The Rolling Stones: When Stones Became a Quartet on ‘Voodoo Lounge’(1994)

From ultimateclassicrock.com

The early ’90s were a transformative time for the Rolling Stones. Not long after the release of their 1991 live album Flashpoint, original bassist Bill Wyman exited the band, permanently trimming the Stones lineup down to a quartet. But rather than wallowing in Wyman’s departure, the shake-up helped them turn in their strongest studio effort in more than a decade, Voodoo Lounge, which was released on July 3, 1994.

The record was the first Stones album with new bassist Darryl Jones, who had been hired that March after an extensive search. A protege of Miles Davis who also played on Sting’s The Dream of the Blue Turtles album, it was Jones’ jazz background that reportedly appealed to vocalist Mick Jagger and drummer Charlie Watts.

Jones had laid down some tracks during the initial sessions in Ireland in the fall of 1993, but it wasn’t until he was called into help put some finishing touches in Los Angeles a few months later that he learned he had the job.

“One night I went down to the studio, and met Keith [Richards], who asked if I’d seen Charlie,” he said. “I said no, then he says, ‘Charlie asked me if we were going to play with you? We’ve auditioned all those guys, chose you to play on the record – I don’t think we’re now gonna go choose someone else’. Charlie said, ‘Maybe someone should tell him!’ So I’m telling you, you’re gonna go with us’, and that was the first I heard of it!”

To help assemble their first studio record since 1989’s Steel Wheels, the group enlisted Don Was, the former Was (Not Was) bassist who had recently helmed successful albums by Bonnie Raitt, Bob Seger and Jackson Browne.

Was told Rolling Stone magazine that he was invited to discuss the possibility producing the album, only to be given a lecture from Richards on why the group really didn’t need a producer. He conceded that he wouldn’t be producing the Stones but thought to himself: “At least I’ve got something to tell my grandchildren.”

Of course, Was did eventually come on board for the making of Voodoo Lounge. Was told Sound on Sound that he felt his role was to help identify what would help make for the strongest songs, as opposed to trying to force his concept of what a Rolling Stones record should be.

“I never felt that my job was to impose creative concepts on them, but just to help distill the wealth of ideas that they had,” Was said. “I would point things out if I didn’t think something was going to work, but I didn’t think it was my position to say, ‘Here, Keith, give me your guitar for a minute. I’ll show you what to play’. That would be like grabbing the sax from Charlie Parker! Keith’s got so many ideas and they’re all so original that I couldn’t come up with them in a 100 years. That’s the amazing thing – the simplicity of what he does is so deceptive. There’s so much happening within a few notes.”

The Rolling Stones had certainly endured their share of internal band strife in the decade prior to Voodoo Lounge. The band was in total disarray during the making of Dirty Work, providing the Stones with what was perhaps their lowest of moments.

Richards acknowledged that they had come through those rough waters, and felt that Voodoo Lounge was the first Stones record in a significant amount of time where the band was operating as a cohesive unit. “To not just sound like the Stones but be them,” he told Rolling Stone. “Like I told Mick, ‘You gotta play a lot of harp.’ Because with the Stones, that was one of the original instruments. And his phrasing is so uncanny on the harp. If that can roll over onto the vocals. After all, it’s just pushing air out of your mouth.”

Voodoo Lounge was the Rolling Stones’ opportunity to prove that, despite being elder statesmen, they could indeed still rock. The album’s first single (and its accompanying eye-catching video), “Love Is Strong” featured some great bluesy harmonica while another of the album’s tracks, “You Got Me Rocking,” became a staple of the Stones dynamic live show. Even the HBO television show The Sopranos acknowledged the coolness of Voodoo Lounge, featuring “Thru and Thru” in the Season Two finale of the show in 2000.

As much as Voodoo Lounge had the band working together better than they had in years, more than a year after its release, Jagger nonetheless had mixed feelings about the record – and in particular Was’ decisions – in an in-depth interview with Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner.

“I think it’s a good frame of reference of what the Rolling Stones were about during that quite limited time in Ireland in that year,” he said. “It’s very much a kind of time-and-place album. In that way, I was quite pleased with the results. But there were a lot of things that we wrote for Voodoo Lounge that Don [Was] steered us away from: Groove songs, African influences and things like that. And he steered us very clear of all that. And I think it was a mistake.”

In his defence, Was said he was “certainly not anti-groove, just anti-groove without substance in the context of this album. They had a number of great grooves. But it was like, ‘Okay, what goes on top of it? Where does it go?’ I just felt that it’s not what people were looking for from the Stones. I was looking for a sign that they can get real serious about this, still play better than anybody and write better than anybody.”

Despite Jagger’s issues with Was at the time, they appear to be water under the bridge now. Was continued as a steady presence with the Rolling Stones after Voodoo Lounge. And while it might not have completely met Jagger’s expectations, the album became the band’s first No. 1 record in their native Britain since 1980’s Emotional Rescue. The international tour in support of Voodoo Lounge grossed hundreds of millions of dollars over 117 dates performed on six continents.

The record also garnered the band a Grammy award for Best Rock Album, while the video for “Love Is Strong” also won for Best Short Form Music Video. Amazingly, it was the first Grammys the Rolling Stones ever claimed, even though they were awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1986.

R

The Rolling Stones Welcome to New York Deluxe (1973/2010)

From hotwacks.com

LABEL:

All Sold Out Production

SOURCE:

: Madison Square Garden, New York July 26th 1972.

FORMAT:

1 downlioad cdr

RUNNING TIME:

74.03

SOUND/SOURCE:

Tracks 1-6: Audience mono; Tracks 7-12: Soundboard stereo

RACK LIST:

1. Brown Sugar, 2. Bitch, 3. Rocks Off, 4. Gimme Shelter, 5. Happy, 6. Tumbling Dice, 7. Love In Vain, 8. Sweet Virginia, 9. You Can’t Always Get What You Want, 10. All Down The Line, 11. Midnight Rambler, 12. Introductions, 13. Bye Bye Johnny,14. Rip This Joint, 15. Jumping Jack Flash.

REVIEW: This release presents TMOQ’s Welcome to New York, originally released in 1973 on LP, had great stereo soundboard sound quality of the last show of the Stones’ ’72 US tour on Mick Jagger’s 29th birthday, and a great cover drawn by William Stout. Since then, it has been re-released many times on LP and CD, in varying quality. The attempt here was to try to use the best available sources for this version.

This is a revised (pitch corrected) reseed for the 40th anniversary of the show.

