Aftermath

by

The Rolling Stones

Edit

This June 1966 album (USA release) was the first with all Stones-written material, and, as an archetypal album, contains the seeds of some of the best and worst moments of the ensuing decades. Mick Jagger is at his most self-assured to date, the varied instruments add texture and interest, and the somewhat underrated rhythm section provides a solid, driving foundation. On the other hand, certain riffs that were later overplayed creep in, a few songs are just average, and the Stones play one of their worst numbers in "High and Dry," marking a romance with country sounds that would produce extremely varied results over the years.

The CD opens with four huge hits, "Paint it Black," "Stupid Girl," "Lady Jane," and "Under my Thumb." With the exception of "Stupid Girl" (Jagger sounds somewhat tentative at first over a truly rocking background, then gains strength), these are among the best of their early work--and their early work is generally their best work. "Under My Thumb" is much tighter than "Stupid Girl," the rhythm is years ahead of its time, and Jagger is much more self-assured. "Paint it Black" and "Under My Thumb" benefit immensely from arrangements using sitar and marimba, and both feature superb vocals. The latter song ranks with James Brown's "It's A Man's World" as one of the greatest misogynistic songs of the period. This is perhaps a dubious distinction, but the song is incredibly impressive, and just an amazingly original effort within the R&B/rock genre. Jagger is deceitfully playful in his thickly accented "Lady Jane," and the imaginative use of Wyman on harpsichord enhances the effect. All of these songs show the Stones as a multi-dimensional band, definitely still blues and R&B based, but expanding into new territory.

The other songs are generally good, especially "It's Not Easy," "I Am Waiting" and the 11:35 minute (!) "Going Home," an almost unprecedented song in which Jagger completely nails the struts, panting, lip smacking, gutteral tones, and assorted other vocal sexual tools that became an important part of his persona. His singer-cum-vampire vocal is easily too long, but this cut sweats away and builds to a great crescendo. An overlooked gem. "Flight 505" has nostalgic value, but it lacks focus both in solo and ensemble playing. There are also some too-easy riffs that later became synonymous (in a repetitive way) with later guitar work. "Think, Think" plays it too safe; the Monkees could have done this. As mentioned above, the album also contains the awful, grating, "High and Dry." If you have a programmable CD player, you'll know what to do with this cut.

Personnel and other luminaries include:

Mick Jagger -Guitar, Harmonica, Percussion, Composer, Keyboards, Vocals,

Keith Richards Guitar, Composer, Keyboards, Vocals

Brian Jones - Dulcimer, Guitar, Marimba, Sitar, Bells

Charlie Watts- Percussion, Drums, Marimba, Bells

Bill Wyman-Organ, Synthesizer, Bass, Piano, Guitar (Bass), Harpsichord, Keyboards, Marimba, Vocals, Bells

Ian Stewart-Organ, Piano, Harpsichord, Keyboards

Jack Nitzsche-Organ, Percussion, Piano, Harpsichord, Keyboards, Organ (Hammond)

Andrew Loog Oldham-Producer

I recommend "Flowers" over this CD, but Stones Fans will want to get both. NOTE: The "enhanced" (ABKCO) version of the CD does not play on my computer's (Dell Optiplex) CD drive.

This is the July 2, 1966 American release, not the original April 15, 1966 UK release. Most Stones fans consider this to be a vastly inferior album due to meddling by the record execs. At this time it was common for the execs to make decisions on what they thought would sell to the "American" market, which usually translated into holding back releases in order to create new packages to increase sales before the band faded into obscurity.

This American version replaced Mothers Little Helper with what was at that time a recent hit - Paint It, Black, while cutting Out Of Time, Take It Or Leave It, and What To Do.

Nearly everyone knows this music and now you can enjoy it the way it was meant to be heard. For the music itself, it's hard to improve on the review done of the UK Aftermath release by Brian Christie on Aug 29, 2002.

ABCKO acquired the Stones' catalog when Allen Klein became their manager in the 70s. The resulting legal battles produced releases that the Stones opposed (they took out full page adds asking fans not to buy them), including the controversial Metamorphosis releases (which are now available on CD for the 1st time ever). But the sad fact is that the Stones lost control of their great early material. With the recently remastered SACD releases, we at last have some idea of what they really sounded like in the studio. I guess if we had them 40 years ago they would have ended up Greatest Rock And Roll Band in the Universe instead of just our tiny little World.

All the tracks for Aftermath were recorded during 2 sessions at RCA Studios in Hollywood.

Dec 3-8, 1965 at RCA Studios in Hollywood

.....Doncha Bother Me (originally titled Don't You Follow Me for the unreleased album Could You Walk On The Water)

.....Goin' Home

.....Think

Mar 6-9, 1966 at RCA Studios in Hollywood

.....Paint It, Black

.....Stupid Girl

.....Lady Jane

.....Under My Thumb

.....Flight 505

.....High And Dry

.....It's Not Easy

.....I Am Waiting

The tracks recorded during these sessions that were not released on the UK version were Mother's Little Helper, Sittin' On A Fence, Sad Day, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Ride On Baby, Long Long While, Take It Or Leave It, What To Do, and both version 1 - the long version - and version 2 - the short version - of Out Of Time. In addition there were 3 tracks that have still never been released: Looking Tired, Aftermath, and Tracks Of My Tears.

This information comes from "It's Only Rock And Roll: The Ultimate Guide To The Rolling Stones" by Karnbach and Bernson and from my own collection.