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Summary: The Left Hand to Between The Buttons Right Hand
Comment: I am the Stones Authority. Aftermath and Between The Buttons. Buy them together. That should be required. What an incredibly prolific period for the Stones and what great songs and albums - released within about 6 months of each other. "Paint It Black", "Lady Jane" and "Under My Thumb". Wow. Very cool. Then there are other great tracks like "Think", "Flight 505" and "I Am Waiting". At this point in a lot of band's careers they are starting to run a little thin on material, what is remarkable about this period and this work is that the Stones are actually just getting warmed up. A lot of band's would have been happy to point to such a period in their career as their high water mark. Again, the Stones were just warming up. Aftermath and Between the Buttons - two more examples of the depth and greatness of this band.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I'm Married To Me
Comment: When charged with misogyny, Mick Jagger replied, "[A]ny bright girl would understand that if I were gay I'd say the same things about guys" (RS, June 1978). "Under My Thumb" and "Stupid Girl" address universal frustrations. And frustrations are what the Stones have always set out to celebrate, deconstruct and demolish ~ simultaneously. Monkey business. "Doncha Bother Me." Two's a crowd. Sullen, surly, narcissistic and disinterested. With riffs. But enough of that, let's talk about ME now. I'm married to me! I could not foresee this thing happening to you. And sometimes the kitty tiffs are atrocious! But, ah well, the pleasures of making up make it all worthwhile. "Don't smoke in bed, stupid girl." "That's MISTER stupid girl to you." "Shaaadup and be sweet to me tonight." Kissy kissy. Was this review helpful to you? Who you talkin' to?
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Stones' First Masterpiece
Comment: AFTERMATH was a major departure for The Rolling Stones. Their previous albums (three in Britain, five in the US) were mostly covers, sprinkled with a few Jagger-Richards originals. AFTERMATH contains all original material, and some of the best the Stones would ever do. It was also their first album to be recorded in stereo, and although it doesn't have the production sheen of The Beatles, the Stones' music was never meant to be that clean.
The British release featured a different cover photograph, kicked off with "Mother's Little Helper" instead of "Paint It Black" and included three tracks which were left off the U.S. version. While the British edition gives you more songs for your buck, I still prefer the American edition. Perhaps this is because I grew up with it, but it still feels better sequenced, more concise and coherent, and above all, consistently bluesy.
"Paint It Black" is simply a better song than "Mother's Little Helper." Although Brian Jones is playing sitar, giving the song an Eastern feel, underneath the surface it's pure, dark, deep, brooding Delta Blues. It flows naturally into the nasty, snarky, strutting "Stupid Girl". "Lady Jane" owes more to Elizabethan music than to the blues, but the sardonic, icy bitterness fits neatly with the first two songs. The Stones then up the ante further for the classic "Under My Thumb", which like "Heart of Stone" and "Satisfaction" is boasting and arrogant on the surface, ambivalent, brooding and somber underneath. "Doncha Bother Me" is one of the finest blues in the Stones' catalogue, featuring blistering harmonica by Brian Jones and some of Jagger's finest lyrics.
After this staggering opening salvo, the rest of the songs hold up well, covering a wide variety of musical styles, including an early foray into country in "High and Dry", and concludes with the brilliant "Goin' Home", whose final three notes are as effective an ending as has ever appeared on a rock album.
And there's another reason for my preferring the American edition: "Goin' Home" belongs at the end of the record. Of the three extra tracks, only "Out of Time" is a real classic. "Take it or Leave it" is aptly titled. "What to Do" is pleasant enough, but hardly indispensable.
This is one of rock music's greatest achievements. If you're only familiar with later Stones work such as SOME GIRLS and TATTOO YOU, you should give this record a listen, especially if you dig the blues.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Menacing
Comment: Even in its truncated U.S. version with its blurry cover shot, 1966's "Aftermath," the first Stones album of all-original material, is indispensible. The record is the dividing line between the group as scruffy young Brit blues-and-R&B cover artists, and what would eventually become the most powerful and significant rock band in the world. A large portion of the credit for this is due to Brian Jones, who is at his artistic peak here. Jones' strength was his uncanny skill on all sorts of instruments besides guitar, and his marimba on "Under My Thumb," and sitar on "Paint It, Black" give those two signature Stones tunes, in their original versions, their unique flavor. The material ("Flight 505," "Stupid Girl") was getting dark and misogynistic; it would get much, much darker in the next few years. The U.K. version (which this isn't, by the way) puts good songs like "Out of Time," "What To Do," and the single "Mother's Little Helper" (an anti-drug message from a band which later became synonymous with drug excess) in their proper context as far as the group's history is concerned.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Primeval Stones
Comment: This is classic Stones before they assaulted us with garbage like Sympathy
For The Devil, and, well, virtually anything after 1970.
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