Tracks 1-6 are from a 2nd generation audience recording. Quality is decent for ’72; this tape was discovered in 1992, on a Rolling Stones mailing list. The person that owned it got it from the taper itself. It seems this friend called Madison Square Garden before the show and asked if it was ok to bring a tape recorder, and they said it was. Of course, during the show someone noticed him taping and he had to stop, but somehow he managed to keep what he had recorded to that point. This is all there is. These tracks were transferred to PC in 2001 using a Nakamichi BX-300 tape deck with pitch control and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card. They have since been transferred back and forth between PC and CDR several times, always using EAC. For 2010, I have slowed the pitch 2% compared to the 2007 edition. This sounds more correct and matches Nasty Songs, (DAC 065) which is a commercial bootleg of the 2007 torrent. Tracks 7-15 are from LP. Legend has it that the soundboard tape was stolen from the person recording the show for the Stones. TMOQ’s Stones tapes don’t circulate, so the original vinyl is the best source. Wgat was used here was a red vinyl original with RS-546 REI matrix, played on a Music Hall MMF-7 turntable with an Ortofon OM-20 cartridge, through an Adcom GFP-565 preamp, then into an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card. The transfer was originally done in 2006 and LP surface noise was reduced using Cool Edit Pro 2.1. The volume drop at the end of Midnight Rambler was fixed as much as possible, and tracks rearranged back to their original running order; TMOQ took it upon themselves to re-sequence them. For 2007 the editing has been slightly improved as well as the indexing. For 2010, the pitch was slowed 3% compared to the 2007 edition. This sounds more correct matching Nasty Songs (DAC-0659 again. Artwork is based on Vinyl Gang’s Welcome to New York CD, which lifted its artwork from the original TMOQ LP. Cue sheet is included for playing or burning with CD text. Please note that the sound on tracks 7-15 is far superior to the best known (as of 2007) CD release which are TSP’s CD (and LP) from 1989. Those releases, also made from an original TMOQ LP, suffer from excessive NoNoise; it does reduce the hiss, but it also sucks all the life out of the music. The last few songs from the show (Street Fighting Man, Happy Birthday Mick and Uptight/Satisfaction) have not been added as they are only of a poor quality source. The classic Stones live bootleg album from 1972, was the final show at the Madison Square Garden in New York where not only the end of the 72 US Tour was celebrated but also Jagger s 29th birthday; this concert was released in part as a vinyl album that came out first in special Soundboard quality from TMOQ in red vinyl though with tracks in wrong order and that was also released as Happy Bithday Mick! (Wizardo RS 546), Jean Clarke Memorial Sonic Barbecue (TAKRL 1919), Cocksucker Blues (TKRWM 1822), Madison 72 (Contraband HS MSG), Mick s Birthday Party (TMOQ 72017), Tour 1972 (Berkley 2004), Stoned Stones (Apollo 786), Welcome to New York (Box Top Rec.), The Live Album (Fanatic 5228), Nasty Songs (Takrl 25909), An American Affair (Toasted 7046), The Best of the RS Live in Concert (BRS 775), Taxile on Main Street (Town 42HS), Sonic Barbecue (Beacon 25717), Cherry Oh Baby (01-105), Jump (Flashback   (World Production 04900118-33), Stray Cat Blues (Toasted 26914),  Midnight Ramblers (Phoenix 44785), on ep as Five by Five Alive (Decda 50096) and on many cds including Nasty Music The Original (VGP 002), Touring Party 1972 (Rattlesnake 048-54) that had an almost complete soundboard (missing only Street Fighting Man and Uptight-Satisfaction), Welcome to New York (TSP 038), Ladies and Gentlemen (M.Diamonds 2002), Welcome to New York (SODD 022), Jumping Jack Flash (Oil Well 012) Midnight Ramblers (WPOCM 1090), Jump (Flashback 04900113), Hot Stuff Vol.One (Great Dane 9416), Happy Birthday Mick! (Montserrat 1918), A Slice of Rock n Roll (VGP 244), The Sweetest Night of Seattle 72 (IMP 034-5), Welcome to New York (TSP 038), Greatest Rarities Vol.1 and 1 (Adam 49029 and 49030), Nasty Songs (DAC 065), Welcome to New York (VGP 312), Nasty Music (Nanker 001-2),   Nasty Music (SODD 001-2), Nasty Music Remastered Version (SODD 112-13), The Missing Years (Great Dane SAT 3), Renny’s Blues (ZAP 7886) and Madison (PGN 124) a 3 cdr set that had the July 25th and 26th shows; Nasty Music The Best Ever (SODD 052-3), lately Live at MSG (Acid Project APCD 015), American Exile (Scorpio 1972 1/3), Welcome to New York on Mick s Birthday Party (Tarantura 31), Here Come the Rolling Stones American Tour 1972 (EAP) and Welcome to New York (Archive Master Series). In this concert there is also an accompanying percussion player that is evident even in melodic songs like You Can t Always Get What You Want, but of course on the more rhythmic performances like a fast and furious All Down The Line and the long and marauding Midnight Rambler are the highlights of this show with a hoarse Jagger at the centre stage. This is a nice release that however does not add anything to what we already had, may we hope for a 2022 50th anniversary official release?

The Rolling Stones: ‘Dirty Work’ (1986) – The Stones Fight Their Corner In The 80s (2021)

From udiscovermusic.com

A victim of context rather than content, The Rolling Stones’ ‘Dirty Work’ album deserves long-overdue reappraisal.

Exalted titles such as Let It Bleed and Exile On Main St have bolstered The Rolling Stones’ standing as one of rock’s most seminal acts, but they’ve released a few albums that have baffled fans and critics alike. Hindsight is a great leveler, of course, but even in the cold light of day, it’s still hard to fathom why the Stones’ 1986 album, Dirty Work, wasn’t better received at the time. Peaking at No.4 on the Billboard 200 and racking up numerous gold and platinum certifications around the world, it more than held its own, despite what the critics thought.

“The glue fell out of the whole setup”

In retrospect, the album’s reputation seems to be bound to context, rather than content. The mid-80s was a time of intense turmoil for the Stones. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards clashed over the band’s musical direction during the making of Dirty Work’s predecessor – 1983’s Undercover – and tensions were still simmering when recording for Dirty Work began, with each band member working through a variety of personal issues. As Jagger later explained to Classic Rock: “You get difficult periods, and that was one of them.”

Helmed by producer Steve Lillywhite (U2, Simple Minds, XTC), the Dirty Work sessions nonetheless proceeded across the spring and summer of 1985, though the Stones were dealt a blow during the album’s mix down, when founding member and on-off pianist Ian Stewart suddenly died of a heart attack, aged just 47.

An integral part of many Stones classics, Stewart’s death shook the group, with Keith Richards later telling Rolling Stone, “The glue fell out of the whole setup. There’s not a lot of people who realize quite what a tower of strength he was and how important he was within the band.”

