Someone mentioned the album (CD) Flowers on another thread.
An oft-forgotten compilation although it has many great tracks.

I love it. My Girl sucks but with all the UK - US albums this is a nice collection of songs. Could even fool the average person going to look for a cd to buy, thinking its an actual full studio cd. Like the cover art as well.

Great great album...love it....but i really don't like my girl either...but andrew wanted the stones to do it..thank god it was not a single....ha.

Do folks in the UK have a soft spot in their hearts for Flowers?

As a pre-teen-ager (I was 8 when Flowers was issued), I'm certain that I had no concept of Flowers being anything less than a regular album by the band who brought me Aftermath and Between the Buttons. So I was drawn to the bright colors of the cover, and the flower-power analogy, completely overlooking the fact that Brian's stem was bare. I kept it next to Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. and Magical Mystery Tour.

For an 8-year-old, I sure was into music.

I probably love Backstreet Girl most of all, and never got used to hearing that track on the UK version of Aftermath. I also never really understood why Dandelion was not on the album. (Dandelion . . . flowers . . . what gives?)

Monkeylad Wrote:
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> Do folks in the UK have a soft spot in their
> hearts for Flowers?

I think in the UK its really 'counted' more as a compilation of stray tracks for the US market than a 'regular' album. It wasnt released here at the time, was it?

>
> As a pre-teen-ager (I was 8 when Flowers was
> issued), I'm certain that I had no concept of
> Flowers being anything less than a regular album
> by the band who brought me Aftermath and Between
> the Buttons. So I was drawn to the bright colors
> of the cover, and the flower-power analogy,
> completely overlooking the fact that Brian's stem
> was bare. I kept it next to Pisces, Aquarius,
> Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. and Magical Mystery Tour.

you were a very strange child, Monkeylad!

>
> For an 8-year-old, I sure was into music.
>
> I probably love Backstreet Girl most of all, and
> never got used to hearing that track on the UK
> version of Aftermath. I also never really
> understood why Dandelion was not on the album.
> (Dandelion . . . flowers . . . what gives?)

It wasnt recorded until after 'Flowers' had been released

Martin Elliott's book "The Rolling Stones Complete Recording Sessions" sez that Dandelion was recorded in November 1966, along with Ruby Tuesday, Let's Spend the Night Together and some of the tracks that would emerge on Between the Buttons.

The book could be wrong, but I'm just saying . . . that's what I read.

Yeah, I was a very strange child. But I'm a much, much stranger adult!

I had never owned Flowers until a couple of weeks ago. I got it because I had just picked up the Izzy Stradlin album On Down The Road where he covers Please Go Home and I wanted to compare and contrast.

What an odd song (Stones version): Typical "I'm over you silly girl" lyrics with proto-psychedelic guitars set to a Bo Didley beat!

A very obscure cover choice but Izzy rocks it up pretty good. He also covers Gone Dead Train on the album (Randy Newman's most rocking hour). I think Izzy also did Jivi' Sister Fanny on a Japanese fan club live release. He is a true fan.

I'm tired, I'm tired of doing what I'm told.
Things are moving way too slow.

Monkeylad Wrote:
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> Martin Elliott's book "The Rolling Stones Complete
> Recording Sessions" sez that Dandelion was
> recorded in November 1966, along with Ruby
> Tuesday, Let's Spend the Night Together and some
> of the tracks that would emerge on Between the
> Buttons.
>
> The book could be wrong, but I'm just saying . . .
> that's what I read.
>
> Yeah, I was a very strange child. But I'm a much,
> much stranger adult!

It's doubtful that it was complete at that point though.

Monkeylad Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Martin Elliott's book "The Rolling Stones Complete
> Recording Sessions" sez that Dandelion was
> recorded in November 1966, along with Ruby
> Tuesday, Let's Spend the Night Together and some
> of the tracks that would emerge on Between the
> Buttons.
>
> The book could be wrong, but I'm just saying . . .
> that's what I read.

Youre quite correct in that it was first recorded then, but the finished version comes from June 1967.

Zentgraf's site lists it as having been first attempted in Nov. 1966 as "sometimes happy sometimes blue" with Keith on 'guide vocals'


Interesting observation about 'dandelion' and 'Flowers' though for sure.

>> Zentgraf's site lists it as having been first attempted in Nov. 1966 <<

that wasn't an "attempt", it was an early demo - and a freakin fine one it is too,
just listen to the guitar! buy that boy a Bentley or something - the cat can play :E

meanwhile, back to Flowers, which ends with three charmingly idiosyncratic ones in a row:
Take It or Leave It strikes me as the most Beatlesesque-sounding number the Stones ever did,
which amuses me enormously, as do the lyrics: they're partly so brilliant and partly so cloddy -
i love it. i love Ride On Baby even more, though - the way it breezes along so pretty and mean,
just like the chick it's blowing off. and then the Best in Show: Sitting on a Fence -
the exhilarated cynicism is such a weird combination, but ahhh listen to that thing shimmer!
and it sounds as natural as falling rain. buy those boys some manor houses or something -
they are sounding most well if i may say so :E



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-10-16 22:36 by with sssoul.

