The British Invasion Continued: “Aftermath” by The Rolling Stones (1966)

Based on the knowledge that the Rolling Stones were a performance-focused group, and that this was one of their earlier albums, it makes sense that the songs on “Aftermath” aren’t very different from each other. Noticeably, the instrumentation on most of the songs is the same: drums, electric bass, acoustic rhythmic guitar, electric lead guitar, sometimes a rock organ and/or harmonica. The similar instrumentation made a lot of the songs sound the same to me. However, a couple did stand out, for various reasons.

“Paint It Black,” for example, features a unique chord progression and guitar riff that was intriguing. “Lady Jane” also stood out purely because it was all acoustic and utilized a harpsichord on the recording. Looking deeper at the lyrics (and searching online for their meaning), I found speculations that the song could be about King Henry VIII and one of his wives, Jane Seymour. This would explain for the use of the harpsichord in order to give the song an Elizabethan era feel.

A couple songs slightly bothered me because of their demeaning, misogynistic lyrics. “Stupid Girl” is obviously explicit; Jagger thinks that girls are stupid, vain, and petty. In “Under My Thumb,” he talks about having control over a woman, essentially enslaving her to the relationship. The song “Think” places the blame for a failed relationship on the woman, saying, “tell me who’s fault was that, babe?”

Overall, the album was easy to listen to and had some interesting aspects. For example, I enjoyed the way the Stones meshed blues and country vibes into one album, seen clearly on the song “Going Home,” But as a whole, the album wasn’t very exciting to me, personally. Had I been a teenager during the British Invasion, I would have been a “Beatlemaniac!”