{"id":40088,"date":"2007-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/englands-newest-hit-makers\/"},"modified":"2007-01-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-01T00:00:00","slug":"englands-newest-hit-makers","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/englands-newest-hit-makers\/","title":{"rendered":"England’s Newest Hit Makers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question: How do you review an album that was released 42 years ago?<\/p>\n

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Okay, if I need to ask that question, then I shouldn\u2019t have been writing music reviews for two decades.<\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s re-word the question: How do you objectively review an album that was released 42 years ago, while forgetting about all of the history of the band behind it?<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s the challenge facing listeners to England\u2019s Newest Hit Makers<\/i>, the birth cry of The Rolling Stones. It\u2019s far too easy to look down one\u2019s nose at this disc and berate the lack of tracks like \u201cSatisfaction,\u201d \u201cMother\u2019s Little Helper\u201d or \u201cAs Tears Go By\u201d \u2013 casually forgetting that even Mick Jagger and crew had to get their musical start somewhere. (Even in the early days, it seems like the fans were there, as this disc just missed cracking the Billboard<\/i> top ten.)<\/p>\n

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And in 1964, that start was the same place that so many other British bands were seeing as a lauchpad: the blues. Why not? Fleetwood Mac did it; Eric Clapton did it \u2013 hell, Led Zeppelin did it to an extent. So the boys \u2013 including a rather odd assortment of guests, including Ian Stewart and Phil Spector \u2013 brought to life the blues, and did it fairly well, even if the overall presentation wasn\u2019t as exciting as one would hope for.<\/p>\n

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Make no mistake, the Stones were the polar opposites of The Beatles \u2013 where the <\/place>Liverpool lads were the kind of clean-cut boys you\u2019d want your daughter to bring home, the Stones seemed like the Eliza Doolittle of the scene. (You know, you can dress them up, but not take them anywhere.) That\u2019s why there does feel like there\u2019s an edge to songs like \u201cI Just Want To Make Love To You,\u201d \u201cWalking The Dog\u201d and \u201cCarol,\u201d though the real vocal bite that Jagger would come to be known for was still very much in development.<\/p>\n

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Also in development were the songwriting skills of Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards; of the 12 songs on England\u2019s Newest Hit Makers<\/i>, only one is an original composition. If only \u201cTell Me\u201d were a track worthy of adulation. As it is, it\u2019s not a terrible effort, and does pay respect to the other artists whose work they were covering in terms of style. But if I were living in 1964 and was told that Jagger and Richards would become two of rock\u2019s most beloved songwriters, I\u2019d have told you to lay off the laughing gas.<\/p>\n

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At times, the energy of the Stones \u2013 Jagger, Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts \u2013 feels like it\u2019s going to burst through the speakers, such as on \u201cCarol\u201d and the instrumental \u201cNow I\u2019ve Got A Witness\u201d. But at other times, it feels like the band is on auto-pilot, as on \u201cRoute 66\u201d.<\/p>\n

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This is where things get difficult. You obviously know when you pick up England\u2019s Newest Hit Makers<\/i> that you\u2019re not going to get an early version of \u201cStart Me Up\u201d \u2013 but you still might not be prepared for the 31 minutes of music you do get. While this disc is worth checking out to experience the first act of one of rock music\u2019s greatest pieces of musical theatre, it does require a very open mind. If you can somehow forget four decades of Rolling Stones history and take this disc for the starting point that it really is, you\u2019re in for a fairly enjoyable experience. Quite possibly, this is the Rolling Stones at their hungriest, looking forward to days of superstardom. Ironically, theit first glimpse at the bright lights was just one album away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5665],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-40088","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-rolling-stones","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40088"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40088"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}