I have something for this album. Can't explain it.

On one hand it is a hotch-potch of outtakes, singles and Uk-tracks.

On the other hand it works extremly well as an album itself, and a perfect time capsule.

I love this record, it's THE one I would recomend to people who wants to listen to the 'English' sounding Stones from the mid-60's.

What do people think?

love it - including My Girl! :E - but especially that shining run at the end:
the final three tracks are each a joy, and just keep getting better



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-03-21 12:56 by with sssoul.

Great Album with great songs. Love them all
but I prefer the long Out Of Time instead of the short version.
Sitting on a fence is one of my all time favorite.

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with sssoul
love it - and that included My Girl! :E - but especially that shining run at the end:
the final three tracks are each a joy, and just keep getting better

A part of their catalogue that doesn't get near as much attention as the Blues and rock based material. The acoustic, British-country style music from mid 60's is great. I thought "Take it or leave it" could have been re-invented and toughened up for the stage.

sadly stringsoverdubb on my girl .

I must confess that Flowers is one of my Stones vinyls that is played the less on my turntable .
Not "rock" enough IMO.
Although Lady Jane was one of the firstStones number I've heard on the radio,with Angie and IORR

I agree I love Flowers! With the exception of My Girl possibly their worst cover ever!

I also have affection for this lp. Love Ride On Baby & Take It or Leave It previously unavailable in US at the time.

It's so very lonely, you're 2,000 Light Years from home

I always liked the record, and agree that this was a very interesting period in their music - not blues covers of the early years nor the "classic" Stones sound of Beggars Banquet and beyond - pure pop craftsmanship with great songwriting by Mick & Keith and instrumental support from the group, particularly Brian Jones. An underappreciated stretch of their career.

Aaording to Cashbox magazine, it outsold Betwen The Buttons in 1967.
Of the top 100 albums in 1967, Flowers was #22 and Buttons was #26.
Number one was The Soundtrack to Dr. Zhivago.

its a great album like most of them.....

Sittin on a fence and My Girl..those were the reasons for buying this album back in 1967...

Can it be treated like an album???

Nope, only a album with at least 10 new studiosongs is...

I like the songs on it, I and love "My Girl", I can't really understand why so many always put this song down, like some other said, that track was one of the reason buying "Flowers" back then.
My parents didn't like that there were so many songs I already had in my collection (I was a waste of money, they said!), but the "new ones" on Flowers were great(and worth the cost), I got goosebumbs the first time I heard "Ride On Baby" !

But of'course the cover was bad ! Only some old pictures from "Aftermath" and same picture on the back side !
And I have some sad memories after I bought "Flowers" in the shop, and when I came home the same day,I read in the newspaper "Brian Jones found dead".

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Come On
Nope, only a album with at least 10 new studiosongs is...

Then Let It Bleed is not an album either.

I love this album..And the 2000 remaster of it makes its even better...Has a lot of great tracks like back steet girls, have you seen your mother, lady jane, please go home, ride on baby and the best track of all, Sittin on a fence..
Yes many of these songs are on other lp's but Flowers has it all...

Ps...Black n Blue would not be a album....and if it were only new songs then, TY is not a album either...
Its a album...so play it loud..

I remember buying the album at the time - early 80's - to complete my Stones collection that was based on songs not albums. The reason was "Ride On Baby". I think I had the time "My Girl" already in STONE AGE.

To really consider if it is a "real" album or not, I think that to really think it is, one needs to have lived at the time plus being American.. otherwise very hard to justify... But then again: DECEMBER'S CHILDREN is almost as hard case as well, as is NOW!... where to put the line between a proper album and a fake one? The policy to release albums was not so fixed as it turned later out to be... the band spent about almost all their rest time in studio making songs, and the manager just picked up the right or available ones to make an album to be relaesed once in a while (that's the way to describe especially the US releases from 1964 to 1967.) Perhaps FLOWERS was the last and not very convincing try to use the old formula. It also be noted that perhaps the sessions for AFTERMATH and BETWEEN THE BUTTONS were not yet so cohesive ones or specially designed to accomplish a certain album as they are easily to be taken.

But like mentioned FLOWERS is a nice time capsule to the very unique period in the Stones (and rock/pop) history.

- Doxa



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2010-03-22 15:32 by Doxa.

I liked this one despite the songs from other albums. Also loved the cover where Brian's flower had no leaves....almost telling how his life was turning and of things to come. Easy of course to say in hindsight I know....

tumblingdice----me too..lol... As a kid i used to look at each flower and try to see if they had any type of meaning...ha..
I was also didn't like the name...FLOWERS...I didn't want anyone to think the Stones were part of the hippie or flower power movement at the time...The Stones were the bad boys of rock to me at the time...

But today i get it...Each song is a Flower in its self...Each track is beautiful just like a flower!

Sitting on a Fence and Ride on Baby are worth the price of admission...not to mention Back Street Girl

I too really enjoy Flowers and still play it often. Anybody know if the dueling acoustic guitars on Sittin on a Fence are both Brian & Keith? Or did Keith play both parts?

