Customer Reviews

Out of Our Heads (US Version)

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

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 mass confusion about the Out Of Our Heads releases. Allow me to clarify for you:

There are 3 Out Of Our Heads Releases (all were released with lower case titles):
July 30, 1965 - U.S. London Records vinyl out of our heads
(the heads cover with Keith at center)
September 24, 1965 - U.K. Decca Records vinyl out of our heads
(the hallway cover with Brain at front)
December 3, 1965 - U.S. London Records vinyl december's children (and everybody's)
(the hallway cover with Brain at front)

This new remastered SACD is the July 30, 1965 - U.S. London Records vinyl out of our heads release. This version of included include the following tracks that were not to be on the U.K. release: The Last Time, I'm All Right, Satisfaction, Play With Fire, Spider And The Fly, and One More Try. The U.K. version added She Said Yeah, Talkin' Bout You, Oh Baby, Heart Of Stone, and I'm Free.

Note: ABCKO acquired the Stones' catalog when Allen Klein became their manager in the 70s. 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.

You must buy all 3 releases to get all the tracks, although if you bought the 2 U.S. releases + the earlier U.S. release The Rolling Stones, Now! you would get everything on this U.K. Out Of Our Heads release.

Here is a listing of which tracks are on which release:
U.S. Out Of Our Heads tracks
.....The Last Time
.....I'm All Right
.....Satisfaction
.....Play With Fire
.....The Spider And The Fly
.....One More Try
U.S. Out Of Our Heads & U.K. Out Of Our Heads tracks
.....Mercy Mercy
.....Hitch Hike
.....That's How Strong My Love Is
.....Good Times
.....Cry To Me
.....The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man
U.K. Out Of Our Heads tracks
.....Oh, Baby (we got a good thing going)
.....Heart Of Stone
U.K. Out Of Our Heads & U.S. December's Children tracks
.....She Said Yeah
.....Gotta Get Away
.....Talkin' `Bout You
U.S. December's Children tracks
.....I'm Free
.....You Better Move On
.....Look What You've Done
.....The Singer Not The Song
.....Route 66
.....Get Off Of My Cloud
.....As Tears Go By
.....Blue Turns To Grey
.....I'm Moving On

The album includes the most famous of all Stones tracks (Satisfaction) as well as The Last Time (one of their most enduring compositions). The U.S. Out Of Our Heads tracks were recorded during 1964-5 as follows:

1964: Oct 27 - Nov 2 at RCA Studios in Hollywood
.....Hitch Hike
1965: Jan 17-18 & Feb 17 at RCA Studios in Hollywood
.....The Last Time
.....Play With Fire
Live in the UK on March 6 (Empire in Liverpool), 7 (Palace in Manchester), or 16 (Granada in Greenford)
.....I'm All Right
May 10, 1965 at Chess Studios in Chicago
.....That's How Strong My Love Is
.....Mercy, Mercy
.....Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man
May 11-12, 1965 at RCA Studios in Hollywood
.....Satisfaction
.....Good Times
.....Cry To Me
.....The Spider And The Fly
.....One More Try

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.

What younger listeners don't seem to get is that The Rolling Stones re-discovered Chicago Blues at a time when Muddy Waters was painting ceilings for a living. The first five Rolling Stones recording, ending with December's Children, are among the best white blues records of all time. For five kid from England, these guys really understood the sound and feel of electric blues from the era before Rock & Roll. Their taste was uncompromising. The addition of slide guitar (Brian Jones was the first slide player in England), cross-harp harmonica style, and raspy vocals were completely new to teenagers when they showed up in 1964. Frankly, if the Stones today could re-create the energy and intelligence of these early performances I suspect they'd have a real hit again. With no slight to the genius of Mick Taylor, the loss of Brian Jones in 1969 deminished greatly the stated Blues-based purpose of the band. I'm amazed as an adult revisiting these old recording at how well performed these tracks are. On Out of Our Heads the Stones explore soul recordings, vocally more complicated than their work on their first album,12X5 and Now. These tracks include songs by Smokey Robinson, Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding and Jagger does a credible job on them. It was hearing Jagger's arrangements of these songs that encouraged me to listen to the originals and ultimately changed my consciousness about what great singing really is.

