The Monkees - Good Times (2016)

The Monkees

Good Times!

The Monkees’ Good Times! The first album of newly recorded material since 1996’s Justus. That’s right, The Monkees name is alive again for the fourth time (original run, Pool It!, Justus, Good Times!). And even Michael Nesmith joins us!

                Don’t forget that we’ve been getting a lot of unreleased material for the last 15 years, in Rhino’s deluxe edition releases (the last new album being the Summer 1967: The Complete U.S. Concert Recordings album in 2001, and the last re-issue being The Monkees in 2014). For some reason, no one asked for a Monkees resurgence, but here we are.

a-ha - Hunting High and Low (30TH ANNIVERSARY SUPER DELUXE EDITION)

a-ha

Hunting High and Low (30^th Anniversary Super Deluxe)

Released: September 18, 2015

                The average American music fan knows a-ha for Take On Me. The average UK fan might even know more. It’s been 30 years since the album that made a-ha pretty much a household name was released, even if they’ve been almost forgotten except for Take On Me. To celebrate, our friends at Rhino made a super duper deluxe edition of Hunting High and Low. Because that’s what Rhino does.

God I want to work at Rhino.

Grateful Dead - Europe 72'

                I decided to review an album, and the album would be chosen by the result of my music player’s shuffle feature.

                Today, it just so happened to land on Europe ’72 by Grateful Dead.

*Partial-Review* Aftermath (US)

Aftermath (US)

Released
June 20, 1966

Paint It Black

(Jagger / Richards (and Bill Wyman uncredited!)

So for the US version of Aftermath, we get a bit shorter, stereo version of the previous single Paint it Black, released a month earlier. One thing I noticed about the stereo mix is that I hear the bass near the end a lot better, with it being beautiful.

10 / 10

The exclusion of Out of Time, Take It or Leave It, What to Do, and Mother’s Little Helper

So here’s the original scores for these songs:

·         Out of Time – 8.25

·         Take It or Leave It – 8.5

·         What to Do – 7.5

·         Mother’s Little Helper – 10 / 10

In my opinion, there were more filler that could’ve been taken out that wouldn’t be missed as much. I also understand the removal of Mother’s Little Helper; they would release that as an American single later, and they did get Paint It Black on this. Other than that, the exclusions made sense if they were going to replace them with something. But they just removed 10 minutes worth of music for whatever reason. So the total album gets the score by way of songs’ scores of 90.95 / 110, but I’ll add a little bonus for putting Goin’ Home at the end of the album because it’s nicer there, so the final score is

91.25 / 110

Or a slightly larger score than the UK version of Aftermath, and I’ll just say both albums are technically the same, but I’d go with the UK version just for the extra amount of songs and the better Paint It Black B-side.

*Review* (Single) Paint It Black / Long Long While

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

Paint It Black / Long Long While

Paint It Black

(Jagger / Richards (and Bill Wyman!)

So what can I even pick out of this to talk about? The sitar? The guitar? The fact that everything fits so nicely together to make what could be The Stones first venture into psychedelic rock? Everything is just so nice: the demanding drum, the beautiful sitar provided by the man of exotic instruments Brian Jones, and what could be the best use of Mick Jagger’s voice on all their records, in this dark psychedelic masterpiece.

10 / 10

Long Long While

(Jagger / Richards)

So this is the kind of song I don’t necessarily like from The Stones, but in a shocking turn of events I like this song. The chorus is pretty cool, and the organ is a nice touch. And, oh, that guitar.

8.25 / 10

18.25 / 10

A fantastic single, pretty much on-par with the US version of the Paint It Black single, and it seems the US is getting more blues than the UK at this point.

*Review* (Single) Paint It Black / Stupid Girl

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

Paint It Black / Stupid Girl

Paint It Black

(Jagger / Richards (and Bill Wyman!)

So what can I even pick out of this to talk about? The sitar? The guitar? The fact that everything fits so nicely together to make what could be The Stones first venture into psychedelic rock? Everything is just so nice: the demanding drum, the beautiful sitar provided by the man of exotic instruments Brian Jones, and what could be the best use of Mick Jagger’s voice on all their records, in this dark psychedelic masterpiece.

