Customer Reviews

England's Newest Hitmakers

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4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With the release of the remastered super audio CDs (SACD) of the Stones ABCKO catalog (which includes all the early Decca/London material), there is now some confusion as they have released some of the early albums in both US and UK versions.

This is the later May 29, 1964 - U.S. London Records vinyl version of The Rolling Stones, often listed as England's Newest Hitmakers. The UK version has not been released on CD. Here is how you know the difference:

April 17, 1964 - U.K. Decca Records vinyl version
.....includes Mona (I Need You Baby), does not include Not Fade Away
.....Tell Me version 1 (long 4:08 version without fade out but with guitar break)
May 29, 1964 - U.S. London Records vinyl version
.....includes Not Fade Away , does not include Mona (I Need You Baby)
.....Tell Me version 1 (short 2:59 version with fade out but without guitar break)

You will find Mona (I Need You Baby) on the CD release of The Rolling Stones, Now!

The album was originally released in the UK without any title....the Band wanted people to ask for "the Rolling Stones album", but the U.S. record company execs added "England's Newest Hitmakers" to the cover. Some of the Amazon reviews of this album sound like the reviewer is hearing the Stones for the 1st time. Come On!.... this one features no less than *5* signature songs! The best version of Carol done until the Stones themselves topped it with the live versions in the 80s, the classic Route 66 (which they still do), Mick's 1st signature song in Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away, Willie Dixon's I Just Want To Make Love To You (years before Mick would make headlines mouthing the much less controversial Let's Spend The Night Together on the Ed Sullivan Show), and the 1st Jagger/Richards composition Tell Me (which is still hard to get out of your head). And this doesn't even get into the 2 Motown groove pieces Can I Get A Witness and Walking the Dog. Now, try to think of another band that came anywhere near this on their 1st release....not many....perhaps the Beatles, but jeesh, at least the Stones didn't do any Broadway hits!

This is the remastered super audio CDs (SACD) of the Stones ABCKO catalog (which includes all the early Decca/London material. ABCKO acquired the Stones' catalog after Allen Klein became their manager in 1965. The resulting legal battles produced releases that the Stones opposed (they took out full page adds asking fans not to buy them), including the controversial Metamorphosis releases (which are now available on CD for the 1st time ever). But the sad fact is that the Stones lost control of their great early material. With these remastered SACD releases, we at last have some idea of what they really sounded like in the studio. I guess if we had these 40 years ago they would have ended up Greatest Rock And Roll Band in the Universe instead of just our tiny little World.

The tracks were recorded in 1964 as follows:
Jan 3, 1964 at Regent Sound, London
.....Carol
.....Route 66
.....Walking the Dog
.....You Can Make It If You Try
Jan 10, 1964 at Regent Sound, London
.....I Just Want To Make Love To You
.....I'm A King Bee
.....Honest I Do
Jan 28, Feb 3-4, 1964 at Regent Sound, London
These were the famous sessions with Phil Spector, Gene Pitney, & Graham Nash that also produced the profane "Andrew's Blues" and the drunken "Spector & Pitney Came Too" that were never released.
.....Little By Little
.....Can I Get A Witness
.....Now I've Got A Witness
.....Tell Me
.....Not Fade Away

This information comes from "It's Only Rock And Roll: The Ultimate Guide To The Rolling Stones" by Karnbach and Bernson and from my own
collection.

The Rolling Stones way back when started off as a R&B, Blues band that interpreted the songs of their idols. On this album, we get to see the influences first hand, and I can only wish that they still made songs like this. There are some good songs here that only casual Stones fans wont know, but they are missing some great music. I think that the listener should give these following songs a real listen to: NOT FADE AWAY, ROUTE 66, I JUST WANT TO MAKE LOVE TO YOU, HONEST I DO, CAN I GET A WITNESS, LITTLE BY LITTLE, I'M A KING BEE. These songs are great and fun to listen to. With the bonus of being remastered, I think compared to the earlier CD, you can hear a difference. I highly recommend this CD for every STONES fan, and this isnt a bad place for some casual fans to start.

As time passed by, my sense that this and "Out of Our Heads" were their finest efforts never really left me. Not to say that enormous chunks of wonderful stuff didn't follow, of course, unlike many bands who peaked on their early releases and never challenged again. I just loved the raw passion in the way they covered material like "Not Fade Away" "Hitch Hike" and "Walking the Dog," and made it their own. To me, these well chosen covers were much more appealing than some of the later "middle of the LP" songs from their own writing. And, as for "Tell Me," it just doesn't get much better than that!

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.

Yeah, yeah, we all know about the Stone's history...we've all read the same books and reviews. This is the band that made me force my mother to buy me a [money] electric guitar! After learning how to play guitar with this record more than 30 years ago (I still use the same 3 chords), I can FINALLY HEAR THE DISTORTED TUBE AMPLIFIERS ON ROUTE 66. This re-mastered version brings to life the concept of "live in the studio". There wasn't much dubbing on this LP. I first purchased Ya ya's and Let It Bleed when the re-masters were released. They sound better than the first (1986) CD releases. But the difference is PROFOUND on the early recordings. Listen to Keith's already dirty guitar work on "Little by Little", his amplifier was LOUD! You can hear Jagger's breathing into mike and the wailing backing vocals on "Tell Me" much louder and clearer than on my prized mono UK vinyl original! True, they couldn't sing very well, God love 'em, but neither could I! Yeah man...the Beatles were a cool band, but who could figure out how to play "Sgt. Pepper" on a Kay guitar? I'll stick w/ Mick 'n Keef...a real working man's band they were!

