Customer Reviews

Satanic Majesties Request

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I'm glad to give five stars to an album the critics despise. (I also liked Self Portrait by Dylan, another critics' target.) Satanic Majesties (and a couple of singles of the period -- Jack Flash/Child of the Moon, We Love You/Dandelion) does a beautiful job of filtering psychedelia through the jaded tough-guy rhythm 'n' blues of the Stones. Conceptually, the whole album hangs together pretty well (distance, alienation, death, sleep, street life, etc., intruding into the flower power cocoon), and underneath are some great riffs from Keith (e.g., Citadel). The real point, however, is that here the Stones were willing to experiment, even if they were accused of being derivative or misguided. They experimented even more successfully the next time with Beggar's Banquet before the perfection of Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile gave them a successful formula (throw in a countryish tune, a blues/soul remake, etc.) that unfortunately dampened their willingness to take these kinds of risks again.

The much maligned Their Satanic Majesties Request is The Rolling Stones obvious response to The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's album. The band dived headfirst into the psychedelic sounds of 1967's Summer of Love and the album sounds like no other in their catalog. Despite the criticism and attempt to keep pace with the Beatles (including the original 3-D cover), the album contains some excellent songs. The album opens up strong with the overture "Sing This All Together" with it's horns and sound effects and then slides right into the grinding guitar of "The Citadel". Bill Wyman's only lead vocal on a Stone's album is "In Another Land" and upon listening to it you can hear why it was his first and last. He has a tremendously thin voice and he makes Ringo Starr sound like Pavarotti. "2000 Man" is fast-paced and along with "2000 Light Years From Home" are the best songs on the album. The reprise of "Sing This All Together" is a major misstep and is a really bad song, but they pick up again with the flowery "She's A Rainbow". This album has taken an undue amount of heat, but as the years have passed, it should be looked at for what it is, a solid foray into the psychedelic arena by one of the best bands of all-time.

I love the Stones, and I love Britsh rock, particularly of the 60s and 70s, so I love this album. Many Stones fans aren't too crazy about this album, but they just might be prejudiced against it by some pre-conceived notion of what the Stones are supposed to sound like. Frankly, I'm sick of hearing people pan this one as a lame attempt to jump on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper Band Wagon. Sure it's from that era, and lots of pop music from any given era will be influenced by contemporary trends, and I would not be at all surprised if the Stones were inspired (as everyone was) by the Beatles at the time (1967) to do a comparably creative album with a comparably expensive album cover, but all things considered, I do not think that _Satanic Majesty_ sounds particularly like _Sgt. Pepper_, except that they are both products of British Pop-Rock Culture of that time (so were many other worthy classics, such as Pink Floyd's _Piper at the Gates of Dawn_). There was a creative explosion going on at the time; other bands that were involved in that whole scene included the Moody Blues, Yardbirds, and many others, and the way was being paved for great sounds to follow in the next few years like Zep and King Crimson. The mellotron was a groovy new keyboard instrument which the Stones used most effectively on songs like "2000 Light Years from Home." The lyrics evoke many exotic images, while the beautiful melodies, tones, and harmonies evoke many moods. "She's a Rainbow" beautifully blends voices, piano (Nicky Hopkins is awsome), guitar, and strings for a sound I could only describe as "Rock n' Roll Mozart." Most of the songs, as on most Stones albums, are by that prolific pair: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. "In Another Land," however, is by Bill Wyman and is a great song with many effects and instruments. So maybe there are a few minutes of self-indulgent extended instrumental filler, but virutally every song is great. That is what made the 60s a great period for bands like the Stones; they were a bluesy rock band, but they were so much more than that. Don't listen to all the negative, cynical hype; light some incense, turn on your lava lamp, and give this wonderful album a chance.

