Aftermath marked the end of the Rolling Stones’ apprenticeship and the beginning of a golden age for the band that would continue into the first half of the seventies. Aftermath, Between the Buttons (1967), Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967), Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1971), Exile on Main St. (1972): the Stones’ output during these years constitutes a brilliant body of work virtually unrivaled in the musical history of the twentieth century (one exception, no doubt, being the Beatles). What had become apparent from listening to the singles “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Get Off of My Cloud” was now confirmed by the Stones’ fourth (British) album: liberated from various overwhelming influences, notably that of the Chicago bluesmen, the Rolling Stones were now creating their own music. From “Mother’s Little Helper” to “What to Do,” Aftermath was, in a sense, the soundtrack of Swinging London, a gift to hip young people. Aftermath was one of the brightest stars of the new culture (or counterculture) that was to reach its zenith the following year in the Summer of Love.
Aftermath therefore represents a very clear departure in the career of the Rolling Stones. “That was a big landmark record for me,”19 confesses Mick Jagger. It was the first album made up entirely of original compositions, all credited to Jagger-Richards. The styles are varied and numerous: rock, blues, Baroque, classical, pop, country, world music, R&B. The LP is even infused with traces of Phil Spector, Smokey Robinson, and Otis Redding. “It was the period where everything—songwriting, recording, performing—stepped into a new league,” writes Keith, “and the time when Brian started going off the rails.”2 Indeed, as the Glimmer Twins were gaining a greater influence over the artistic choices of the group, Brian saw his status as leader slipping away for good. Feeling progressively more excluded, his behavior started to become increasingly erratic and problematic.
However, Brian was not the only fly in the ointment. Aftermath would also reveal an initial rift between the band members and Oldham. On the subject of their manager, Keith revealed to a journalist in the New Musical Express in February 1966 that “The Stones have practically become a projection of his own ego.”1 The presence on the scene of Allen Klein, and the various activities he was forcing the band to undertake, was also starting to become a strain.
Throughout that year, however, Oldham continued to retain firm control of their destinies, managing the band with skill and efficiency. And for the first time, he encouraged the Stones to prioritize the LP over singles. When the producer (still as formidable a public relations man as ever) declared on April 16, 1966, in Disc magazine that “Their songs reflect the world around them. I think it’s better than anything they’ve done before,”30 he was not exaggerating. In spite of the infernal pace of their touring in 1965, which extended virtually without interruption from January 6 (Belfast) to December 5 (San Diego and Los Angeles), Mick and Keith progressed enormously as songwriters. Comparisons were already being made with Lennon and McCartney, and with Bob Dylan.
What is clear is that the Dartford duo were positioning themselves firmly on the fringes of society. For these two there was no question of sharing some generalized, openmouthed optimism, and this they made very clear. As a lyricist, Mick Jagger was indulging in some score settling, not infrequently through language and imagery that had the power to hurt. Already accused of misogyny, the Stones’ singer was now going a step further by demonstrating an Oscar Wildean disdain for the apparently weaker sex. In “Stupid Girl,” which may well have been intended as an indirect attack on his first (official!) girlfriend, Chrissie Shrimpton, his targets are the supposed greed and facile certitudes of women. In “Under My Thumb,” “Out of Time,” and even “Think,” a man’s revenge on his mistress (or perhaps wife) becomes a source of real pleasure, while in “High and Dry,” the cynicism of a former lover is almost a work of art. On the other hand, Jagger was also capable of showing compassion toward women. In “Mother’s Little Helper,” he evokes the daily existence of a model wife who has to swallow countless little yellow pills in order to cope with her life, while in “Lady Jane” he assumes the guise of a troubadour in what is effectively a paean to courtly love.
Women, that is to say lovers and wives, are not the only targets of Mick and Keith’s invective. In the aforementioned “Mother’s Little Helper,” as in “What to Do,” modern society stands accused of being the source of everyone’s woes. The duo’s criticisms are also leveled at their own lives as rock stars: the never-ending tours in “Goin’ Home” and the fans who copy their idols to the point of mimicry in “Doncha Bother Me.” All in all, Aftermath is a somber album in which desolation, paranoia, despair, and frustration are echoed as track succeeds track.
