Everybody who made a record before 1967 has a bad psychedelic moment.Most people maintain that the Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request album is just such an aberration. Among its harshest critics was John Lennon who pointed out that "Majesties was Pepper.Everything the Beatles did, the Stones did three months later."Satanic Majesties, released December 21, 1967, put the Stones back a derivative six months behind the Fabs, but Mick, Keith and Brian were at least a year and a half ahead of the Beatles in terms of drug busts and in 1967 counter culture, that was more important.
This month, we rush to the defense of the album the Stones almost called Cosmic Christmas because the inside montage was to have a picture of Jagger hanging naked from a cross in the middle of a maze. Natch, Decca Records prevented this from ever happening but the critics saw to it that Mick and the boys were crucified by December 25th anyway. It took the Stones 22 years to have enough balls to risk playing a song from Majesties live. Opinions have mellowed and save one or two embarrassing songs (oh, all right, maybe three or four), it stacks up as one of the great psychedelic albums of all time. Here are seven good reasons why Their Satanic Majesties Request is nothing like Sgt. Pepper.
Reason No. 1:Granted, both albums had innovative covers photographed by Michael Cooper. But if you dropped acid staring at Sgt. Pepper's impressive collage of dead celebrities, chances are you would've had a bad trip involving Stan Laurel. By merely moving the Stones' phantasmagoric 3D cover from left to right, you could contract a severe case of motion sickness without any pharmaceuticals! Reason No. 2:Sgt. Pepper's band wants you all to sing along because, as the cover clearly states, "a splendid time is guaranteed for all."The Stones guarantee nothing and just invite the audience members to"Sing This All Together (See What Happens)." And for eight interminable eight minutes, nothing much does.
Reason No. 3:On "With A Little Help From My Friends," Ringo worries that if he sings out of key, you’ll walk out on him. Unconcerned with massive listener defection, the Stones allow Bill Wyman sing lead for the first and last time on a Stones record, plastering his voice with enough tremolo to oscillate his monotone voice into a one and a half note range!
Reason No. 4:Both albums address decidedly different generation gap concerns. On Pepper's "She's Leaving Home," parents can't understand why their daughter ran away with a man from the motor trade to have "fun". On Majesties' "2000 Man," it's the kids who can't understand their fun Dad who's "having an affair with a random computer"!
Reason No. 5: "2000 Man" was covered by Kiss on their Dynasty album. The Beatles have never written a tune that could later accommodate the New York cabbie croak of Ace Frehley.
Reason No. 6: Pepper's chief fantasy girl is "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and her most outstanding psychedelic attributes are her kaleidoscopic eyes. Majesties' had the fair maiden of "She's a Rainbow" who "comes in colors" and since this is the Stones, it's a safe bet they weren't talking about her Mary Kay cosmetics.
Reason No. 7:Sgt. Pepper's finale was "A Day In the Life" which had Lennon mulling over mundane news items before a forty piece orchestra charges in. After climbing from lowest note to highest, it climaxes with an ominous piano chord. Satanic Majesties' finale was "On With the Show" which lands us at a sleazy gentleman's cabaret. It climaxes with someone playing ragtime piano while Jagger plies a West End tease pot with bourbon and swears he isn't recording their conversation! Photo Caption: The Stones answer the musical question "Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?"
Serene Dominic is a freelance writer.
He's performed as Serene Dominic, Vic Masters, The Human Torch, a rash of truly funny tribute band like Mutant Beatles Experiment, Dragon Attack (Queen) and Bluebird (Wings), as well as being a driving force behind Gullaballoo and Love Lounge for the past ten years in the greater or not so great Phoenix area. And now, he's the host of the greatest 15 minute vidcast ever, "THE SERENE DOMINIC SHOW" . He's been called "The World's Most Maniacally Depressed Salloon Singer," "The Pitbull of Pop" and "The Schlub of Love." But you may call him "friend." Or "fiend" if you're not a good speller. In 2003 he wrote a book on Burt Bacharach and is currently working on several different books most notably 1967—The Last Year in Pop. There's hundreds of articles he's written for Phoenix New Times, MetroTimes, Creem and other weeklies you can link to from serenedominic.com Go there and feel like a real cyber pal!
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