Flowers

The album blasts you with one great single after another: "Ruby Tuesday," "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow" (foreshadowing their later involvement with big sounds and horns), the superb, defining "Let's Spend the Night Together" with its Beach Boys background vocals," Jagger's great wry tones and the harpsichord sounds on "Lady Jane," and another signature tune, "Out of Time." (Jagger is so expressive on the unusual "Lady Jane," you can almost picture him in ruffled sleeves, suavely exiting from his courtesans.) What's amazing is the band's uniformly superb musicianship. The songs are textured with flute, accordian, marimba, and other instruments, the bass and drums are tight and driving, and the guitars add nuance as well as bite. Then...then, there's "My Girl, " as bad as its reputation. The band actually gets much of a Motown feeling on the preceding "Out of Time." Maybe someone else knows why "My Girl" is so completely flat: Was the production rushed, were they over-awed by the original? I don't know, but the rest of the album more than makes up for this basically boring cover.

To cite "Backstreet Girl" as an example of the Stones' enlightened treatment of women (as one reviewer did here) is ridiculous; although Jagger's has an unusually tender vocal, he clearly relegates the song's subject to his hidden life. "Please Come Home" has a great surf-like bass/drum riff and some mini-pychedelia in the guitars and echo-y back-up vocals. Not memorable, but fun. The sardonic opening guitars, clever lyrics, and a great hook ("Doctor please, some more of these...") highlight the melodically weak "Mother's Little Helper." Finally, I enjoy the moody, petulant vocal on "Take It or Leave It" (Gee, don't ya feel sorry for him!), backed by textured percussion and jangly guitar. The album closes on the very strong "Ride On Baby," ("you make look pretty but I can`t say the same for your mind."), and the reflective cynical mood of "I'm Just Sitting on a Fence" ("but there is one thing I could never understand, some of the sick things that a girl does to a man...").

This album shows the group at or near its peak, before the 70's brought such overproduced songs as "Brown Sugar" and Tumbling Dice" (I know, some people love these) and the guitar riffs were often cliched. Their blues roots are intact (with a nice dose of pop/rock), the songs are spare yet subtly textured, and the band seems fresh and eager to experiment. Very highly recommended!!!

NOTE: The "enhanced" version of the CD does not play on my computer's (Dell Optiplex) CD drive, but sounds great on other CD players. Also, like others, I wish the original liner notes had been included.


Everybody Should Get Flowers   August 29, 2006
Hobart Arms (Louisville, KY)
28 out of 29 found this review helpful

OK...To understand Flowers, you have to first realize the context in which it was released. Flowers was released as an American only album of material that was not issued on previous albums, material that was cut from the American versions of albums released in their full 14 track format in Britain, or singles that had not made it into an album yet. Also don't forget that the Stones weren't touring at the time, attempting to find the same refuge that the Beatles had in their studio to try some experimentation a la Sgt. Peppers which became Satanic Majesties. Now that the proper context has been established, this album finds the Rolling Stones at the peak of their mid-60's creative power. Group founder Brian Jones had not yet cashed out on his drug and alcohol binges and he was totally into what has retrospectively been dubbed "flavoring" the albums and tracks that the Stones were putting out. The album is strung together with singles: "Ruby Tuesday" b/w "Let's Spend the Night Together", "Have You Seen Your Mother?", "Mother's Little Helper", and "Lady Jane". This material coupled with the leftovers from the British releases of Aftermath and Between the Buttons helps make this album somewhat eclectic like the other two albums but no less entertaining. The psycho-Bo Diddley "Please Go Home" is great 60's style garage-psyche rock. Anytime the Stones go Bo Diddley is worth listening to, by the way. "Out of Time" is a great companion piece to "Under My Thumb" from Aftermath, as it features much of the same instrumentation, with Brian Jones anchoring the song on his marimbas once again. "Back Street Girl" and "Ride on Baby" both fall into the same vein, with the use of the classical instruments on the rock tracks for that mock-Baroque feel that many of the 60's bands like the Kinks and Yardbirds went for with their use of harpsichords, etc. "Sitting on a Fence" and "Take It or Leave It" are also like songs, with similar feels and good acoustic guitar work. "My Girl" to me is the one oddity on the album but somehow it works with the eclecticness of the finished product.
This album was one of the first albums that I ever bought when I got into the Rolling Stones. It was also the first Stones album that I bought my fiancee when we were 16. We both loved it and I have never regretted that choice. For me, the albums Aftermath and Between the Buttons represent height of the Stones in the 60's before they changed directions forever. This album, Flowers, bridges the two in the same way that Rubber Soul and Revolver were bridged by Yesterday and Today. These albums form critical trilogies of albums at points where two bands were reaching critical mass just as the dream of the 60's was ending for so many.
Now for the disclaimer: as some reviewers have pointed out, this album is not part of the canon of Rolling Stones albums. That may be true but when you compare this album to others such as Exile on Main Street and Sticky Fingers or Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed, but you are essentially comparing different bands and different times when holding Flowers against these rockers. Flowers is a great album that is completely misunderstood and underestimated. This album came out in 1967 and when compared with other albums of that time and place it shines with the best of them.


Every Rolling Stone's Fan Should Own this Early Music   August 21, 2005
' Groovin' guy
27 out of 28 found this review helpful

Great piece of their early work.
In slower songs like "Back Street Girl" and others in this CD you hear a young and romantic more innocent Mick.

It's very charming, very different from their more "established" tough sound.

Highly recommended!


Flowers   July 18, 2005
TC (La)
25 out of 26 found this review helpful

Ah man, when I was 7 years old in 1968, I had a Sears Silvertone record player that played in 4 speeds, 78, 45, 33 and 16 rpm. One of the "big records" that I had was Flowers. I'll never forget it. This album is like part of my blood. It sounds better than ever on these new SACD's too. Love it!