Between the Buttons – The Rolling Stones (1967)
This marks the first appearance by The Rolling Stones on this list, but not the last. This band has released close to 40 albums over their careers and I own five of them — all excellent. I can’t think of another band that’s so clearly begging for further exploration.
Granted, the Stones went through period where their releases were met with indifference by critics and audiences alike. They are not a model of consistency. But they have released a good dozen or so albums considered classics.
I discovered Between the Buttons through Wes Anderson’s film The Royal Tenenbaums. Anderson has used Rolling Stones songs in his first six films (and I assume they’ll show up in his seventh, Moonrise Kingdom, which has yet to reach a theater near me). Anderson taps into an earnest, melancholy vibe in the Stones’ music that matches his own sensibility. It’s a quality I wouldn’t have known existed in their songs but for his films.
Between the Buttons, one of the first Stones albums on which they wrote all the songs, alternates between that vibe and a more traditional blues rock sound, and the whole album shows the influence The Beatles were having on the band.
Yesterday don’t matter if it’s gone
While the sun is bright
Or in the darkest night
No one knows
She comes and goes
Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I’m gonna miss you…
Don’t question why she needs to be so free
She’ll tell you it’s the only way to be
She just can’t be chained
To a life where nothing’s gained
And nothing’s lost
At such a cost
Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I’m gonna miss you…
There’s no time to lose, I heard her say
Catch your dreams before they slip away
Dying all the time
Lose your dreams
And you will lose your mind.
Ain’t life unkind?
Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I’m gonna miss you…
Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I’m gonna miss you…
Meet Me In Montauk 
I have absolutely no familiarity with this album, except for today’s SOTD, which is one of my favorites of the Stones’ songs. Sounds like the rest of the album is worth exploring.
By the way, a check on Wikipedia indicates that “Ruby Tuesday” was not even on this album when released in the UK–it made it onto the U’S’ version, along with another song, while two songs from the UK album were dropped.
Although I don’t exactly understand the lyric “Who could a hang a name on you”. But, I think it’s a sweet song that can be played or listened on any momentous occasion where someone is leaving or going away for a long time.
Somebody nicknamed her Ruby Tuesday, apparently. The singer knows her as such, but can’t imagine someone getting to know the flake well or long enough to come up with the the name. While I’m sure the singer has some love for Ruby, when he says, “at such a cost,” i take it as the cost to himself. You gotta wonder what Ruby’s dreams were and if she didn’t reach them would she say today, “Yesterday don’t matter if it’s gone.”