10 / 10

Stupid Girl

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

*Copied from Aftermath (UK)*

This song made me chuckle at first for how it sounded, and then I chuckled for how the lyrics are written. And then I chuckled again about the lyrics themselves. It’s a harsh song, but the lyrics are written so silly, and then sung with the amount of passion not associated with harsh, and it’s funny. At the same time, there’s probably some emotion Jagger put into this. Some truth that we should probably know with all that touring with crazy fans.

As a B-side to such a song as Paint It Black, the only thing it has in common is the psychedelic rock ties (an organ on this and a sitar on the other.)

8.75 / 10

18.75 / 20

Oh yeah, it’s a brilliant single. Even when the B-side doesn't fit the mood much, both sides provide excellent music.

*Review* Aftermath (UK)

Aftermath (UK)

Released
April 15, 1966

Mother's Little Helper

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Let me start this album by saying Jesus. This is a big departure from normal Stones, and of course that means we have arrived at popular Stones. Properties of popular Stones include an amazing guitar, and vocals that can fit (hopefully). And this song, the song to start off this album, the song that gives you the first impression of what’s to come, is mighty fine.

10/10

Stupid Girl

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

This song made me chuckle at first for how it sounded, and then I chuckled for how the lyrics are written. And then I chuckled again about the lyrics themselves. It’s a harsh song, but the lyrics are written so silly, and then sung with the amount of passion not associated with harsh, and it’s funny. At the same time, there’s probably some emotion Jagger put into this. Some truth that we should probably know with all that touring with crazy fans.

8.75 / 10

Lady Jane

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

All this feels very baroque rock to me. Maybe it’s the harpsichord that Brian Jones so carefully inserts into this, and the other out-of-the-ordinary instrument he played, the Dulcimer. If you need a unique sound, pick up a unique instrument. I feel like I should like this more than I do, but all I can really do right now is appreciate it. Maybe it’ll grow on me later.

8 / 10

Under My Thumb

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

I honestly did not like this song before, because all I heard it from was live. And each live version didn’t do this justice by far. One of the reasons I like it is that Jagger could’ve pushed this song to be harder and faster if he wanted to, like a rock and roll song, but he didn’t. The slight marimba keeps this song at a beautiful light tone. I really want to give this a perfect ten, but I just don’t feel like Jagger’s voice deserves it, and for that, I truly am sorry. I just think someone else could do it better, perhaps. I don’t know actually, my brain is just so split on what to do on this song.

Also, this is a good time to say this, but what is up with Jagger and women?

9.65 / 10

Doncha Bother Me

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

The one thing I learned, if I had to pick, is that despite how awkward Charlie Watts looks in a lot of Stones material, he is very underrated. The drums on this sound so fun. This is Jagger’s homage to his roots of blues rock, which he loves. And, unlike his cover of blues rock songs, his own blues rock songs are pretty good. Unfortunately, this is another song that if I sit down and really focus in, I can’t seem to decide if I really like his voicework, or if I don’t particularly care for it. There’s enough rock here to pretty much cancel that out though.

8.75 / 10

Goin' Home

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Jesus Christ, this is eleven minutes of blues. Jam blues. If you want some background, this is the first song from a rock and roll group to extend past Bob Dylan’s record of six minutes a song, and then apparently, although not properly cited on Wikipedia, was an inspiration for The Doors to extend The End to abnormal lengths. Except The End was more fun to listen to. Because I listen to too much Beatles, I’m going to relate this to Beatles: It’s like the difference between Dig It on the Let It Be album and the full jam version. Do you really want to listen to that much? I don’t. Bill Wymen and his bass was pretty enjoyable in this song, and Jagger was pretty nice. Other than that, it’s just eleven minutes of blues and Jagger improvising lines and random noises every once in a while. I do appreciate that they stayed on track throughout the whole song, and it starts to really pick about two minutes before the end. And Jagger’s talking to little girls telling them to touch him.

7.30 / 10

Flight 505

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Oh I want to like this. I want to like that beautiful fuzz bass. But I really don’t care for Jagger’s part in this. And they really need to bring that piano up a bit in the mix, because I want to hear piano in my rock-and-roll. And once again, Charlie Watts drumming is excellent.

7.25 / 10

High and Dry

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

I want to give some more praise to Watts here, but he’s really only doing one thing here.  I also cannot think of anything to say here, except I imagine The Stones bouncing up and down to this song like an old cartoon.

