The Rolling Stones – Big Hits, Vol. 2 (Through the Past Darkly) (1969)

Even though I've created this system where I go through my albums in alphabetical order according to the album name, trying to avoid bands from the same band appearing right next to each other, sometimes it's unavoidable, when the albums have similar names. This, second compilation album of The Rolling Stones was released three years after the previous one and there's a clear change in sounds. Where the first compilation album was full of rock songs with influences from soul and RnB, this second album shows that The Rolling Stones were also influenced by the late 60's psychedelic movement. Many of the songs on this album have psychedelic elements, but there are also some more straightforward rock songs on this album. Out of these two compilation albums, this one is my favourite.



At the release of this album, Brian Jones had left the band and died tragically joining the 27 club. Also, The Rolling Stones golden-age had just started with Beggars Banquet having been released in the previous year and with Let It Bleed just waiting behind the corner. The UK and US versions have slightly different songs and in slightly different order, as was sometimes the case with 60's albums. Mine is the US version's remastered digipak-CD. After the compulsory psychedelia phase of the 60's, The Rolling Stones was just discovering the sound of their greatest albums, but this compilation still focuses very much on the psychedelia era.

The album kicks off with probably my all-time favourite Stones song Paint It Black. The reason I like it so much is because it sounds like nothing else around that time. It has the sitar that was used by many bands at the time, but the fast tempo and wild rock chorus makes this song different from rest of the psychedelia movement. Ruby Tuesday, however, is like one of the anthems for the flower power. The strings and the strange flute sounds along with tambourines make this song sound pretty much the hippiest song ever. The same could probably be said about She's a Rainbow. This song also sounds a lot like some songs on The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that was a seminal album for the whole genre. Then the hippie mood is broken by one of the absolutely greatest Stones songs, Jumpin' Jack Flash. This song really is the sound of The Rolling Stones golden-age. It's soulful and rhythmic, but at the same time there are some excellent guitar riffs and cocky rock attitude. Many people might actually nowadays think that Let's Spend the Night Together is a David Bowie song, because he made a really popular cover version of it, but it was originally written by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. 2000 Light Years From Home is the most obvious hippy-era psychedelic song that can be compared to early Pink Floyd, The 13th Floor Elevators and The Beatles songs written by George Harrison. The album ends with the amazing Street Fighting Man that has everything a great Rolling Stones track is supposed to have.

As I said with the previous compilation album, the early years of The Rolling Stones was good in songs, but not that good in albums and that's why these early compilations are so good. This album already has some songs that work even better in the context of Beggars Banquet, but on the whole, this album is a great collection of the hippy era of The Rolling Stones.

Listen to the album on Spotify.