Their Satanic Majesties Request

Infobox Album | Name = Their Satanic Majesties Request
Type = Album
Artist = The Rolling Stones


Released = 8 December 1967 (UK) 9 December 1967 (US)
Recorded = 9 February - 23 October 1967
Olympic Studios, London, England
Genre = Psychedelic rock
Length = 44:06
Label = Decca/ABKCO (UK)
London/ABKCO (US)
Producer = The Rolling Stones
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:giozefekhgfj link]
*Robert Christgau (B+) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=rolling+stone link]
Last album = "Between the Buttons"
(1967 UK)

---

"Flowers"
(1967 US)
This album = "Their Satanic Majesties Request"
(1967)
Next album = "Beggars Banquet"
(1968) |

"Their Satanic Majesties Request" is a psychedelic rock album by The Rolling Stones recorded and released in 1967. Its title is a play on the "Her Britannic Majesty requests and requires..." text that appears inside a British passport.

Richie Unterberger of "Allmusic" said: [ cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:giozefekhgfj |title="Their Satanic Majesties Request" |work=Allmusic |first=Richie |last=Unterberger |accessdate=2007-11-19 ]

History

Begun just after "Between the Buttons" had been released, the recording of "Their Satanic Majesties Request" was long and sporadic, broken up by court appearances and jail terms. Starting with this release, non-compilation albums from the band would be released in uniform editions across international markets.

Released in December 1967, "Their Satanic Majesties Request" reached #3 in the UK and #2 in the US (easily going gold), but its commercial performance declined rapidly. It was soon viewed as a pretentious, poorly conceived attempt to outdo The Beatles and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (released June 1967), often explained by drug trials and excesses in contemporary musical fashion. The response of the audience and the growing rejection of the flower power scene by Jagger and Richards would mean a turning point for the Stones: in 1968 the Stones would return to the hard driving blues that earned them fame early in their career.

In 1998, a bootleg box set of eight CDs with outtakes of the "Satanic" sessions was released on the market. The box set shows the band developing the songs, and striking is the cooperation between Brian Jones, Keith Richards and session pianist Nicky Hopkins. Richards is leading the sessions and most songs seem to be written by him, and both Hopkins and Jones indulge in creating elaborate soundscapes, with Brian Jones' parts created on the Mellotron being especially important for the sound and atmosphere of the album.

Indeed, admiration and love of the album has grown over the years as a kind of punk rockers' own ragged flipside to the Beatles more cheerful masterpieces from the same period. Songs such as "Citadel" have been covered by a number of young rock bands, and the whole album is held in particularly high esteem by the Rolling Stones-inspired band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who paid tribute to it through the release of their 1995 album, "Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request".

Initial releases of the album featured a three-dimensional picture of the band on the cover by photographer Michael Cooper. When viewed in a certain way, the lenticular image shows the band members' faces turning towards each other with the exception of Jagger, whose hands appear crossed in front of him. Looking closely on its cover, one can see the faces of each of the four Beatles. Later editions replaced the glued-on 3-dimensional image with a standard photo, due to high production costs. A limited edition LP version in the 1980's re-printed the original 3D cover design. Immediately following the re-issue, the master materials for re-printing the 3D cover were intentionally destroyed.

It was the first of four Stones albums to feature a novelty cover (the others were the zipper on "Sticky Fingers", the cut-out faces on "Some Girls", and the stickers on "Undercover").

Hard rock group KISS covered "2000 Man" on their 1979 album "Dynasty", with guitarist Ace Frehley providing lead vocals.

There are only two songs from the album which the Rolling Stones performed live, "2,000 Light-years From Home" (1989 U.S. Tour and 1990 Tour of Europe), and "She's a Rainbow" (1997-98 Bridges to Babylon Tour).

In August 2002, "Their Satanic Majesties Request" was reissued in a new remastered CD, LP and DSD by ABKCO Records.

Track listing

All songs by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, except where noted.
#"Sing This All Together" – 3:46
#* John Lennon and Paul McCartney are featured on backing vocalsFact|date=July 2008
#"Citadel" – 2:50
#* Nicky Hopkins on piano, harpsichord and mellotron
#"In Another Land" (Bill Wyman) – 3:15
#* Concludes with a recording of Wyman snoring
#"2000 Man" – 3:07
#* Nicky Hopkins on organ
#"Sing This All Together (See What Happens)" – 8:33
#* Keith Richards on mellotron for intro, Brian on mellotron for the rest of the track
#* Contains a hidden coda entitled "Cosmic Christmas"
#"She's a Rainbow" – 4:35
#* Strings arranged by John Paul Jones
#"The Lantern" – 4:23
#* Nicky Hopkins on piano, Brian Jones on organ
#"Gomper" – 5:08
#* Brian Jones on electric dulcimer and recorder, Nicky Hopkins - organ, Charlie Watts - tablas
#"2000 Light Years from Home" – 4:45
#* Brian Jones on Mellotron
#"On with the Show" – 3:39
#* Brian Jones on Mellotron and concert harp

Personnel

* Mick Jagger - Vocals, Backing Vocals, Percussion
* Keith Richards - Electric Guitar, Backing Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, mellotron
* Brian Jones - Organ, Mellotron, Recorder, Electric Dulcimer, Concert Harp, Backing Vocals, Percussion
* Charlie Watts - Drums, Percussion
* Bill Wyman - Bass Guitar, Vocals, Backing Vocals, Percussion

* Nicky Hopkins - Piano, Organ, Harpsichord, mellotron
* Ronnie Lane - Backing Vocals
* Steve Marriott - Backing Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
* Eddie Kramer - Percussion
* Anita Pallenberg - Vocal
* John Lennon - Vocal
* Paul McCartney - Vocal

Charts

Album

ingles

Trivia

*The maze on the inside cover of the UK and US releases cannot be completed. It has a wall at about a half radius in from the lower left corner. One can never arrive at the "It's Here" in the centre of the maze.
*The working title of the album was "Cosmic Christmas."
* In the hidden coda entitled "Cosmic Christmas", Wyman tells (it's slowed-down: "We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!") "
*The album was released in South Africa as "The Stones are Rolling" because of the word "Satanic" in the title. [ cite web |url=http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=361602 |title=The Stones are Rolling |work=eil.com |accessdate=2007-11-16 ]
* "2000 Man" was covered by Ace Frehley of the rock band KISS on their 1979 album "Dynasty".
* "2000 Man" was used in the Wes Anderson film "Bottle Rocket".
* The melody of "Gomper" closely resmbles The Velvet Underground song Lady Godiva's Operation.

References

If you look carefully, you'll be able to see the faces of the Beatles. John Lennon just above the camels hump, George Harrison just above and to the right, Ringo Starr on the far left side just underneath Charlie Watts' arm. See if you can find Paul McCartney.

External links

*amg | id = 10:09fpxqt5ldfe | label = "Their Satanic Majesties Request" .

succession box
before = "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
by The Beatles
title = Australian Kent Music Report number-one album
years = March 2 - March 22 1968
after = "John Wesley Harding" by Bob Dylan