Their Satanic Majesties Request Song By Song Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Zoot Marimba, Jul 29, 2017.

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  1. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    Are you sure? The pitch sounds more like an oboe (Wiki has it down as one).
    Not to be confused with a bass oboe of course.

    [​IMG]
     
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  2. Devilscucumber

    Devilscucumber Forum Resident

    These two are my all time favourites, the 2 that caught the most flack, but musically the most fun
     
  3. crozcat

    crozcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    It sounds like a soprano sax.
    Brian himself stated in 1967 that he had played soprano sax (though not specifically about Dandelion).
    Brian: I did a Beatles session the other night, actually, on soprano saxophone...[narration steps all over his words]. Now there are soprano saxophones on the Stones records, a future Beatles record, and it's a funny thing -- you get hold of something and then put on everyone's record. It's great. It's a a very nice recording scene going on in London right now.
    Taken from here:
    Brian Jones talks about "Satanic Majesties"

    Also see this:
    Track Talk: Dandelion


    So, I´d say Brian played soprano sax on Dandelion, Citadel, Child Of The Moon and You Know My Name (Look Up My Number).
     
  4. crozcat

    crozcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    This seems to be the original Brian interview from which the above is quoted:


    Brian interview for Beat Mag. July 15, 1967:

    BEAT: Can you comment about what’s happening this weekend in Monterey?
    BRIAN: Very groovy scene. We’ve been very busy recording. I just came away for a few days and it’s so nice to get on someone else’s scene. It’s a very beautiful scene happening here.
    BEAT: A lot of people have been sort of critical of this kind of happening in this country. The uptight people.
    BRIAN: They’re frightened of trouble but I don’t expect any trouble, do you? It has been wonderful. I have been walking freely amongst everybody. Yesterday I was walking through and joining rings of kids and fans. You know I’ve never had a chance to do that much before. People are very nice here. I like it.
    BEAT: Would you like to see this kind of thing happen all through the world?
    BRIAN: We have had one in London and there are going to be more. But of course it should happen. I think it’s wonderful. The new generations expressing itself. This is one way of expressing itself.
    BEAT: Do you like what’s happening with the new generation?
    BRIAN: Yes, very much. There’s lots of hassles but things always have to get worse before they can get better. There are mistakes on both sides.
    BEAT: What about the Stones – what’s happening with them?
    BRIAN: We record practically all the time as the Beatles do. We just got about a week off so I came over here with Andrew (Andrew Oldham, Stones manager). The others have sort of split to various places, I think, I’m not quite sure. But nobody seemed to get it together to come over here. I wish they had ‘cause they have missed a very nice scene.
    BEAT: What do you think about the Beatles new album?
    BRIAN: It’s great. It’s too much. It’s really good. I did a Beatles’ session the other night, actually. On soprano saxophone, of all things. I’ve taken up playing reeds again. I used to play reed instruments. I bought a soprano saxophone the other day and ever since I have been doing sessions on it. There are soprano saxophones on the Stones’ records, future Beatle records. You know, it’s a funny thing – you get hold of something and put it on everyone’s records. It’s great. There’s a very nice recording scene going on right now in London.
    BEAT: There have been rumors that the Stones and Beatles are going to record together. Could you comment on that?
    BRIAN: It would be at a certain stage. It would be a very nice thing. We are getting very close as far as work is concerned. Whether actually we could – well we could work something out together. From one point of view it might not be a very good thing because our direction is slightly different from theirs. Lack of distinction because of the joining up of the two might be lost. That’s the only thing that could spoil it, I think. There will certainly be schemes. We spend an awful lot of time with each other now. We’ve got a lot of mutual ideas.
    BEAT: It certainly would be wild from the standpoint of a combination of sounds. It would seem to me that you would come up with something really unique.
    BRIAN: It’s happening already. As I said, I did this Beatle session – mixed on a Beatle session, various things. Paul’s done a couple of ours. You know, it’s already happening.
