track is fabulous throughout.
Tiggerlion says
I’m not so keen on The Cross & side four never properly takes off. See @Rob-C‘s thread on sprawling albums for other suggestions but, I think, The Lyre Of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues is perfect.
MC Escher says
You are wrong on both counts, I believe. Side 4 is peerless, and there are no songs about friggin’ monkeys on SOTT.
Tiggerlion says
I hadn’t realised the brown ape was friggin’! Let’s see…
salwarpe says
Half a century? The Afterword is nearly 50 months old. We’re getting there.
http://i1366.photobucket.com/albums/r761/salwarpe1/Afterword_zpsch1ctinh.png
Johnny Concheroo says
Nice work! Although Mark looks a little demonic there
salwarpe says
Thank you for your sympathy, Johnny!
Johnny Concheroo says
It’s what he would have wanted
Johnny Concheroo says
Just the three copies I’m afraid. Plus the two CDs, of course.
http://i.imgur.com/JImguEq.jpg
Tiggerlion says
Isn’t the U.S. cover naff.
Johnny Concheroo says
I suppose it is. But it seemed exotic and unusual back in the day. Probably because we seldom saw it.
Moose the Mooche says
Flight 505 is the earliest manifestation of the archetypal Stones sound that became their brand from Let it Bleed onwards. The difference is the drums – Charlie sounds, unfortunately, like he’s playing a suitcase. Which would be a bit literal for the song.
dai says
55 years
Tiggerlion says
Sh*t! Where did those last five years go?