With 'Satanic Majesties", the Stones weren't really attempting to copy Sgt Pepper as they were simply responding to it. Jagger and company recognized Pepper as the innovative masterpiece that it was, and put thier own spin on it. While the results may sound dated or kitschy to some inexperienced listeners, the sound of this album typifies the near-avant-garde mindset and experimental spirit that dominated studio productions of this era. The Stones's search for new sounds may not have yielded results as conscise as the music of the Beatles, but the Stones were always less polished and more down and dirty rockers anyway. This is typified on 'Citadel' an incredibly rockin' track that thrashes for 2 and a half minutes with a Nirvana-like aggresession. Then there's '2000 light years from home' a drugged-out anthem, where Charlie Watt's pounds out the kind of droning rock groove that seems tailor-made for today's club scene. The re-occuring theme "Sing this Song", has a sing-songy british feel, counterbalanced by displaced loungy vibes and brass, and at times recalls Pink Floyds early forays into sound effects. Overall, this is a bold and entertaining album.

Although regarded by many as the Rolling Stones' psychedelic skeleton in the closet, "Their Satanic Majesties Request" is actually VERY different from the album it is ENDLESSLY and unfavorably compared to, the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." "Satanic Majesties" was NEVER meant to be anything other than a parody of the whole nonsense 60's message of drug-drenched peace, love, and harmony. Most revelatory on this unfairly criticized album is the work of Brian Jones.
Brian warned his bandmates that psychedelia and the whole psychedelic movement would be over soon and to spend any length of time on an album celebrating what amounted to nothing more than a misguided fad could be detrimental. Brian's sage warnings went unheeded. Brian played very little guitar on the album, apart from some excellent electric guitar flourishes on "2000 Man." Instead he played the Mellotron (a type of analogue synthesizer), an electronic instrument panel, harp, sitar, keyboards, woodwinds of all kinds, and just about anything else on the album that the listener picks up in the layers of sounds. Mick Jagger once said, "just about everything you hear on that album is Brian."
It took time for people to recognize that this was the Stones literally making fun of the whole psychedelic era. "2000 Man" is almost prophetic, with children of the year 2000 asking their baby boomer relatives these pointed lyrics from the song: "oh daddy is your brain still flashing, like it did when you were young? Or did you come down crashing, seeing all the things you done? Oh, it's a big put-on."
And for those of us that are the generation that came on the scene immediately AFTER the baby boomers (this writer was born in 1967), it is INDEED a big put on, and the Stones knew this in 1967.
This isn't "Sgt. Pepper." The Stones didn't care if "She's Leaving Home" or not. They were unlikely to attend a benefit for Mister Kite, and the heaviness of "Satanic Majesties" does make "When I'm 64" sound exactly like what John Lennon said it was, a nice little song "for the grannies to dig."
Love this album. Hate this album. But whatever you do, DON'T compare it to Sgt. Pepper. There were never two albums more different from each other. Pepper is brilliant, no doubt about it, but for my generation it is BEYOND over-rated. Feel what you want about "Their Satanic Majesties Request," but do NOT underestimate it.

"Their Satanic Majesties Request" is by far my favorite Rolling Stones album. As the other reviews state, it is uncharacteristic of much of the band's more popular work, and is often unfavorably compared to Sgt. Pepper. A comparison between the two albums proves to be very interesting. The original lp cover of Satanic Majesties prepares you for the experience. While the similarity to Pepper's front cover is hard to miss, the Stone's 3D vision says that there is something spacier going on inside. The original album opened up to reveal a maze that you could not successfully navigate. This is another clue to the contents of the album, because Satanic Majesties is full of puzzling, beautiful, trippy music. It seems that TSMR starts where Sgt. Pepper ends. This doesn't mean that it is a better album; it just takes your mind to a farther, very often darker place. In fact, there is a recurring Sci-Fi feeling to many of the tracks. Satanic Majesties starts off with a nice sing-along number appropriately titled "Sing This All Together". This tune and the lovely "She's A Rainbow" are the lighter moments of the album, and they are the beginnings of sides one and two respectively on the original album. "2000 Light Years From Home" creates a terrifying feeling of deep space loneliness, while "Citadel" and "2000 Man" seem to prophesize the paranoia of the 21st century. "In Another Land" speaks of dream states and astral travel to fantastic other worlds. In summary, there is a mood being created when you listen to this album that almost plays like the soundtrack to some very far out movie. It's as if the Stones took the template of the Sgt. Pepper lp and veered off into their own direction. When they finally land on planet Earth, they "see us safely to the door" with the album's closer "On With The Show". The journey is over, but with "Their Satanic Majesties Request" you can take off again anytime.

