The Rolling Stones - December's Children (And Everybody's)
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Free Music Notes for December's Children (And Everybody's)
Free Music Review: Crushing The Beatles Yet Again!
Hit: 4 Stars
This was The Stones' fifth album. By the time it was released, in 1966, they were already on the borderline to becoming legends. For all of you who say that The Beatles were better, don't fool yourself. They were never as vicious or musically talented as The Stones."She Said Yeah" is the the band at their wildest and most raw, with a thunderous guitar hook and Jagger's frantic vocals. Even if I can't quite understand the lyrics because they play it so intensely, it doesn't matter. Very few bands had the balls to rock that hard in 1966. Likewise, their cover of Chuck Berry's "Talkin' About You" is equally great, with some stinging leads from Brian (or was it Keith?). But I consider the best song on this album to be the haunting ballad "You Better Move On". This is one of my favorite songs the band ever did. The lyrics aren't exactly brilliant (but it was a Motown song, so that's understandable), it's still an excellently melodic song with one of Jagger's best vocal performances ever. Great ballad.
And speaking of great ballads, there's "As Tears Go By", one of the most emotional songs that I've ever heard. Depressing? Sure, but unbelievably beautiful and heartfelt. Then there's "Look What You've Done", one of the most AWESOME blues songs the band ever did. That irresistable beat and piercing harmonica are simply blues Heaven. "The Singer Not The Song" is a decent Stones original; the live versions of "Route 66" and "I'm Movin' On" kick maximum a** all the way;
"Get Off Of My Cloud" is much too overrated, and the remainder of the songs are only average. "Blue Turns To Grey", "Gotta Get Away" and "I'm Free" aren't anything to write home about.
But the rest of the songs make up for these.
Beatle Mania? What the heck is THAT? Forget about it!
Free Music Review: Somewhat Uneven, but Many Great Songs.
Hit: 4 Stars
"December's Children" was a U.S. only album that only in a few cases collided with the European releases, and for this reason the record was / is particularly interesting for Stones collectors.
The music is somewhat a mixed bag, consisting of EP tracks and singles. A few numbers were already a year or two old when the album was released in December 1965.
Half of the songs are Jagger / Richards originals and the rest are cover versions of various other artists' songs. Among these, you'll notice the excellent interpretation of Arthur Alexander's ballad "You Better Move On". The energetic and raw opening track "She Said Yeah" is another standout.
Two tracks are live recordings showing that the Stones were also a highly competent live band.
Among the Jagger / Richards originals important is the recently released single "Get Off Of My Cloud" / "I'm Free"; both songs among the very best from this period. Two very fine, and often overlooked, melodic ballads are to me the album's biggest highlights. "Blue Turns Gray two" is also technically a great recording, while "The Singer Not the Song" is an equally impressive number, which maybe has not been given the same "finish". This song can also be found in an excellent cover version by Alex Chilton.
Rolling Stones' "answer" to "Yesterday" is another of the disc's most memorable numbers. "Gotta Get Away" is more on the regular but still okay.
The slightly uneven overall impression and the somewhat short playing time makes me give just 4 stars
Free Music Review: A turning point in the Stones song-writing development
Hit: 4 Stars
December's Children (December 1965) is for Stones fans who want to witness a crucial turning point in the Stones' artistic development (moving away somewhat from the pure urban-blues/roots-rock sounds that they started with). With the powerful new hard-rocking sound of Get Off My Cloud and the smartly orchestrated As Tears Go By, the Stones gave notice that their artistic growth was in full flower and not likely to ebb any time soon. The other original, I'm Free, is also very good -- hinting at future Stones classics about independence and rebellion against a conformist society. Most of the other "non-classic" songs (the excellent cover songs that tended to not end up on greatest-hits albums) are terrific performances in their own right, and especially worth the listen if you've gotten a little tired of the big hits. Just don't forget that the really signature songs from December's Children (Get Off My Cloud and As Tears Go By) can be found on both Big Hits and Hot Rocks (the two greatest hits collections that both cover the 1963 to 1966 period) -- so don't buy this album just to get those 2 songs. In short, for serious Stones fans who want to review the early efforts, and to witness the LP where the band markedly "took off" with their original song-writing.Free Music Review: Fine album, but why is SACD so ambiguous?
Hit: 4 Stars
"December's Children" is thoroughly enjoyable. I'm aware that all but a couple of these songs are on other CDs, but I'm glad to have this disc anyway, even if just to have the songs in this order. I am also pleased to have the later (2002) DSD/SACD releases, which are sonically miles ahead of the older versions.
My review, however, centers on the fact that Abkco seems to want to hide the SACD nature of the Stones' releases. Nowhere on the outer packaging is there any indication, and having the same title, displaying the same number, barcode, and year, in regular CD format adds further complication. When I ordered "December's Children," as previously with the 3-disc collection of singles, the first thing I received was the regular CD. You have to know that the 2002 DSD releases are in a standard jewel case, while the 2002 DSD/SACDs are in a cardboard folding case with a plastic holder attached inside.
Since all the Stones' SACDs are hybrids anyway, you have to wonder why Abkco would release the regular CD versions at all. You also have to wonder, with the SACD available, why someone would buy any of the several recent non-SACD versions for two to three times the money.
Free Music Review: Yeah!
Hit: 4 Stars
This is, more or less, just a collection of Rolling Stones songs that hadn't been on an album before. As such, it doesn't have the cohesiveness of some of their other albums. But regardless of that, there is a lot of great material here. The album starts off with great cover versions of songs by Larry Williams, Chuck Berry, Arthur Alexander and Muddy Waters. The album also includes six oustanding Jagger/Richards originals, most of which had been released as singles (both a-sides and b-sides). The only thing that keeps me from giving this album 5 stars are the poorly recorded live versions of "Route 66" and "I'm Moving On". While the performances themselves are fine, it's hard to hear them about all the audience screaming, and they don't really belong here among the studio recordings. But there is still a lot of great material here, which will make the album a "must have" for Stones fans. Oh, I should also mention that, although the CD is labeled as "stereo", "Look What You've Done" is the only song here that is actually in stereo. The rest of the CD is in mono.