“It’s honest and makes you like it”

Despite – or perhaps because of – this turmoil, much of Dirty Work was imbued with a palpable edge that has ensured it’s aged rather better than history would have you believe. To Steve Lillywhite’s credit, his crisp production was devoid of the fussy studio techniques that have dated many mid-80s waxings, allowing the Stones to steam into rockers such as “One Hit (To The Body),” “Hold Back” and the suitably pugilistic-sounding “Fight” with conviction.

Elsewhere, as they had with Undercover, the Stones sought to broaden their sonic horizons, often with striking results. “Back To Zero” had an itchy, Talking Heads-esque feel, while the confident, politically aware “Winning Ugly” was a slice of funky, radio-friendly pop. A robust cover of Bob & Earl’s 1963 hit, “Harlem Shuffle,” meanwhile, revealed that in their three decades together, the Stones hadn’t traveled all that far from the blues and R&B that had been their initial inspiration.

The most wonderful surprises on the album, though, were the two Keith Richards-fronted tracks: a wonderfully spacey, King Tubby-esque cover of Lindon Roberts’ reggae cut “Too Rude,” and the emotive ballad “Sleep Tonight,” which also featured Tom Waits on backing vocals and Ronnie Wood (temporarily) taking over from Charlie Watts on drums.

“Whatever I do, I do it better with the Stones”

First released on March 24, 1986, without an accompanying tour, Dirty Work found its most notable support from The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau, who proclaimed it to be “a bracing or even challenging record… it’s honest and makes you like it.” In the years that followed, more voices came to join Christgau’s, with Stylus Magazine’s 2004 reappraisal (“the most interesting Stones album since Some Girls”) setting the pace.

As for The Rolling Stones themselves, completing Dirty Work encouraged them to carry on doing what they do best. After the album’s release, they hit a fresh seam of inspiration when they returned with 1989’s Steel Wheels.

“I still really enjoy playing with the Stones,” Keith Richards told Classic Rock during the making of Dirty Work. “I’ve played with loads of other people, too, you know, but I know that whatever it is I do, I can still do it better with the Stones.”

The Rolling Stones Love You Live (1977)

From Nick Kent NME September 1977

Just under a minute into the first side – there’s been the usual audience mayhem, a snippet of exotic percussion, cannons firing, about four bars of “Fanfare For The Common Man”, some Frog making with the curt introduction – comes the first sound of The Rolling Stones.

Those lean, juddering chords swept neat as a meat cleaver over raw steak setting the scene for ‘Honky Tonk Women’ say it all. It’s an old song but it works – oh yes, it works because in those chords lies the very essence of The Stones; a timeless lasciviousness, reminding you all over again that, for real mannish rock and roll kicks, this band is still the king of the jive boys.

A subsequent preponderance of such giddy moments on at least three out of the four sides of this, the first legitimate Stones live album in some seven years, ensure the opus’ excellence. It’s not only ‘very good Stones product’ for the marketplace right now, but also the smartest (arguably) sidestepping manoeuvre to abate the flow of troubled murmuring as to whether the band can still cut it as a fully operative outfit.

Let’s not even bother to concern ourselves with what can only be viewed as a very dicey future.

The fact is that The Rolling Stones have been caught with their pants down this last year – not only by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police but by a whole new generation of potent young rockers, who suddenly don’t want to have their pics snapped as they partake in intimate exchanges with Mick Jagger. Who, moreover, despise The Stones (or at least where they’re coming from) – all that jet set crap, blood changes in Switzerland, Andy Warhol album sleeves…(and if ever Warhol presented watertight evidence of his being the ultimate artistic sham, then this hideous excuse of a gatefold cover is it.)

More to the point, new wave rock seems to have taken few tips from The Stones’ classic style, barring the odd Boomtown Rats blatant rip-off, or the odd Keef lookalike ploughing out familiar rhythm pastiches.

Overall, the whole shakeup has cast the once omnipotent Stones in a somewhat dubious light, open to charges of anti-the-spirit-of-rock-and-roll behaviour, principally that of extreme indolence (which has caused even this once devoted aficionado to throw up his hands in disgust).

Surely someone as bright as Jagger, having just officially signed up his band for four more albums’ worth of endurance, can see that the release of a series of new singles would be the ideal retort to the Sex Pistols ‘problem’. Until now, The Stones’ lack of activity in this area has conceded total victory to their youthful aggressors.

So where does Love You Live fit into this scheme of slothful detente and general group untogetherness?

Well, it’s probably the best move they could make right now, capturing the band at their best as a live force and choosing what amounts to the best of their ’70’s output plus a few tasty detours back to their veritable roots. It’s a convincing argument for their patent brand of white raunch and its continued relevance.

What Love You Live makes clear from the outset is that The Stones still have a way to go before they merit the dinosaur tag. This is a great rock and roll band – one minute slick and tough, the next sloppy yet elegant.

Wisely enough, Jagger and Richard have chosen to spotlight the slapstick raunch angle on the lion’s share of Love You Live; sides one, three and four provide aural testament to The Stones’ imperious rock credentials.

SIDE TWO is the weak link and as such proves what last year’s European tour indicated – that plus Wood and minus Taylor mainline Stones never sounded better live, whereas the more adventurous and diversely paced material that the band had been performing with disarming success in the early 70’s now seemed strained and disorientated, without either austere grace or sensitivity.

In my review of The Stones’ Earls Court dates, I noted the set’s principle casualty was the evergreen ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’.

This sad, limp and perverse rendition unfortunately shows up again here, commandeering eight minutes of valuable time and displaying, if anything, an even more exasperatingly directionless bent to the song’s harsh, wasted realism. This inclusion is nothing short of tragic; the previous version embellished by Mick Taylor’s bittersweet guitar solo and Jagger’s more committed vocal was always a focal point of early 70’s gigs.

Roy Carr informs me that originally Love You Live was to have included one side of Taylor’s final live work with the band and – though one can see why that idea was nixed to present a more unified, contemporary Stones in action – I can’t help but mourn the absence of such finely honed gems from that era as ‘Gimme Shelter’, the previously mentioned ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ or a blistering ‘All Down The Line’, whose excellence on stage is confirmed by contemporary bootlegs.

Whatever, a side two laden as above would have been infinitely more potent than what’s served up here. ‘Tumbling Dice’ follows on from the preliminary muscle flexing. It’s more languidly paced than side one’s six assaults but is still sinuously performed; Richard’s angular guitar bearings crosscut Billy Preston’s chunky organ overlays and Charlie Watts is his usual propulsive self on drums. The side’s best performance.

