Disco de The Rolling Stones: “Metamorphosis [Digipak] [Remaster]”

It's amazing what history can do to certain albums. Released by Allen Klein's ABKCO in the mid-seventies, Metamorphosis was savaged by...well, just about everyone at the time. Bill Wyman had apparently approached Klein with his own concept of a Stones out-takes collection (caled "The Black Box"), Klein turned him down, and Metamorphosis was the result; indeed, the album is somewhat infamous for its status as THE cut-out bin record. With its ugly cover and its bizarre focus on Mick and Keith's demos for outside artists, Metamorphosis was discarded almost as soon as it was purchased.

Something strange happened, though, which I suppose was inevitable. When ABKCO and London Records issued the Stones discs on CD in the late eighties, Metamorphosis--ABKCO's baby!--was pointedly not amoung them. Its unavailibility on CD suddenly lent it a near-mythical status, with the reams of "critical evalutations" that tend to follow something suddenly becoming unavailible (never mind that vinyl copies have always been easy to find!).

Now we find ourselves in 2002, with ABKCO finally releasing the long-out-of-print compilation on CD, putting an end to the era of endless CD pirates and variations. Is this the final word? Is this indeed a lost classic?

Heavens no. Hopefully, this recent re-release will finally allow people to take a rational look at the album, without the endless "what it could've been" sentiments AND the "but-it-isn't-availible" protestations. Metamorphosis is what it always has been; a decent collection of outtakes and demos, but not the best of what could have been put-out.

For one thing, many of the tracks are "The Rolling Stones" in name only. Mick and Keith wanted to play the Lennon/McCartney game of farming out some of their "less-Stones-like" songs to outside groups, so Andrew Oldham assembled a crack-team of musicians to record the songs, with Mick and Keith often being the only Stones present. The results aren't BAD, but it doesn't take a Stones historian to see why songs like "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind" and "I'd Rather Be with the Boys" didn't show up on proper Stones discs.

The non-demo stuff is tasty indeed, though. "Family" (it of endless bootleg variations), "I Don't Know Why" and "Jiving Sister Fanny" are absolutely great. Even Bill Wyman--Mr. Stifled-by-Mick-and-Keith himself--gets a song entry, the curious ly-entitled "Downtown Suzie" (I'd love for someone to explain that particular title to me someday), and it's great fun.

A few criticisms. Firstly, it goes without saying that some of this (ESPECIALLY the demo material) isn't the kind of thing people return to after the novelty value has worn off; there IS better stuff in the vaults that could've been used. Also, while ABKCO sensibly reissued the longer, 16-track UK version of the album, it sounds like they just used the old 70s album master; there's some tremendously odd stereo processing going on in some of the songs, and bootlegs of this material often use cleaner (and wider!) sources.

Verdict: Finally availible on CD, wonderful. But if you never liked it, you probably still won't. Heck, it might repeat history, and be the first ever SACD hybrid cut-out!

Curiosity value wins this unapproved collection its third star by the skin of its teeth.

The Stones' contract with Decca Records ended on 31 July 1970 and they formed their own label, Rolling Stones Records, for new product beginning with Brown Sugar and the Sticky Fingers album. Their former label unsurprisingly continued to release what they had in the vaults, both previously released and otherwise, beginning with the compilation Stone Age, timed to coincide with the release of Sticky Fingers, and then with others such as Gimme Shelter, Hot Rocks 1964-1971, Milestones, Rock'n'Rolling Stones, More Hot Rocks (Big Hits And Fazed Cookies), and, aptly, No Stone Unturned.

Metamorphosis followed in 1975 with poetical sleeve notes by Andrew Oldham promising "songs and stars to take you back/Some old some new, some gone, some due..." and offering thanks to "Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin, Phil Spector, Jack Nitzsche, Gene Pitney, John Paul Jones, Joe Morrett, Art Greenslade, Messrs Leander and Whittaker, Tony Hicks, Graham Nash, Dave Hassinger, Glyn Johns, Jimmy Miller, and all those we remember had it on the rocks, but forgot the rock they got off on."

