"Why Don't We Sing This All Together?"

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Rato Records invites you to (re)discover this unique album (both mono and stereo versions) in all the Stones' discography, which many critics have turned down when it was released. Now, five decades later, it finally achieves the place it deserves in music landmarks. So, my friends, let's go to Citadel, in another land, and in another time, a time that is 2000 light years from home.

HAVE A NICE JOURNEY!

A product of the Stones’ annus horribilis, "Their Satanic Majesties Request" seems to have been initially conceived as a blissed-out summer soundtrack of beatific flower power songs such as “Dandelion”, “She’s a Rainbow” and the possibly mythical English Summer. Just after the release of "Between The Buttons" LP, in late January, 1967, the Stones begun the recording of new songs for the next album to come. However, the process would be a long and sporadic one, broken up by court appearances and jail terms in which the band’s members were involved. Mick Jagger, along with his then-girlfriend Marianne Faithfull, went with the Beatles (plus Pattie Boyd and Jane Asher) to meet the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Bangor, North Wales, on the 25th August. Two months earlier, on the 25th June, both Mick and Marianne were also present (with Brian Jones) in the worldwide broadcast of “All You Need Is Love”, recorded at EMI studios, London, as part of the first live international program “Our World”, seen in 24 countries by 400 million people.

On the 1st June the Beatles released "Sgt. Pepper’s…", which caused a very great impact in the world of music. Once more everyone wanted to follow the Beatles’ example and Decca, the Stones’ label, was no exception; and so they begun to think about the answer the Stones should provide. The result would be "Their Satanic Majesties Request", named 'cause of the words on the inside of a British passport, “Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State requests and requires…” (the album was originally to be called “Cosmic Christmas”. The Stones even cut a track named “We wish you a cosmic joke”). In South Africa the album was released as “The Stones Are Rolling” because of the word Satanic. They even engaged Michael Cooper, the designer/photographer of "Sgt. Pepper’s…" cover, to do the Majesties graphics. Initial releases of the album featured a three-dimensional picture of the band on the front of the gatefold cover (looking closely one can see the heads of the Beatles’ members). Later editions replaced the glued-on 3-dimensional image with a standard photo. Other trivia about the album’s artwork was the maze on the inside cover, which cannot be completed – one can never arrive at the “It’s Here” in the centre.

«It might best be described as a kind of show, a voyage into the beyond, an abstract musical experience to capture the new dimension in music the Stones and Decca Records have come up with», said Leslie Perrin on Decca press release. Mick Jagger was just more straight on his commentary: «It’s just another album. It’s different from the others we’ve done and it’s different from the next we will do. But it’s still just an album. The work on this album is not a landmark or a milestone or anything pretentious like that. All we have tried to do is make an album we like, with some sounds that haven’t been done before». 

Released in December 8 in the UK (and in the following day in America), "Their Satanic Majesties Request" was not well-received by the critics, although it sold many copies, easily going gold, and reaching #3 in the UK (#2 in the US). In America two singles were extracted from the album: “On Another Land / The Lantern”, issued one week earlier, on the 2nd December (London 45-907) and “She’s a Rainbow / 2000 Light Years From Home” issued on the 23th December (London 45-906). No singles were released on the UK, but these last two songs were recorded by BBC Television for the Top of the Pops show, which aired on the 21th December as a promotion for the album.

In retrospect this is a unique and creative contribution by the Stones, far from the prior albums of the band. Maybe it’s the reason why it has been labeled like a “strange” album since then and unfairly undervalued. Indeed, very few rock albums reflects so well the experimental and psychedelic moods of that era, with its inventive arrangements, which incorporated some African rhythms, mellotrons and full orchestration. Never before or since the Stones take so many chances in the studio. In 1968 the Stones would go back to the basics, and never wander down these paths again, making this all the more of a fascinating anomaly in the group’s discography. Much of "Satanic Majesties" was the brain child of Brian Jones, who could play almost any instrument. 

Brian wanted to showcase what The Rolling Stones where about, and what they could do. For those of you who weren’t there, Brian was the one who actually put all of this together, but kids gravitate to the lead singer as the leader, and over time Mick did take on that role, forcing Brian out, but not before the completion of "Their Satanic Majesties Request". Brian wanted to take the initial Blues concept of the Stones and give it a fresh vision, and the psychedelic music and times offered that option. There is still a heavy blues influence to be felt in this record, but it’s the way these simple cords are challenged and tied together that makes it an outstanding product of it’s time. 

Looking just a couple of years ahead to 1969 and the rise of Led Zeppelin, you will find that John Paul Jones along with Brian was an arranger of these sessions. And we all know what a great band Led Zeppelin came to be. All members of the group were using a wide variety of drugs during these days, as were most of us, and the feeling those drugs induced, along with the intermixing of the culture from India, played a great part in the times and tone of this record, wich explore the downside of the acid experienjce, with mounting paranoia and suffocating claustrophobia replacing the Fabs’ pastoral idyllism and cosmic buffoon naivety. This was one album on which a splendor time for all could not be guaranteed.