Next up is ‘Fingerprint File’ from It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll. The number might burst with live potential but here is frustratingly unsure of itself, and ultimately directionless.

Side three’s four pieces are culled from The Stones’ star-crossed Canadian sojourn in the intimate atmosphere of the El Macombo club. This move has given the album its musical heart as The Stones play deja vu time with their R ‘n’ B back pages.

Oddly enough, the side’s starter is a failure. The blues classic ‘Mannish Boy’ received an impeccable reworking by Muddy Waters on his Hard Again album. In one move a 62-year-old man made so many rock and roll youngbloods sound positively wet in comparison.

The Stones’ version doesn’t pack the punch of Waters and Johnny Winter’s sparse eloquence; it’s only adequately ‘dirty’. After all, the song either stands or falls on whether or not the vocalist can back up the self-assertion of the sentiments. Jagger’s doesn’t know whether to play it straight or camp it out, and compromises fatally.

‘Mannish Boy’ spotlights most, if not all, of Jagger’s deficiencies as a singer. His voice is mixed up high throughout the album, but close scrutiny reveals that he’s barely in control of his timbre, is incapable of sustaining a note, and only succeeds through heavily formulated guile which allows him to turn his vocal lines away from being plain flat.

Instead, an argument could be forwarded for either Keith or Charlie being the real star of the show, seeing as they’re the boyos dug furthest into the propellant that gives the band their corporate pizzazz. Thus the El Macombo side comes alive on the reggaefied version of Bo Diddley’s ‘Crackin’ Up’, while The Stones simmer quietly through ‘Li’l Red Rooster’ – not as instantly haunting as its archetype but still a noble performance. ‘Around And Around’ is a tour de force, Richard and Wood swarming all over the Chuck Berry rocker and each other’s tracks.

Yet this is a mere preliminary for Side 4 – again a consistent blast of hard blood-coursing rock, but boasting such an overpowering fierceness and unity of purpose that it easily surpasses the toughness of the first side, while picking up the gauntlet thrown at the conclusion of ‘Around And Around’.

‘It’s Only Rock’n’ Roll’ may well be a paper-thin conceit of an attempted Stones rocker, but again Richard and Wood are in rollicking form. ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ (both cocksure renditions of old faves) cap the intensity quite wickedly, and a final ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ (all seven minutes of it and it’s never been a song I’ve particularly liked) is the final crowning achievement.

Final thoughts: there’s a rough-and-ready quality to the overall recording which leads one to believe that comparatively few studio overdubs were called for; surprising considering the plethora of clean-up trickery that went into Get Yer Ya-Yas Out.

The Stones, on this outing anyway, can still show everyone purporting to play or function around rock’n’roll a whole passel of tricks and styling. Their future may be in doubt, but this is the present, and it’ll stand.

The Rolling Stones: What happened when The Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd played Knebworth (1976)

From loudersound.com

In 1976, the Stones pulled a vast crowd to Knebworth. It was a day of surprises, not least how late everything ran. In 2007, Classic Rock delivered this eye witness account

No-one will ever agree upon exactly how many people turned out to witness the Rolling Stones perform at Hertfordshire’s Knebworth Park on August 21, 1976

Promoter Freddy Bannister claims today that: “We expected 100,000 and got 104,000.” Bill Wyman of the Stones reckons that 110,000 presales were augmented by 30,000 tickets sold on the day, but that between 150,000 and 200,000 actually attended. Stage announcements on the day estimated 300,000. Whatever way you look at it, it was one hell of a crowd. In 1976.

The Rolling Stones were not only the world’s biggest band, they wholly defined what rock’n’roll should be. Dissenting punk voices had yet to dent their legend and the gushing music press was still very much on side. If you were a rock fan in 1976, you wanted to go and see The Rolling Stones at Knebworth. There was simply no excuse not to.

A series of early summer gigs at Earl’s Court had been massively over-subscribed, had sold-out rapidly and, thanks to appalling sound, were disappointing. Demand for the Stones had never been so acute and with rumours rife that Knebworth was to be their last ever show, even those unable to secure one of the precious £4.25 tickets were determined to attend. We set off at 6am and ultimately abandoned our car by the side of the road to make our way to the site on foot as the traffic gridlocked. An unmanageable sea of humanity jostled to gain entry as The Don Harrison Band came and went. The narrow entrances were hopelessly inadequate, but following a three-hour heave we popped through the fence like corks from a bottle to witness the last knockings of Hot Tuna and to marvel at a crowd that surpassed the horizon.

Picking our way forward we finally secured a square foot of discomfort at least 100 yards from the stage; in other words, surprisingly near the front. At which point Todd Rundgren led Utopia onto the stage to a polite ripple and delivered a workmanlike set that concluded with an appropriately explosive Hiroshima.

After breaking out the fish-paste sandwiches – we knew how to live in the 70s – a band we’d never heard of launched, without fanfare, into a song that was evidently called Freebird and, as it gradually metamorphosed from gentle uplifting ballad to all-out guitar firefight, the vast audience’s response went from indifference to adulation.

Thirty-one years on and I’ve never witnessed a crowd react to a support band in the same way that Knebworth did to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Somewhere between the first chorus and the second verse the band went from unknown names to full-fledged stars. “Skynyrd caused a real buzz backstage,” remembers Freddy Bannister. “We all wondered how anyone could follow them.” An hour later, we all began to wonder if anyone would even try

10cc were the next billed attraction, but as the break between bands lengthened, rumours began to circulate that they were facing serious technical problems. “It was their own fault,” insists the promoter. “They’d been trying to upstage the Stones ever since arriving the previous day. There was a buzz in the sound system that the engineers were trying to sort out. But after 90 minutes, I went on stage and told the band either play or go home. Their response was, ‘Would you still pay us if we didn’t play?’. Fortunately, I didn’t have to answer, because the roadies then sorted it out. But I’m convinced that they induced that buzz, in order to take the Stones’ slot.”

We plebian field-dwellers, meanwhile, were more worried about the potential non-appearance of the Stones than any catastrophe that might have befallen 10cc. As we took our courage in both hands by visiting the toilets (effluent-brimming plague pits that mere words cannot even begin to describe) and considered investing our hard-earned 18 pence in intimidating giant hot dogs, the Stones themselves were roughing it at a pre-show champagne reception with Jack Nicholson and John Paul Getty III – a scenario akin to The Masque Of The Red Death with vol-au-vents. 10cc’s long-awaited appearance, meanwhile, proved a singularly soulless and clinical affair. Their latest I’m Mandy, Fly Me single and its iconic predecessor I’m Not In Love were both heavily dependent on pre-recorded inserts that many in the audience considered tantamount to miming. Standard practice now, of course, but utterly unacceptable in the mid-70s’ climate of Luddite authenticity.

