"The Satanic Sessions Revealed" - Vol. 1: CD1
In studio sessions concluding in late 1966, The Rolling Stones completed their strongest pop effort yet "Between the Buttons" with the song Something Happened to Me Yesterday. Little did anyone know that this would be the beginning of a new course for the band. A foreshadowing of forays into drug use and the music that would somehow define these experiences. This scene was not new to Brian Jones (he was busted twice for drugs during the making of "Their Satanic Majesties Request"), but clearly for the rhythm and blues purest defining the music of the time with psychedelic phrasings would not have been to his liking. In fact, the "excuse" that was given for his leaving the band was the he was not seeing eye-to-eye with group members on the direction that the music was going in: "I want to play my kind of music, which is no longer Stones music". This would have been true in 1967, when the band shed Andrew Loog Oldham in favor of doing their own thing, but in 1969 his departure took place at the peak of their Delta Blues influence, and on the heels of "Beggars Banquet" and "Let It Bleed".
Some would say that "Their Satanic Majesties Request" (TSMR) was just a poor copy of the Beatles own adventure into the psychedelic on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", but this is not the case as the Stone's definition of psychedelic would be harsher and without the candy coated pop that would define the efforts of the Beatles own concept album. It was a pure form effort at psychedelica. In the mid Sixties this genre of music was gaining a great deal attention and to some extent popularity. Some of the pop psychedelic efforts of the time include:
The Byrds - Eight Miles High, December, 1965
The Count Five - Psychotic Reaction, September, 1966
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?, May, 1967
The Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit, June, 1967
The Strawberry Alarm Clock - Incense And Peppermints, October, 1967
Status Quo - Pictures of Matchstick Men, January, 1968
Eric Burdon & The Animals - Sky Pilot and Monterey, 1968
There was also a much "heavier" element to the Psychedelic music scene which is much more in line with the direction that Stones were going in at the time. A few notable examples:
The Electric Prunes - Get Me To The World On Time
Spirit - Dark Eyed Woman
KAK - Rain
Ultimate Spinach - Ego Trip
Nico - Little Sister, Evening of Light
H.P. Lovecraft - The White Ship
H.P. Lovecraft - Electrallentando: Maybe the inspiration for 2000 Light Years From Home!
Art - Supernatural Fairy Tails
Country Joe And The Fish - Section 43
"Satanic Sessions: Volume One" Box Set Midnight Beat Records
The packaging of this effort is very nicely done with the smoke filled theme of the album artwork mixed with excellent period pictures of the time. The booklet features a chronology of Stones sessions and events that took place during the Summer Of Love, 1967.
Volume One - Disc 1 (MBCD 120)
1. 2000 Light Years From Home (2:04) - A short run-through of the song that is missing the opening sound affects heard on the released version of the tune. A simple arrangement with only a distorted guitar riff, drums and bass line. Ends abruptly. Jagger once said that the words to this song were written while he was in jail after the Redlands bust.
Everybody in then...Take 1...Title 12 we'll call it.
2. 2000 Light Years From Home: Take 1 (4:09) - The working name of this song revealed: Title 12! There is much more instrumentation on this take. Brian Jones on Mellotron, with the rest of the band filling in on guitar, drums, bass, and maracas. One of the chord changes is missed on the Mellotron at 1:58 (Jones pauses for a second). There is quite a bit of improvised drumming at the end.
Toffee Apple...Take 2
3. 2000 Light Years From Home: Takes 2-4 (3:32) - There are two false starts. Jagger is having trouble getting a feel for the tempo..."That is very hard to do, no tempo...I'll try again".
Five...
4. 2000 Light Years From Home: Takes 5-6 (5:10) Take 5 starts and quickly stops. There is a problem with take 6 at 2:30 when the Mellotron stops. Maybe they are just experimenting with handing off the melody line to only the guitar. For the first time we hear the guitar "bonging" sound at the outro.
Seven...
5. 2000 Light Years From Home: Takes 7-10 (3:51) Take 7 & 8 never get past the intro. Jagger: "No...no your holding that on...you've got to end it on that chording or else that minor". On take 10 there is a false start on a chord change at 3:14. Jagger's not happy with the take and stops the song.
Take 11...
6. 2000 Light Years From Home: Take 11 (2:26) Hesitations by both the guitar and Mellotron players on this take after the 1:53 minute point. Jagger: Hey, why don't you turn...Yeah give a Brian a note though....what?
Twelve...
7. 2000 Light Years From Home: Takes 12-13 (2:21) A good take, but a rough spot at the bridge and then a sour note and take 13 comes to an end.
8. 2000 Light Years From Home: Takes 14-15 (5:31) Take 14 stops abruptly after a short run-through. Take 15 is taking shape as the track that may be the basis for what was commercially released. It's simpler though, but if you add the sound effects ("saucer sounds" etc..) this is it. Richards puts a long pick scrape in at the end. There is a short playback heard at the end of this CD track that being played at much slower tempo.
9. 2000 Light Years From Home: Retakes 3 & 4 (2:30) Playbacks at noticeably slower speed. The final piece is played at correct speed and fills out the track. The intent of these playbacks seems to be overdubbing of additional guitar parts.
Gold Finger...here we go...eight...is begun. Right...Jazz 67.
Hang-on Mick. (Coughing)
One...Part One.
Richards counts in the song: One, two...one, two, three, four...
10. 5 Part Jam - Part 1: Takes 1-2 (3:17) Acoustic guitar and piano track. The chord run is similar to Something Happened to Me Yesterday, but not exactly the same. It's not "Stonesy", but neither is TSMR!
Three...three right
11. 5 Part Jam - Part 1: Takes 3-5 (3:17) Take 3 ends after less than a minute when the piano is lost. The guitar player misses a chord change on take 4 and it stops. Take 5 shapes out most the rest of the track.
Richards: He's not ready yet, you ready?
Part 5, take 1, no I wasn't
12. 5 Part Jam - Part 5: Takes 1-3 (3:05) This is sounding quite a bit different than CD tracks 10 & 11, and I question if there is any relationship at all. There is reverb on the piano and the track has a very produced sound to it...almost Oldham Orchestra like.
Part 4, Take 1...
13. 5 Part Jam - Part 4: Takes 1-10 (5:07) This track is sounding closer to the original acoustic demos (CD tracks 10-11) except with electric guitar instead of acoustic. There is a pause and wah effect is added.
Laughing...
You can't hear anything
All right everybody
Take 11
14. 5 Part Jam - Part 4: Takes 11-15 (5:26) More "wah" takes of the song".
Sorry Mick, one more, just one more...one
Six, Part 3, take 1...
One, two, three, four...
15. 5 Part Jam - Part 3: Takes 1-5 (3:45) This sound very much like a separate bridge section that is being recorded in order to be spliced in with other sections of the song (hence all the "Part" titles). It's piano and a simple quarter note bass line.
New Take 1...
16. 5 Part Jam - Part 2: Takes 1-5 (2:24) Yet another evolution of a common theme, this time with a heavier distorted guitar. Repeats with the same short "section" take.
The evolution of "Title 12" is very interesting, especially the Brian Jones' work on the Mellotron. Perhaps the most revealing aspect of this disc is the fact that the band is clearly experimenting with "song construction" rather than playing as a band or producing baseline tracks to build the recording on. Haven't come across any other evidence of this in any of their other session work.