    BEAT: It’s taking that direction, anyway.
    BRIAN: Yeah, and that’s not a bad direction.
    BEAT: We’re glad to have you in Monterey.
    BRIAN: It’s nice to let people know we’re still functioning. Still around – still on the scene – still doing all we can.
    BEAT: How long are you going to be over here, Brian?
    BRIAN: I’m just going to be here for a very few days. Just a little break from recording and everything.
    BEAT: Are there any immediate plans for coming back over after the court stuff is cleared up?
    BRIAN: No, not at the moment but everything’s going to be all right. The big job at hand is to get the L.P. done and we’re spending an awful lot of time on it this time. It’s going to be more of a production. We’ve really put some thought into it because people are still liking our albums so we’re trying to really give them something that will take them on a stage further. And, so that they will take us on a stage further. We feel at the moment that our important work is to be done in the studio rather than in baseball halls and stadiums around the country. You see, once you’ve been around the country once or twice people have seen you and it’s a question of what’s to be gained by going around again. But, there’s a lot to be gained by letting them share our progressions because we are progressing musically very fast.
    BEAT: You’re in a position to please yourselves more now, aren’t you?
    BRIAN: Well to a certain extent that’s always been true. But we can’t really please ourselves. We have too large a public who depend on us to be able to please ourselves.
    BEAT: That’s the best costume I’ve seen at the Festival. It’s beautiful – a work of art.
    BRIAN: Well, it’s Old English and European stuff.
    BEAT: Did you fly here?
    BRIAN: Yes, I flew in the other night. I came by New York and Los Angeles. I spent about one hour in New York and five minutes in Los Angeles. Then I was flown straight out here on a jet. The Mamas and Papas, I think, own it or rent it or something.
    BEAT: Any schedule after the Festival?
    BRIAN: I’ve got a few things to take care of at home so I might be leaving as soon as the festival is over. On the other hand, I might just take in Los Angeles and New York on the way back and look up a few old friends. It’s nice to come over here. I’m glad I came.
    BEAT: There’s a Love-in scheduled for Los Angeles soon. Have you heard about this?
    BRIAN: It’s such a different scene over here from back home. You have more of a problem or at least it’s more acute over here then we do.
    BEAT: Which problem is that?
    BRIAN: The whole problem of social change which is going on around the Western world right now. It’s going on in the Eastern world too, but in a different way. We won’t talk about that.
    BEAT: Do you think the Pop Festival would look like this or have an atmosphere like this if it had been held on London rather than in California?
    BRIAN: Yeah. We’ve had a similar affair in London and there are going to be more. I would like to see these affairs become a regular part of young community life because I think these people here – from what I’ve seen so far – are acting as a community. They have the community spirit, the community feeling. I haven’t seen any signs of any trouble or enmity. It’s very nice. People are showing each other around and it’s very beautiful. I’m glad I came. I’ll have lots of nice things to say when I get back home.


    From this:
    Pop Chronicles - Radio Program
     
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  5. John Fell

    John Fell Forum Survivor

    Location:
    Undisclosed
    The worst part was they repeated songs on Flowers that were on other a lps instead. They could have added all of the b-sides and songs that had appeared only on the U.K. releases from this time. I made a revamped cdr version of Flowers that I have somewhere without the repeats and with the missing songs.
     
  6. reverberationmusic

    reverberationmusic Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hell, Michigan

    She's friends with Brian Jonestown Massacre & did a nice cover of it around 2000.
     
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  7. reverberationmusic

    reverberationmusic Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hell, Michigan
    [​IMG]

    Lysergic flashbacks ensue if you pick up Bill's "Rolling with the Stones" masterpiece.
     
  8. reverberationmusic

    reverberationmusic Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hell, Michigan
    [​IMG]

    Yes those are Bill's "Lead Figurines", needs to be a repressing of those. Also a USA pic sleeve & promoted as a solo single? Sorry I couldn't flip this to the left.
     
