The Rolling Stones - 'Between The Buttons' (1967)

Versions:

LP

CD (UK)

CD (US)

Tracklisting:

Side One:

1. Yesterday's Papers

2. My Obsession

3. Back Street Girl

4. Connection

5. She Smiled Sweetly

6. Cool, Calm & Collected

Side Two:

1. All Sold Out

2. Please Go Home

3. Who's Been Sleeping Here?

4. Complicated

5. Miss Amanda Jones

6. Something Happened to Me Yesterday

Best Tracks:

Yesterday's Papers

Back Street Girl

Connection

Currently listening to: LP

Between The Buttons was one of the first Rolling Stones records I had that wasn't a compilation. I had Beggar's Banquet and Let It Bleed, and loved them. I was very much interested in exploring the Stones' early back catalogue, but I found it dauntingly vast (in retrospect, I'm not sure why. It wasn't that much more than The Beatles or The Who. However, it was much messier. I'm pretty sure that both the UK and US albums - which were considerably different - were released in Australia. Not to mention the countless 70's compilations).

I happened upon Between The Buttons in a record shop sometime in the late 90's and bought it (it was a German pressing that, I later found out, featured the tracklisting of the UK version. Thankfully). The only song I knew was 'Yesterday's Papers'. Being a 60's Stones record, I figured I couldn't go wrong. Once I got the record home and played it, however, I was slightly disappointed. It didn't really grab me. I wouldn't say that I didn't like it. It just didn't grab me. Especially not in the way that Let It Bleed had. I added it to the collection, and didn't give it much more thought...

...until about 10 years later. I've never stopped listening to The Stones, and have consistently bought their records. Whenever I found one of their 60's albums that I didn't have, and at a price I was willing to pay, I eagerly snapped it up. However, around 2009-2010, I found myself in a huge Stones resurgence. I decided, around this time, that I needed to finally get some of the albums I didn't have (I didn't even have Aftermath at this point - I'd never come across a cheap enough vinyl copy). It helped that the CD's had been beautifully remastered and rereleased a few years before. I slowly started buying them (and, at full price - I buy so much music, I'm usually quite a scrooge and only pay full price for new releases). By some happy coincidence, a few months after I decided to buy all the remastered CD's, I found myself at a huge CD sale at the Adelaide Showgrounds, where I found almost every one of the remastered CD's for $5 each. Suffice to say, I bought the lot. Including both the UK and US versions of Between The Buttons.

With these new CD's, I finally revisited Between The Buttons. And, this time, I loved it.

I find all of the songs on the first side quite charming. 'Back Street Girl' and 'Connection' have become favourites. Sure, 'Back Street Girl' is no 'Lady Jane', but it is a sweet song. As is, 'She Smiled Sweetly'. 'She Smiled Sweetly' almost sounds like it could belong on Their Satanic Majesty's Request, had they produced it like 'We Love You'. I even like 'Cool, Calm & Collected', despite it's silliness.

The second side is rockier than the first. 'All Sold Out' is typical of The Stones during this period. 'Miss Amanda Jones' is an interesting glimpse into what The Stones would become in the 70's. 'Please Go Home' is a psychedelic 'Not Fade Away'. While, 'Who's Been Sleeping Here' is a hint to what would come the following year with Beggar's Banquet. 

The US version of the album adds both sides of the 'Let's Spend The Night Together'/'Ruby Tuesday' single, at the expense of 'Back Street Girl' and 'Please Go Home' - two of my favourites. Despite the fact that both sides of the single were brilliant ('Let's Spend The Night Together' took me a long time to warm to. 'Ruby Tuesday' is, obviously, one of The Stones' best singles), they don't belong on Between The Buttons. The track order is also altered. They certainly made a mess of it. In the context of the US album, the album tracks feel like filler, lazily thrown together to make an album out of the single. Which, to the American record company people, it probably was.

There's a certain charm to Between The Buttons. While not every song is a classic (and who says they have to be?), it's certainly the most consistent album that they'd released, up to that point. If it is slight, it's only so in comparison to the great work that The Stones were doing at that point in their career. Either way, it has become one of my favourite Stones records.