Their second album in the UK and their third album in the US are definitely highlights
from the early, bluesy days. Compare the tracklists:

UK No.2:
01. Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Solomon Burke/Jerry Wexler/Bert Russell) – 5:03
02. Down Home Girl (Jerry Leiber/Arthur Butler) – 4:11
03. You Can't Catch Me (Chuck Berry) – 3:38
04. Time Is on My Side (Norman Meade) – 2:58
05. What a Shame (Jagger/Richards) – 3:03
06. Grown Up Wrong (Jagger/Richards) – 1:50
07. Down The Road Apiece (Don Raye) – 2:55
08. Under the Boardwalk (Arthur Resnick/Kenny Young) – 2:46
09. I Can't Be Satisfied (McKinley Morganfield) – 3:26
10. Pain In My Heart (Naomi Neville) – 2:11
11. Off The Hook (Jagger/Richards) – 2:33
12. Susie Q (Eleanor Broadwater/Dale Hawkins/Stan Lewis) – 1:50

US Now!
01. Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Solomon Burke/Bert Russell/Jerry Wexler) – 2:58
02. Down Home Girl (Jerry Leiber/Arthur Butler) – 4:12
03. You Can't Catch Me (Chuck Berry) – 3:39
04. Heart of Stone (Jagger/Richards) – 2:49
05. What a Shame (Jagger/Richards) – 3:05
06. Mona (I need you baby) (Ellas McDaniel) – 3:35
07. Down the Road Apiece (Don Raye) – 2:55
08. Off the Hook (Jagger/Richards) – 2:34
09. Pain in my Heart (Naomi Neville) – 2:12
10. Oh Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin' (Barbara Lynn Ozen) – 2:08
11. Little Red Rooster (Willie Dixon) – 3:05
12. Surprise, Surprise (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) – 2:31

So there is 2:05 more of Everybody Needs Somebody to Love on the Brittish version.
Otherwise I prefer the American tracklist. I've never been a big fan of the soul tunes
that the Americans got on their 12x5 album, like Grown up wrong and Under the Boardwalk.
I prefer this album above Out of our heads that followed it. Not surprisingly it's the
soul tunes on that album that are spoiling it for me.
But that's just me.
I rate the American Now! Album amongst my 10 favorite Stones albums. Can't get enough.

Quote
marcovandereijk

So there is 2:05 more of Everybody Needs Somebody to Love on the Brittish version.

That's a different ENSTL. So it's not a question of editing the existing version.

Love nr 2 it's actually my favorite Stones album (apart from Under the Boardwalk though), the longer Everybody Need is absolutely superb. Nr 1 is also my favorite, Mona is one of my all time favorites, which again is on Now. And now i think of it Between the Buttons and Their Satanic are also my favorits. And Some Girls....live; Stripped and No Security are my favorites, And on and on and on.

best 3 pre '68 albums:

01.) Aftermath
02.) Now! (better than Aftermath, but Aftermath is all original Jagger/Richards material)
03.) Between The Buttons

LRR and Mona shall be on British release... just take off Susie & Pain and it's perfect.

Pain In My Heart is fantastic add Rooster, Good Thing Going, and Heart of Stone and take off Suzie Q 14 songs great album (Mona was on No. 1).

UK No.2:
01. Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Solomon Burke/Jerry Wexler/Bert Russell) – 5:03
02. Down Home Girl (Jerry Leiber/Arthur Butler) – 4:11
03. You Can't Catch Me (Chuck Berry) – 3:38
04. Time Is On My Side (Norman Meade) – 2:58
05. What A Shame (Jagger/Richards) – 3:03
06. Grown Up Wrong (Jagger/Richards) – 1:50
07. Heart Of Stone (Jagger/Richards) – 2:49
08. Down The Road Apiece (Don Raye) – 2:55
09. Under The Boardwalk (Arthur Resnick/Kenny Young) – 2:46
10. I Can't Be Satisfied (McKinley Morganfield) – 3:26
11. Pain In My Heart (Naomi Neville) – 2:11
12. Oh Baby (We Got A Good Thing Goin' (Barbara Lynn Ozen) – 2:08
13. Off The Hook (Jagger/Richards) – 2:33
14. The Little Red Rooster (Willie Dixon) – 3:05



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-18 18:56 by chenry9195.

I like the soul tunes about as much as the blues numbers... with mistakes like "Under the Boardwalk" and "My Girl" excepted. But I think a sleeper track is "Surprise, Surprise"--to me it's a stronger song than "Off the Hook" and could have come earlier than the last track (which in those days seems to have been a throwaway position, not yet the "epic closer" of the classic rock period).

NOW! is one of the first LP's I purchased. It seemed like a lot of money at the time. It's mono. I still have it and it's beat up. I played it to death. A Hard Day's Night is my favorite early Beatles album. NOW! is my favorite early Stones. It's almost a greatest hits record, strong from top to bottom.

ENSTL and Mona are the highlights for me on Now! I only know the US albums, but after I found out that No. 2 has an extra 3 minutes of ENSTL, I was a little disappointed that I don't have it.

As a Brit, I would dearly like to suggest that No.2 is the better LP, but Now! is that little bit stronger, imo.

2 very good lps. I like Now! by a hair. Heart of Stone, Mona & Little Red Rooster puts it just slightly ahead.