The Stones' 1965 blast of "Out of Our Heads" sounds excellent in its 2002 remastered form. The opener "Have Mercy" has a bit of a thin sound, but the boys do bounce through it in homage to Otis Redding. Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike" is a blend of soul & swagger with Jagger's drawl giving it urban sass. "The Last Time" is a classic Stones track, "I told you once & I told you twice, but you never listen to my advice." I've been listening to Doyle Bramhall's "Fitchburg Street" this summer with his tribute to Otis Reddings' "That's How Strong My Love Is" which made me jump for this reissue to listen to Jagger's romantic swagger on the slow soul burner. The Sam Cooke tribute "Good Times" is one of his best melodies. I love the live version of "I'm All Right." Of course, "Satisfaction" and "Play With Fire" are two of the strongest Stones' gems. This classic set is well worth the digital attention and sounds fresh 38 years later! Enjoy!

Vastly different from the UK edition (which features the same number of songs, but only half of them are the same), the US edition of the Rolling Stones' fourth record mixes originals and cover songs about equally.

Several of the covers are 60s soul tunes, including superb renditions of "Mercy, Mercy", "Good Times", and "That's How Strong My Love Is", which swing and groove like you won't believe, and they all rank among the best interpretations of other composers' songs the Stones have ever done.

And the originals are mostly excellent as well. The US edition omits "I'm Free", "Heart Of Stone", and "Gotta Get Away", but includes "Play With Fire", "The Last Time", and the all-time classic "Satisfaction", which was a single release in the UK. (Da-daaa-da-da-daaa...)
"The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" is a fun, driving blues (the guitar plays the main harmonica riff from Buster Brown's "Fannie Mae"), and the US edition also features "The Spider And The Fly".
(A number of the tracks which are exclusive to either the US or the UK edition of "Out Of Our Heads" are otherwise only available on compilation albums, so the serious fan needs both of them, of course!)

This magnificent collection of tough rock n' roll, R&B and soul is one of the best albums of the 60s, and it should not be missing from any serious collection of classic rock music.

This work would earn a 5-star rating for just one song, one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever--"(I can't get no) satisfaction." But there is a lot more. There are solid covers of songs by artists such as Otis Redding (e.g., "Mercy, Mercy"), Sam Cooke ("Good Times"), and Marvin Gaye ("Hitch Hike"). There are also early classics by Jagger-Richards, such as "Satisfaction," ""The Last Time," and "Play with Fire." And cool little songs such as "The Spider and the Fly" and "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man". And remember that any song attributed to "Nanker Phelge" (such as the aforementioned "The Under Assistant. . .") is a Jagger-Richards composition.

Some representative works (that is, songs that I want to write about). . . .

"Mercy Mercy": This opens the album/CD, an Otis Redding song. Mick Jagger gives a nice, credible blues version of this piece. There is raw and primal guitar work to back his singing.

"The Last Time": This is one of the Stones' best early songs. There is a nice guitar riff to open this work. The rhythm section (Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman) lay down a good base for this song. Some lyrics:

"I've told you once
And I've told you twice.
But you never listen to my advice."

And then, here it is--"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction": I first heard this as an underclass student at Bradley University. Even though my preference was classical music, I understood that this was something special. The fuzz tone riff by Keith Richards at the outset suggests that this is serious business. One typical line that resonated, I'm sure, with many who listened to this:

"I can't get no satisfaction. . . .
Baby, baby maybe come back next week
Cuz' you see I'm on a losing streak."

Drums, bass, and guitars work well together. This is almost as perfect a rock and roll song as you can get.

Then, there's "Play with Fire." This is a hard-edged song, with a degree of menace to it. Starts out with some nice acoustic guitar work.

"And the chauffeur drives your car,
You let everybody know.
But don't play with me
'Cuz you're playing with fire."

A classic rock and roll song, with some very interesting lyrics that are not necessarily typical of the time.

So, is this a seamlessly crafted album? No. Is this a terrific rock and roll work? Yes!

Though it's a formulaic package of half cover versions/half originals typical of the era, OUT OF OUR HEADS stands as the best of the early Stones albums from the 1964-5 period. The reason: the Stones start to find their voice, signalled by the legendary song, Satisfaction, which broke them in the U.S. and worldwide.

Perhaps spurred by the phenomenal success of Satisfaction, the Stones sound confident on almost every track of this album starting with the cover version of Mercy Mercy. When I first heard this years ago on the old mono vinyl the Stones sounded like a punk band -- Jagger's aggressive vocals and above all the fuzz-guitars which are mixed to the forefront and leap out of the speakers. Who ever sounded like this?