7.25 / 10

Out of Time

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Brian Jones really loves his marimba. There’s a limit of how many times you can use that instrument, and you really are pushing it. It’s a nice song, but I think it went on a bit too long. It could’ve worked as a three and a half minute song, and maybe even four if you needed it to be longer. I also like Jagger’s voice work (maybe I should explain something: I’m targeting Jagger’s voice a lot because it was the main reason I didn’t care about The Stones. It’s a distinct voice that many people love, but not really me. I don’t love it, but it can work in places.)

8.25 / 10

It's Not Easy

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

This song tricks you to think it’s going to be a slow song with that beginning, but nope. I hear that organ, don’t try to hide it, because it sounds nice. In fact, everything sounds nice here and it does well within perfectly acceptable times UNLIKE OUT OF TIME.

8.75 / 10

I Am Waiting

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

I think this song surprised me continuously, because until the song was over I just had “I” written down. Either that or I was memorized listening to it. This song’s quite lovely, and I have no complaints.

9.25 / 10

Take It or Leave It

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Why do they insist on pushing the organ down to be the quietest instrument? That disappoints me. There’s quite a unique range of instruments on this. And that’s all I have to say about that.

8.5 / 10

Think

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

I’m running out of things to say about these later songs, and I’ll give my opinion why during the summary. I really have nothing to pick out of this song, good or bad.

6 / 10

What To Do

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

A fun song with some nice harmonizing here and there, and some fun surf-rock like “bow bow bow” things. I don’t particularly agree with this being the last song on the album, it just seemed to blend in with everything else on the B-side.

7.5 / 10

115.2 / 140

Quick summary: excellent album, fantastic album, everyone should at least listen to the front side of this.

Long summary: Sit down, we’re going to have quite a lengthy talk. There was a lot going for this album. The beginning was full of great songs. Even Goin’ Home, while I didn’t completely 100% agree with it, was nice to some extent, and it paved the way for future bands. The B-side, however, felt like filler. It felt like so much filler to me, and it’s a shame. The A-side completely dominated. But let’s not hate on this album anymore, let’s go to the good things in life. This album was completely made by Jagger / Richards, and oh boy does it show. That’s a great thing, because when they make songs they can do it better than when they cover, especially when it comes to blues rock. The B-side, while not as good as the A-side, was still enjoyable at times and should not be overlooked by any means. Does this album deserve the reputation it has? Eh, maybe it’s a tiny bit overrated in the Stones catalogue, but it’s still a fine album nerveless. Would I recommend this album? Yes. To anybody, really, although I won’t be mad at all if they don’t like it.

*Review* Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) [US]

Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) [US]

Released
March 28, 1966

Here’s where things start to get interesting. A compilation album: now how would I even start to review this? I won’t do this song by song, but instead talk about it as a whole because that, in my mind, works a lot better. And if you don’t like that, hunt for the songs: I’ve reviewed every song on here before.

One thing I’ll just say is that I have the 2006 remastered version, so I have stereo mixes of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Time Is on My Side, It's All Over Now, and Heart of Stone. At any other time that would be fantastic, but I’m supposed to pretend I’m a little Stones fan from the 60’s and there was no stereo mixes. Oh well.

Also I find it funny the US got this first.

·         (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – 10 / 10

·         The Last Time – 8.5 / 10

·         As Tears Go By – 10 / 10

·         Time is On My Side – 8 / 10

·         It’s All Over Now – 7.8 / 10

·         Tell Me – 8 / 10

·         19^th Nervous Breakdown – 10 / 10

·         Heart of Stone – 8.5 / 10

·         Get Off of My Cloud – 9 / 10

·         Not Fade Away – 7 / 10

·         Good Times, Bad Times – 7.8 / 10

·         Play with Fire – 8 / 10

Three out of the twelve songs are covers, and one song was by Jagger / Richards and Andrew Oldham. That backs up my feelings on the Stones own songs vs. the Stones covers. They seemed to ignore EPs, because You Better Move On isn’t here and that disappoints me, because Good Times, Bad Times made it. Not to say it’s a bad song, but it’s not as good as quite a few songs that were glossed over. If You Need Me would’ve been a good song, and Route 66 if they were trying to include older pieces as well. Other than that, you have the standard songs you’d expect; Satisfaction, As Tears Go By, Time is On My Side, songs we still know today that haven’t been pushed to obscurity by the bigger songs.

