#45 The Rolling Stones- Aftermath

The Stones roll into their second phase…

(Decca)

Released: 15^th April 1966

Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham

Topped the chart:

24^th April 1966 (for 8 weeks)

8 weeks total

And so we arrive at the Rolling Stones’ second phase. As we’ve journeyed through their first, there has been an increasing disparity between their singles and LPs, the former becoming darker and more interesting (see high-watermarks 19^th Nervous Breakdown and Paint It, Black), the albums continued to have a strong “will this do?” vibe, chucking together increasingly tired sets of blues standards.

Aftermath is the first sense that the Stones are reaching for something new, and it’s the first record where their increased creative control starts to bite. Not only is it the first album of all Jagger-Richards originals, it sees the band trying on new costumes for the first time, especially during its first half. Aftermath isn’t the best Rolling Stones album, but it might be the most important…until it isn’t.

To be clear, this is still a Rolling Stones album—if you’re expecting crazy flights into doom metal or Tijuana brass, you’re going to be disappointed: it’s still propped up by traditional blues sounds and ideas. What they do have though is Aftermath’s MVP Brian Jones, briefly waking up after falling asleep at the wheel somewhere in early 1964. Mick n Keith might be writing the songs, but it’s Jones’ colouring in at the edges that pushes the best tracks forward. Marimba, baroque harpsichord and Indian modes all feature, and it’s these tracks that have the biggest eye on the future.

The album opens with the band’s strongest quartet to date, each track creating new avenues for the Stones, more in line with their explorative singles of the era. Mother’s Little Helper tackles middle class drug addiction and careless overdoses. The mood feels new: unsettled, anxious thanks to a skin-rattling 12-string guitar at its centre sitting alongside Jones’ use of classically Indian musical modes. Stupid Girl runs to the other end of the spectrum, with dumb-as-a-wooden-block garage rock backed by a nagging Hammond organ. Under My Thumb, Aftermath’s most infamous track, partly down to its masterful use of Latin marimba, partly down to it becoming a misogynistic anthem. There’s no getting away from its controlling, venomous lyrics, but it might also be the best Stones production from date. You can feel the band’s confidence in the studio as Andrew Loog Oldham’s grip on his charges began to dip: spooky marimba, handclaps and a snarling chainsaw fuzz bass from Richards come together in order to prepare the way for pop music’s acid trip throughout 1966.

Best of all is Lady Jane, a Georgian parody complete with demure Austen-esque lyrics, harpsicord and the folkier dulcimer. It’s quite a confection put together by Brian Jones, and recalling the baroque sensibilities of that other notable 60s musician Brian, who would really explore what the studio could do on The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds the following year. Lady Jane would be the Rolling Stones’ cutest songs…if it wasn’t Mick Jagger’s pet name for the vagina.

A little dose of vulgarity to highlight the biggest issue, the cascade of misogyny (not a modern complaint either- contemporary critics are also seen to complain about the hatred of women in these lyrics). Stupid Girl and Under My Thumb speak for themselves (the latter referring to a female paramour as a “squirming dog” and “the way she speaks when she’s spoken to”). But it’s there too in Mother’s Little Helper too with its condescending tone, and there’s no doubt who the song’s narrator feels is to blame for the woman’s eventual fate. The Beatles’ Rubber Soul proved that as pop music might be growing up, but the adolescent attitudes towards women were still very much in the air, and so it goes with the Stones but to a much larger extent. Jones’ role on Aftermath is quite telling too, as he was known to be a sadist and a vicious abuser of women, both sexually and physically.

Wherever you stand on judging art with or without the actions of its chief architects, it’s from here that Afermath becomes a considerably less interesting diversion into blues rock, so back to business as usual. Goin’ Home is the most exhausting example, a formless, pointless jam session that trudges across the 11-minute line, occasionally sludging from 4/4 time to 3/4. Months prior, Bob Dylan unleashed Desolation Row, another 11-minuter but this one packed with ideas, characters and surrealistic poetry. Goin’ Home by comparison is embarrassing.

Aftermath’s second side continues in this ragged vein, but occasionally finds an interesting idea or two. The Latin/R&B crossover Out of Time again turns to marimba to overcome some dodgy backing vocals, further fuzz bass on Flight 505 is a bright spot, as is Appalachian percussion on I Am Waiting for a driving journey forward. For the most part though, these songs are throwaway at best, repetitive and self-indulgent at worst.

Despite all that, the Stones should be praised for at least reaching for something new for the first time, even if it doesn’t all quite pay off. It’s a shame that the darker themes of Mother’s… don’t go anywhere, and it represents the beginning of a searching period for The Rolling Stones. Quite simply, without the mindset of this era, theirs is no way that the band would still be packing arenas 60 years later.

Score: 6/10

Tracklisting:

SIDE A

1.      Mother’s Little Helper

2.      Stupid Girl

3.      Lady Jane

4.      Under My Thumb

5.      Doncha Bother Me

6.      Goin’ Home

SIDE B

7.      Flight 505

8.      High and Dry

9.      Out of Time

10.  It’s Not Easy

11.  I am Waiting

12.  Take It or Leave It

13.  Think

14.  What to Do