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BETWEEN THE BUTTONS (London) catches the roughhewn Rolling Stones playing a little old-fashioned ragtime (Cool, Calm & Collected), but not before getting to business (Let's Spend the Night Together). The jacket photo of the five Stones is blurred at the edges and so is the sound; it keeps unexpectedly sliding a little west of east, without, however, losing a beat. The best song is a dreamy farewell to a mystery girl the Stones call Ruby Tuesday.
IN MY LIFE (Elektra). As the folk scene fades, the folk singers scatter. Judy Collins, one of the best, has not gone far afield to find this mixed bag of songs, some sentimental (including the title number, a sweetmeat from the Beatles), some revolutionary (Marat/Sade). Her songwriters include Leonard Cohen, a Canadian poet who makes good use of Collins' dark, low voice and powerful delivery; his Dress Rehearsal Rag is a five-minute saga of a has-been on "the long way down."
MORE OF THE MONKEES (Colgem). Purists may object to the fact that the Monkees were hand-picked and trained to make money instead of deciding how to do it themselves. But the younger rock 'n' roll fans care nothing for the origin of the species. They have bought the second Monkee LP even faster than the first. It is all there: the early-Beatle beat and the simplistic lyrics ("I promise you the sun is going to shine again"). I'm a Believer is the hit of the disk.
GEORGY GIRL (Capitol). The movie's title song was performed by Australia's Seekers, who sing it here along with some of the more lyrical new standards, Yesterday and California Dreamin'. Old-fashioned melodic and gently harmonic pop singing takes on a strong folk twist in such numbers as Well, Well, Well and Turn, Turn, Turn. Sweet, sweet, sweet.
CHUCK BERRY'S GOLDEN HITS (Mercury) is a cram course in the origins of today's pop music, going back to Maybellene and on to Roll Over Beethoven. All were recorded for this album with new arrangements, plenty of old boogie-woogie and the tang of fresh country and western airs. Berry, who virtually invented it, still produces rock 'n' roll that really rocks and rolls.
CINEMA
THE PERSECUTION AND ASSASSINATION OF JEAN-PAUL MARAT AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES OF THE ASYLUM OF CHARENTON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE. Under the direction of Peter Brook, Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company has successfully transformed Peter Weiss's hit play into a cinematic rowdydow no less frazzle-dazzling than it was on the stage.
DUTCHMAN. Another shocking play effectively turned into a film—this time it is LeRoi Jones's one-act polemic on race hate. Shirley Knight and Al Freeman Jr. enact a brutal brief encounter in the subway that builds danger with the insistence of steel wheels screeching through a curve.
BLOWUP. Actor David Hemmings comes into sharp focus as a pop photog who happens to take a picture of a murder (committed by Vanessa Redgrave) that he blows up, and which in turn blows up his whole mod scene.
LA GUERRE EST FINIE. Yves Montana's performance as an uncorrodible Spanish Civil War veteran is part of the melancholy strength of this Alain Resnais (Hiroshima Mon Amour) study in desperation.