15 April 2013

15th April - The Rolling Stones' Aftermath


Artist – Album: The Rolling Stones - Aftermath
Released:  15th April 1966
Sounds Like: It’s going to light up a field in Somerset in late June

So, the sun has finally decided to join us in 2013, the nights are getting longer, and we’re beginning to hear rumours of beer gardens and barbeques. It won’t be long ‘til the first topless fat blokes are seen strolling proudly down high streets across the land, surveying pasty shops and bookies with regal authority. It can all mean only one thing – summer is not too far away. Which can mean only one other thing. Festival season is due to start, yay! A series of great, smaller gatherings are already happening over the next few months, electrifying news is coming in from foreign music lands (check this mind-blowing R.Kelly and Phoenix collaboration at Coachella in California: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzxImerisPo&feature=youtu.be), and tickets for the biggest festival of them all – Glastonbury – go on resale this Sunday. Exciting times.

Of course, Glastonbury would be amazing any year, but this year it promises to be extra special. As well as the previously blogged about Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Alabama Shakes, Public Enemy and Vampire Weekend, I would love to see the likes of Elvis Costello, Evan Dando and the aforementioned Phoenix. But towering above all of those are The Rolling Stones. Any of you people lucky enough to be going, well, I’ve never been more jealous.

47 years earlier, Jagger, Richards and co released Aftermath. It was arguably the first great album of their career and inarguably (because it’s fact) the first one made entirely of original songs. It may have been the year before that they’d released the legendary ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ and unfortunately the UK version of the album missed out on the incredible ‘Paint It, Black’, but there are still some special moments of this early incarnation of The Stones. The dark ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ and the ballad ‘Lady Jane’ are standouts, as is the utterly brilliant ‘Under My Thumb’, which possesses a funky background that masks the psychotic possessive lyrics. Elsewhere it’s just good to hear Jagger do his thing and the tragic figure of Brian Jones experiment with loads of instruments with a versatile virtuosity. Worth a listen even if you’re not lucky enough to be seeing them in the summer. Grrr...

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Mother’s Little Helper – 2:45
2.       Stupid Girl – 2:56
3.       Lady Jane – 3:08
4.       Under My Thumb – 3:41
5.       Doncha Bother Me – 2:41
6.       Goin’ Home – 11:13
7.       Flight 505 – 3:27
8.       High and Dry – 3:08
9.       Out of Time – 5:37
10.   It’s Not Easy – 2:56
11.   I Am Waiting – 3:11
12.   Take It or Leave It – 2:47
13.   Think – 3:09
14.   What to Do – 2:32

Listen to ‘Under My Thumb’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcgZIz0Fd-w



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