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Rating: The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)
"Open our heads and the pictures come."
The First Song by the Rolling Stones that I still remember is in a bucolic polaroid of my summer holidays: I was on the indoor staircase of my grandparents' country house; they led from the kitchen to the upper floor, with the steps made of pietra serena -does anyone remember it?- in a burnished brown color, polished by age, but very smooth, every now and then someone would strike and fly down. I often sat at the top of the stairs, in front of the window near the railing, listening to songs with a big radio... And on medium wave Emotional Rescue came through. Ah what a strange piece, I said to myself, but who are these guys...
However, the somewhat alzheimer-Charliewatts! pace of that 4/4 disco casket, the silly and obscene falsetto, struck me. I understood better the following year when Start Me Up arrived, and at the arcade, the Rolling Stones pinball, you know those noisy and chaotic pinballs: it seemed like a concert, all those lights, the specials, Jagger's equine lips, lots of boom-boom, and the Christmas/electronic tunes of Satisfaction, When the Whips Come Down, and especially Miss You, I remember that one well. Plinplinplin pippi pi ri, plinplinplin pippi pi ri and I miss you... Every hundred lire wasn't just a game; more: it was an embrace. And the challenge with the friends from the group won at the last tilt by yours truly, who literally took away the opponent's hot sister in front of the astonished eyes of the other bullies, all silent after the record made written and validated behind the pinball with a Bic marker, for future memory? Ah how cool it is when you win... On the rock'n roll pinball there was the ritual writing that is often forgotten: for amusement only.
Years passed, the first guitar, a blazing, cheap, Hondo Les Paul Sunburst, I still cry, I sold it -never sell your first love!- During that period I was strumming from one band to another, basements, rehearsals, some small gigs, many mentally exalted people convinced they are rockstars.
Then, complicity of the scholastic travails, I rediscovered Dynasty by Kiss, and thanks to Ace I came from the cover of 2000 Man to Their Satanic Majesties, and I started military service -Trieste- with the cassette. And in the mega canteen bar of the central barracks, synchronicity, who do I find?: another Rolling Stones pinball, but I was so high that I don’t remember well how it was anymore. I think it had a different design from the challenge one... Maybe there was Jagger with a snaked microphone like one from a compilation. Meh. But I was so down, it seemed like it was playing a sad litany too, or maybe it was just my imagination, like The Sun is about to set... With my tears like thiiis. Anyway, it was a boredom killer Rolling Stones album, and sounds a bit Pink Floyd sound 1967! The cover was a mocking laugh in disguise -or maybe not?- like the poor cousins of the Beatles from Sgt. Pepper, but the result is superior. There's everything, trumpets, strings, dulcimer, spinets, flutes, bongos, sitar, spacey effects, zarathustra orchestras, plus the gray eminence of Brian Jones—who snores too: it's their anomalous masterpiece, they won't sound like this again. The overture mantra of Sing This All Together, the hard beat of Citadel, the trip of In Another Land, the acid rock of 2000 Man - the delightful and baroque She's a Rainbow - recently played in an ad - the Hindu jam of Gomper, the dark and introspective The Lantern and 2000 Light Years From Home.
Of the Rolling Stones today, only the circus side remains, of the rock arena - 200 euros a ticket - or a CD every 6 months, take your pick.
And from the 2000 Man we moved to Novella 2000, with coconuts on their heads - a sign? - or the sex icon Jagger who is discovered with the small penis complex and masturbates to make it grow - at 60 years old, mature and well-nourished!! - in a honeycomb full of wasps advised by the aborigines - sic.
Years go by: the guitars end up on the shelf, myths crumble, but the beautiful songs remain.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Citadel (02:53)
(Jagger/Richards)
Men are armed shout who goes there
We have journeyed far from here
Armed with bibles make us swear
Candy and Taffy, hope we both are well
Please come see me in the citadel
Flags are flying, dollar bills
Round the heights of concrete hills
You can see the pinnacles
Candy and taffy, hope we both are well
Please come see me in the citadel
In the streets are many walls
Hear the peasants come and crawl
You can hear their lovers call
Candy and Taffy, hope we both are well
Please come see me in the citadel
Screaming people fly so fast
In their shiny metal cars
Throug the woods of steel and glass
Candy and Taffy, hope we both are well
Please come see me in the citadel
03 In Another Land (03:15)
(B.Wyman)
In another land where the breeze and the
Trees and flowers were blue
I stood and held your hand.
And the grass grew high and the feathers floated by
I stood and held your hand.
And nobody else's hand will ever do
Nobody else will do
Then I awoke
Was this some kind of joke
Much to my surprise
I opened my eyes.
We walked across the sand and the sea and
The sky and the castles were blue.
I stood and held your hand.
And the spray flew high and the feathers floated by
I stood and held your hand.
And nobody else's hand will ever do
Nobody else will do
Then I awoke
Was this some kind of joke
Much to my surprise
When I opened my eyes.
We heard the trumpets blow and the sky
Turned red when I accidently said
That I didn't know how I came to be here
Not fast asleep in bed.
I stood and held your hand.
And nobody else's hand will ever do
Nobody else's hand
Then I awoke
Was this some kind of joke
I opened my eyes.
Much to my surprise.
06 She's a Rainbow (05:18)
She comes in colours ev'rywhere
She combs her hair
She's like a rainbow
Coming, colours in the air
Everywhere
She comes in colours
She comes in colours ev'rywhere
She combs her hair
She's like a rainbow
Coming, colours in the air
Oh, everywhere
She comes in colours
Have you seen her dressed in blue?
See the sky in front of you
And her face is like a sail
Speck of white, so fair and pale
Have you seen a lady fairer?
She comes in colours ev'rywhere
She combs her hair
She's like a rainbow
Coming, colours in the air
Oh, everywhere
She comes in colours
Have you seen her all in gold?
Like a queen in days of old
She shoots colours all around
Like a sunset going down
Have you seen a lady fairer?
She comes in colours ev'rywhere
She combs her hair
She's like a rainbow
Coming, colours in the air
Oh, everywhere
She comes in colours
She's like a rainbow
Coming, colours in the air
Oh, everywhere
She comes in colours
07 The Lantern (04:25)
(Jagger/Richards)
We, on our present life,
Knew that the stars were right.
That if you are the first to go,
You'll leave a sign to let me know,
Tell me so.
Please, carry the Lantern lights.
You crossed the sea of night,
Free from the spell of fright
Your cloak it is a spirit shroud.
You'll wake me in my sleeping hours,
Like a cloud.
So, please, carry the Lantern high.
Me, in my sorry plight,
You waiting ev'ry night.
My face it turns a deathly pale,
You're talking to me, through your veil,
I hear you wail.
So, please carry the Lantern light.
The servants sleep,
The door's are barred.
You hear the stopping of my heart-we never part.
So, please carry the Lantern high.
08 Gomper (05:09)
(Jagger, Richards)
By the lake with lilly flowers
Wallow away the evening hours
To and fro she's gently gliding
On the glassy lake she's riding
She swims to the side
The sun sees her dried
The birds hover high
I'd stifle a cry
The birds hover high
She moans with a sigh
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