The album contains the majority of what is needed on a Stones Greatest Hits album at this time, and while it’s definitely missing some songs that would’ve made it better, it’s still a great album.

102.6 / 120

I think that brings this to be the highest rated 12-song album from the Stones, but we’re not going to count it. But we’ll keep it in mind in case things get ugly, which I don’t expect it to do.

*Review* (Single) 19th Nervous Breakdown / Sad Day

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

(Single) 19th Nervous Breakdown / Sad Day

19th Nervous Breakdown

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

(Copied from previous single) I love rocking pieces. I honestly can’t find anything to pick at on this song. All I can say is, “oh my, that bass.”

10/10

Sad Day

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

There’s a slight piano in here that reminded me of the upcoming album Their Satanic Majesties Request, but I can’t talk about that yet. Other than that it’s an alright song with nothing too good about it and nothing bad about it at all.

7.5/10

17.5 / 20

So 19^th Nervous Breakdown is a fantastic rocking song, and Sad Day is an alright song. Unlike the previous single that the UK got, however, Sad Day pretty much will never see love. I like it when there’s new songs as that brings the fans who want to collect everything, but if I had to choice I’d pick the single with As Tears Go By as the B-side, because that’s just fantastic as a B-side and, although you shouldn’t need to put that on a B-side, it makes for a fantastic single.

*Review* (Single) 19th Nervous Breakdown / As Tears Go By

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

(Single) 19th Nervous Breakdown / As Tears Go By

Oh boy, after a hiatus, I’m back. We finally step into what I personally think was the peak of The Rolling Stones. I’ll probably do some research to see if I’m right.

19th Nervous Breakdown

(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

I love rocking pieces. I honestly can’t find anything to pick at on this song. All I can say is, “oh my, that bass.”

10/10

As Tears Go By

(Jagger, Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham)

*Copied from the previous single, where this was the A-side.* A very beautiful song. Very beautiful indeed. And there’s orchestration to this, and you can’t complain about that. And Jagger doesn’t push his voice, because if he did the song would be ruined.

10/10

20/20

Fun fact: this is a beautiful single, and so far the only single to receive a perfect score. Ladies and gentlemen, this is beautiful. The UK got a great deal on this baby.

*Review* ELO - The Electric Light Orchestra (No Answer)

*I'm not a professional music connoisseur, and as such everything here is opinion-based and usually made during my first listen to a song / album.*

I’m going to take a break from the regular reviews of The Rolling Stones to take a look at the one art rock band that I personally think tops them all, Electric Light Orchestra. Of course, not all of their stuff is art rock. It’s Symphonic Rock, hard rock, but a lot of their early stuff (post-The Idle Race, although a lot of their stuff was Psychedelic which is a form of art rock at times.) has that beautiful artsy sound.

And Luckily, ELO doesn't have differences (that I can see immediately) between US and UK albums besides their unfortunate name mistakes.

The Electric Light Orchestra (No Answer)

Released
December 1971

10538 Overture

This is a pretty big hit for ELO in the UK, and coming from the first song of their first album no less. No love in the US it seems though. The song uses some beautifully placed Cello love, but keeps the same structure throughout, and repeats most of it’s phrases with changes within the lines of different brass parts. Most people would be so confused to hear such a hard-and-heavy hit that relies of string and brass instruments. My one and only problem is that it perhaps goes on too long, since the song is mostly the same until the end.

8.75 /10

Look At Me Now

This has a strange demo feel, like McCartney’s first album; and by that I mean the vocals seem to have been recorded first, alone, and then the instrumentation was thoughtfully placed around it. Quite a bit of contrast from the hard rock hit from before, but that’s about it.

