What a strange event it was in the history of The Rolling Stones – the Psychedelic album. Here they are in a video for 2000 Light Years From Home sounding more like The Pink Floyd than a Blues influenced Beat group (although that groove)! One wonders what The Pink Floyd thought about it all? Brian Jones on the mellotron? I wonder if they thought of The Stones as yesterday’s news, and actually to hip teenagers with new ideas they were just lost, drowning in the regurgitation of their influences, trying to break out? Weren’t The Pink Floyd, the new sound of now in 1967? Weren’t The Stones jumping on the Psychedelic kids bandwagon?

The Stones themselves seemed to have realised this very soon afterwards, because they jumped off again like a rat off a hot plate, returning to reality with Jumpin’ Jack Flash in 1968, a slice of raw Rock ‘n’ Roll attitude and a more innovative version of themselves within their own style, matured songwriters, heading towards the seventies with not just swagger but ideas to back it up. Then came Beggars Banquet later that year and the classic opening track Sympathy For The Devil and suddenly The Stones sounded physically dangerous rather that just subversive – and then that country influence, quite a turnaround after their deviation to another galaxy.

But back on their lost planet – wasn’t it strange that they called this song 2000 Light Years From Home when there’s another track on ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ called 2000 Man? It’s just that the lyric is changing the amount of light years all the time in the song, so one wonders why they didn’t settle on 3000 Light Years From Home? Maybe there was once a third verse? Ha Ha!! Don’t lose any sleep over this – although Jagger probably did as the lyrics were allegedly written while he awaited trial in Brixton prison in June 1967.

Sun turnin’ ’round with graceful motion
We’re setting off with soft explosion
Bound for a star with fiery oceans
It’s so very lonely
You’re a 100 light years from home

Freezing red deserts turn to dark
Energy here in every part
It’s so very lonely
You’re 600 light years from home

It’s so very lonely
You’re a 1000 light years from home
It’s so very lonely
You’re a 1000 light years from home

Bell flight 14 you now can land
See you on Aldebaran
Safe on the green desert sand
It’s so very lonely
You’re 2000 light years from home
It’s so very lonely
You’re 2000 light years from home

The cover art is from a Dutch single released that year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rolling_Stones

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Light_Years_from_Home