Flowers by the Rolling Stones (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

• Album name: Flowers
• Group name: the Rolling Stones
• Year: 1967
• Number of discs: one
• Label: London Records
• Collection: Brenner / Gessner
• Who owned it: my father
• Buy it on Amazon: $99.99

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t know that I’ve ever listened to this compilation, but I’ve heard all of the songs on it, and Ruby Tuesday is one of my favorites. Here are the eight Rolling Stones records that I’ve already reviewed:

• Between the Buttons (1967): 3/5
• Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967): 1/5
• Beggars Banquet (1968): 4/5
• Let It Bleed (1969): 5/5
• Exile on Main St. (1972): 5/5
• It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (1974): 4/5
• Made in the Shade (1975): 4/5
• Some Girls (1978): 4/5

What I expected

Mid 1960s blues-driven pop rock.

What it was actually like

When I reviewed Between the Buttons, I wrote:

One of my big questions when I put this record on was whether it was going to be a case of two world class singles (that both weren’t even on the UK album release) and a bunch of filler crap, or whether Let’s Spend the Night Together and Ruby Tuesday would be representative of the whole record.

Unfortunately, they weren’t, and my hunch was right.

Let’s Spend the Night Together, which was still great, and Ruby Tuesday, still a favorite, were both on this record, so was this another case of those two specific good songs surrounded by a bunch of others that were useless?

Fortunately not.

I didn’t know Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow? and didn’t like it very much, either, mainly because its horns made it seem a bit corny, and I thought that if you were going to invoke “flower power” and all that in 1967, then you should not have been able to get away with some throwaway pop shit.

Lady Jane was another one that I’ve heard all the time, but never really liked. I found it too slow and not rock enough, though I did enjoy the harpsichord, and Back Street Girl was another that was boring to me.

Please Go Home was more of a rock song, however, with a Bo Diddley beat that was great, and I liked it better, and Out of Time was great and very anachronistically early 1960s (so to speak) and quite fun.

My Girl, one of my favorite Motown songs (and which appeared on 25 #1 Hits From 25 Years and Come And Get These Memories: The Motown Story), was a curious choice in my view for the Rolling Stones to take on, and I thought their version was fine, but I couldn’t see why they would have released a recording that didn’t add anything to what the Temptations accomplished. Also, here is a great rendition from one of the most delicious and filling corners in New York City.

I loved Mother’s Little Helper, but there must have been some kind of invisible scratch on the LP because I could not get it to play without skipping, and the same was the case for the rest of the second side. Bummer.