7/10

Nellie Takes Her Bow

You can really tell the difference between a Lynne composition and a Wood composition so far. Lynne seems to be more about making everything neat, and Roy just does what he thinks I guess. A slower song like Look At Me Now, but that’s exactly what Lynne wants you to think. About 2:20 into the song, we start to change, and that’s the beauty of some of these lesser known ELO song; they’re very much like full orchestra pieces having several movements. The change isn't drastic though, as it’s still slow, but it does take on a violin solo. Also, Lynne adds some sort of vocal effect that I really don’t know if I like or not. I feel like a bit more could have been put into this song, but as is it’s pretty nice with nice backing vocals to accompany everything else. (Also, I thought it was bow, as in violin bow. I mean, try putting the pieces together, it’s EL Orchestra)

7.75 / 10

The Battle of Marston Moor (July 2nd, 1644)

Wikipedia has a nice word to describe this song: Baroque-and-Roll. A Roy composition that is very story-heavy, but at the same time uses the available orchestration to a great extent. He really was going for less of a song and more for a story, and like I said, art. It’s hard not to expect art pieces from a band like this. This is also the longest song on the album, clocking in at just over 6 minutes, and maybe it isn't worth it. Art’s fun and all, but the listeners have to be in it as well. I imagine Roy was very happy making this, because a lot of work goes into things like this, more so than Mick Jagger and his filler albums. It’s a weird piece that has some weird transitions between it’s movements, but it does have that nasty ending note. Nasty in a good way.

6.75 / 10

First Movement (Jumping Biz)

Very interesting. It’s hard to explain all of these pieces, but this is something different. It’s very upbeat, but not too much. It’s like an intro to a movie. I think I enjoy this piece, because it’s fun and short. A song like this wouldn't work long (see the song right before this, although that was more art than this song.)

7.75 / 10

Mr. Radio

No, it’s not Mr. Blue Sky yet. Go away. It can be easily compared to this song though. It’s a combination of Mr. Blue Sky and Telephone Line. It’s a nice, simple story as well, mixed in with some of the most beautiful composed orchestration on the album. But you know, behind the story, and the orchestra, it’s just a good song. Nothing more, nothing less. (Although guilty pleasure to the use of backwards violins at the end)

8/10

Manhattan Rumble (49th Street Massacre)

For a second I thought it was going to start the beginning of The Wall; those piano notes are either exactly the same or close to Outside the Wall. The feeling of the song definitely matches the 49th Street Massacre part, with it’s dark and demanding piano and beating drums and the cellos make their stand. Halfway through the song we get something a bit different, but still manages to keep a dark and creepy atmosphere. Oh, and there’s wind instruments, that’s a bit weird. This song is almost fun, and I actually smiled at around the 3 minute mark when the high-pitched background vocals started (probably for the song reason though). So far, this album really tries its best to be art.

6.75/10

Queen of the Hours

Lynne gets his third written song in a row, and it’s more of what I like. More music and less art, but it’s still pretty much art (but pretend it isn't so I can stop saying the word art for a bit.) Something I’m going to note here is that a lot of the song blend in together, and not in the way that one track overlaps into the other track, but they all start to sound the same (besides 10538 Overture.) That’s not the best thing to do. Nothing much to say about this song except that it has a nice length.

7.5/10

Whisper in the Night

Wood ends this album with something beautiful. We go back to the slow lyrical style of the album with this song, and it’s very lyrical. And one of my #1 guilty pleasures appear on this song, although only for a short amount of time, a slide guitar solo (a soft one). Other than that, though, it’s alright. Very soft, very beautiful, but very much the same as the rest of the album.

8/10

68.25 / 90

In Conclusion

I love ELO, I love Lynne, and as a violin player I love orchestration. I have a great appreciation for everything that was attempted here and their other albums (and Lynne’s producer work on everything from his albums to his fellow Wilburys’ albums.) I would not recommend this album to many people. This is an album for specific tastes, and people who just like ELO. I can forgive them for this being their first album, but both Lynne and Wood has had experience with albums (Wood has four with The Move and a single with Acid Gallery, and Lynne has possibly six with both The Move and The Idle Race.) There’s something here for sure, but is it music? Yes it’s music, of course it’s music. Just not the type of music that will ever be accepted like regular rock.

I'm not saying I'm glad they decided to rock more later, but I'm implying it. I love me some baroque, but maybe not a lot of baroque that wants you to know its baroque. Forced Baroque, perhaps?

*Review* (Single) As Tears Go By / Gotta Get Away

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

(Single) As Tears Go By / Gotta Get Away

As Tears Go By

(Jagger, Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham)

A very beautiful song. Very beautiful indeed. And there’s orchestration to this, and you can’t complain about that. And Jagger doesn’t push his voice, because if he did the song would be ruined.

