Not to dispel the magic, but 12 x 5 is a weak album. Compare The Rolling Stones to the contemporaries around them in 1964. The Beatles had left their mark with a double bill of Beatles for Sale and A Hard Day’s Night. The Who were just a year away from their My Generation debut which kicked Mick Jagger and the band into gear. There is nothing immediately wrong with 12 x 5, an album which is more a profile build for The Rolling Stones than anything else. An album predominantly made up of covers and a few originals thrown in there to prove Jagger and Keith Richards could make for a formidable writing partnership. Rocking good fun on Chuck Berry cover Around and Around is all well and good, but this early release from The Stones is another test of the rock ‘n’ roll waters.
Smooth blues-like work follows that opening Berry rip and forms another neat, classy cover. These are now moments which showcase Jagger and the potential he has as a frontman. He is finding his way through a series of catchy covers; harmonica rips seemingly inspired by the interpretation of folk across the waters in the hands of Bob Dylan and Donovan. 12 x 5 is as much about intertextuality as it is about a band finding their footing. Patience is the necessary tool here and while all these covers make for a fun listen, there is nothing too crucial to them, no particular edge to the performance. It comes and goes. Flickers of what would be. Confessin’ the Blues and It’s All Over Now are your best chances at hearing where The Rolling Stones would go. Charlie Watts sounds the most complete on songs like Empty Heart.
Instrumentally, the band is as sound as they can be when riffing on their works under Nanker Phelge or covers like Bobby Womack. Time Is on My Side stands out well but the tambourine feels like a slight excess, something other tracks on 12 x 5 would suffer from. Room for originals is carved out too, and 12 x 5 features three Jagger and Richards originals. It is better than nothing though these three are nothing remarkable. Good Times, Bad Times comes and goes, overshadowed by the Womack cover to follow while Congradulations and Grown Up Strong are admirable efforts. Weak efforts, but efforts nonetheless. Placing those two originals in the middle of the B-Side is either a lack of confidence in the material or a confident approach to feeling they could conclude the album well enough.
But those pair with a lacklustre selection of If You Need Me and Susie Q. Instrumentals like 2120 South Michigan Avenue are worth sticking around for and at the best of times, 12 x 5 takes the shape of an experimental album. Jagger and the gang work through a set of recognisable covers with a chance to expand their repertoire, to find some new angle for the originals which do slip through the cracks. They would, of course, kick on from here but the labours of their cover works are somewhat forgotten. That is what happens when you make an album like Beggar’s Banquet. Comfy work can be heard on 12 x 5, an album of its time in the nicest aspects of the era – the moody blues and spoken-word drop-offs of If You Need Me exemplify the era, but The Stones would not be remembered by many if they had stuck to this tone.
