The Rolling Stones have plenty of great albums. Many made them incredibly popular during the late 1960s, even compared to their main rival, The Beatles. However, Mick Jagger doesn’t look fondly back on one album, which he believes only has “two good songs.”
‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ received mixed reviews upon its release
Their Satanic Majesties Request is the sixth British and eighth American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1967. The album sees the band experimenting with a more psychedelic sound, incorporating unique elements like sound effects and African rhythms.
Upon its release, the album was met with mixed reviews from critics. While many acknowledged it had a few good songs, the album didn’t work as a whole for many, and the psychedelic sound felt out of place for the Stones. However, Their Satanic Majesties Request was still a successful album, peaking at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and No. 3 on the U.K. albums chart.
Mick Jagger said The Rolling Stones’ album only has two good songs
Satanic Majesties isn’t a particularly memorable album in The Rolling Stones’ discography, and it’s aged poorly. In 1995, Mick Jagger disavowed the album, saying, “it’s not very good.” In an interview shared by Far Out, Jagger said there are two good songs on it, but everything else is relatively weak.
“Well, it’s not very good. It had interesting things on it, but I don’t think any of the songs are very good. It’s a bit like Between the Buttons. It’s a sound experience, really, rather than a song experience. There’s two good songs on it: ‘She’s a Rainbow’, which we didn’t do on the last tour, although we almost did, and ‘2000 Light Years From Home’, which we did do. The rest of them are nonsense.”
Jagger also blamed the album on drugs, saying they were doing “too much acid.”
John Lennon said the album was a ripoff of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’
Their Satanic Majesties Request was released only a few months after Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album received many comparisons to Sgt. Pepper’s with many believing The Rolling Stones were trying to copy The Beatles. In an interview with Rolling Stone, John Lennon said The Rolling Stones had always tried to emulate The Beatles, and this album was further proof.
I would like to just list what we did and what the Stones did two months after on every f***in’ album,” Jagger said. “Every f***in’ thing we did, Mick does exactly the same – he imitates us. And I would like one of you f***in’ underground people to point it out, you know Satanic Majesties is Pepper, ‘We Love You,’ it’s the most f***in’ bulls***, that’s ‘All You Need Is Love’.”
Keith Richards also said the Stones album was similar to Sgt. Pepper’s, but he wasn’t a fan of either.
“You’re starting to do Sgt. Pepper,” Richards told Esquire. “Some people think it’s a genius album, but I think it’s a mishmash of rubbish, kind of like Satanic Majesties—‘Oh, if you can make a load of s***, so can we.’”
