Flowers [Remastered] - Rolling Stones (The) > Reviews > Flower arranging classes with Mick and Keith

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Unmemorable
Value for Money

Advantages:	Some good tracks
Disadvantages:	See text re comments on packaging, and also for likelihood of its being superseded

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

For their first few years, the Rolling Stones (like the Beatles) had little control over the issue of their albums in the US. This resulted in their American label putting out several collections consisting of one or two singles A- and B-sides, plus a hotchpotch of tracks from then-current or recent UK albums, and occasionally the odd item that had not been released in the home market. Unfortunately for British fans, these US artefacts with their often cack-handed selections and cringeworthy titles are those which made it onto CD in the mid-90s. For instance, ‘England’s Newest Hitmakers’, the debut album which we once knew as plain and simple ‘Rolling Stones’, may have sounded really groovy and a right-on name-grabber to Uncle Sam’s teenagers in 1964, but nearly 40 years later it’s a bit passé.

‘Flowers’, first released in May 1967 in America and only available as an import in Britain for years, was the last of these transatlantic curiosities. The first three tracks (there are 12 in all), having been singles, are the most familiar. ‘Ruby Tuesday’ remains one of their finest ballads ever, Mick Jagger sounding uncharacteristically subdued, singing to a backing of mainly piano, quavering flutes and drums giving an extra thrust to the chorus. Melanie did an abysmal version in 1970, and Rod Stewart’s 1995 effort was so-so. The original is still far and away the greatest.

‘Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadow’, its predecessor, is rather a sonic oddity. According to one story, it was released before the group had completed it, as the record company were in a hurry to put it out. Another source says that they deliberately recorded it on a very early cassette machine, in order to get that lo-fi distorted sound. The song’s got a great hook, and the brass complements that rough guitar well, but don’t expect it to sound too pristine on your state-of-the-art system.

The third track is ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’, a double A-side with ‘Ruby Tuesday’. Probably one of the most infectious numbers they had yet done at the time, it nearly attracted wholesale broadcasting bans at the time, though today it sounds innocuous enough.

Most of the remaining nine songs are fairly restrained. If you think of the band in terms of loud riff-based rock’n’roll, you’d probably be surprised. ‘Lady Jane’ is Mick and Keith Richard’s tremulous answer to ‘Eleanor Rigby’, except in their case the string quartet is replaced by classical-type guitar, harpsichord and hammered dulcimer, and it’s really rather lovely. Baroque, I think critics labelled it at the time. If you remove the vocals, the backing track could have doubled quite neatly as a theme for a Tudor costume drama on TV.

‘Out Of Time’ is the song they produced and gave away to Chris Farlowe, who took his version to No. 1 in the summer of 1966. Here, the Stones replaced strings with what sounds like a xylophone. I feel Mick doesn’t really put heart and soul into this one; it comes across more like a music publisher’s demo, or else a rushed job. [Another version appeared on a long-since deleted 1975 compilation ‘Metamorphosis’, which has Mick singing to the backing track used by Chris Farlowe - gets confusing, I know!

‘My Girl’ is the album’s one cover version, the song you probably know well thanks to the Temptations and Otis Redding. Frankly, I think they did a much better job of it than the Stones. Significantly, it was never released in Britain until long after they had left Decca Records, who were responsible for all their 60s UK product. This and ‘Take It Or Leave It’ are both pretty nondescript. With the latter’s dull tune and predictable words, even Westlife might think twice about covering it.

‘Backstreet Girl’ might almost have been written for Gilbert Becaud, or any other Eurovision wannabe Euro-cabaret star you could name. I mean, you don’t normally associate The Bad Boys from Dartford with accordions and waltzes, do you? But this is what you get here, plus a lyric in which Mick tells the object of his onetime affections (or the last one-night stand?) that he wants her not to call him at home, he wants her to stay his backstreet girl. What a snob. In view of his subsequent history and the paternity suits...er, I’m getting off-topic.

‘Please Go Home’ is more typical Stones. The song isn’t great, but all the same it’s a nice, punchy R’n’B shuffle on the lines of the Bo Diddley pattern that worked so well for them on ‘Not Fade Away’, enhanced by some startling echo effects in the studio.

Mother’s Little Helper’ is probably one of their best non-single tracks of the time. Thumping beat, a twangy sitar lick between verses, and most noteworthy of all, an in-your-face retort to the hypocrisy of housewives who had a go at drug-taking rock stars while enlivening their tedious existence at home with valium.

‘Ride On Baby’ was another song they gave away to and produced for Chris Farlowe. Once again, his version had a gutsier vocal, but this is OK, and the harpsichord sound is nice.

‘Sittin’ on a Fence’ is another song that gave another contemporary act their sole chart success, in this case North London folk duo Twice As Much. (One of them, Dave Skinner, was briefly a member of Roxy Music in the early 80s). All folksy acoustic guitars, a little touch yet again of harpsichord (they were really in love with that instrument at the time, and it shows), and a rather bitter lyric about couples who “just get married ‘cause there’s nothing else to do”, this nevertheless ranks with ‘Ruby Tuesday’ as one of their best slow songs.

’Flowers’ may not be the Rolling Stones we know and love, and some of it comes across like their run-throughs of fairly tame pop songs that they wrote and intended as hits for other artists. Lead guitar is only discernible on a minority of tracks, and by their standards it is quite a ‘pretty’ album, so perhaps the title of ‘Flowers’ isn’t as silly as it might appear at first. But the packaging is pretty minimal, with the insert information giving no personnel or songwriting credits.

Bizarrely, only the vinyl version is currently listed on Amazon.co.uk. I obtained the CD secondhand, and there are probably copies in a megastore near you. As for recommendation, I can’t really give a thumbs-down to any album by one of the seminal rock groups of all time. But this is really more for the Stones collector than the casual fan. Moreover, a total reissue/remaster programme for their 60s recordings is currently in progress. The chances are that this will either be repackaged in far superior form, or else disappear altogether with the tracks unavailable elsewhere appearing as bonus tracks on the other titles. In other words, hang on!