On April 15, 1966, The Rolling Stones released Aftermath, a record that Mick Jagger himself would later call a "landmark" for the band. Featuring the iconic track "Paint It, Black," the album marked a significant shift in the Stones’ creative approach: for the first time, the group wrote the entire record themselves, stepping away from their earlier reliance on cover versions of old R&B songs. According to Jagger, this was a moment of liberation for the band, allowing them to finally "lay to rest the ghost" of their formative years and to explore a much wider range of musical styles.
Reflecting on the importance of Aftermath in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine founder Jann Wenner, Jagger remarked, "That was a big landmark record for me. It’s the first time we wrote the whole record and finally laid to rest the ghost of having to do these very nice and interesting, no doubt, but still cover versions of old R&B songs, which we didn’t really feel we were doing justice, to be perfectly honest, particularly because we didn’t have the maturity. Plus, everyone was doing it." He went on to describe the album as having "a very wide spectrum of music styles," highlighting tracks like "Paint It, Black" with its Turkish influences, bluesy numbers such as "Goin’ Home," and a selection of ballads. "It had a lot of good songs, it had a lot of different styles, and it was very well recorded. So it was, to my mind, a real marker," Jagger said.
But the Stones’ journey through the late 1960s would take them to even stranger territory. The year after Aftermath, the band released two more albums: Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request. Jagger’s feelings about these records are, to put it mildly, complicated. He criticized Between the Buttons for having "lost its sound" in the studio, blaming the limitations of four-track machines and an overabundance of overdubs for the album’s muddled quality. As for Their Satanic Majesties Request, Jagger was even more candid: "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 didn’t mince words about the circumstances surrounding Their Satanic Majesties Request. He recalled, "I think we were just taking too much acid. We were just getting carried away, just thinking anything you did was fun and everyone should listen to it. The whole thing, we were on acid. We were on acid doing the cover picture. I always remember doing that. It was like being at school, you know, sticking on the bits of colored paper and things. It was really silly. But we enjoyed it. Also, we did it to piss Andrew [Loog Oldham] off, because he was such a pain in the neck. Because he didn’t understand it. The more we wanted to unload him, we decided to go on this path to alienate him."
The context of the late 1960s was one of cultural revolution, with LSD and the psychedelic movement sweeping through music scenes from San Francisco to London. According to Far Out Magazine, the Stones’ move into psychedelia was almost inevitable, given the influence of their contemporaries. The Beatles, who had already embraced the acid age with records like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, inspired a wave of experimentation. The Stones, who had once received their first top-20 hit from Lennon and McCartney’s "I Wanna Be Your Man," found themselves drawn into this new world of sonic exploration.
Their Satanic Majesties Request, released in 1967—the same year as Sgt. Pepper’s—was the Stones’ boldest foray into psychedelia. The album is often dismissed as a pale imitation of The Beatles’ work or as a misstep in the Stones’ career, a sentiment echoed by the band members themselves. Keith Richards, for his part, called the record "a load of crap," according to Far Out Magazine. Yet, the album’s defenders argue that its very departure from the Stones’ blues roots is what makes it so compelling, even groundbreaking.
Tracks like "2000 Light Years From Home" and "Citadel" are cited as standout moments, capturing a sense of intergalactic exploration that was both raw and visceral. As Far Out Magazine puts it, "Individual efforts like ‘2000 Light Years From Home’ and ‘Citadel’ are utterly groundbreaking in isolation, beautifully capturing the intergalactic exploration in a way that still feels incredibly raw and visceral decades later." The album as a whole, when listened to from start to finish, is described as a "true sonic journey," with moods shifting like tides—perhaps too much of a departure for the band’s rock-centric fan base at the time.
Despite the critical drubbing and the band’s own misgivings, Their Satanic Majesties Request played a crucial role in the artistic development of The Rolling Stones. The album allowed the band to break free from the "shackles of the blues-rock sound," opening up new avenues of inspiration and expression. As Far Out Magazine notes, "You don’t go from creating adolescent blues-rock anthems like ‘The Last Time’ straight into profoundly political masterpieces like ‘Street Fighting Man’ or ‘Sympathy for the Devil’." The creative risks taken on Their Satanic Majesties Request set the stage for the Stones’ later, more mature work.
It’s easy, with the benefit of hindsight, to dismiss the album as a curiosity—a product of its time, more interesting for its excesses than its music. But to do so, critics argue, is to overlook its significance in the broader arc of the band’s evolution and the history of 1960s music. Their Satanic Majesties Request may not be the Stones’ most popular record, but it stands as one of the era’s greatest psychedelic albums, reflecting the wild spirit and restless innovation of its moment.
So, while even Mick Jagger may call the album "really silly" and "not very good," and Keith Richards might dismiss it outright, there’s no denying that Their Satanic Majesties Request remains a fascinating testament to a band willing to push boundaries—even if it meant, as Jagger put it, "just getting carried away." For fans and critics alike, the record continues to spark debate, inviting listeners to decide for themselves whether it’s nonsense, genius, or maybe a little bit of both.