There was little clue as to the provenance of what was on offer except that they all dated from their Decca period (London label in America). To tie in with the release, one track had been released as a single, I Don't Know Why, a stirring cover of a relatively obscure Stevie Wonder single from 1969 which had been flipped in favour of the more popular My Cherie Amour. It may be apocryphal that the Stones' rendition was being recorded on exactly 3 July 1969 when a phone call interrupted the session with the news of Brian Jones' death by drowning. He had quit the band less than a month earlier, and Mick Taylor had taken his place in the band. 

The B-side was an unknown Jagger/Richards song called Try A Little Harder, which they had recorded as a publisher's demo on 13 February 1964 at Regent Sound, with session musicians replacing the rest of the Stones. Mick and Keith did a lot of these in the sixties, in a bid to establish themselves as songwriters in their own right, much as Lennon/McCartney had, by offering unrecorded new songs to other acts.

Of the first 9 songs on Metamorphosis, 7 seem to be more publisher's demos created by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, probably recorded with Arthur Greenslade, Mike Leander and David Whittaker, between 1964 and 1966, with a couple of the Hollies adding back-up vocals.

The first of these is Out Of Time, with the arrangement as used by Chris Farlowe on the released version, which of course was a huge hit for him in 1966. The version here, recorded from 27 April 1966, was also extracted as a single in September 1975. It flopped in the UK and reached no. 45 in the States. Sleepy City (September 1964) was recorded by the Mighty Avengers; We're Wasting Time (September 1964) by Jimmy Tarbuck; Each And Every Day Of The Year (September 1964) for The Thee; Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind (February 1964) for Dick and Deedee and later recorded by Vashti; I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys (February 1965) for the Toggery Five. 

The two exceptions are a Rolling Stones cover of Chuck Berry's Don't Lie To Me (the composer credits are wrong, and those reviewers who think it was on their first British EP are mistaken; that was Bye Bye Johnny), recorded 12 May 1964 with Ian Stewart on piano, the same day they recorded Congratulations; and a version of Heart Of Stone that is quite a lot sweeter and more poppy than the original American single included on Out Of Our Heads, and has pedal steel guitar and chorus. The basic track for this was recorded 21-23 July 1964 with Mick Jagger being the only Stone involved, suggesting that this Jagger/Richards song was originally intended for someone else.

The final six selections all sound like Rolling Stones outtakes, probably from sessions for the later Decca albums Between The Buttons, Beggar's Banquet and Let It Bleed. Collector's of hen's teeth should note that Downtown Suzie is an almost unique Stones-period Bill Wyman composition.

Memo From Turner was released as a single in a different version from the film Performance credited to Mick Jagger, that featured Ry Cooder's bottleneck guitar, so it is fascinating to hear this slightly later version by the Stones, recorded 17 November 1968, although it is inferior. Finally, the last track, I'm Going Down, has what sounds like Bobby Keyes on saxophone, and may date from early Sticky Fingers sessions in 1970 as it would not sound out of place on that album. A curate's egg of an album

You don't want to buy this album if you're not familiar with the Stones. This is a collection of pre-Sticky Fingers outtakes that didn't make the cut on the original early London albums. Don't get me wrong - this is a great bunch of songs, but they are probably only appreciated by people already very familiar with the early Stones. Buy Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, and maybe Aftermath before venturing here.

I cannot say how thrilled I was to finally be able to get this album on CD...You have the Stones doing some songs with more of a 50's doo-wop feel to them (totally unlike the Stones we know). First time listeners to this record may think that this album is awful but I urge you to listen...It is actually rather pleasant to listen to. There are also the rockers done in the true Stones form. Although there are a few clunkers (like with all albums) on a whole the album is rather good. Additionally the sound quality is phenomenal. I originally had this record on 8-track and then on cassette. I was able to find a mint condition of the vinyl version in a local mom and pop record store in the neighborhood. This was the last of the Stones albums I had yet to obtain on CD to complete my collection (on CD) and now I can honestly say that I have them all. Thanks ABKO!!!

Maybe there is no certain answer to that, but if you consider Metamorphosis, you can see that some efforts have been done.

The essential idea of the album is to release some outtakes and alternate versions of songs, from "Out of Time" to "Memo from Turner": albums like Aftermath to Beggar's Banquet and Let it Bleed. There is great surprise to hear variations in some classics, like "Heart of Stone"; but there's always the sense of wanting more, and maybe there's the appealing idea of this album: to see that the real gems in the stone's songs are not in the vaults, but in every new album.