The Rolling Stones : Their Satanic Majesties Request...Extra

Their Satanic 

Majesties Request 

is the sixth

 British and eighth 

American studio album by

 The Rolling Stones

 released in

 December 1967 

by Decca Records

 in the United Kingdom

 and London Records

 in the United States. 

Recording sessions saw

 the band experimenting

 widely with a psychedelic sound

 in the studio,

 incorporating elements such as

 unconventional instruments, 

sound effects, 

string arrangements, 

and African rhythms.

The album's title

 is a play on the 

"Her Britannic Majesty requests and requires ..

" text that appears inside a British passport.

 It is the first Stones album

 to feature the same track listings

 in both its 

UK and US versions.

Upon its release, 

Satanic Majesties 

received mixed reactions 

from critics and members

 of the group itself. 

The album was criticised as

 being derivative of

 the contemporaneous work of

 The Beatles,

 particularly their 

June 1967 release 

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,

 with the similarities extending

 to the LP's lenticular cover.

In subsequent decades, 

however,

 it has gradually risen

 in critical reputation. 

Following the album's release,

The Rolling Stones 

abandoned their psychedelic style

 for a stripped-down return 

to their roots in blues music.

The working title of the album was 

Cosmic Christmas

 In the hidden coda titled

 "Cosmic Christmas" 

following

 "Sing This All Together

 (See What Happens)", 

Wyman says in a 

slowed-down voice:

 "We wish you a merry Christmas, 

we wish you a merry Christmas, 

and a happy New Year!'" 

Some of the album's songs were

 also recorded under

 various working titles, 

some appearing rather

 non sequitur and radically different 

from the final titles. 

These working titles include:

 "Acid in the Grass" 

("In Another Land"),

 "I Want People to Know" 

("2000 Man"),

 "Flowers in Your Bonnet" 

("She's a Rainbow"),

 "Fly My Kite" 

("The Lantern"), 

"Toffee Apple" 

("2000 Light Years from Home"), 

and

 "Surprise Me" 

("On with the Show")

One proposed cover

a photograph of

 Jagger naked on a cross

was scrapped by

 the record company

 for being

 "in bad taste"

.Initial LP 

 and reel-to-reel releases 

of the album featured a

 three-dimensional picture 

of the band on the cover 

by photographer 

Michael Cooper. 

When viewed in a certain way,

 the lenticular image shows

 the band members' faces

 turning towards each other 

with the exception of Jagger, 

whose hands appear 

crossed in front of him. 

Looking closely on its cover, 

one can see the faces of 

each of the four Beatles, 

reportedly a response to

 the Beatles' inclusion 

of a doll wearing a

 "Welcome the Rolling Stones" 

sweater on the cover of

 Sgt. Pepper.

Later editions replaced the

 glued-on three-dimensional image 

with a photograph, 

due to high production costs. 

A limited edition LP version

 in the 1980s reprinted

 the original 3D cover design;

 immediately following the reissue,

 the master materials for reprinting

 the 3D cover were 

intentionally destroyed.

The 3D album cover was featured, 

although shrunk down, 

for the Japanese

 SHM-CD release in 2010.

The original cover design

 called for the lenticular image

 to take up the entire front cover, 

but finding this to be

 prohibitively expensive

 it was decided to reduce the size

 of the photo and surround it with

 the blue-and-white graphic design.

The entire cover design 
is elaborate, 

with a dense photo collage 
filling most

 of the inside cover 

(along with a maze) 

designed by Michael Cooper, 



and a painting by

 Tony Meeuwissen

 on the back cover depicting

 the four elements

 (Earth, Water, Fire, and Air).

 In some editions

 the blue-and-white wisps

 on the front cover 

are used in a

 red-and-white version

on the paper inner sleeve. 

The inner-cover collage has 

dozens of images, 

taken from reproductions

 of old master paintings

 (Ingres, Poussin, da Vinci, among others),

 Indian mandalas and portraits,

 astronomy

 including a large image 

of the planet Saturn

flowers, world maps, etc. 

The maze on the inside cover

 of the UK and US releases 

cannot be completed:

 a wall at about a half radius in

 from the lower left corner means 

one can never arrive 

at the goal labeled

 "It's Here" 

in the centre of the maze.

It was the first of four 

Stones albums to feature

 a novelty cover;

 the others were the zipper on

 Sticky Fingers (1971),

 the cut-out faces on 

Some Girls (1978), 

and the stickers on

 Undercover

The album was released in 

South Africa 

and the Philippines 

as

 The Stones Are Rolling 

because of the word

 "Satanic" 

in the title.

TRACK LIST

Sing This All Together

Citadel

In Another Land

2000 Man

Sing This All Together 

(See What Happens)

She's A Rainbow

The Lantern

Gomper

2000 Light Years From Home

On With The Show

BONUS  TRACKS

As Time Goes By 

( Demo )

2000 Man 

( Version 2 )

She's a Rainbow

 ( Alt Version )

Dandelion

 ( Alt Version ) 

We Love You 

( Alt Version )

2000 Light Years From Home 

( Alt Version )

We Love You 

( Isolated Vocals ) 

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