This may have been the Stones' answer to Sgt. Pepper, but it was clearly influenced by Pink Floyd's Piper At the Gates of Dawn. Bill Wyman's In Another Land could've easily fit on that album. The rest is pure period psychedelia that is nothing short of satisfying when you're in that kind of mood.

Pepper didn't get this psychedelic and after Revolver, you can count the number of psychedelic Beatles songs on one hand. This album came out six months after Piper and most songs consist of ambiguous lyrics, which was commonplace in every Syd Barrett song, whether he meant to do it or not.

Their Satanic Majesties Request is a far cry from Piper At the Gates of Dawn, which, in my opinion is in the top 10 rock albums of all-time, but it's required psychedelic listening. Put this, Piper, Anthem of the Sun by the Grateful Dead, and the Soft Machine on random and leave the LSD behind. These guys did it for you.

Yes, it's true that this isn't a typical Stones album. In fact, it's probably the most un-Stone-like album they've ever done. However, despite the oddness of this album, I love it. I don't love it because it's perfect, I love it because it's a quirky but intensely enjoyable collection of odd songs that typify psychedelic music. I bought a copy of the album for Christmas in 1967 and 37 years later, I still love to listen to it.

I am sick and tired of people knocking this album. Okay, if you don't like the Lp fine, music has to do with taste. When I first bought this Lp about twenty years ago I remember saying two things to myself 1) With the exception of "She's A Rainbow" and "2,000 Light Years From Home", I thought the Lp stunk 2) I also remember saying this Lp sounds nothing like "Sgt. Pepper" so what is all this 'rip-off' nonsense. However, over the years the Lp has grown on me and I think it was one of the best Lp's the Stones made. Songs like "Sing This Song All Together", "Citadel", "2,000 Man", "In Another Land", "Sing This Song Pt2" and "On With The Show" are quite good as well. All of this Sgt Pepper 'rip-off' stuff is nonsense. Since when is one group making a psychedelic Lp a 'rip-off' Sgt Pepper when that's what every group at the time was doing. If there are no similarities either lyricaly or musically between any of the songs, then 'rip-off' is a very strong way of putting it. I think 'influenced' is more like it, but what post Pepper psychedelic Lp wasn't? And believe me there is a big difference between 'ripping-off' and influenced. It's an underrated classic.

This album, made in 1967 at the peek of "Flower Power" has been hacked down so many times over the years that I believe it needs some could coverage in it's defence!

Firstly, Santanics is one of the boldest titles to come out of England at that time and the cover is histerical! The music was an attempt to reach the sounds of the times and when I first heard the whole album on CD back in 1987 I thought it was quite lame, especially if your listening to King Crimson and the like.

What I realized after repeated listenings was that it is one of The Stones most interesting and expierimental albums! If you also consider their lame attempt on Aftermath to do an uninspired blues ("I'm going home") that stetched at more than 11 minutes oviously copying quite unimaginativly The Doors epic "The End" and failing so hard that in comparison, Satanics is truly an unintentional Masterpiece!

The record flows with The Beatles (John and Paul) actuwaly singing in "Why dont we sing this all together?" and "Shes a Rainbow." The songs are stranger than usuwal and we here a punk element for the first time as well as "Tape editing" , something we would never get again from the boys!

This is one of my favorite Stones albums and over the years it has really grown on me. It is not typical Stones fair and that is what makes it special. Do not expect great creative original music in the Psycedelic vain (like King Crimson!) and instead sit back, roll a joint and dig a Rolling Stones Pyscedelic wonder of the 1960s....this album ROCKS!!! - Hope this helps!