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.

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.

Yes, even the Rolling Stones were once young and hungry. Released in 1964, the group's U.S. debut (and the counterpart to their self-titled U.K. LP) is an urgent slab of hardcore blueswailing from the soon-to-be Greatest Rock and Roll Band In The World. This was made in the days when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards hadn't yet come into their own as songwriters. Indeed, only three of these songs are group originals. And I'm using the word "original" in a very liberal sense here: "Now I've Got A Witness" is basically an instrumental version of a Motown tune by the name of "Can I Get A Witness" (a version of which appears toward the end of this album), while "Little By Little" is- let's face it- a very derivative uptown R&B/blues shuffle. Finally, "Tell Me" has Phil Spector's fingerprints all over it, with its teen-drama lyrics and swooning melody. The funny thing is, these aren't really bad songs: "Little By Little" is full of bemused attitude, with plenty of gin-joint instrumentation and a great drawling vocal from Jagger, with a wild guitar solo thrown in the middle. "Tell Me" may be derivative, but it shows that the 'Stones knew how to maximize the effect of their favorite cliches: It's an incredibly catchy song, with a soulful chorus and a totally freakin' sweet guitar part. It also proves that even when Mick was mewling and pleading for his girl to take him back, he still sounded way cooler than anybody you'll ever meet. And have I mentioned the guitars? "Now I've Got A Witness" is, well, actually pretty boring. They can't all be winners, I guess.

No, these 'Stones were not known for their songwriting. What made their music, self-penned or otherwise, worthwhile were the performances. And they really were amazing performers: Guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones (who, in the absence of a dominating creative voice within the group, was actually seen as the head Stone) was an absolute beast of a musician, attacking his instrument(s) with prodigious insanity and plenty of raw attitude. Richards, meanwhile, was just about the only guitarist who could make a suitable partner; the two bounced off of each other brilliantly, intertwining rhythms and leads with dizzying virtuosity. Like any self-respecting rhythm section, Charlie Watts (drums) and Bill Wyman (bass) were completely brilliant despite a virtual lack of recognition. They lent a certain primal umph(!) to the proceedings, giving these songs a salivating swing that shimmed its way from one end of the record to the other without ever letting up. And then there was that Mick fellow...

Anyway, the songs. The ones I haven't already mentioned, anyway: The opener is a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," and it's incredible; it drips with animal fury and gutter sexuality, and it's also hypnotic and ferocious and a little bit scary. It's the kind of thing I wouldn't want my girlfriend to hear, because she'd realize that compared to the people in the song, I'm not a real man. There's also a wild, wild cover of Chuck Berry's "Carol," and an unbelievably cool version of "Route 66." Lots of cool blues tunes, too- Jimmy Reed's "Honest I Do" is pure caveman seduction, and "I'm A King Bee" has some stinging leads (I didn't want to make that joke, but I really couldn't think of another way to describe the guitars on it). There's also a totally outta-hand rip through "I Just Want To Make Love To You."

The album ain't perfect- the aforementioned "Now I've Got A Witness" is one strike against it, and the uninspiring "You Can Make It If You Try" is another. "Walking The Dog" is sleazy and fun, but so is the rest of the album, so this one doesn't really stand out as such. Plus, those whooping, whistling noises in the chorus are really annoying. The rendition of "Can I Get A Witness," while not as bad as some people say, isn't terribly exciting either.

But it's great, for the most part. It's fun, it's raw, and it rocks really hard. Plus, the cover art is really cool. The 'Stones were really good at sneering.

Let me start this pragmatic way. Back in the British Invasion ( musically ) this was the first album by the Rolling Stones released in the U.S. At the time of release their top 40 songs
were " Not Fade Away " & " Tell Me ". The other 10 were various reneditions made famous by other R & B artists. The unique talent of the Stones during this period was that they could take someone elses song and make it sound better ( A talent Van Halen had in the Diamond Dave era ). Everything from Rte#66 to Walkin' the Dog had the distinct touch only the "Brian" era Stones could give to an R & B piece. I recommend this as a BUY.

I bought the original 1964 London vinyl pressing off a friend of mine in 1988, when I was 14. His dad had it, the cover was intriguing, and he needed a few bucks, so I gave him a $20, and thus started myself on a love affair of early Stones albums from the 60's since then. I was hooked on this record in a way that is quite indesctibeable, going so far as buying 5 or 6 different vinyl versions (Japanese, Decca pressing blue vinyl version is one of my most prized possessions.) This is NOT the best effort they ever recorded. Mick was not the same Mick he became post-Sympathy period. They were still doing Chuck Berry when my other favorite band the Beatles were writing their first film soundtrack, and though they were never recorded in the same quality that their Liverpool counterparts were, I could honestly care less, because this is pure Rolling Stones: garage band rythym and blues covers by five guys that knew their stuff. The Stones were always interpreters of this genre (as well as blues), and they were very successful at it. Rather than give a track run down here, I'll just say that the highlights are the Buddy Holly classic "Not Fade Away", "Route 66", "Carol", and "King Bee". I like all these songs on here, including one of Mick and Keith's first songwriting ventures, "Tell Me". For as heavily touted as their late 60's, early 70's work was, to me the Rolling Stones most interesting, and influential work, will always be the original line-up and those early albums, '63-'69. The only thing lacking on this US version was the exclusion of Bo Diddley's "Hey Mona", that replaced "Not Fade Away" on the UK version. Like The Beatles, stick to the UK versions, but aside from that, this is a fine little record!