And who had the bright idea for The Stones to go psychedelic? There were already lingering doubters of the group, people who placed them firmly in The Beatles shadow, so in which case, releasing an almost transparent 'response' to 'Sgt Peppers' hardly helped in that respect. In actual fact, there's more Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd here ( massively influential during the time they existed ) and actual Rolling Stones (?!) hidden underneath all the unnecessary effects, than there is any musical nod to The Beatles in particular. It was a time in history where it was assumed this new music really would taken over. Trouble is, The Rolling Stones weren't particularly 'deep', you know? It had never been a problem before but its a problem here. An album contributed to heavily by Brian Jones and Charlie Watts. Brian, playing virtually everything here seemingly and Charlie? About the only one who was being sensible and organised through the whole sorry enterprise! Well, let's take the opening 'Sing All This Together'? It has a ramshackle charm, but The Rolling Stones are nowhere to be seen or heard, not as we know them. We get to hear Jagger come the second song 'Citadel', quite nice song actually, but the production and effects eventually obliterate any semblance of enjoyability and the guitar sound, clearly nodding towards Syd Barrett, is always fairly transparent. As are the lyrics, actually. More Syd Barrett than anything else! Somebody thought it was a good idea for Bill Wyman to write and sing a song, hence the fairly atrocious 'In Another Land' which is a triumph of production. Shame it has no substance whatsoever, really. You see, at this point in time, The Stones never really relaxed and floated downstream. They never opened their minds, despite 'In Another Land' claiming "I opened my eyes". Their eyes may have been open I suppose, but they certainly never felt this stuff and it doesn't come across at all naturally.
'Sgt Peppers', without the production, still stands up as a set of fine songs. There are so few actual SONGS here that stand the test of time, or any test at all, for that matter. '2000 Man' is good, opening all acoustic then switching a few times through its running time. It's more 'Between The Buttons' than anything else here. Well, add the marvellous pop song 'She's A Rainbow' to that too - the finest thing here by some distance, along with the charming '2000 Man'. Um, what else is here? Not much. 'Gomper' is nothing at all, '2000 Light Years From Home' supposedly some kind of deep message... Oh, a word about the artwork? It's fairly atrocious, ugly artwork. Mick wears a wizards hat. It was meant to portray a little darkness, actually, like a fable. Anyway, the unmentionable nonsense of 'On With The Show' ends this whole sorry enterprise, the one song here that does noticebly nod to 'Sgt Pepper' more than anything else, the whole circus, roll up, roll up, cabaret music hall thing. The Stones were rhythm and blues and Rock N Roll. What the hell did they even think they were doing?? Lucky for them 1968 saw a return to back to basics, not only from The Beatles, but from Dylan, The Beach Boys - and a host of others too. They wouldn't need to pretend anymore and would get back to doing what they did best.
Sing This All Together / Citadel / In Another Land / 2,000 Man / Sing This All Together (See What Happens) / She's A Rainbow / The Latern / Gomper / 2,000 Light Years From Home / On With The Show
'Sgt Peppers', without the production, still stands up as a set of fine songs. There are so few actual SONGS here that stand the test of time, or any test at all, for that matter. '2000 Man' is good, opening all acoustic then switching a few times through its running time. It's more 'Between The Buttons' than anything else here. Well, add the marvellous pop song 'She's A Rainbow' to that too - the finest thing here by some distance, along with the charming '2000 Man'. Um, what else is here? Not much. 'Gomper' is nothing at all, '2000 Light Years From Home' supposedly some kind of deep message... Oh, a word about the artwork? It's fairly atrocious, ugly artwork. Mick wears a wizards hat. It was meant to portray a little darkness, actually, like a fable. Anyway, the unmentionable nonsense of 'On With The Show' ends this whole sorry enterprise, the one song here that does noticebly nod to 'Sgt Pepper' more than anything else, the whole circus, roll up, roll up, cabaret music hall thing. The Stones were rhythm and blues and Rock N Roll. What the hell did they even think they were doing?? Lucky for them 1968 saw a return to back to basics, not only from The Beatles, but from Dylan, The Beach Boys - and a host of others too. They wouldn't need to pretend anymore and would get back to doing what they did best.
Sing This All Together / Citadel / In Another Land / 2,000 Man / Sing This All Together (See What Happens) / She's A Rainbow / The Latern / Gomper / 2,000 Light Years From Home / On With The Show