  9. Rne

    Rne weltschmerz

    Location:
    Malaver
    "Dandelion" is a really pretty psychedelic pop song, a nice contrast to the (brilliant) ironic agression of "We Love You". Nick Hopkins (yet again) shining on harpsichord, great drumming by Charlie Watts, great vocals, and Brian Jones adding something special with the oboe.
    "We Love You" b/w "Dandelion" is one of the best singles from that era, and I love the conceptual detail of adding a bit of each song at the end of their respective flip sides.
     
  10. lennonfan1

    lennonfan1 Senior Member

    Location:
    baltimore maryland
    what a great interview, and it shows how they put so much effort into this album. and understood well what was happening in real time. I love the unity between bands and audience.
     
  11. RoryMcBride

    RoryMcBride Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I'd go for this

    Side One
    We Love You
    Citadel
    In Another Land
    2000 Man
    Sing This Altogether / See What Happens

    Side Two
    She's A Rainbow
    The Lantern
    Gomper
    Dandelion
    2000 Light Years From Home

    Dumping On With The Show which I've never cared for.
     
  12. Thanks for this! But the video is "not available" for me to check.
     
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  13. I used to be dead certain that it was a oboe too... until member Lukpak contradicted me that it was a soprano sax, on another thread. So as far as I can tell, I'm better off leaving it at that! :)
     
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  14. Thanks for this, this is great! I ignored that Brian was so generous and articulate as an interviewee.

    In fact this entire thread opened my eyes a little more to the importance of Brian Jones' contributions and creative input to/in this particular album and single. Now in hindsight, it's a little clearer to me why Richards always dismissed TSMR as garbage...
     
  15. Zack

    Zack Senior Member

    Location:
    Easton, MD
    No discussion of Dandelion is complete without this. Take it, Keith . . .

     
  16. 9la

    9la Forum Resident

    Wow, I just posted this exact video on the previous page of this thread, comment #516. NOW people like it?
     
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  17. mooseman

    mooseman Forum Resident

    The Gomper needs to go..
     
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  18. lennonfan1

    lennonfan1 Senior Member

    Location:
    baltimore maryland
    oh no no no no no:)
     
  19. 9la

    9la Forum Resident

    "Flowers" was released months before the "We Love You"/"Dandelion" 45.
     
  20. munjeet

    munjeet Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore
    Right on. "Dandelion" is in keeping with the back-to-childhood themes of a lot of toytown/English psych stuff. Come to think of it, the song may be one of the original sources for that sub genre, along with "Strawberry Fields Forever."

    I imagine that it's a pretty common rhyme... Around the same time that the Stones recorded "Dandelion," their Fall '66 tour mates The Yardbirds recorded "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor." I've long wondered if Jimmy Page & Jim McCarty (the credited writers of The Yardbirds' song) had heard the Stones' recording, or vice versa. There was certainly some social overlap between the two bands. Ian Stewart played on the sessions for Little Games album, which included "Tinker, Tailor..."

     
  21. munjeet

    munjeet Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore
    Those lead figurines of Bill's definitely prefigure the cake topper figurines on Let It Bleed.
     
  22. Zoot Marimba

    Zoot Marimba And I’m The Critic Of The Group Thread Starter

    Location:
    Savannah, Georgia
    Oh yeah, Flowers was a lost opportunity.
     
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  23. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    I think my mistake was that had always associated soprano sax with Coltrane's very high pitched explorations but it's tone can be more rounded in a lower register:

     
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  24. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

    Location:
    Newport Beach
    GetRhythm says: "The Flowers comp was really a failure for not collecting all the non-LP B-sides (such as this)."

    "Dandelion" did not exist in finished form when "Flowers" came out. I wonder how much the name of the album might have influenced the name of the song.

    Now I see 9la has already mentioned this.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2017
  25. DTK

    DTK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    I played the oboe for ages and can confirm the soprano sax is the closest instrument in terms of tonality. Most people have real trouble getting more then a squeak out of an oboe on first try and well, for months, so a soprano sax sounds more believable.
     
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