In retrospect FLOWERS is of any "official" album the most difficult to make sense of... even by American release policy. I think it implies that ALO was showing sings of losing the touch, and not really believing much of the future. With GOT LIVE IF YOU WANT IT! FLOWERS - staating from the very lip service name - includes maybe the most (in retrospect) cheap tricks the Stones have ever used in order to milk out the cow. Those two albums have written all over them that "Let's milk any cent of the market while we can, and then run home"...

First of all, they didn't have nerve to wait the next single to be released... no, the 'summer of love' was right now and here so FLOWERS was released in June, two months before "We Love You". So they make a decision that in its lowness almost beats the cheap trick of GOT LIVE to release old studio tracks with dubbed audience screaming. So, the wise guys used the same very single with which tehy already made-up BETWEEN THE BUTTONS to sell the album better. Not even to hide the trick they just changed the order: now "Ruby Tuesday" was the profilic opening track and "Let's Spend The Night Together" track number three. Just to think how much teh album would make change if we would have "We Love You" and "Dandelion" instead of them??!!!! Then the album would still have an original "touch" or identity. In fact, those two cuts would have cohered better in whole of atmosphere of the album and summer ´67.

Okay, let's continue the "analysis"....

"Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby?" and "Mother's Little Helper" were two top ten hits from 1966, and not yet released in 'proper' album, so they inclusion is justified. (In US, the former didn't even made yet BIG HITS album beacuse teh album was relaesed earlier). "Lady Jane" was a B-side of "Mother's Little Helper" so, despite being in AFTERMATH, it's presence is so-and-so justified, or is it?

Then there is the true beef: the unrealeased stuff, a totally new stuff to the market that is. This can be divided into two categories:

(a) Not released in US yet. These are the "left-overs" from AFTERMATH and BETWEEN THE BUTTONS: "Out of Time", "Take It or Leave It", "Backstreet Girl", "Please Go Home" (in fact, great tunes each of them).

(b) The songs that will be for the very first time released here: "Sittin On A Fence", "Ride on Baby", "My Girl" (and it will take few yaers until they will be seen in any other release). Those two Jagger/Richard originals are easily as good as any of thhe AFTERMATH/BETWEEN THE BUTTONS material, so no problem here, either. in fact, they were better than the ones filling up DECEMBER'S CHILDREN ("Singer Not The Song""). Only "My Girl" is an oddity: what it does here?

What what can we say of those two categories over-all? During the time capsule starting of 1966/1967 what were the official releases that didn't make the album: "19th Nervous Breakdown" was alraedy in BIG HITS so no use here. If I am right "What To Do" is the only song left out of AFTERMATH and BETWEEN THE BUTTONS not seeing the light of the day so far. Then there are three available B-sides of recent singles: "Sad Day", "Long Long While" and "Whose Driving Your Plane?" not seeing album release yet.

Okay, Mick and Keith kicks poor ALO out and take Doxa in: "Do your own FLOWERS, man".

"Ruby" and "Night" and "Jane" can go: they are already released in previous albums, so no use here. Also to please the pockets of Mick and Keith there will be no use for half-hearted oddity covers, so "My Girl" can go. No harm done to Stones legacy; let it be released some day in METAMORHOSIS.

Naturally I wait "We Love You" to be released to be included to push the album. There is a room for a nice B-single, so I pick up "Long Long While" as a suitable replacement. Now there is one vacation left: that of "My Girl", and it will filled with one of "What To Do", "Sad Day" and "Who's Driving Your Plane". The first is the worst of AFTERMATH, "Sad Day" a bit too old, so let's take the B-side of "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby" also to give a nice taste of the groul being able to rock harder if it wants.

So, here we have DOXA'S FLOWERS:

Side A
1. We Love You
2. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby?
3. Dandelion
4. Long Long While
5. Out of Time
6. Who's Driving Your Plane?

Side B
1. Backsteet Girl
2. Please Go Home
3. Mother's Little Helper
4. Take It Or Leave It
5. Ride on, Baby
6. Sittin On A Fence

I would cliam this would have quite stronger profile and identity nowadays than the 'real' one...><

- Doxa



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010-03-22 17:05 by Doxa.

I Love Flowers...One of my Favs..My Girl is Great, I would love to see them do it live...It has a great feel: the Album as a whole..Doxa'sFlowers would sound great as well....Great era of Stones music...LOVE IT !!!

It is out of the "Satanic" and "Between the Buttons" time and so does'nt belong to my fav albums. But "Sittin' on a Fence" is a great composition and unfortunately almost forgotten. Worth to hear it live on the next tour.

i enjoy the album but have to be in the mood to listen to it straight through

If Doxa's tracklisting had been issued, the album would have been delayed a couple months...I always included 'Sad Day' (w/Plane & What to Do) in place of the 3 re-runs...Either case, a fine followup to Buttons...

this is definitely one of my 60's Stones faves

===========================

"Doctor please, some more men please,
To Cotchford Farm, out by the pool...

What a drag it is they couldn't revive him"

Brian Jones 2/28/42 - 7/2/69

I dunno, Doxa, but nice post anyway...

I love this whole album -- good album for early spring days with the windows open