10/10

Gotta Get Away

(Jagger / Richards)

Somehow a very appropriate B-side. An above-average song from the Stones that doesn’t do too much.

8/10

18/20

Excellent single.  I knew from the start that As Tears Go By would get a single release, as it’s so different and beautiful. The B-side is also good and fits well with the overall tone of the single.

*Review* December’s Children (And Everybody’s)

December’s Children (And Everybody’s)

Released
December 4, 1965

Before we start this one, I’m going to complain about the usage of the album art. It’s the same as the previous UK album Out of Our Heads. I have tons more complaints for this album, but let’s deal with them when they arise.

She Said “Yeah”

(Sonny Bono and Roddy Jackson)

Listen, I have no problem with using the UK tracks, but it’s really annoying that they had to do this in the first place. If everyone got the same album, we wouldn’t need to be reviewing the same songs without it being either a new single or a compilation album. A nice rocking sound from the UK Out of Our Heads.

9/10

Talkin’ About You

(Chuck Berry)

Didn’t like this cover in Out of Our Heads, still don’t really like it. It’s alright.

6/10

You Better Move On

(Arthur Alexander)

Jesus, are we actually reusing UK songs from 1964, technically recording in 1963? For an album almost reaching 1966? Who are we here? You know Stones, you are really lucky I really like this song. Really lucky. Like really, if you’re going to split up the albums to have different songs, why give the other country the songs later on? You’re ruining valuable song space.

9/10 (It used to be 10/10, and it still is, but because it’s on this album that’s what you get)

Look What You’ve Done

(McKinley Morganfield)

The Stones return to their blues rock, and it’s not bad. At this point Jagger is really confident in his voice, either that or new recording equipment makes this sound better than it should. But still, nothing special, and it’s very weird to have this sandwiched into the Stones’ rock age.

7.5/10

The Singer, Not The Song

(Jagger / Richards)

I’m alright with the re-using of this song, since it’s fresh and only a b-side in the UK. Plus, this song works even better as part of an album. So it’s a good song, but nothing great, unfortunately. Maybe it’ll grow on me. I don’t know.

7/10

Route 66

What’s up with them and using already-released live songs on official albums? I don’t like it. Especially when you can hardly hear anything anyway, I mean they had to know that the sound quality isn’t the best, and so when you throw it on a studio album it’s just weird. The performance isn’t as good as it should be, either. Not bad, but not great.

7/10

Get Off of My Cloud

(Jagger / Richards)

(Copied from the song’s single review) While not at the same fame as Satisfaction, it’s still very much up there. It was also written has a follow-up to the song. All lot of the follow-ups fail to live up to their predecessors, but I think this song does a fantastic job. Even under pressure, they managed to write a great song and perform it brilliantly as well.

9.5/10

I’m Free

(Jagger / Richards)

I feel like we’re blessed to have both Get off My Cloud and I’m Free in the same album.

(Copied from the Get Off My Cloud single) Really good song that really works well as the album’s closer. It has a nice feeling to it, and that is probably because it’s not a cover. I can’t really pick anything out of this per se, but the instruments seem to flow well together. The guitar solo isn’t anything to note, but it doesn’t have to be, I feel like a complicated solo would ruin this song.

9/10

As Tears Go By

(Jagger, Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham)

Oh my, this is beautiful. Listen to that orchestra. Listen to that sweet, soft guitar. McCartney’s got some explaining to do.

10/10

Gotta Get Away

(Jagger / RichardS)

Nothing especially complex, but it does get the job done. Instruments slide in nicely together.

8/10

Blue Turns to Grey

(Jagger / Richards)

I don’t know what to say about this song. I appreciate the use of a 12-string guitar on both rhythm and lead parts. It’s a nice song, with very good parts about it, but it feels too generic.

6/10

I’m Moving On

(Hank Snow)

There used two live songs on this. No, stop it. And it’s my least favorite performance from the Got Live If You Want It! EP. Gah.

4/10

92/120

Pretty disappointing album. I think people really enjoy this album, but there’s just nothing really to it for me. The B-side was very dominant here, with some of The Stones excellent work for the time like Get Off My Cloud and As Tears Go By. But, I guess, for an American album who didn’t get most of the songs because of UK exclusives, it’s better than nothing. It's almost impossible today to put in perspective that the Americans did not have the leisure of just going out and buying UK albums, so my opinions on songs I've already heard before might be skewed. Just stop using badly mixed live songs for official studio albums please.

