Little by Little

England’s Newest Hitmakers

Side 1, Track 6

"Little by Little" (Nanker Phelge, Phil Spector) – 2:39

Another generic blues workout. Maybe I'm jaded now, but I can't hear this song as anything but filler – the Nanker Phelge/Phil Spector co-writing credit gives a little support to the idea that nobody is taking this too seriously. Keith throws in a respectable solo (his guitar sounds great here) and Brian Jones throws in another dull harp break. I can't believe I used to love this album – how did I forget about the near-endless boring blues/rock tunes?

I know it's unfair to compare anyone to the Beatles, but at this stage in their devlopement, they had filler a million times more interesting than stuff like "Little by Little" – their first album had great covers of "Anna", "Boys", and "A Taste of Honey". I'm only at the end of side 1, but I sure hope this album gets a lot more attenion-grabbing than "Little by Little".

A thought struck me: Keith takes his solo after the first chorus – is there any good song that has done that, ever? The only one I can think of now is The Sonics' "Have Love Will Travel".