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Rating: "The Stones would never have the audacity to release such a horror in Great Britain".
With this ironic comment, Keith Richard welcomes the release of "December's Children", in the last months of 1965. Yet the guitarist's laconic comment still seems exaggerated today. Released only for the US market on the heels of the enormous success of "Out Of Our Heads", at first glance, "December's Children" may appear as a disjointed and contradictory compilation made up of tracks that could seem like a collection of unreleased songs from the aforementioned album. Fortunately, the reality is quite different.
From the wonderful cover photo, which uses the same image as the British edition of "Out Of Our Heads" and features the Rolling Stones in the depths of some seedy street in the States, the album exudes aromas made of chiaroscuro that do not conceal the personalities and musical and cultural intentions of the group. The Stones, on the covers of their early albums, have always placed great importance on iconography, always relying on dark and somber colors. It is also for this reason that "December's Children" proves to be a complete, fascinating, and extremely attractive work.
The Stones know well that rock'n'roll was born and belongs to the street. Its spirit lives there and pulses right from the initial "She Said Yeah", a proto-punk incendiary bomb capable of capturing the total pandemonium of a Stones concert of the era, thanks to a totally unleashed Keith Richard. It is swiftly followed by the very famous "Get Off Of My Cloud", a gracefully vulgar extension of the youthful disorientation already expressed in "Satisfaction" and the live versions of "I'm Moving On", a rather ordinary slide guitar exercise with a touch of harmonica and the explosion of "Route 66" in which the group hits the throttle, making Keith Richard explode into a surprising solo.
The most sexist side of the band comes to the fore through Mick Jagger with the cover of Chuck Berry's "Talkin' About You" to which the Stones change the rhythmic structure, emphasizing the lyrics and making it sensual and explicit. The more accessible side of the group, however, emerges in the pleading simplicity of Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On", in the moving, sweet, famous "As Tears Go By", originally written for Marianne Faithfull, and in the almost Beatles-like beat ballads "The Singer Not The Song", "Gotta Get Away", and "Blue Turns To Grey".
Of course, the blues roots are evident in the delightful "Look What You Done" and the social cry of the beautiful "I'm Free". "December's Children" is this and much more. The album, in fact, has the great merit of giving the listener a perfect image of the Stones' musical world, made not only of a series of brilliant reinterpretations, riffs, and blues rhythms but also of a new way of perceiving reality by a generation that, at the time, was already struggling to find satisfaction.
Unfortunately, they don't release records like this anymore.
Tracklist and Lyrics
02 Talkin' About You (02:30)
(C. Berry)
Let me tell you 'bout a girl I know
I met her walking down an uptown street
She's so fine I wish she was mine
I get shook up every time we meet
Talkin’ bout you (nobody but you, baby)
Nobody but you (yes you all the time)
I do mean you (yeah my baby)
Just trying to get a message to you
Let me tell you 'bout a girl I know
Help me know she looks so good
Lovely skin, well she’s soaked in gin
She oughta be somewhere in Hollywood
Talkin’ 'bout you (I’m talkin’ 'bout my baby)
Nobody but you (yes she's alright)
I do mean you (yeah my baby)
Just trying to get a message to you
Talkin’ 'bout you (nobody but you baby)
Nobody but you (yes you all the time)
I do mean you (yeah yeah)
Just trying to get a message to you
Let me tell you 'bout a girl I know
Sitting right here by my side
Lovely indeed that why I ask if she
Promise someday she will be my bride
Talkin’ 'bout you (yeah talk)
Nobody but you (yes my my baby)
I do mean you (yeah yeah)
I'm just trying to get a message through
Talkin’ bout my baby...
06 Route 66 (02:39)
(Troup)
Well if you ever plan to motor west
Just take my way that's the highway that's the best
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well it winds from Chicago to L.A.
More than 2000 miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well goes from St. Louie down to Missouri
Oklahoma city, the toots look pretty
You'll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona don't forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino
Would you get hip to this kindly tip
And go take that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well goes from St. Louie down to Missouri
Oklahoma city, the toots look pretty
You'll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona don't forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino
Would you get hip to this kindly tip
And go take that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66
07 Get Off of My Cloud (02:54)
I live in an apartment on the 99th floor of my block
And I sit at home looking out the window imagining the world has stopped
Then in flies a guy who's all dressed up just like a Union Jack
And says, "I've won five pounds if I have his kind of detergent pack"
I said hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd on my cloud, baby
The telephone is ringing I say, "Hi, it's me, who is it there on the line?"
A voice says, "Hi, hello, how are you?" "Well, I guess I'm doin' fine"
He says, "It's 3 AM, there's too much noise, don't you people ever wanna go to
bed?
Just 'cause you feel so good, do you have to drive me out of my head?"
I said hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd on my cloud, baby
I was sick and tired, fed up with this and decided to take a drive downtown
It was so very quiet and peaceful, there was nobody, not a soul around
I laid myself out, I was so tired, and I started to dream
In the mornin' the parkin' tickets were just like rags stuck on my window screen
I said hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd on my cloud, baby
Hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Hey (Hey), you (You), get off of my cloud
Don't hang around, baby two's a crowd on my cloud, baby
08 I'm Free (02:22)
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
I'm free to do what I want any old time
I'm free to do what I want any old time
So love me, hold me, love me, hold me
I'm free any old time to get what I want
I'm free to sing my song though it gets out of time
I'm free to sing my song though it gets out of time
So love me, hold me, love me, hold me
And I'm free any old time to get what I want
Love me, hold me, love me, hold me
But I'm free any old time to get what I want
I'm free to choose what I please any old time
I'm free to choose what I please any old time
So hold me, love me, love me, hold me
I'm free any old time to get what I want, yes I am
13 I Just Wanna Make Love to You (Dean Martin intro, Hollywood Palace 64 live) (01:51)
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