*Review* (Single) Get Off of My Cloud / The Singer Not the Song

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

Get Off of My Cloud / The Singer Not the Song

Get Off of My Cloud

(Jagger / Richards)

If the UK and the US want to have a different music scene then why do you do this to me. Look at the previous single, released a month before this one, for my actual review of this song.

9.5/10

The Singer Not The Song

(Jagger / Richards)

Eh, a good b-side but not really anything too great about it. The intro started well, but it ends up being the same.

7/10

16.5 / 20

So the B-side for this UK version is not as good as the US version. The UK did get a new b-side entirely, however, so congratulations.

*Review* (Single) Get Off of My Cloud / I'm Free

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

Get Off of My Cloud / I’m Free

Get Off Of My Cloud

(Jagger / Richards)

While not at the same fame as Satisfaction, it’s still very much up there. It was also written has a follow-up to the song. All lot of the follow-ups fail to live up to their predecessors, but I think this song does a fantastic job. Even under pressure, they managed to write a great song and perform it brilliantly as well.

9.5/10

I’m Free

(Jagger / Richards)

This song would work well as an a-side, but putting it on the B-side is still great. As I said previously about this song, the instruments really flow well together.

9/10

18.5/20

This might be their best single so far. The a-side is exactly what I like to come out of The Stones, and the B-side is a nice song that doesn’t try to impress anyone.

*Partial Review* Out of Our Heads (UK)

Out of Our Heads (UK)

Released
September 24, 1965

I’m going to rate the songs that are different on the album, and then rate the album as a whole, but I’m not going to go over any of the songs on the previously released Out of Our Heads (US).

Additions:

She Said “Yeah”

Whoa, where did this intense track come from? It sounds nice (the ending sounds a bit weird when it just suddenly ends), but we’ll have to see if it can hold up to the track it replaced.

9/10

Gotta Get Away

(Jagger / Richards)

A nice little song, simple yet effective.

8/10

Talkin’ Bout You

(Chuck Berry)

It doesn’t sound as rocking as it should and I’m disappointed.

6/10

Oh, Baby (We Got a Good Thing Going)

(Barbara Lynn Ozen)

This sound sounds more rocking than the Chuck Berry cover, and it works better here than it did on The Rolling Stones, Now!. I don’t like using the word filler, but hey, this might be it. Not as much as Talkin’ Bout You, but still.

7.5/10

Heart of Stone

(Jagger / Richards)

This is a good song with solos that are good as well, as I’ve said back in the 1964 single with B-side What a Shame. I also want to give it something higher than 8.5, but I feel like 8.5 fits this.

8.5/10

I’m Free

(Jagger / Richards)

Really good song that really works well as the album’s closer. It has a nice feeling to it, and that is probably because it’s not a cover. I can’t really pick anything out of this per se, but the instruments seem to flow well together. The guitar solo isn’t anything to note, but it doesn’t have to be, I feel like a complicated solo would ruin this song.

9/10

Subtractions

The Last Time

Unfortunately this song didn’t make the cut. It’s a shame, because I actually like this song a bit.

I’m Alright

Good, this song didn’t belong. It’s alright (pun not intended), but I definitely won’t miss it.

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

Removing this song from the lineup quite possibly put a dent into the record itself. I feel like when the kids in UK caught word that the American’s got this song on their record, and they didn’t, they were angry. This was, and still is, a pretty popular song among radio and everything else.

Play With Fire

Another good song that was replaced. While not my favorite, it’s still a beautiful song.

The Spider and the Fly

I don’t necessarily care where this one goes. I’m very split about if I like this or not, but my feeling point to “I kinda don’t like it, but not enough to actually say I don’t like it.” But still, people do like this song, so removing this song didn’t help.

One More Try

I like I’m Free better for a couple reasons, one for the style of the song and another for how it doesn’t fade out.

95 / 120

Amazing. That really is just simply amazing. My score for the UK version is the same as the US version. To producer Andrew Loog Oldham (who produced both versions), bravo, you’ve managed to take out the important singles and still manage a 95. You deserve a lot of credit. Anyway, I personally thought the album was a tiny bit weaker than the US version if just for the exclusion of the popular singles. The reason for this is the UK music industry didn’t like to use popular singles on their albums, which is reasonable but at the same time could hurt an album if you don’t fit the album with right replacements. All in all, Mr. Oldham is fantastic and we should all appreciate him. 