The darker themes make for a stark contrast with the music. With the exception of “Doncha Bother Me” and “It’s Not Easy”—the first being very Chicago blues and the second very Chuck Berry in tone—the tracks on Aftermath resemble nothing the London group had previously recorded. With this record the Rolling Stones style of art rock came into being, one that the band would pursue on the albums Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request. Although Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were the creators of this new musical aesthetic—after all, it was exclusively to them that Oldham entrusted the task of songwriting—Brian Jones was the conductor or, more accurately, the architect. The new sound of the Stones was most definitely Brian. At this time he was the best musician of the five, but he did not write. He sought to overcome this frustration by playing numerous different instruments. Brian was already known as an excellent harmonica player and inspired slide guitarist. During the course of Aftermath he reveals other aspects of his artistic curiosity: the dulcimer on “Lady Jane” and “I Am Waiting,” the electric 12-string on “Mother’s Little Helper,” the marimba on “Under My Thumb” and “Out of Time,” the harpsichord and bells on “Take It or Leave It.” It is from this experimentation that the album derives its musical diversity. The photographer Gered Mankowitz explains: “He was amazing. He could literally play any musical instrument you put into his hands, regardless of whether he’d ever seen it before. He must be remembered for that.”42 In this sense, Aftermath was definitely Brian Jones’s album!
The Rolling Stones’ fourth studio album was released in the United Kingdom on April 15, 1966, a month before Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (which were issued on the same day, May 16, 1966), and three months before the Beatles’ Revolver. Andrew Loog Oldham initially dreamed of calling the album Could You Walk on the Water, provoking an agitated response form the directors of London Records in the United States, who did not want to incite the wrath of the Christians. Thus the choice eventually fell on Aftermath. The album was received rapturously by the press. In the NME, Keith Altman wrote: “Those masterminds behind the electric machines—The Rolling Stones—have produced the finest value for money ever on their new LP.”44 The public also gave the album the reception it deserved: in the United Kingdom, Aftermath was number 1 for eight consecutive weeks, toppling from the top spot the soundtrack to The Sound of Music, and remained on the charts for twenty-eight weeks.
In the United States, the new Stones album went on sale on June 20, 1966 (July 2 according to Bill Wyman), and featured just eleven tracks. “Mother’s Little Helper” (which was released as a single with “Lady Jane” as the B-side, reaching number 8 on August 13, 1966), “Out of Time,” “Take It or Leave It,” and “What to Do” had mysteriously disappeared, while “Paint It Black” (released as a single in the United Kingdom on May 13, 1966) had been added. The album nevertheless reached number 2 on the Billboard chart and was certified platinum.
The musical change of Aftermath was not accompanied by any revolutionary graphic design for the sleeve of the British album. The cover image is a close-up of the faces of the five Rolling Stones aligned diagonally against a background that veers from pale pink to black. The album title is split over two lines. The photograph was taken by Guy Webster, who was also responsible for the sleeve of the first Doors album (The Doors, 1967). The cover design is credited to Sandy Beach, in reality none other than Andrew Loog Oldham. Brian was not happy with it and made this clear to Melody Maker in April 1966: “I don’t like the album cover Andrew did.”1 The black-and-white photographs on the reverse of the album were taken, most probably at the recording session on December 8, 1965, by Jerry Schatzberg (who was also the photographer for Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, before becoming a celebrated filmmaker).
The photograph adorning the cover of the US LP, credited to David Bailey, corresponds better to the Stones’ new artistic direction. It shows Brian and Keith in the foreground with Mick, Charlie, and Bill behind. It is a color photo with a black background, deliberately blurred in an allusion to the psychedelic movement.
