Chapter 6: Mr. Tambourine Man (January 1967 - February 1968)

20 January 1967

The cover for the Rolling Stones' Between the Buttons album, released January 1967.

The Rolling Stones' newest album, Between the Buttons, had just been released. According to their American discography, it was their eighth album and was backed with the double A-side "Let's Spend the Night Together"/"Ruby Tuesday", the latter topping the charts in the States. To promote the album, the former song was performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, but with the lyrics changed to "Let's spend some time together", much to Jagger's disgruntlement.

The world of rock and roll was now becoming more psychedelic and it shows on albums such as Psychedelic Sounds by the 13th Floor Elevators and the Beatles' own Abracadabra. The Rolling Stones even dabbled in psychedelia on tracks such as "Paint It Black" from the previous album Aftermath. For their next album, to be titled Their Satanic Majesties Request, psychedelic would be prominent throughout.

Or at least, that was the intention.

5 February - 22 July 1967

MICK JAGGER: "The first sessions for Satanic Majesties were utterly disastrous, to say the least. Brian [Jones] kept coming up with shit that we knew bugger-all about, there were court hearings throughout the year, some of us got arrested, and Andrew [Oldham] just straight up abandoned us, leaving us on our own. It was a clusterfuck of a nightmare." (1998)

On 5 February, Mick Jagger sued British newspaper News of the World for accusing him of using drugs, but it actually turned out to be Brian Jones instead. The week after that, Keith Richards hosted a weekend party at his home Redlands in West Wittering, West Sussex. Among the guests were Jagger's girlfriend Marianne Faithfull, art dealer Robert Fraser, and George and Patti Harrison. The Harrisons had left by the time Jagger and Fraser were arrested for drug possession.

Anita Pallenberg and Keith Richards, 1967.

And it didn't stop there; the Stones were rehearsing for their upcoming European tour in the likes of Denmark, West Germany and Sweden, as well as performing for the first time in Switzerland and Greece, putting album recording on hold for the time being. During that time, Richards had begun a relationship with German-Italian actress Anita Pallenberg, Brian's ex-girlfriend.

By mid-May, the Rolling Stones had returned to the studio to record for Their Satanic Majesties Request, but when they'd heard the news of the Beatles' performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the pressure was on to trump their rivals. To continue being the Yang to the Fab Four's Yin. But that seemed to be an extremely tall order, not helped that in the studio, barely anything was getting done to the point that their manager Andrew Oldham left them to, as he put it, "get their shit together."

Without an outside producer, Brian Jones had suggested that the band try self-producing. The pot was already boiling over, made worse by the success of the Beatles' Merseyside and their "Penny Lane"/"A Day in the Life" single.

On 22 July, the final straw came when Richards and Jones got into a fist fight with each other, climaxing with Richards smashing a guitar over Jones' head and storming out of the studio. After he recovered from being "knocked out", as Charlie Watts put it, Jones came to realize that no one was agreeing to any of his ideas, and so the Rolling Stones split up, and Their Satanic Majesties Request was cancelled.[1]

CHARLIE WATTS: "'67 was a shit year for us, and if you listen to the first recordings of Majesties, it clearly shows." (1981)

18 August 1967

The cover for the Rolling Stones' non-album single, "We Love You".

Despite the chaotic sessions, two singles were released later in the year; the non-album single "We Love You"/"Dandelion", topping at #8 in the United Kingdom, and a couple of songs salvaged from the album sessions - "She's a Rainbow" and "In Another Land", topping at #25 in the United States. During that time, the Stones were left to deal with drug charges, lawsuits, and personal relationships.

KEITH RICHARDS: "Everybody says we were always trying to copy everything the Beatles did, but for once, the Stones did it first; we split up before they did!" (1973)

With the break up of the Rolling Stones, rock and roll had been left without a "bad boy" group. But it soon came as a surprise as to "who" decided to take over that spot...

29 July 1967

PETE TOWNSHEND: "It was a week after the Stones broke up; we were in the studio during break hour, and I was looking at an article by New Musical Express. They were expressing disappointment that rock music no longer had a band of bad boys on the scene, and after reading that, out loud, I said, 'Well, what about us? Why don't we stand in for them?'" (2001)

The Who, 1967.