*Review* (Single) (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction / The Spider and the Fly

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

17/20

I’ve already went over both songs, so I thought it was a bit pointless to go over them again. Of course Satisfaction is one of The Stones’ crown jewels, and a lot of people like The Spider and the Fly, so that’s good for them. I like The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man better as a b-side, but I guess if you were going to pick another break-out song from Out of Our Heads it would be The Spider and the Fly. So overall, great single, but I personally like Satisfaction's original single.

You might want to check out both Satisfaction's original review and Spider and the Fly's review.

*Review* (EP) Got Live If You Want It!

Got Live If You Want It! (EP)

Released
June 11, 1965

We Want The Stones

(Nanker Phelge)

Why is this credited to Nanker Phelge.  We just won’t count this.

Everybody Needs Somebody To Love

(Solomon Burke, Jerry Wexler and Bert Russell)

This is where Stones are pissing me off. It’s already hard enough to rate live albums, but then not only do you include the cheers as a separate track, but this song is only 36 seconds long. Do I even rate this? No. No I don’t. But we get our first taste of the mixing on this album; below-average, but pretty good for a mid-60’s popular rock band.

Pain in My Heart

(Naomi Neville)

So this song sounds a lot better live. Not only that, but it’s performed exceptionally well, despite the Jagger voice crack (I think that’s what it was, you can hardly tell under such harsh crowd conditions, especially when the instruments are louder than the vocals.)

Route 66

(Bobby Troup)

Of course Rock and Roll sounds good live. You’re silly. It’s a good performance, but I feel like they could do better. I’m glad Keith Richards (?) can keep a good solo live as well.

I’m Moving On

(Hank Snow)

So I didn’t like this, sorry. Jagger didn’t really sound that good until the end. Nice drums though, so good job Watts.

I’m Alright

(Jagger / Richards) or (Nanker Phelge)

Better than I’m Moving On as it has some good energy and a nice outro guitar there. Alright. Alright. Alright.

So no ratings because the beginning of this EP screwed that up. Instead I’ll just explain what/how I liked it. Performance wise it was good. Recording wise it was pretty good for the time, but you could’ve had a better mix. This album’s main attraction is the amount of energy these songs radiate out. It’s true that it sounds like a rocking band, and the crowd (like all crowds next to groups in the 60’s) sure enjoyed it, but the songs itself aren’t that great. I mean, they are good, just not great. It’s the energy that carries this album.

*Review* (Single) (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction / The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction / The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

(Jagger / Richards)

I’m not going to pretend I’ve never heard this song before. Also, I guess this marks the era of Stones that get major radio play. But the song has a nice drum part and guitar and vocals that aren’t too demanding, but fun. I’m also going to disregard the fact this song is overplayed.

10/10

The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man

(Nanker Phelge)

Interesting little piece with harmonica, giving it a blues feel while keeping a fast tempo. Understandably buried underneath the success of Satisfaction, this doesn’t bring too much to the table but is a good song never less.  

8.5/10

18.5 / 20

So fantastic single. It’s really hard to review a song that’s had its guts dissected and reviewed countless times. So I’ll just say that the a-side is fantastic, and the b-side is fantastic for a b-side. 

*Review* (Single) The Last Time / Play with Fire

*This is part of my ongoing, personal project of listening to every Rolling Stones material released, posted onto this blog for everyone to read and for opinions to flourish. The rating doesn't mean much, because I hate ratings, but might as well.*

The Last Time / Play with Fire

The Last Time

(Jagger/Richards)

So my first thoughts on this was “I can see The Monkees doing this song.” Weird. Great song, and no wonder; we’re getting really close to the popular era of The Rolling Stones. While I didn't care much about the guitar solo, the rest was pretty good. Jagger has found where his voice needs to be.

8.5/10

Play with Fire

So I've heard better slower songs in this style from the Stones. It’s good. Not fantastic, though. Just good. But high score because of its niceness.

8/10

16.5/20

So great single, both sides hold up well. I really can’t think of anything else to say, and I've been holding onto this review for a week.