This is a downright crazy album! As the Stones' one real attempt to "get psychedelic" it frequently gets compared with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles' flagship psych album. However a more apt comparison, if one must do the inevitable Beatles-vs-Stones analysis, would be Magical Mystery Tour, released in the UK as a double-EP the same day as this album. Both albums push the psych envelop far more than Pepper and ultimately both albums made both bands think twice about riding the psych train any further, leading to more reactionary follow-up albums.
One can look back upon the vast sweep of rock history and pretty quickly reach the conclusion that the Rolling Stones and psychedelic rock were not a good match. They probably dabbled in it the least of their British Invasion peers, and got out of it faster than what bands made it to the other end of the scene. By 1966, the band actually was in a little danger of falling behind everyone else, sticking fiercely to R&B material and cover songs, while even the "purists" like the Yardbirds and Animals were making big changes. Aftermath showed the band was willing to grow, with all-original songs, and more exotic instrumentation, fueled by Brian Jones's increasingly mind-bending behavior. The even threw in one of those trendy (but ultimately dull) long songs at the end of the album. Songs like "Ruby Tuesday" and "Mother's Little Helper" and the following albums showed increasing strength and diversity in their songwriting. In fact the period from Aftermath through Goat's Head Soup in 1973 is considered the Golden Age of the Rolling Stones, though it was not an easy time. By 1967, the old management was finally put off enough by their notorious off-stage antics to cut ties, leaving the band to figure things out for themselves. Sensing the moods effusing the Summer of Love, the band decided to get really crazy out-there psychedelic, far beyond anything they previous did.
And that's the big problem with Their Satanic Majesties Request: self-production. Some artists do it very well, but the Stones usually need a spirit guide to translate their sonic artistry to disc. While musicians like Jimi Hendrix could use the power of being one's own producer to great effect, the Rolling Stones ended up creating an album that sound more like somebody trying to self-medicate their ADD problems with LSD. Most of the songs can't hold their melody consistently without veering off in some completely random direction, especially the non-hit songs like "Gomper" and "The Citadel". Even Bill Wyman's sole composition outside the "Nanker Phelge"-credited songs, "From Another Land" can't help but get sucked into this weirdness, even though he typically stayed above the fray during the creation of the album. Incidentally, having Mick Jagger do backing vocals on your song is about as daunting as having Hendrix provide "a little rhythm guitar" to a song.
Needless to say, the Stones had to pull it together after this roller coaster. With the next album, the Stones would be out of the production business, turning the role over to Jimmy Miller. Although Beggar's Banquet wouldn't appear for almost a year after this album. its recording mostly predates the Beatles' own "back to basics" White Album, paving the direction that the Stones would head on future albums and a whole lot of other bands would follow into the 1970's.
As a coda, I never gave this album a whole lot of thought. I nearly scored a free copy in my first year with Borders, but one of the supervisors nicked it right before I could get my hands around it. Thankfully the library is a reliable place to find the essential recordings of the Rolling Stones, so eventually the album made it safely into my collection. Before that happened, I had danced around the album, enjoying some of the songs leading up to its creation as well as the two hits it spawned: "She's a Rainbow" and "2000 Light Years From Home".
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