STONES DO OUTRO MUNDO

Their Satanic Majesties Request, 50 anos depois

"Their Satanic Majesties Request" é um disco maldito. Em Dezembro de 1967, quando o album foi dado a ouvir ao mundo, uma terrível maldição catalogou-o como pálida resposta a "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band", aclamada obra dos Beatles editada uns meses antes. E os Rolling Stones foram acusados de todas as desgraças da humanidade. Condenou-se o capricho de uma capa psicadélica em 3-D de produção caríssima, milhares de horas de estúdio consumidas em LSD, e o desvio da crueza e frontalidade de "Satisfaction" ou "Get Off of My Cloud" a favor de uma aparente falta de direcção musical. O crítico-historiador Nik Cohn sentenciou o fim dos Stones, considerando a obra das coisas mais maçudas da História do Rock, e o próprio Keith Richards, anos mais tarde, referiu-se ao LP como «a load of crap». Obviamente, tratou-se de uma condenação injusta. Enquanto "Sgt. Pepper’s..." foi a banda sonora da cultura Hippie, do movimento Peace and Love, e do Verão do Amor californiano, esbanjando optimismo, cor, e perfeição musical, "Their Satanic", em todo o seu esplendor caótico, assinalou oportunamente o início da ressaca de uma época também ela com o seu quê de decepcionante.

Verdade seja dita, o disco é uma verdadeira carta fora do baralho no rico e extenso historial discográfico dos Rolling Stones. E se "Aftermath" (1966) e "Between the Buttons" (1967), tal como os singles "Paint It Black" ou "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing In The Shadow", já indiciavam uma viragem para um universo sonoro mais Pop-experimental-ou-psicadélico e eminentemente britânico, "Their Satanic" revela-nos uns Stones que nunca mais tivemos a oportunidade de ouvir. Uns Stones perdidos no tempo. Uns Stones do outro mundo. Gravado durante o famigerado annus horribilis da banda, de prisões por posse de droga e outros fait-divers traumáticos, "Their Satanic" registou para a posteridade uma excelente colecção de canções pseudo-cósmicas, ornamentadas por melodias e arranjos absolutamente brilhantes. A música americana, fonte do som original da banda, está completamente ausente do disco, porém, é impossível escapar ao apelo futurista de "2000 Light Years From Home", "The Lantern", "Gomper", ou "2000 Man". Depois, o disco ainda inclui a rara, e bem sucedida, incursão de Bill Wyman na composição e interpretação vocal, "In Another Land", e a barroca orquestração de John Paul Jones – futuro membro dos Led Zeppelin – no clássico "She’s a Rainbow".

Hoje, podemos constatar como em 67 os Stones estavam bem mais próximos das visões vanguardistas de Syd Barrett do que das viagens místicas dos Beatles. Aliás, não será por acaso que "Their Satanic" é considerado o álbum psicadélido que mais influenciou os Punks, Pós-Punks, Góticos, Indies e afins. "Citadel", uma das canções seminais do album, soa como um anúncio das décadas seguintes! Para os Vinyl Junkies como eu, aconselho sempre que oiçam a versão original mono do disco, na sua versão americana (London) ou inglesa (Decca). Certos sons tornam-se surpreendentemente presentes, e o som geral do disco apresenta-se notoriamente mais denso. Quanto ao objecto em si, é maravilhoso. Dos mais desejados no submundo do vinil. Segundo a bíblia da Record Collector, o Rare Record Price Guide, existe uma edição promocional do LP (Decca TXL/TXS 103 – 1967) cuja capa é forrada a seda. Nunca vi tal Pedra de Roseta, mas pagaria para ver. As cópias são avaliadas por uma quantia tão obscena que me escuso de revelar. Entretanto, na foto de Michael Cooper em 3-D é possível decifrar por entre a vegetação, aos pés da banda, as cabeças dos Fab Four. E ao abrir-se a capa em dois, descobre-se uma interessante profusão de elementos cujo motivo central é um labirinto que não vai dar a lado nenhum.

Sou fã do "Their Satanic" desde os 13 anos de idade. Comprei a minha primeira cópia na Compasso de Campo de Ourique. Era uma pobre reedição portuguesa desprovida do esplendor da foto em 3-D. Somente anos depois, numa discoteca madrilena junto à Gran Via, experimentei a suprema felicidade de adquirir uma cópia original. Para sempre gravada na minha memória estará a noite de 10 de Junho de 1990 quando a Urban Jungle Tour passou por Lisboa. Foi a primeira vez dos Stones em Portugal. E não imaginam o meu espanto ao ouvir "2000 Light Years From Home" ao vivo, no palco de Alvalade. Também a minha adolescência foi resgatada naquele instante. "Their Satanic Majesties Request" está de parabéns. Sobreviveu 40 anos. Tal como eu próprio. E enquanto a minha vida for conduzida por discos assim, a felicidade não terá fim. Mesmo que seja apenas por um momento. Satânico, claro… (Pedro de Freitas Branco, Rio de Janeiro, 7 de Dezembro de 2007)