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Rating: The wind of psychedelic love was truly blowing magically in the golden years of 1966-1967, and anyone with a hint of imagination managed to expand it to the extreme, ignoring everything that was conventional, pre-established, obvious… in a word, old. Imagine the mystical evocative effect it had on brilliant minds like those of Mr. Jagger and Mr. Richards… okay, even for me, it's an almost impossible task to even think of putting myself in the shoes of the two aforementioned characters. But luckily, our imagination can be stimulated by the lysergic tracks of this amazing psychedelic masterpiece created by the Rolling Stones.
Click… play, if unfortunately, like me, you only have the CD… “Sing This All Together” is a vaudeville in the best British tradition, disfigured by the sharp sarcasm of which the two were capable and masters… and after the playful escapade, the Stones magically introduce us to their “Citadel”, which sounds like a place inhabited by elves, sprites, and gnomes, where everything is rarefied, and daylight seems never to want to go away… and they immediately explain that this wonderful little town is “In Another Land”. The first masterpiece of this album is “2000 Man”, where multi-colored kaleidoscopic sounds are painted, embracing the psychedelic folk of Donovan, freak-beat interludes, and a quirky and deviant pop, much like the best of the Kinks. “Sing This All Together (See What Happen)” is their “manifesto of lysergic avant-garde” where they pay no heed to the real dimensions of space and time and indulge in sound experiments, which now recall the free-form of Faust (which occurred only half a decade later), now an as yet unwilled form of the 70s dance, now the search for our ancestral and cerebral origins… all condensed into eight cathartic minutes and a half. With “She’s A Rainbow”, the Rolling Stones craft one of the absolute masterpieces of psych-flower-pop, a song about the future redemption of the female condition, which becomes a poetic elevation to a radiant being. “The Lantern” is a humble folk-blues-psychedelic track that, in my humble opinion, is heavily influenced by the entrance onto the scene of Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd, to whom they seem to want to give a pass. “Gomper” is the restless English gaze at the window opened by Eastern philosophies, which expanded their mysticism towards the West. But the journey absolutely cannot end without an interstellar voyage to “2000 Light Years From Home”, where the Stones mix acid-induced mental trips with an experience outside our galaxy, with a sound carpet in the form of seminal space-rock (which I believe the Hawkwind memorized), before Jagger, dressed as a fairground barker, gives us his indispensable advice, filtering his voice through a megaphone… so as to attract more people to the last “On With The Show”...
Often this (master)work has been heavily battered by the hardcore and pure fans of the Stones, who always wanted them bluesy, murky, and mean… obtuse (the fans). Just the photo on the cover is worth the price of admission.
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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Other reviews
By enbar77
An apparently out-of-tune piano and the not entirely dissipated intoxication of a hangover from an improbable brass group serve as the opening to what I personally define as the highest quality work of the Rolling Stones.
Were it not for the evident uncertainties, unfortunately easy to catch in Watts’ percussion commentary, 'She’s a Rainbow' would be an authentic masterpiece.
By Valeriorivoli
It’s their anomalous masterpiece, they won’t sound like this again.
Years go by: the guitars end up on the shelf, myths crumble, but the beautiful songs remain.
By marcom63
This album is emblematic of a period when all of Rock was evolving from a phenomenon of pure entertainment to a phenomenon with artistic aspirations.
Brian Jones manages to make his most significant personal contribution here, but it will be the last time.
