In late 1965, The Rolling Stones recorded nine songs that
were slated to be released early the next year on an album titled Could You Walk on Water? A tenth track, an outtake from the band’s previous album was also to be
included.
However, the band’s record company, Decca, balked at
releasing an album with such a title. Eventually, the release was canceled and
The Rolling Stones went back into the studio in March 1966 and recorded 12 more songs. For
the album Aftermath, the group picked and chose from the 22 songs they’d
recorded.
If Could You Walk on Water? had been released, Aftermath would have been a different album because the released version included four
tracks from the earlier recording session.
Below I present what Aftermath could have been had the
band only used songs recorded from the second session.
SIDE A
- Paint It Black
- Stupid Girl
- Lady Jane
- Under My Thumb
- What to Do
- Long, Long While
SIDE B
- Flight 505
- High and Drive
- It’s Not Easy
- I am Waiting
- If You Let Me
- Out of Time
The first noticeable difference is that this version has
12 songs rather than 14 of the British version and 11 of the U.S. version. U.S.
versions of '60s British groups almost always suck in comparison. But because
of the closer number of tracks, I used the U.S. version as a template. As a
result, the only real differences were to remove and replace the last two songs
on side A, and then remove the last song from side B and add two tracks.
I also used the U.S. version of the album cover because
the hyphenated album title on the British version always bothers me.
