[.ca] Metamorphosis

an exceptional album:
Included on this album are all the songs that the Stones did not intend to release because they didn't fit their style. It was the last release by Oldham before the Stones switched from Abkco to their own label which started with the big tongue on Sticky Fingers. Just compare the lyrics of Family with Jigsaw Puzzle on Beggars Banquet, or I'm Going Down with any song of the Ramones. Out of Time on this album or Sleepy City are typical anti-Rock, favs of Oldham. But the Stones never really wanted to sound like this. Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St prove it. Still all these songs pretty reflect the lifestyle of the early and late 60s. I would give this album 5 Stars for the songs from "I don't know why" to "I'm gong down". But the first songs are bit weak. Matter of taste, I guess. Still a must for Stones fans.

The Ever Changing Faces:
"Metamorphosis" was originally released in 1975 when they were still the hottest band in America. It reached number eight in America and a dismal number forty - five in the UK. In America, it was their 21st album and their 17th in their home country. Taken from the vaults of ABCKO and pieced together to make a complete album, the results were actually well. Among my favorite tracks are the early (ie: Brian Jones) years. Here is where you'll find such stunning rarities like "I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys" and "Walkin' Through The Sleepy City" (the latter sounds like a Beach Boys outtake), a bluesy cover of Chuck Berry's "Don't You Lie To Me" and alternate versions of "Out Of Time" (featuring a nice string arrangement) and "Heart Of Stone" (with a nice acoustic guitar punctuating it). Of the later (ie: Mick Taylor) years, there's a cover of Stevie Wonder's "I Don't Know Why" that is one of the best unreleased number in the Stones vault, the Bill Wyman composition "Donwtown Susie", and the funky "Jivin' Sister Fanny". I really think that is a great album. It represents how great they were as a band, and a lot of songs are very intimate and not very fast, a side of them we hardly ever see (even "Angie" and "Wild Horses" seemed a little too rocky). Overall, I suggest you purchase it.

Somethings Just Stick In Your Mind:
This album of recordings the Stone's didn't feel were good enough to release in the 60s and early 70s, released against their wishes in 1975, does more to prove their greatness than they ever could have imagined. Because this is classic, classic stuff. It sounds like the Stones' Motown record: "Out of Time" is amazing, and the rest of the album, with a few minor exceptions, is a fine reminder of what great Rock & Roll was once all about. I foolishly bought this CD and a newer Stones record, the live NO SECURITY, from 1998, on the same day. What an eye opening experience. METAMORPHASIS was supposed to be a throw-away to fulfill a dying contract, while NO SECURITY was designed as a big, live, 'come back' record following an extensive tour. But there's more rockin' in "Don't Lie To Me," a virtually forgotten tune on side one of METAMORPHASIS, than on all of the newer live record combined. METAMORPHASIS is playing on my stereo right now; NO SECURITY is in the trash can. They were a great band--for a stretch they were living up to their 'Greatest Rock and Roll Band On Earth' label--and now a shadow image of the old kings tours endlessly, slowly getting worse and worse in old age. The version of "Heart of Stone" isn't the classic version released on 45--those were the little records singles came out on in the stone age, teeny boppers--and a lot of this stuff sounds different than most classic Stones LPs. More American, to tell the truth--there are obvious Motown and even Beach Boys influences running through this record and, in the second half, the sounds of EXILE ON MAIN STREET and BEGGAR'S BANQUET begin to creep in. It's a great, great record that far too few people have heard.

Some Stones Fanz(?) R Out of Time with this!:
Stunning, for those who like the '67 retreaded album "Flowers" this is similar; Some like a neat and tight album? Then they must not like the RS to begin with. Some real gems here from various early Stones eras; the 2nd song, "Don't lie to me" sounds directly like it was cooked up from the pre-big-hit R & B, R'N'R Rolling Stones, something like "Round and Round" or their version of "Route 66." Some songs, reflect the coming creativity of the "Beggars Banquet" through "Exile" period and though, none is quite "Exile" like, "Downtown Suzie" "Jiving Sister Fannie" kind of sounds like it could come off a mix of an album of "Jamming with Edward" and "Sticky Fingers." One funny thing, listen to "Were wasting time", it has struck me this way for some time, the opening sounds like you can expect Alvin and the Chipmunks to start singing that Christmas song you always hear from around the holidays. All of it seems listenable; some seems like experimental work, that did not work at the time but from a historic view, you can see a relation to "Beggars Bangquet" or "Let it bleed" (doesn't "Family" sound a bit like "Jigsaw Puzzle" and the opening notes seem very similar to "Salt of the Earth"; toss in the keyboards etc. you may hear on BB). "Out of time" is a revisit to the often dissed "Flowers" album, but I find it rather productive and before delving into alot of other stuff; still basically a "Top of the Pops" band. "Heart of Stone" likewise has similar merits, although this version lacks the same dynamic guitar solos and overall vitality of the original. "WAlkin through the Sleep City" just shows the boys had a number of tricks up there sleeves that did not see the light of day. A nice piece of the time along with "Each and Every day of the year." I need any well-read Stones Scholar not alive at the time, to tell me, this is a vintage 1966 (-'67) types of music. All that needs to be added on to that, is "Each and Every day of the year" is a ballad, that might make you think, of the later "Angie" but before the glam and all that. Underlining all of this, we can't hear enough of the RS with Brian Jones; who is highly present on this release. Although it's old, its new, it wasn't released at the time. In some ways disjointed, but hey, if I want a tight neat release, I must not be ....

Long overdue for CD release:
"Metamorphosis", the great lost outtake collection, finally gets its first official CD release. It had already been long out of print by the time I became a Stones fan as a teen, and the general critical and fan buzz for all the years that it was unavailible was usually a curt "Don't bother." How wrong those reports have been! "Metamorphosis" offers up several treasures for the Stones afficianado, the bulk of which consists of several fine examples of the earliest fruits of the songwriting combo of Jagger/Richards. Some of these early efforts are very good indeed, and I can't imagine how they got left off of some of those early Stones albums in favor of less interesting cover versions of blues and rockabilly standards. In addition to the earliest material, the album opens with a terrific orchestrated version of "Out of Time" which blows the "Aftermath" version right out of the water (actually, it is pretty much identical in arrangement to the Chris Farlowe version of the song which came out about that time). There is also a much rawer version of "Heart of Stone" than the one most are familiar with. One of the best outtakes on the disc, "Family" comes from the "Beggars Banquet" period, an effective work highly reminiscent of and on par with "Sister Morphine". Stones completists can now rejoice! Now, if they'd only re-issue "Sucking In The Seventies" for those rare single sides . . .

• Out of Time
• Don't Lie to Me
• Somethings Just Stick in Your Mind
• Each and Every Day of the Year
• Heart of Stone
• I'd Much Rather Be With the Boys
• (Walkin' Thru The) Sleepy City
• We're Wastin' Time
• Try a Little Harder
• I Don't Know Why
• If You Let Me
• Jiving Sister Fanny
• Downtown Suzie
• Family
• Memo from Turner
• I'm Going Down