There was beer available somewhere on the vast site apparently, but it was a luxury we could neither find nor trust our bladders to retain. One visit to the medieval latrine was enough for one lifetime and so, as darkness fell, we simply stood our ground, tried to banish all thoughts of Altamont and prayed that the local constabulary didn’t intend to enforce the midnight curfew that was already drawing close. As festival infrastructure (second stages, novelty hat vendors, healing fields, comedy tents, bungee jumps, noodle bars… arena lighting, urinals) simply didn’t exist in 76, our only extracurricular entertainment was provided by a streaker who took to the stage and enthusiastically masturbated before diving triumphantly into the heaving throng. Popular legend provided the bittersweet postscript that he broke both ankles on landing, but in that he provided us with the finest entertainment we’d witnessed since Freebird, we could really only wish him well.

As the delays continued, an ominous mood descended. Amid wildfire rumours that the Stones had already left the site and an official announcement of cancellation was imminent, the already minimal crowd lights were extinguished and the mid-section of Pink Floyd’s Echoes (the bit that sounds like ghostly seagulls) began looping repeatedly over the PA. Tensions rapidly increased and time seemed to stand still as the unmistakable sound of fights breaking out was only punctuated by increasingly desperate demands for the lights to be turned back on that were simply ignored. Presumably at their Satanic Majesties’ request.

“A lot of it was down to 10cc,” Bannister says of this purgatorial wait. “But the Stones delayed things for another hour because they were too busy posing and acting like rock stars.” Finally, after an interminable pitch-black ordeal in Hell’s own waiting room, countless searchlights seared our eyeballs as Aaron Copland’s Fanfare For The Common Man heralded the arrival of The Greatest Rock’N’Roll Band In The World. The overall effect was totally staggering – probably unlawful under the Geneva Convention, but totally staggering all the same. The purpose-built stage’s canopy had inflated under cover of darkness into a pair of immense lips, and as Keith Richards punched out the riff to _Satisfaction _at the end of an extensive walkway at stage-right, Mick Jagger pranced onto its tongue in a leather jacket and tights combination that (according to the following morning’s Daily Mirror) made him look like ‘a gay Richard III’. One hundred and fifty minutes later than billed the Stones delivered a performance that was, to Wyman’s calculations, “the longest show we had ever played”. From the brand new (Fool To Cry), to the vintage (Around And Around); the rarely heard (Get Off Of My Cloud) to the seasoned set-pieces (Mick Jagger whipping the stage with his belt at the climax of Midnight Rambler), the Stones perfectly précised their already vast legacy into a crowd-pleasing set of, apparently effortless, world-beating class. As traditional show-closer Street Fighting Man finally reached its climax there were sighs of relief backstage.

“We were supposed to finish by midnight,” Bannister remembers, “and it eventually ended at about 2am, I think David (now Lord) Cobbold, who held the licence, got fined £2,000.” As The Who’s Baba O’Riley provided the triumphal soundtrack to our first stumble into an unlit ditch, we staggered off into the breaking dawn. It took four hours to find the car, but as we’d just seen Keith Richards smoking a cigarette, we didn’t mind a bit.

The Rolling Stones Fully Finished Studio Outtakes (2021)

From collectorsmusicreviews.com

CD 1, Volume 1 (Time 79:20)
Nobody Perfect / Troubles-a-Coming . Dreams To Remember / Don’t Lie To Me / Fiji Jim / Eliza Upchink / Deep Love / She’s Doing Her Thing / Putty in Your Hands / Dog Shit / 20 Nil / Tell Her How It Is / You Better Stop That / Scarlett . Walk With Me Wendy / Never Make You Cry / Part Of The Night / Low Down

Volume 2 (Time 74:32) – It’s A Lie / I Can’t See No One Else / Not The Way To Go / Giving It Up  / Hands Off / Built That Way / Keep It Cool / Can’t Find Love / You Win Again / Blood Red Wine / Fast Talking, Slow Walking / Cooking Up / Everytime I Break Her Heart / Dream About / Flip The Switch

CD 3, Volume 3 (Time  78:17) –  Sanctuary / Desperate Man / Prairie Man / Living The Heart Of Love / Still In Love With You / I Tried To Talk Her In To It / Might As Well Get Juiced / Too Many Cooks / Curtis Meets Smokey / Covered In Bruises / Ivy League / Too Tight / Criss Cross / Strictly Memphis / It’s Only Rock and Roll / Studio Jam Session (Extreme Western Grip) / Studio Jam Session (Well Well). 

I’ll preface this review in full by stating – BUY IT! A bold request but having heard this set a couple of times now, I believe it’s more than substantiated and deserved of a spot on your shelves. 

According to a list on the IORR forum, we have been spoiled for releases from the Rolling Stones as of the past few years – Certainly not so much officially unless you count the various live releases, the BBC sessions, greatest hits and THAT, admittedly, very good single as gold, but unofficially, we’ve had Foxes in the Boxes, The Art Collins Tapes, the sessions from 2002, all of which popped up, relatively unannounced on the internet. The bootleggers caught up quickly in issuing these sets – sometimes remastering their captures – on silverdisk. 

This release heralds the first time in a while that the the bootleggers have beaten the heads and got their wares out first and, damn, what a cache this is – If you’re a light water Stones fan, you’ll be unawares of what most of these songs are, if you’re a deep-end Stones fan, you’ll no doubt be thrilled at the contents as some of these titles have only been hinted at over on Nzentgraf, Nico’s exhaustive efforts to catalogue the Stones inventory and some of them have popped up here, confusingly, with different titles.

I’ll attempt to sort between what we’re listening to in this review and it’s ‘working’ title, however, the forums are your best place for a more dedicated and specific detailing of the studio sessions, should you require. 
Pull up a chair, pop on your headphones – 50 tracks deep, this might take a while. 

For clarity from the covers, the date listed after the song title is the one claimed by the bootlegger, I’ve placed the best guess and the track timing after each description. 

