The Rolling Stones, Now! by The Rolling Stones
he Rolling Stones, Now! is the third American studio album by the Rolling Stones, released in 1965 by their initial American distributor, London Records. The album contained seven tracks from their second UK album The Rolling Stones No. 2, the recent US Top 20 hit "Heart of Stone", the recent UK #1 hit single "Little Red Rooster", "Surprise, Surprise" which wouldn't be issued in the UK until 1970 as a B-side of "Street Fighting Man", "Mona (I Need You Baby)" from The Rolling Stones and "Oh Baby (We Got A Good Thing Goin')" which would appear on the UK edition of the Stones' next album Out of Our Heads later in 1965. The album contains a different, and shorter, version of "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" than the recording on The Rolling Stones No. 2, although the latter version was accidentally used on the 1986 CD of "The Rolling Stones Now." The 2002 CD includes the shorter version, as heard on the original LP. Four of the songs on The Rolling Stones, Now! were penned by the songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (who dropped the "s" from his surname until 1978). For the back cover, London Records simply took the back cover of The Rolling Stones No. 2 and amended the tracklisting and label information. Where the UK liner cover said "No. 2" after 'THE ROLLING STONES' was simply whited out for the American cover. One thing that was overlooked, however, was a mention of Ian Stewart playing organ on "Time Is On My Side," which made no sense on The Rolling Stones, Now! as the song was not on that album. This credit was deleted from the 1986 and 2002 reissues. The liner notes on initial pressings contained Andrew Loog Oldham's advice to the record buying public, which was quickly temporarily removed from some subsequent pressings: "(This is THE STONES new disc within. Cast deep in your pockets for the loot to buy this disc of groovies and fancy words. If you don't have the bread, see that blind man knock him on the head, steal his wallet and low and behold you have the loot, if you put in the boot, good, another one sold!)" The Rolling Stones, Now! is generally considered a very strong album and a highlight of their early American releases. Upon its February issuing, The Rolling Stones, Now! reached #5 in the US and became another gold seller for The Rolling Stones. In 2003, the album was ranked number 180 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In August 2002 The Rolling Stones, Now! was reissued in a new remastered CD and SACD digipak by ABKCO Records. This version included stereo mixes of "Heart of Stone", "What a Shame", and "Down the Road Apiece".
Part of loving 1976’s <i>Black and Blue</i>—and there’s a lot to love—is letting go of what you expect from The Rolling Stones. They were still a rock band, if rock was what you wanted: “Hand of Fate” could’ve been on <i>Beggars Banquet</i> and “Crazy Mama” on <i>Exile on Main St.</i> But where <i>Goats Head Soup</i> and <i>It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll</i> worked to keep continuity with the sound they developed in the late ’60s, <i>Black and Blue</i> didn’t bother trying.<br /> Jagger had moved to New York and fallen in love with funk and disco (“Hot Stuff”, “Hey Negrita”); Keith Richards with reggae (“Cherry Oh Baby”). Mick Taylor left the band and Ron Wood joined, stripping out the guitar solos and moving back towards pure rhythm. The songs were short, the grooves were long, and the performances—Jaggers’s, especially—combined sex and humour in ways they never had before. That “Hot Stuff” was the band’s first song to make the R&B charts since “19th Nervous Breakdown” 10 years earlier made sense: Not since their early albums had they sounded so connected to Black music, or so joyfully indebted to it.<br /> The critic Lester Bangs called it the “first meaningless Rolling Stones album”. An insult, of course—but it could’ve just as well been a compliment. After the relentless significance of the band’s late-’60s and early-’70s run—the politics, the violence, the cultural referenda—<i>Black and Blue</i> felt like a liberation, like fresh air. They sounded funny, weird and alive. And when they downshifted for the ballads (“Memory Motel” and the classic “Fool to Cry”), they did so with a softness that penetrated deeper than any heavy-handed approach might.
