[edit] The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request

First vinyl Release: November 25 1967 Lots of CD reeditions in the 80's

Recorded & mixed:

February 1967: Olympic Sound Studios, London May-October 1967: Olympic Sound Studios, London October 1967: De Lane Lea Studios, London

Producers: The Rolling Stones Chief engineer: Glyn Johns Released: November 1967 Original label: London Records (Polygram)

Track Listing

Frontside

Sing This All Together
Citadel
In Another Land
2000 Man
Sing This All Together (See What Happens)

Backside

She's a Rainbow
The Lantern
Gomper
2000 Light Years from Home
On With the Show

Contributing musicians: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Brian Jones, Nicky Hopkins, John Paul Jones, Eddie Kramer, Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, unspecified musicians (strings, brass).

About the cover:

Michael Cooper was in charge of the whole thing, under his leadership. It was handicrafts day... you make Saturn, and I'll make the rings. I forget the name of those people, those 3D postcards. Thing is, everyone looks round on that one. They take pictures at slightly different times and distances and they're put together and the heads move but after it gets scratched you don't really see it anymore. People always ask, Are John and George in there? I don't even know. I'd forgotten if they're all in there. They are all in there. And Paul and Ringo... Lyndon Johnson and Mao we just started... we had to put a stop to it. We were getting the whole of Sergeant Pepper in there, just for the hell of it. It was getting late and Michael finally got Saturn suspended... It was really funny... we should have done a gig that night.

Keith Richards, 1971

We were on acid doing the cover picture. I always remember doing that. It was like being at school, you know, sticking on the bits of colored paper and things. It was really silly. But we enjoyed it. (laughs)

Mick Jagger, 1995

The Album

That album, the Stones had never really decided to record it; the trend of those times had decided for them. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, (Beatles) Ogdens Nuts Gone Flake (small Faces) Pet Sounds (Beach Boys), Fifth Dimension, (Byrds) Freak Out ! (Mothers Of Ivention), Are You Experienced ? (Hendrix) The Doors (Doors), After Bathing At Baxter's (Jefferson Airplane), Forever Changer (Love), all those psychedelic gems had been released in but a few months interval and in a limited space, straight from the recording studios to the nooks and corners of the universe.

So for one album only, the Rolling Stones had turned into a psychedelic band. In our present, when so many bands seem to find the way back to the 'astroports' (Radiohead ect) it seems to be an excuse to rediscover that forgotten gem..

That album is an exception in the very huge Stones discography, when they had problems with the law; Mick and Keith just came out of jail. The single "We Love You' had just been recorded and it was a sympathy song to thank all their fans for their support; "We Love You" will reach at number 7 in the charts.

On saturday august 5th 1967 the "Satanic Majesties Request" sessions began at the Olympic studios. And those seances will last untill October between trips in Rome (for Keith), Paris (Mick), and Marrakech (Brian)....

One sixth musician will give an enormous contribution to the album: the brillant Nicky Hopkins played piano on it and occasional organ; he will really add a new flavour to their music, even tho Hopkins had always been the official Rolling Stones pianist on most of their singles and albums.

To the delight of the bootlegggers, the master tapes of the satanic seances have made a very remarked apparition on the market three years ago: it's been an incredible set of 8 CD on which we can hear the Stones jam on those tracks over and over again (recommended for the hard core fans). It's quite something to hear Keith Charlie and Brian Jones work on 15 consecutives takes of what will be "2000 Light Years From Home"an absolutely remakable song.

But yet, only two of them held the keys to that project: Jagger and Richards. For the first time they could do without their manager producer Andrew Oldham who will leave the Stones after an angry communique on September 29; a communique, that will put an end to months of speculations.

"What if we sang this song together" that's how the album starts and at once the auditor is attracted by that atmosphere of togetherness; gone were the usual sarcasms of the Rolling Stones lyrics there are so many instruments on that one, never a Rolling Stones album had started with such a Jam Session: "and if we close our eyes together then we will see where we come from" ...

A kind of psychedelic rock follows (Citadel) with that middle age ambiance and very Tolkiennesque (Led Zeppelin will draw 30 % of their repertoire from it) Jagger give an hommage to both Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg: "Hope you are both well" ...

A strange and bizzare but beautifull song follows "In Another Land" ... The only song ever written and performed by Bill Wyman for the Rolling Stones. It's been recorded by Glyn Jones on July 13 while the rest of the band was away that track had been drowned by clavecin and benefits from Steve Marriott's back vocals. A great moment of peace and i've always enjoyed that chorus ... Back from week-end, the Glimmer Twins approved Bill's little project, and they proceeded to thicken that chorus. That's been a first and a last for Bill who tried the solo albums adventures from 1977 to 1985, before leaving the Stones for good.

And it's here that will appear one of the 2 or 3 masterpieces of the whole project: " 2000 Man" Like if Jagger had tried to record a postcard addressed to himself and he'll project himself into the future: "in 2000 my name is a number, a piece of plastic, and my kids don't understand me at all, my wife respects me but she has an affair with a computer" a postcard Mick Jagger received 4 years ago. That number was so stuffed with ideas and tricks riffs and tempo changes, enough to provide 10 songs ideas to Noel Gallagher.

Unfortunately that total reussite is followed by an 8 minutes jam, a reprise from the intro track, and the lack of ideas will leave the auditor baffled. As they seemed to be conscious of that obvious flop, Jagger tried the impossible; singing, whining, breathing hard,, but will finally abandon the party ...

So it's no wonder that side B was opened with a pure gem like if the Stones had tried to settle their score. That track, truly is a superb little pearl, that time has not been able to touch namely, "She's Like A Rainbow" ...

That song is a pop pearl and Jagger's voice is amazing on it. John Paul Jones (future Led Zeppelin) brought all those strings arrangements.

"The Lantern" that's been presented to the press as a "stereophonic experience", here we find the Stones between creamy chorus, and rock riffs . Jagger tried to imitate Edgar Allan Poe with those 19th century lyrics ...

"The Gomper" and Brian Jones is back with his tablas and all the Hindue paraphernalia. With those percussions, 'The Gomper' was a kind of strange cross between world music and total genious. And just when we think that the Stones had given all they had they offer us ........

"2000 Light Years From Home". Here it's nothing but exellence and for the first and last time, the Rolling Stones will take their fans for a ride into the Cosmos; Brian Jones Molletron, Keith Richards spaghetti Western guitar, and Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts rhythm section as subtile as velvet. Jagger succesfully attracts the audiror into other spheres and the track will be the object of a cult in the San Francisco rock scene. And the following decade, 'Hawkwind, will quote it at least once in all their albums ...

And for the final, the listener has the feeling to come back from a party and finds himself back in the Londonian dawn . It's the end of the psychedelic experiment for the Rolling Stones. Many fans had judged this album as a flop, the Stones themselves had (but wrongly) half denied it. If you happen to listen to it the chances are it will start to shine like a forgotten gem ...

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