CD 1, VOLUME 1 (TIME 79:20)
NOBODY PERFECT, ca. 1975 – Apparently from the Black and Blue sessions, I would argue that this track has much more of an 80’s feel, the production a give away – That and the drive of Charlie’s drumming. Both Ronnie and Keith’s licks playfully lap against each other. (1985 – 4:02)

TROUBLE’S A COMING, 1972 – Not 1972, surely but from much later in the decade. An incredible, insistent groove with a solid March – The chorus is fantastic in and of it’s own! Jagger’s vocals are mixed much lower in the mix than they should be so assume this to be an earlier rehearsal / working take that never came to fruition. Previously released as ‘Break Away’ – an embryonic version – on VGP’s ‘The Pain Of Love’ (1979 – 4:41)

DREAMS TO REMEMBER, Ca. 1983 – A classic Stones take on country tonk, Jaggers vocals are variously spoken and screamed while the band barroom it up in the background. The guitar licks flicker and squeak while the whole track has a cataclysmic tone of collapse. A certain 1970’s sound in the vein of John Lennon’s ‘Walls and Bridges’ album (1982 – 7:43)

DON’T LIE TO ME, 1972 – No, not that one but an 80’s version instead. Very interesting lyrics referencing a “Monkey Man”, this is in the very same style as ‘Troubles A Coming’ (Track 2) (1985 – 2:08)

FIJI JIM, 1978 – Originally heard on boots such as ‘Palace Pigalle’  (VGP), ‘Paris Outtakes Vol.2’ (Vigotone), ‘Hot Stuff Two’ (Great Dane) and several hundred more, this take is at the later stages of production (1977 – 3:38)

ELIZA UPCHINK, 1983 – Regards a certain lady of no scrupels, this dash of blues runs slightly longer than previously bootlegged at 4:38. (1982 – 4:47)

DEEP LOVE, 1985 – A deep and funky, loose guitar driven track from the Dirty Work sessions. Keith veers between roar and growl with his vocals. (1985 – 3:45)

SHE’S DOING HER THING, 1967 – Sorry? It sounds very much like a TMSR outtake – Fey 60’s Newleyisms, whistling, a jumpy mix between early Stones but with a psychedelic, whispy organ in the back ground. It IS one of those tracks that’ll have you sit, raise your eyebrows and mutter, ‘wow’. As you realise that, as Kinksian as it is, it would have made a belter or a B, arguably, A-side in 1967 without distracting from sales of the album. this has also appeared before on boot as ‘Title 15’, without vocals (1967 – 3:02)

PUTTY IN YOUR HANDS,1982 – Soul styled romp with Keith staring just as closely as Mick’s bellowed vocals. This track has as much sass as the girl who’s leading Mick around and up and down. It’s a cover-version of a Chirelles track from 1962 and makes a good fist of attempting to sound like it might. (1985 – 3:07)

DOG SHIT, 1983 – I guess you’d rather putty in your hands rather than the alternative but this track, which made it’s inaugural appearance on ‘Foxes In The Boxes’ as a thrilling instrumental now features vocals. A storming horn lead thruster with an insatiable appetite for longevity (Sounds about right, eh?) is far too good to have been left by the side of the road but here we are. (1983 – 6:05)

20 NIL, ca 1991 – A dusty little piece from the Voodoo Brew sessions (I wonder how deep THAT well is?) – It fits well of the time and would still sound amazing now. An extended, indieish into leads in to an almost primal squall from Mick while Ronnie and Keith ad-lib in the background, taking turns at stripping off levels of slow-burn guitar. (1997 – 5:43)

TELL HER HOW IT IS, 1971 – OK, you’ll hit the first few notes of this very well known bootleg placement (Otherwise known as ‘Potted Shrimp’), it’s upgraded – not by a million miles, accepted, but it’ll be an upgrade, that’s good enough, surely? No! 0.17 in – vocals! Much like the Exile tracks that got us stoked on the deluxe treatment of a few years earlier, this track is now replete with an extra pinch of Jagger salt and he sounds crazed! The vocals are of the fact that they sound vintage enough to be of the time – The beauty of looking after your voice for the past 60 years, I guess – we could ponder the fact that they could also have been recorded for the reissue but this stuff is better than we could have imagined. (1970 – 4:05)

YOU BETTER STOP THAT, 1983 – Short but sweet, very much of it’s time and sounding like ‘Neighbours’, the type of angsty, punky ripple with stabs of electric piano in the background. (1982 – 2:46)

SCARLET, 1975 – So we remember the debacle of this piece on the GHS reissue – None of the Stones or Jimmy Page (apparently) remember sneaking in to the studio in the prime of their careers and putting this to tape – Over two nights, granted, but maybe that’s how you measure time when you’re a rock star. The suns up or it’s not. Some of the overdubs present on the CV seem to be missing here from half way, so this may be one of the tracks that was laid down the first night, maybe? It’s far too good to be forgotten, far too good to be erased. Maybe if it had lingered for much longer the full session tape might have made it out .. It’d be nice to think. (1974 – 3:35)

WALK WITH ME WENDY, 1974 – Another ‘Dog Shit’ style track but replacing the horns with electric piano. Jagger bellows over the head of it all. (1970 – 4:02)

NEVER MAKE YOU CRY, 1977 – Another of those late, rain soaked Saturday ballads, spiked with a Little Rock . Blissfully dreamy, warm and regretful, it’s perfect. It’s also cleaner sounding that previously booted versions (1977 – 4:27)

PART OF THE NIGHT, 1976 – Also known as ‘Golden Caddy’ from the Pathé Marconi sessions (As heard on ‘Foxes In The Boxes’), this track might as well be ‘Never Make You Cry’ part two but one where the piano takes the place of the guitar instead. (1982 – 5:37)

LOW DOWN, 1997 – A Keith vocal for a change, one that was given up to Mick for the final BtB album – Keith’s voice here being buried under the instrumental (Though it’s a tight race between such a densely layered production), it was the right decision to give the job over. This take also features additional studio chatter after the take. (1997 – 5:02)

IT’S A LIE, 1978 – Another left over from the Paris Match sessions and also recently released on the ‘Foxes In The Boxes’ collection. Part Stones template, slide guitar and muted piano line. (1979 – 4:19)

 I CAN’T SEE NO ONE ELSE, 1985 – A perfectly packaged double-entendre of a song. Mainly piano led but featuring a stinging Shadows styled guitar with a chugging rubbery bass-line and fabulous call and response harmonies. (1985 – 5:05)

NOT THE WAY TO GO, 1977 – A punky, ramshackle, 50’s surf romp with a lean line in lyrics (Jagger seems to give up part way through and riffs on the title instead). This version fades out quicker than previous versions in ‘The Harder They Come’ (Idol Mind) of Yellow Cat’s ‘From Paris To LA’ (1978 – 3:39)

GIVING IT UP, 1989 – Taken from sessions for the ‘Steel Wheels’ album, this version features an extra piano line that was absent from boots like ‘Training Wheels (Rattlesnake) (1989 – 4:14)

HANDS OFF, 1986 – A tough, thundering rocker with a quick, choppy tempo. Really very Stones-of-the-time. (1993 – 3:34)

BUILT THAT WAY, 1984 – Something rather different here – A ‘Heatwave’ style swing with a Queenish guitar line occasionally popping up through the background. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if this was a Style Council cover in all honesty. It’s really very different but cruisingly good. (1975 – 4:40)

