The Rolling Stones, Now! (1965)


 
1.Everybody Needs Somebody to Love 2.Down Home Girl 3.You Can't Catch Me 4.Heart of Stone 5.What a Shame 6.Mona (I Need You Baby) 7.Down the Road a Piece 8.Off the Hook 9.Pain in My Heart 10.Oh Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin') 11.Little Red Rooster 12.Surprise, Surprise

 

The third Rolling Stones album (and the second to feature the band's name in the album title) is in many ways a step backwards. Not in terms of quality, but in terms of growth. Like their first two releases, this one tends to feature mainly standard rock/blues numbers (some well known, some pretty obscure) mixed in with some originals. The originals are sounding more and more "authentic" - I challenge anyone unfamiliar with the songs to see if they can tell the difference, and the whole album is a lot of fun to listen to - especially if you were listening back in 1965.

The album is very cohesive - not many changes in styles nor tempos throughout. This is probably the "bluesiest" album the band ever made with references to chicken and bacon grease and how "her kisses tastes like pork and beans". To call any of the songs here "stand outs" would be a bit unfair. All the songs are great, and everyone is bound to have their specific favorites. My personal favorites are Chuck Berry's You Can't Catch Me and Down the Road a Piece as well as Bo Diddley's Mona (I Need You Baby).

Still, though, it's hard (at least for me) to distinguish this album that much from their other albums released around this time. Since these first few albums were only around 30 minutes, it would probably make a lot of sense to combine most of them on one 80 minute disc. Of course, who listens to actual discs anymore? So quality wise, it's just as good, if not better, than anything they had done at this point. It's just not as original as one would wish.


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