The Rolling Stones brought their 1965 US tour to a close with two concerts in California on December 5: the first at Golden Hall in San Diego, the second in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Three days later, they entered the RCA Studios in Hollywood, with which they were by now extremely familiar. The sound engineer Dave Hassinger was waiting for them. “It’s been great working with the Stones, who, contrary to the countless jibes of mediocre comedians all over the world, are real professionals, and a gas to work with,”45 he writes on the back of the album sleeve. This was the first time since their debut LP that they would record an entire album in the same studio with the same sound engineer. They would only spend two sessions cutting the tracks, the first between December 8 and 10, 1965, and the second between March 6 and 9, 1966. The album, along with various other tracks that were to appear on different compilations and singles, would take just seven days to record. Hassinger later spoke of this speed of execution: “Whereas today, we might spend as much as six months on a contemporary project. But the Stones… they really knew what they were after and they really knew when they had it. They never went for perfection. They went for total feel. You could have a little mistake, as long as it didn’t disturb the feel or if it wasn’t distracting.”33
“19th Nervous Breakdown,” which was released as a single, came into being on December 8, 1965. Between December 8 and 10, 1965 the Stones recorded “Mother’s Little Helper,” “Doncha Bother Me,” “Take It or Leave It,” “Think,” “Ride On Baby” (included on the compilations Flowers [1967] and The Rest of the Best [1983]), “Sittin’ on the Fence” (on the compilations Flowers, Through the Past Darkly [1969], More Hot Rocks [Big Hits & Fazed Cookies] [1972], and The Rest of the Best), and “Sad Day” (B-side of the US single “19th Nervous Breakdown,” and included on the compilations No Stone Unturned, The Rest of the Best, The Rolling Stones Singles—The London Years [1989]).
At the end of these three days of recording, Charlie voiced his enthusiasm: “We recorded 10 numbers, I think that musically they are the best thing that we’ve ever done.”1 After appearing on various television shows in the United Kingdom and the United States, and then touring Australia and New Zealand (between February 18 and March 1), the group returned to the RCA Studios, where between March 6 and 9, 1966, they recorded “Out of Time,” “Lady Jane,” “It’s Not Easy,” and “Stupid Girl,” plus “Paint It Black” and “Long Long While,” which were released as the two sides of a single in the United Kingdom (and separately included on the compilations More Hot Rocks [Big Hits & Fazed Cookie], No Stone Unturned, The Rest of the Best, The Rolling Stones Singles—The London Years), and then “Under My Thumb,” “High and Dry,” “Flight 505,” “I Am Waiting,” and “What to Do.”
Keith Richards reflects on the recording of the LP: “On albums like December’s Children and Aftermath, I did the parts that Brian normally would have done. Sometimes I’d overlay eight guitars and then just maybe use one bar of the takes here and there in the mixing, so at the end of it, it sounds like it’s two or three guitars and you’re not even counting anymore. But there’s actually eight in there, and they’re just in and out, in the mix.”2 The final result is an unmitigated success. The Stones took a little longer in the studio, and this shows in the individual tracks. “Our previous sessions have always been rush jobs,” explains Keith. “This time we were able to relax a little, take our time.”1 The studios were surrounded night and day by increasing numbers of fans who indulged in ever more intrusive behavior. However, nothing really interfered with the recording process as everyone was determined to benefit from this period of relative calm to throw themselves into the making of the new album. Even Brian Jones, who was repeatedly found taking a nap during the sessions…
Numerous new musical instruments made their appearance on Aftermath. Most of them, including the marimba, the dulcimer, and the sitar, were played by Brian Jones. He also added to his collection of guitars, starting with a superb Rickenbacker 360/12 (the same model that George Harrison and Roger McGuinn played), after his Rickenbacker “1993” 12-string was stolen during the group’s fourth North American tour (October 29–December 5, 1965). Like Keith Richards, he also acquired a Gibson Firebird “non-reverse” (their previous model being a “reverse”) and a Gibson Hummingbird 6-string acoustic. Keith also treated himself to a Guild M-65 Freshman. Bill Wyman, although remaining faithful to his Framus Humbug, recorded with a Vox Wyman bass designed especially for him. As for Charlie Watts, in addition to his Ludwig Super Classic, the drummer also plays xylophone, bongos, and finger cymbals on the album. Other instruments, such as harpsichord, organ, and piano, were also used during the sessions but have not all been identified.