It's so very lonely, you're 2,000 Light Years from home

Quote
studiorambo
ENSTL and Mona are the highlights for me on Now! I only know the US albums, but after I found out that No. 2 has an extra 3 minutes of ENSTL, I was a little disappointed that I don't have it.

If my memory serves me right the NOW version - the shorter one - of ENSML was released in mistake. That is to say that the NO. 2 version is the 'proper' one. Anyway I think the longer version is a bit lifeless, and frankly, quite boring in its whole long glory (for years it somehow destroyed my eagerness to play NO 2, and still to this day teh album has stayed quite a stranger to me). The shorter one - that sounds more like a demo - has a great, loosy feeling in it - wilder back vocs, etc. More groove, that is to say. I wish that this version would have lasted longer (I first heard it in some rarity compilation, perhaps in FOR COLLECTORS ONLY)

- Doxa



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-19 11:14 by Doxa.

In a hindsight NO 2 is interesting album for many reasons, but especially as far as the originals go. When Mick and Keith talk about how difficult it was n the early days to write 'proper' songs for The Stones to play (contrary to their melodic pop songs), I think the album shows an example of this.

Seemingly all those three songs - "What A Shame", "Grown Up Wrong", and "Off The Hook" - are those kind of songs they intended to suit to the r&b style of The Stones. And to be true, they are quite amateurish sounding and...well.. awful. "What A Shame" is a basic a three-chord blues number that intends to express more British-dated blues lyrics (that would have a better success with "The Spider & The Fly" few months later). The guitar lick that goes through it, sounds naive and uncertain. "Grown Up Wrong" tries to express some kind of social message but turns out to sound unintentionally corny - the aim aad the means do not sync yet. The best effort easily is "Off the Hook" where the simple two-chord structure and easy beat match nicely with Mick's boyish delivery and simple but catchy lyrics. There the idea and the means do seem to meet. It's not much yet but shows the potential.

I think it is against to the background of the efforts like these three songs we should view the significance of "The Last Time" where they first time ever seemed to find a convincing voice of their own.

- Doxa



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-19 11:53 by Doxa.

No 2! It´s the european albums that counts!

I personally prefer the First Album; I find it more genuine, aggressive and raunchy compared with all the following albums, until and including Bigger Bang.
The first Album has no age, it could have been recorded last week.

I have never heard this shorter rendition of Everybody Needs Somebody To Love - the same goes for the alternative version of Poison Ivy, which was only released on a Decca compilation

Quote
Bjorn
No 2! It´s the european albums that counts!

I beg to differ.
Why does No. 2 count more than 12X5 and Now!???

All the early albums were a hotch-potch of different sessions.
Plus, all albums (Uk/Us) were compiled by Andrew Oldham.

I think the americans have another opinion about what counts as "real" albums.

Quote
Doxa
In a hindsight NO 2 is interesting album for many reasons, but especially as far as the originals go. When Mick and Keith talk about how difficult it was n the early days to write 'proper' songs for The Stones to play (contrary to their melodic pop songs), I think the album shows an example of this.

An interesting vision. Heart of Stone from the American album is, in my humble
opinion a brilliant song that gives us a hint of the still sleeping talents of Mick and Keith.
But this line from What a shame is not half bad too:
You might wake up in the morning and find your poor self dead.

But that's about the songs themselves. The way they performed the songs on these albums
is another (brilliant) aspect of it. studio. What strikes me the most is how "alive"
those songs sound. Straycat58 prefers their first album. I like that one too, but to
me it sounds like the boys have grown a lot musically on this second/third album.

Quote
marcovandereijk
An interesting vision. Heart of Stone from the American album is, in my humble
opinion a brilliant song that gives us a hint of the still sleeping talents of Mick and Keith.

Yeah, I think "Heart of Stone" is the first what one could call a brilliant song by Mick and Keith. Their strong take of a heavy soul song that has an identity of its own. For some reason they didn't release it not until OUT OF OUR HEADS in UK. It was relatively profilic song in other side of the ocean - a single A-side in the US, and, for example, their first number one in Canada!

But it is curious that Mick and Keith seem to think their singles in terms of UK releases - and usually refer to "The Last Time" as the first song strong enough for an A-side. Before that they had actually had already two Jagger-Richard hits in America! I have an impression that they didn't take the US market very seriously - or didn't believe themselves enough to really make it big there - and tried with little tricks and by any means to take their part - quick profits - of the cake of British Invasion (the 'cheap' name of their first album, radio-friendly pop ballads a'la "Tell Me", "Time is On My Side", "Heart of Stone" as A-sides, etc.). I have the impression that that it was not until the success of "Satisfaction" that really convinced the band to take the America seriously, and they can be 'big' in terms of their own.

It also seem to be the case that the guys themselves had a much stronger say on their releases in UK than in US - perhaps the US releases was solely hands of ALO.

- Doxa



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-19 17:09 by Doxa.

What A Shame is perhaps a bit 'amateurish', as Doxa remarked, but it's got the groove, and a certain affinity with Casino Boogie.

Just to follow up on Doxa's observations, here: i think that - as a 'London' band, the Stones viewed the UK Decca releases very differently to those issued in the United States. They signed to Decca, after all, and being their 'home' label, I guess they thought of their British releases as the main ones.

Have to go with No. 2 for no other reason than "Suzie Q"

KR plays some very mean lead, which to me makes it one of their best early "rock" numbers.

i did my own no 2 with bonus trax ......