Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones - England's Newest Hitmakers
|
Our Price: $13.98 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $6.00 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for England's Newest Hitmakers
Free Music Review: England's newest bluesmakers
Hit: 3 Stars
The American debut of The Rolling Stones was part of the British Invasion, the wave of UK bands who hit the U.S. in the wake of the Beatles early-1964 breakthrough. Only a handful of bands would mature and survive, and the best of them were The Rolling Stones.Still, there was no guarantee from listening to this fine album that the Stones would be around. Eric Burdon of the Animals was a better vocalist than Mick Jagger, the Yardbirds' Eric Clapton then later Jeff Beck and Jimmy Paige had the better guitar attack, and few British bands (beyond The Beatles) wrote their own songs. That means the London blues bands largely recorded blues songs to fill their albums, and how long could they keep that up?
What the Stones did have were attitude. Jagger's lewd, sneering vocals and Keith Richards' Chuck Berry-influenced guitar were the bedrock of this band from day one. A third key ingredient was Brian Jones' slide guitar, perhaps the best slide playing east of the Mississippi Delta.
The album opens with a stunning remake of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away. The Bo Diddley beat makes this song move. It is fantastic. The remaining covers are performed fast and furious: Route 66, I Just Want To Make Love To You, Carol (great guitar), and the hilarious Walking The Dog. The Stones' versions are light years from the earthy, dark originals by Muddy Waters et al, but have an energy that remains infectious 40 years on. I'm A King Bee features the nastiest slide guitar from 1964.
Of the originals, only Tell Me is worth mentioning. This slow ballad echoes early-60s soul more than Chicago blues, and features some fine vocal work.
The remaining songs, however, fail to measure up. Can I Get A Witness is the poorest offering on this album, and left me scrambling for the far superior Marvin Gaye original. Little By Little and You Can Make It If You Try are unconvincing British imitations of American vocals.
Overall, this is a solid set of black American blues & soul performed by a white British band. I would have awarded NEWEST four stars, but there are only 12 and no bonus tracks. At least Apple/Parlophone issued the Beatles catalogue at their original 14 songs. ABKCO - in all their wisdom and greed - have stuck us with these second-rate American incarnations at full price. No wonder CD burning is rampant.
Free Music Review: EXCELLENT INTRODUCTION
Hit: 5 Stars
This is the first Stones album out and the first one I got when it came out. It was awesome, and the best things about the Stones was how incredibly TIGHT they were, and there were always so many great things going on at once in each song that, in the words of me and my best friend at the time, "you don't know what to listen to first." They were the greatest blues band at the beginning, with Brian Jones, and this is a great intro to their blues-rock sound, way different than they later became. I also would love to see the current Stones play "small" clubs and theaters and just play the early Stones songs! Just the music without a lot of theatrics.Free Music Review: The Savage Young Stones
Hit: 5 Stars
This was the Rolling Stones first album, and it was an excellent debut. Having not yet developed as songwriters, nine of the twelve songs here are covers of American rock, R&B, and blues songs. The album gets off to a great start, with a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away", which was the Stones first UK Top 10 hit. Then the band goes through several other great covers, which they probably had played many times at their live appearances. As for the original material... "Now I've Got a Witness" is an enjoyable instrumental jam, with the title obviously being a play on "Can I Get a Witness", the Marvin Gaye song that they cover here. "Little By Little" is a fun bluesy number, which Phil Spector shared credit for writing with "Nanker Phelge". The real gem of the original songs is "Tell Me", which is a tender ballad that probably caught a lot of people by surprise at the time. "Tell Me" went on to become the Stones first US Top 30 hit (it was not released as a single in the UK). A great debut by one of the greatest bands of all times, and highly recommended. Oh, I should mention that despite this CD being labeled as "stereo", it is actually in mono.Free Music Review: Something of a forgotten classic
Hit: 4 Stars
"Sticky Fingers" and "Exile On Main Street" and the Rolling Stones' other late-60s/early 70s albums are certainly better known than this one, but their 1964 debut album is actually a pretty great record in its own right.
The Stones' most uncompromisingly R&B-styled LP, it opens with their classic, pulsating, Bo Diddley-esque take on Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away", and closes with an equally excellent rendition of the Rufus Thomas-classic "Walking The Dog".
And in between you'll find a superbly groovy "Honest I Do", blistering takes on Chuck Berry's "Carol" and Muddy Waters' "I Just Want To Make Love To You", and the Stones' first self-penned material; two group compositions and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' "Tell Me".
Dominated by the bluesy harmonica playing of Brian Jones and Mick Jagger, and the locomotive groove of Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman, "The Rolling Stones" is as hard-core as British R&B ever got; a raw collection of songs which were, for the most part, more or less unknown in England until the Stones picked them up.
This is a powerful, energetic record, every bit as good as most of what came later on.
4 1/4 stars - highly recommended.
Free Music Review: Get hip to this kindly tip...
Hit: 5 Stars
The very first album by the band that would by the end of the sixties be known as the "greatest rock n' roll band in the world" was issued first in the UK in April of 1964, a month later in the States. College age kids pretending to be middle aged American bluesmen shouldn't really work, right?? But we're talking about the Stones here, the greatest white blues/r&b band of all time and they were a year and a half out of the gates when they slammed down the tracks on their debut. UK and US versions are virtually identical except for two major points. "Not Fade Away", their first classic, is not on the UK release as it was a single only there. It is replaced by Bo Diddley's "I Need You Baby/Mona". Also the album was subtitled England's Newest Hitmakers, while the UK one has no title shown, just the stark Nicholas Wright band photo. "Route 66" kicks off the LP in grand fashion, a stage favorite at the time, followed by an outstanding version of Muddy Waters'"I Just Want to Make Love to You". Chicago blues fills the album with examples such as "Honest I Do" (Jimmy Reed), "I'm a King Bee" (Slim Harpo) and band original "Little by Little" (actually a slight rip of another Jimmy Reed tune). Chuck Berry's work makes an appearance with the Stones classic version of "Carol" The Jagger/Richards songwriting partnership is solely represented by a rare ballad, "Tell Me" (see the UK version for the full-length sudden stop), a beautiful song that paved the way for things to come. Closing with "Walking the Dog" was just the right touch with some of Keef's most exciting lead guitar while his partner Mr. Jones shines on slide with "King Bee". If you like classic '60's British blues rock you can't go wrong with the Stones' rootsy debut, a landmark in rock history.