Rolling Stones 2: 12 x 5

While a somewhat imaginative title, 12 x 5 came a few months after a British EP called Five By Five, recorded at the historic Chess Studios in Chicago. Those five tracks, steeped in the electric blues they adored, would represent the better half of this American concoction.

Right off the bat the album gets points for kicking off with “Around And Around”, one of their best Chuck Berry covers. “Confessin’ The Blues” is a much slower blues, Mick blowing harp better and Ian Stewart running all over the 88s, while “Empty Heart” is basically “Fortune Teller”, albeit it a decent lift. The version of “Time Is On My Side” here was the first one and the single, with way too much organ compared to the remake. “Good Times, Bad Times” is a Jagger/Richards original, built around a 12-string and kick-drum, and nothing like the Zeppelin song of the same name. “It’s All Over Now” was a hit single the summer before, and an excellent, original arrangement of a song they didn’t write.

“2120 South Michigan Avenue” was the address of the Chess studios, yet this organ-based instrumental sounds more like the Memphis or Stax sound of Booker T and the MG’s. “Under The Boardwalk” proves these guys shouldn’t croon, but Keith obviously loved playing that 12-string, and would do so on “Congratulations”, another song whose title would be given to much better songs. “Grown Up Wrong” is another original recorded before they knew how to arrange such things. “If You Need Me” is a brief but excellent version of the Solomon Burke staple, and it all comes down to a revved-up take on “Susie Q”.

An album in name only, 12 x 5 has more good than bad, but it’s not of classic caliber. But they were recording almost as often as they were gigging, so they would have more for the label to exploit soon enough.

The Rolling Stones 12 x 5 (1964)—3