Description
Plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings on 180-gram clear vinyl
As The Rolling Stones roll on with their "50 and Counting" tour, celebrating their 50-year anniversary, ABKCO is continuing to roll out their reissue series "The Rolling Stones Clearly Classic" on 180-gram clear vinyl. The series showcases the artistic heights the band reached in the late '60s and early '70s. This copy of 12 x 5 was plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings for exceptional sound quality.
12 x 5 was the Stones' second U.S. full-length release. Originally released in October 1964, 12 x 5 combines the Five by Five EP (recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago) with the singles "It's All Over Now" and "Time Is On My Side" and the B-sides of those singles. Also, part of the 12 x 5 tune stack are three more tracks that were later included in the Stones' second U.K. full-length The Rolling Stones No. 2. 12 x 5 is dominated by the Stones' takes on R&B and blues songs. The way in which Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman and Brian Jones interpreted these songs shaped and informed the hard blues/R&B wing of the British Invasion in ensuing years. The Clearly Classic edition is based on the original mono mix.
Chess Studios was home to the band's idols, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Though this document of the group's early R&B period kicks off with a couple of covers from unsurprising sources (Chuck Berry's "Around and Around,") Mick and Keith waste little time in displaying their own compositional acumen. The acoustic-based, bluesy "Good Times, Bad Times" harkens back to even earlier, more seminal Stones influences than Berry, as does the instrumental "2120 South Michigan Avenue," where the blues-obsessed Jagger's harp is featured a la his hero Little Walter.
The downbeat, Arthur Alexanderish "Congratulations" is an effective expression of romantic melancholy, complete with acoustic guitar solo. The slide guitar chords on "Grown Up Wrong" echo another early blues influence, Elmore James. The milestones on this album are two R&B covers to which the Stones take more than a rote approach, "It's All Over Now" and the majestic "Time Is On My Side," which they make completely their own.