Though the Otis Redding and Sam Cooke originals are better, That's How Strong My Love Is and Good Times are fine covers by the Stones. Same goes for the anguished delivery of Cry To Me. Hitch Hike a decent version of the Marvin Gaye tune (the opening riff was later copped by the Velvet Underground on their first album).

Jagger and Richards hit their stride with the above-mentioned Satisfaction, but also The Last Time, Play With Fire and the tongue-in-cheek Spider and The Fly.

The only weaknesses are Under Assistant West Coast Promo Man, which is really a rip-off of Fanny Mae (an outtake from this album) and the disposable One More Try.

Note that this remaster doesn't sound any different from the original issue of the 80s, and is light years different from the later UK issue, which featured a weaker song list.

OUT OF OUR HEADS is no masterpiece, but for sheer pleasure this album won't disappoint.

With the inclusion of (I Can' Get No) Satisfaction, this CD, LP, must be considered at least one outstanding recording.
There was a London\DECCA previous release in wonderful original mono. The CD 820 049-2 'Made In Hanover, West Germany' has the exact same as the U.S. 'abkco' silver CD tracks, but the original "mono" really puts all the 2002 'remasters' to shame.
At least the first 4 U.K. Rolling Stones LP albums were in mono.
It seems that U.K. DECCA finally got it right with the late 65-66
LP 'after-Math' now available again through abkco/DECCA/London.
"NOW" has many originally mono tracks recorded at 2120 South Michigan Avenue (CHESS studios), also a Nanker-Pheldge track on the Germany only LP "Around And Around", only released as an EP in the U.K., so it's good, but it's a faked-recompiled non-U.K. LP. Also, the abkco/London 12 track LP "Got Live If You Want It! is also fake. The original mono EP DFE-8620 is the genuine EP. As is the music business, "It's Only Rock 'N ' Roll!"

Keith says the Stones learned American blues in 1962-3 in a dingy cold water flat in suburban London, never having been anywhere near Chicago. By the time they cut these tracks, they'd toured the US once or twice and met their Chess record label idols. Charlie is, as usual, what makes the early Stones powerful. His playing sounds so much more professional than the others because he had been a pro when they pooled their pennies to offer him a guaranteed paid job as their drummer. Mick is off key here, more than a few times and sounds like the callow youth that he was. The originals are leaps and bounds better than the blues covers, though the Stones at this time were still determined to tell everyone about American blues. They quickly moved on after this, doing all originals. These covers are fun, but very much of the period sounding.

Out of Our Heads tends to focus more on R & B tunes than the bluesier numbers they'd done in the past. One reviewer calls this the best of the early releases but I personally believe Now! is a far stronger release. I gave Now! 5 stars (not one stinker!) so I can only give this one 4.5.

Jagger delivers a surprisingly strong cover of "That's How Strong My Love Is". Ok, maybe he apes Otis Redding a little too much but this vocal is very good, one of the better recordings of his career I think. There is one track on Out of Our Heads that I feel should have been replaced with something a bit better. "I'm All Right" is a live track, lots of the typical screaming girls from a Stone's performance, Jagger's voice also cracks badly at one point. It isn't an awful track but surely they had better stuff in the can. Of course, this is the release with the tune that really put the Stones on the map once and for all time "Satisfaction" and who can argue with its lasting impact?

So yeah, you want this one if you love the early Brian Jones era Rolling Stones though this is really the release where it all started to go wrong for a young Mr Jones who was losing his grip on the band's direction mostly for the worse in my opinion. Sure, there are some exceptions to that comment (most notably that quartet of releases from Beggar's Banquet through Exile on Main Street) but I really loved the early edition of this band and wish there was more of that music around.

This rates as one of the best Stones albums in that it shows their Chicago blues roots! "That's How Strong My Love Is", "Hitch Hike", "Have Mercy" -- all show Mick's grasp of the great blues singers which influenced him from the time he first picked up a microphone! (I still watch the old clips of Mick doing his James Brown shuffle and strut -- before he became his own MICK JAGGER -- and I smile like a parent watching her child doing an imitation of his idol in front of the mirror!)
Though this Stones gem does fall in second to "Rolling Stones NOW!" as far as the early stuff goes, this record is truly a classic collection of Stones blues at its BEST! Shine on, Brian Jones -- and we don't care about that stupid movie "Stoned"! (Though the single of the same name is not too bad!)
P.S. I noticed a reviewer here with the last name of Lapinskas! Ed, are you a fellow Lithuanian??? AND a Stones fan???! Wahoo!