Wow, not many My Girl fans here! I actually like the song, the first of several Temptations covers by the band.

It could have been so much better. Would have been improved with the inclusion of "Who's Driving Your Plane?" and "Sad Day". The edit of "Out Of Time" is a travesty.

Sorry guys, love the tune "My Girl" but it doesn't fit the Stones

__________________________

DGA35 Wrote:
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> Wow, not many My Girl fans here! I actually like
> the song, the first of several Temptations covers
> by the band.


Along with 'Under The Boardwalk', probably their worst ever cover. Their two other Temps' covers were excellent though, even if they dont quite eclipse the originals (theyre just excellent in a very different way)

I do have oodles of admiration for the way that the Stones applied their own touch to Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) and Ain't Too Proud Too Beg, which both are pretty ballsy recordings.

The disappointment with the Stones' version of My Girl is that it's faithful to the original. I still love it, though.

I think the point here is that there are many songs, which should not be covered at all. "My Girl" falls into that category as well as "Brown-Eyed Girl" or "Rocks Off" on and on.

However, Flowers is a great hodge-podge of tracks. It is a great CD to play on Sunday Mornings at the pool. This collection of music can definitely be a crowd pleaser for aging pool rats when reflecting on the previous night.

Flowers underrated?.....

No way...Red roses for any lady
and you can get away with murder and some more....



ROCKMAN

"My Girl" is not their best moment. Mick's vocal sounds thin and tentative. But- I think if they had tackled it later in their career, he could've pulled it off, as I think we all agree that Mick's voice has gotten better over time. A more guitar-oriented arrangement done ala "Imagination" could be a keeper.

flowers has 11 out of 12 absolute gems; absolute gems...look at the track listing for godsake...this is all el primo stuff...
the us and uk branches of the company were still fooling around with holding some tracks off of us releases to get an extra album's worth at sometime...
so it causes mucho confusion...

but look at the us tracklist on 'flowers' holy moly; that is absolutely totally amazing writing, performing, vision...that is as good as any 'real' studio album...they were studio tracks...the band didn't yet have the power to demand the sequencing stay as they put it on both continents, but that would soon come....

i think of it as a studio album on the level of aftermath or out of our heads or buttons or any of the really really great and totally fertile stuff, outrageous imagination and execution in their early prime...

yes it's under-rated. it's foolish to compare i know...and banquet is one of my favorite albums of all time; maybe number one...right up there with the very best of the things i love musically...and i think flowers is as fasinating and important in many ways.

their "Money" is rather bad, too...

I've never had this album as such, but I do love the period it captures (which it seems to do quite well, as a lot of at least US people are fond of it). There's a chilliness to the arrangements and the RCA LA sound that I never get tired of. Increasingly I dwell on brian's contributions, but the songwriting and band interplay are excellent, too.

I don't think it's underrated, just overlooked as a really good early greatest hits album.

Of looking being a 'regular release' by the band, there is (at least) one obscure thing. Why to start two sequent albums with same two (of first three numbers on A-side) songs? I mean both "Ruby Tuesday" and "Let's Spend The Night Together" are in both US version of BETWEEN THE BUTTONS and FLOWERS albums. Wouldn't a fan just think something like 'are these guys running out of songs or something'... Meanwhile, the British fans got only those songs as single releases, no album cuts.

Maybe the album might looked a bit better (more original) if they have waited some time to include "We Love You" and "Dandelion" there instead of those two repeated ones. But of course, ALO was busy to hit the summer of love markets, no time to wait... And it was ALO's last contribution, right?

Retrospectively speaking, FLOWERS album seem to fit quite nicely between BETWEEN THE BUTTONS and THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES. With its corny cover and title it opens up the road into psychedelia of the latter. But c'mon, be honest now: with the title of ENGLAND'S NEWEST HITMAKERS and the false live tracks of GOT LIVE IF YOU WANT IT!, the whole album is the one of their cheapest and most opportunist attempts to milk out the US market. None of those ideas has aged very well, don't you think?

- Doxa

nope, not me personally; i think it's among their best stuff ever. i love those songs...they are brilliant and edgy and rockin;....all i know is the us release, so that's the only frame of reference i'm familiar with; nope none of it sounds on the cheap squeeze out product to me; it all sounds amongst their most brilliant stuff to me...

Ride On Baby is a non-wistful version of Ruby Tuesday, isn't it

<I probably love Backstreet Girl most of all, and never got used to hearing that track on the UK version of Aftermath.>

You mean the original (UK) version of Between The Buttons?

Naw, I meant the version of Backstreet Girl that was on Flowers. First track on side 2, as I recall.

smile: Dandelion Powderman meant Backstreet Girl isn't on Aftermath -
it's on the UK version of Between the Buttons



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-10-17 16:11 by with sssoul.

Its worth getting if you are a completist. Ride On Baby, My Girl and Sittin' On The Fence being the only tracks not avaible on other offical CD's.

bout MY GIRL,the strings overdubbed later..it sounds much better without these strings.

vancouver Wrote:
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> bout MY GIRL,the strings overdubbed later..it
> sounds much better without these strings.


where can I listen to the version without strings youre describing?