KEEP IT COOL, 1982 – A clean little number, light piano lines with barely there guitars which drifts at an almost glacial pace. Jagger whispers his vocals at a volume that just barely breaks over the backing. Originally released on Foxes In The Boxes, this is the shortest version at just over 5 minutes. (1982 – 5:24)

CAN’T FIND LOVE, 1983 – I think this sounds like George Harrison’s / Bob Dylan’s ‘If Not For You’ in the smallest way. At nearly 7 minutes, it’s one of the longest tracks on this collection. The mixture also features a Buddy Hollyesq chiming guitar line over a strolling beat. (1982 – 7:22)

YOU WIN AGAIN, 1977 – A Hank Williams cover that was originally released on “Paris Results” and “From Paris To LA”. (1978 – 3:25)

BLOOD RED WINE, 1968 – The sister track to ‘Winter’, most regularly mentioned in tandem with it’s inclusion on the ‘Trident Tapes’ or any over-view of the “Beggars ..” sessions. I dare suggest it was too weak for album inclusion and ‘Winter’ was a more obvious choice for release on “GSH”. (1968 – 5:14).

FAST TALKING, SLOW WALKING, 1972 – Another of the more often bootlegged tracks from sessions in Jamaica. A woozy, swooning barroom lament with a joyous piano undercurrent underneath the spacey guitar lines and pattering, jazzy drum beats. An exceptional piece of work. There’s also a snatch of studio chatter at the end. (1974 – 5:49)

COOKING UP, 1982 – One of the speedier efforts to this set, short speedy guitar riffs as Ronnie and Keith dance around each other and Nicky Hopkins peddles away along side. A curious title to the track, however, it’s almost impossible to make out what Mick is singing about. (1982 – 4:11).

EVERY TIME I BREAK HER HEART, 1977 – A space-effect country lilt, the kind that the Stones seem to have perfected through the years remains unreleased and hasn’t appeared on any other bootleg before. (1977 – 7:05)

DREAM ABOUT, 1992 – This might the stray mutt of the collection. A shonky set of lyrics with a very rote drum backing and less than inspiring musical prowess. Thankfully, it’s buried in the middle of the set making it easier to forget. (1997 – 5:03)

FLIP THE SWITCH, 1998 – From the BtB sessions again, Flip is a solid Keith vehicle. A wildly different production with a disjointed feel – Not that that’s damning it with faint praise – it’s a brave move for someone who professes a more blues oriented style generally. (1997 – 4:33)

SANCTUARY, 1994 – An odd little breathy whisp of a ballad abound a curious organ bedding and bongos. As with the next track, it draws deeply on Minneapolis’s most famous son, unlike the following, it never seems to go anywhere and opposed to being sexy, sounds a little creepy. There’s a lot to be said for experimentation, though and this track is wildly different to what you might expect. (1997 – 4:54)

DESPERATE MAN, 1973 – a proto-Prince production of spidery silk slide guitar lines and falsettos. It edges in, stealing from styles as it shifts around too, showing just how versatile the band can be all in the space of a few minutes. (1997 – 6:11)

PRAIRIE LOVE, ca 1993 – Prowling funk work out with a breathy vocal line and slinky clockwork bass line. A B-side at best (And considering the glut of danceable remixes that littered CD singles at the time, that’s no bad thing). (1997 – 5:20)

LIVING THE HEART OF LOVE, 1974 – Very easily a mid-70’s production, it’s a close brother to ‘Silver Train’ and ‘Brown Sugar’, a repeated refrain starts the track before blossoming in to a broader chorus. (1974 – 3:27)

STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU, 1982 – While we discuss tracks that share DNA with a certain era, this track fits straight in to it’s date line. Ponderous, warm, reflective piano and sleepy pedal-steel are enveloped in this delicately produced ballad. (1982 – 4:25)

I TRIED TO TALK HER INTO IT, 1982 – A sweet country influenced piece with a great slice of steel guitar. It skips along merrily and wouldn’t sound out of place of any nu-country album released this side of the year 2000. This is longer than the ‘Dirty Work’ version too. (1982 – 4:44)

MIGHT AS WELL GET JUICED, 1998 – Borne of static and a moody, looping riff, an electronic throb permeates through this BtB track. This one is around a minute and a half longer than the CV. (1997 – 7:16)

TOO MANY COOKS, 1973 – An anomaly as this is obviously the John Lennon produced solo track that was oft’ traded until it’s eventual release on the solo best of, ‘The Very Best Of Mick Jagger’. It is a full minute longer here however (1973 – 4:57)

Curtis Meets Smokey, 1966 – Does exactly what it says it does – This soft shuffle Motown homage perfectly pastiches it’s grounding in Detroit soul. Apparently recorded in 1969, it wouldn’t have any of the bitter resentment of battalion fury of anything on Let It Bleed – We can only wonder what they were thinking at this point, it’s easy to hear why it never went anywhere but it is beautiful. (1969 – 4:17)

COVERED IN BRUISES, 1981 – A split combination of force between the Glimmer Twins recorded at the Pathé Marconi sessions – Barrel big and chunky with a fat bass line that drives. It’s an odd amalgam of a track but it really, really works. (1977 – 4:49)

IVY LEAGUE, 1994 – A more complete version of the track, slightly less complete than the version on Voodoo Stew (Vigotone) (1993 – 4:54)

TOO TIGHT, 1998 – A Keith lead track from BtB that was handed back to Mick for the CV. (1997 – 4:30)

CRISS CROSS, 1972 – Another from the deluxe catalogue after being a bootleg staple for so many years, most specifically on Idle Minds / Midnight Beat’s ‘Acetates’, it finally appeared with a striking video on the GHS reissue in 2020. (1973 – 3:40)

STRICTLY MEMPHIS, 1995 – This track appears almost fully formed, a soul funk stomp that cuts in on a take that’s already in full flow. This version adds a little extra brass. Take your pick of ‘Dirty Work’ outtake compilations previous – It’s probably already featured on there already. (1985 – 3:30)

IT’S ONLY ROCK’N’ROLL, 1973 – Saving the best to very nearly last, we’ve got a classic without it’s shoes on. A very early studio demo of IORR, the concept of which was apparently Mick and Ronnie in Ronnie’s home studio, prior to Ronnie’s invitation to join the stones, gamely joined by David Bowie. Long a treasured holy grail, here it is. Jagger and an over excited Ronnie seem to be all over this recording, Bowie, if he is there, has a more muted part to play in all this. I would expect that the second guitar part is Bowie and his harmonies could almost be imagined if you suspect that you hear something. Over all, the track sounds splendid, certainly not fully fleshed out, and you can hear that Jagger has found his next hit as he chuckles with glee. (1973 – 4:42)

STUDIO JAM SESSION (Extreme Western Grip), 2002 / STUDIO JAM SESSION (Well Well), 2002 – Already released on bootleg and possibly the only two tacked on for filling the time, these two instrumentals, from one of the last big leaks of material. 2002 – 3:04 / 3:01)

If the Stones are this heavy of new material they could very well have released it as a new album and we’d have lapped it up, even if they had been honest and dubbed it ‘Tattoo Two’, it would be a blessing.