JOHN ENTWISTLE: "Just after Pete made that statement out loud - accidentally, I'll say - I thought the idea was a bit mad. I laughed, but Keith was the first to agree. 'Sure, why not?' he said. 'It'll be a laugh.' Roger agreed to it as well, and then Keith ran off to call Chris Stamp about Pete's idea, and the rest is history." (1990)

At the time of Pete Townshend's accidental announcement, London-based rock band the Who was recording for their third album, tentatively titled Who's Lily?, named for their April single "Pictures of Lily". With previous hits such as "My Generation" and "Substitute", they were the band of the Mod culture, a culture that was unafraid of conflict, whether it be with the rival Rocker culture or the law.

1 August - 17 September 1967

The Who performing on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, 1967.

There was the sudden announcement that the Who were now to become the new bad boys of rock and roll. To fit the image, Who's Lily? would have to contain songs relating to bad boy behavior, as well as dirty thoughts regarding girls and women. For example, "Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand" was a song relating to masturbation, not dissimilar to "Pictures of Lily". Taking a cue from the Beatles, said track would be included on the album, following several singles that didn't end up either on My Generation or A Quick One (Happy Jack in America).

In addition to the sessions, following a gig in Michigan on Keith Moon's 21st birthday, the band caused $24,000 worth of damage (nearly $180,000 in today's money) at the Holiday Inn, and Moon had one of his front teeth knocked out. Because of the incident, the Who was banned from all Holiday Inn properties. The incident soon reached newspapers, and now parents started to see the Who has a foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, disrespectful group. Yet despite all of that, they still appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on September 17, where they performed their next single "I Can See for Miles" and the previously released "My Generation". That famous performance was when Moon's drum kit exploded, injuring the drummer and damaging Townshend's hearing.

6 October 1967

The Who - Who's Lily?

Released: 6 October 1967

Recorded: May - September 1967

Producer: Kit Lambert

Track listing[2]

Side A

Armenia City in the Sky
Pictures of Lily
Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand
Girl's Eyes
Glittering Girl
Our Love Was
I Can See for Miles

Side B

I Can't Reach You
Someone's Coming
Relax
Early Morning: Cold Taxi
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Rael (1 and 2)

Who's Lily? was preceded by the single "I Can See for Miles" that September. It reached #5 in the UK, but was kept out of the top spot of Billboard's Hot 100 by the Box Tops' "The Letter". Despite this, Who's Lily? was a critical and commercial success, being hailed as the Who's greatest album at the time. On the downside, some of the contemporaries such as Alex Chilton of the Box Tops, Eric Burdon of the Animals, and Roger McGuinn of the Byrds lamented at having missed the chance to become the bad boys of rock and roll themselves.

At the time, the Who was enjoying their newfound success as the new disrespectful rock group, but there were detractors who either thought they were trying too hard or tried to become something that never fit their image.

ROGER DALTREY: "We never really stopped being nice guys, of course. That was all for show. We may have gotten drunk and partied a lot, but we never went as far as taking the hard stuff. Except maybe Keith. *chuckles* That being said, when the Stones got back together and saw what we were doing, they were pretty cheesed off, and Mick Jagger said to an interviewer, ''Who' the bloody hell do they think they are?!' *laughs*" (The Kids Are Alright, 1979)

23 February 1968
If there was anyone who was the most pissed off over their spot as rock and roll's bad boy, it was none other than Michael Philip Jagger. He had called up the rest of the Rolling Stones for a meeting regarding their position being taken over by the Who. By now, the Beatles had left for India, and Jagger saw this as an opportunity to sneak up on the charts.

Mick Jagger, 1968.

"While the cats are away in India," he told the others, "back in Britain, the mice will play. It's high time we showed the bastards 'who' the real bad boys are!"

Footnotes

1. The sessions from July 2-22 were the fourth for Their Satanic Majesties Request. I picked it to be climax of the stress over the various arrests getting the best of the band. Such a fight between Richards and Jones, however, did not happen.
2. All tracks are taken from the 1995 reissue of The Who Sell Out, excluding "Pictures of Lily", taken from the compilation Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy. Tracks taken from the former have had their jingles removed.

Author's Comments

There isn't really much to say here, to be honest. All that's said for right now is that a new rivalry has sparked; it's the Rolling Stones vs. the Who! Which group will come out on top in the end? Place your bets! Okay, maybe not, but still.