The Rolling Stones - Around And Around

So maybe you've been wondering, "If this guy keeps saying he's a Stones fan, then why doesn't he listen to a Stones album and tell us what he thinks about it?"  That's fair.  There was probably a time when if I had decided to do a blog like this, I'd have done all my Stones albums first.  I may have even decided to only do Stones albums.  I mean, there was a long period of time where that was almost all the music I cared about.

Then it got to being extremely long periods behind their releases, and even I had to face that they probably weren't going to release anything and that I was pretty sick of upgrading bootlegs every three months with the latest "must have" stereo version of Don't Lie to Me or another multiple disk boxed set of Voodoo Lounge outtakes.  I guess I had gotten to the point where I needed a break.  Not just my usual, "I bought two Stones bootlegs and an album by some semi obscuro band today" kind of break.  A break where I listened to Exile on Main St. once a week still (at least - that's the greatest thing ever), and started listening harder to those albums I bought where Keith Richards was more of an influence than a performer.  Over the last little while, I've been getting that Stonesy Feeling back lately, and I've been playing this German compilation record called Around And Around a lot lately.

I think I'll start with the cover and record on this. The front cover has a nice early group photo where everyone is looking into the camera except for Mick. Mick is looking at the inside of his eyelids. One would think that the photographer would click two pictures of the band, just to make sure that in case they could sell the photo, they could get some decent money for it. I'm figuring German Decca thought no one would notice anyway and they could get the picture for a tall Warsteiner and a shot of Yager instead of spending real money. But the back cover is fantastic!

If I recall correctly, that's from a show in Berlin where they had a riot and the show was cut short so those pesky kids would quit making cops knock of Charlie Watts' cymbals and cracking Keith Richards up. I think this is one of those shows where the rumor was that the girls in the audience left their seats wet (Ooh...salacious!). Anyway, it's a much better picture than the one on front. The record is nice, heavy vinyl and it sounds excellent. It's not quite Audiophile Alert quality, but it beats those US Electronically Reprocessed for Stereo records any day. German vinyl is generally really quiet too, and this record is no exception.


All the songs are from British ep's or singles. So everything here has been released, but it just all seems so coherent here. I'm a big fan of getting a record laid out right and whoever our anonymous compiler was here, they did a great job of getting the best of 1964 onto one record. You could complain about missing something like Stoned or Money, but you can only fit so many songs on a record, and this one gives you I Wanna Be Your Man and the long version of 2120 South Michigan Ave.


You didn't know there was a longer version of 2120 South Michigan Ave.? There is! It's got an extra guitar solo in it (what else would it have?). It's been on bootlegs but this is generally where the bootleggers used to get it from. I Wanna Be Your Man may have been written by The Beatles, but you can't deny that Brian Jones makes that song his. By default you could say it becomes more of a Stones song than a Beatles song, but it's all because of Brian's killer slide guitar.


Did you ever hear The Stones do Under the Boardwalk or My Girl? Sure you have. You probably cringe when you hear them (which is the correct reaction). So if you haven't heard them do Arthur Alexander's You Better Move On you are forgiven for cringing before you hear it. You can rest assured that your cringe is premature, and that The Stones handle You Better Move On so well, that their future selves would think a song like My Girl would be a cinch. Probably a nice little US number 1 summer hit, just like water off a duck's back. Obviously they were wrong on that, but You Better Move On is unbelievably innocent sounding and it really works.

The record opens and closes with it's two strongest tracks. The knock 'em dead cover of Chuck Berry's Around and Around and the Leiber/Stoller penned smash for The Coasters, Poison Ivy. These two songs are driven by Keith and Brian's guitars, and where the former is almost reverential in approach, the latter is less goofy than The Coasters. Not that I mind The Coasters - I think they're GRReeaat! like Frosted Flakes - but there always seems to be a goofiness to them. I think it's one of their better qualities actually, but Poison Ivy seems like a much more sinister girl in The Stones' version.

I know a lot of people complain about the mess the early years of The Stones' catalog can be in general (let's face it - in this digital age it is much less difficult to get the officially released songs correctly), but I've always thought this was a great compilation and party record.  Lord knows there aren't that many great party records these days, and this one fills that need very nicely.