Flowers (DSD Remastered) [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

The Rolling Stones

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 27, 2002)
• Original Release Date: June 1967
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Abkco
• ASIN: B00006AW2N
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,104 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This album represents a turning point for the Stones. Though they had not yet fully integrated the baroque aspirations of pop into their music, the flower-power influence had nonetheless begun to take root. While all the earlier elements of their sound are still firmly in place, in the folky "Backstreet Girl" and the relentlessly rocking "Let's Spend The Night Together," new sounds also crop up. Cuts like the woodwind-sweetened ballad "Ruby Tuesday" and the Middle Eastern-tinged "Mother's Little Helper" set the stage for the full-blown head-trip that would unveil itself later that year on THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES REQUEST.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blooming Hits, September 15, 2002

By	Thomas Magnum (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Flowers is a compilation of Stones singles, b-sides and songs that were omitted from the US versions of Aftermath & Between The Buttons. "Let's Spend The Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday" are well deserved classic, but other lesser known Stones songs shine. The caustic, feedback drenched "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadows" is a 60's gem and "Mother's Little Helper" is a sarcastic ode to the modern day housewife. "Out Of Time" is an almost forgotten song that could have easily been a huge hit had it been released. "Ride On Baby" and "Sittin' On A Fence" are solid tracks while "My Girl" is a competent cover of the Temptations classic that doesn't match up to future covers they would do of their songs. Flowers is one of the better compilations to be released by the band as it combines the well known songs with lesser known ones to make for an interesting listening experience.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everybody Should Get Flowers, August 29, 2006

By	Hobart Arms (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews

OK...To understand Flowers, you have to first realize the context in which it was released. Flowers was released as an American only album of material that was not issued on previous albums, material that was cut from the American versions of albums released in their full 14 track format in Britain, or singles that had not made it into an album yet. Also don't forget that the Stones weren't touring at the time, attempting to find the same refuge that the Beatles had in their studio to try some experimentation a la Sgt. Peppers which became Satanic Majesties. Now that the proper context has been established, this album finds the Rolling Stones at the peak of their mid-60's creative power. Group founder Brian Jones had not yet cashed out on his drug and alcohol binges and he was totally into what has retrospectively been dubbed "flavoring" the albums and tracks that the Stones were putting out. The album is strung together with singles: "Ruby Tuesday" b/w "Let's Spend the Night Together", "Have You Seen Your Mother?", "Mother's Little Helper", and "Lady Jane". This material coupled with the leftovers from the British releases of Aftermath and Between the Buttons helps make this album somewhat eclectic like the other two albums but no less entertaining. The psycho-Bo Diddley "Please Go Home" is great 60's style garage-psyche rock. Anytime the Stones go Bo Diddley is worth listening to, by the way. "Out of Time" is a great companion piece to "Under My Thumb" from Aftermath, as it features much of the same instrumentation, with Brian Jones anchoring the song on his marimbas once again. "Back Street Girl" and "Ride on Baby" both fall into the same vein, with the use of the classical instruments on the rock tracks for that mock-Baroque feel that many of the 60's bands like the Kinks and Yardbirds went for with their use of harpsichords, etc. "Sitting on a Fence" and "Take It or Leave It" are also like songs, with similar feels and good acoustic guitar work. "My Girl" to me is the one oddity on the album but somehow it works with the eclecticness of the finished product.
This album was one of the first albums that I ever bought when I got into the Rolling Stones. It was also the first Stones album that I bought my fiancee when we were 16. We both loved it and I have never regretted that choice. For me, the albums Aftermath and Between the Buttons represent height of the Stones in the 60's before they changed directions forever. This album, Flowers, bridges the two in the same way that Rubber Soul and Revolver were bridged by Yesterday and Today. These albums form critical trilogies of albums at points where two bands were reaching critical mass just as the dream of the 60's was ending for so many.
Now for the disclaimer: as some reviewers have pointed out, this album is not part of the canon of Rolling Stones albums. That may be true but when you compare this album to others such as Exile on Main Street and Sticky Fingers or Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed, but you are essentially comparing different bands and different times when holding Flowers against these rockers. Flowers is a great album that is completely misunderstood and underestimated. This album came out in 1967 and when compared with other albums of that time and place it shines with the best of them.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Rolling Stone's Fan Should Own this Early Music, August 21, 2005

By	' Groovin' guy "music historian" - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Great piece of their early work.
In slower songs like "Back Street Girl" and others in this CD you hear a young and romantic more innocent Mick.

It's very charming, very different from their more "established" tough sound.

Highly recommended!