| Album Notes |
UK Decca / US London LP
Released: 6/7 December 1968
UK: No.3, charted 12 weeks
US: No.5, charted 32 weeks
This is the first Stones album to be produced by Jimmy Miller, who also produced Traffic and Spooky Tooth as well as co-writing ‘I’m A Man’ with Stevie Winwood. This is an album as different from its predecessor as it’s possible to be. It came out a year after Their Satanic Majesties Request, making it the longest wait for a Stones’ album since the start of their career.
On the start of each side of the original LP are tracks that are pivotal to the history of the Rolling Stones – ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ and ‘Street Fighting Man’. Among the other musicians who appear on the album are, Nicky Hopkins on piano, Dave Mason on guitar and mandolin and a gospel choir from Los Angeles. It’s strongly blues influenced record, getting back to the band’s roots and no more so than on the only non Jagger & Richards song on the album – ‘Prodigal Son’. The original of which was first recorded in 1929 as ‘That’s No way To Get Along’ by Robert Wilkins; a year earlier he had recorded the first known song to be entitled, ‘Rolling Stone’. It was also the last album on which Brian Jones plays any significant part, including some lovely slide guitar on ‘No Expectations’.
“Street Fighting Man came about because I was fascinated by the possibilities of playing an acoustic guitar through a cassette recorder, using it as a pick-up.” - Keith
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