Moms Music- The Rolling Stones

A record my Mom gave me long time ago was Between the Buttons. If we were talking about almost any other band, we would be talking about their greatest albums. But it’s the Stones, and I think everyone will say one answer and if they don’t, then surely there’s another answer that is the answer. So there’s those three, and that’s if you don’t prefer Beggars Banquet, Some Girls, my favorite Goat Heads Soup or any left field choice you might have There may be a couple of reasons. One being it’s one of those albums that was released in different versions in the UK and the US. I would also suspect that like many people, I grew up with “Hot Rocks” - as good as a compilation as one can find and didn’t really need to look any further. Still, I suspect like the Beatles and the Who, that later work is just so overshadowing of the early stuff But Between the Buttons does feel like an essential album and an all time classic. The US version is pumped up by the addition of two UK singles - Let’s Spend the Night Together and Ruby Tuesday. These are classics but the whole first side consists of great songs- Connection, Yesterday’s Papers, She Smiled Sweetly and Cool Calm and Collected. The B sides aren’t quite up to that all star lineup but they’re not filled either -with songs like Miss Amanda Jones- a prototype for where the band was going to be with Exile in Main Street in a few years The album of course is that gateway - Their Satanic Majesties Request was their next album. “Buttons” would be the last Stones album wholly produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. Brian Jones plays multiple instruments like marimba, recorder and kazoo. So many of the early Stones records are great and I am guilty of skipping to the big singles, but if you’re like me, Between the Buttons is a great listener experience