This set has already started gaining traction and being copied by other labels. It’s your choice considering that they’ll be taken from the files that were uploaded on to the internet from this very version but make sure you grab at least one for yourself. The collector in you will thank you for it. 

The Rolling Stones Welcome to New York (1972)

From hotwacks.com

This release presents TMOQ’s Welcome to New York, originally released in 1973 on LP, had great stereo soundboard sound quality of the last show of the Stones’ ’72 US tour on Mick Jagger’s 29th birthday, and a great cover drawn by William Stout. Since then, it has been re-released many times on LP and CD, in varying quality. The attempt here was to try to use the best available sources for this version.

This is a revised (pitch corrected) reseed for the 40th anniversary of the show.

Tracks 1-6 are from a 2nd generation audience recording. Quality is decent for ’72; this tape was discovered in 1992, on a Rolling Stones mailing list. The person that owned it got it from the taper itself. It seems this friend called Madison Square Garden before the show and asked if it was ok to bring a tape recorder, and they said it was. Of course, during the show someone noticed him taping and he had to stop, but somehow he managed to keep what he had recorded to that point. This is all there is. These tracks were transferred to PC in 2001 using a Nakamichi BX-300 tape deck with pitch control and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card. They have since been transferred back and forth between PC and CDR several times, always using EAC. For 2010, I have slowed the pitch 2% compared to the 2007 edition. This sounds more correct and matches Nasty Songs, (DAC 065) which is a commercial bootleg of the 2007 torrent.

Tracks 7-15 are from LP. Legend has it that the soundboard tape was stolen from the person recording the show for the Stones. TMOQ’s Stones tapes don’t circulate, so the original vinyl is the best source. Wgat was used here was a red vinyl original with RS-546 REI matrix, played on a Music Hall MMF-7 turntable with an Ortofon OM-20 cartridge, through an Adcom GFP-565 preamp, then into an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card. The transfer was originally done in 2006 and LP surface noise was reduced using Cool Edit Pro 2.1. The volume drop at the end of Midnight Rambler was fixed as much as possible, and tracks rearranged back to their original running order; TMOQ took it upon themselves to re-sequence them. For 2007 the editing has been slightly improved as well as the indexing. For 2010, the pitch was slowed 3% compared to the 2007 edition. This sounds more correct matching Nasty Songs (DAC-0659 again.

Artwork is based on Vinyl Gang’s Welcome to New York CD, which lifted its artwork from the original TMOQ LP. Cue sheet is included for playing or burning with CD text.

Please note that the sound on tracks 7-15 is far superior to the best known (as of 2007) CD release which are TSP’s CD (and LP) from 1989. Those releases, also made from an original TMOQ LP, suffer from excessive NoNoise; it does reduce the hiss, but it also sucks all the life out of the music. The last few songs from the show (Street Fighting Man, Happy Birthday Mick and Uptight/Satisfaction) have not been added as they are only of a poor quality source.

The classic Stones live bootleg album from 1972, was the final show at the Madison Square Garden in New York where not only the end of the 72 US Tour was celebrated but also Jagger s 29^th birthday; this concert was released in part as a vinyl album that came out first in special Soundboard quality from TMOQ in red vinyl though with tracks in wrong order and that was also released as Happy Bithday Mick! (Wizardo RS 546), Jean Clarke Memorial Sonic Barbecue (TAKRL 1919), Cocksucker Blues (TKRWM 1822), Madison 72 (Contraband HS MSG), Mick s Birthday Party (TMOQ 72017), Tour 1972 (Berkley 2004), Stoned Stones (Apollo 786), Welcome to New York (Box Top Rec.), The Live Album (Fanatic 5228), Nasty Songs (Takrl 25909), An American Affair (Toasted 7046), The Best of the RS Live in Concert (BRS 775), Taxile on Main Street (Town 42HS), Sonic Barbecue (Beacon 25717), Cherry Oh Baby (01-105), Jump (Flashback   (World Production 04900118-33), Stray Cat Blues (Toasted 26914),  Midnight Ramblers (Phoenix 44785), on ep as Five by Five Alive (Decda 50096) and on many cds including Nasty Music The Original (VGP 002), Touring Party 1972 (Rattlesnake 048-54) that had an almost complete soundboard (missing only Street Fighting Man and Uptight-Satisfaction), Welcome to New York (TSP 038), Ladies and Gentlemen (M.Diamonds 2002), Welcome to New York (SODD 022), Jumping Jack Flash (Oil Well 012) Midnight Ramblers (WPOCM 1090), Jump (Flashback 04900113), Hot Stuff Vol.One (Great Dane 9416), Happy Birthday Mick! (Montserrat 1918), A Slice of Rock n Roll (VGP 244), The Sweetest Night of Seattle 72 (IMP 034-5), Welcome to New York (TSP 038), Greatest Rarities Vol.1 and 1 (Adam 49029 and 49030), Nasty Songs (DAC 065), Welcome to New York (VGP 312), Nasty Music (Nanker 001-2), Nasty Music (SODD 001-2), Nasty Music Remastered Version (SODD 112-13), The Missing Years (Great Dane SAT 3), Renny’s Blues (ZAP 7886) and Madison (PGN 124) a 3 cdr set that had the July 25^th and 26^th shows; Nasty Music The Best Ever (SODD 052-3), lately Live at MSG (Acid Project APCD 015), American Exile (Scorpio 1972 1/3), Welcome to New York on Mick s Birthday Party (Tarantura 31), Here Come the Rolling Stones American Tour 1972 (EAP) and Welcome to New York (Archive Master Series).

In this concert there is also an accompanying percussion player that is evident even in melodic songs like You Can t Always Get What You Want, but of course on the more rhythmic performances like a fast and furious All Down The Line and the long and marauding Midnight Rambler are the highlights of this show with a hoarse Jagger at the centre stage. This is a nice release that however does not add anything to what we already had, may we hope for a 2022 50^th anniversary official release?

The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers (1971)

From slate.com

As their world was spinning apart, the Rolling Stones made one of the greatest albums in rock ’n’ roll history. 

The first thing that must be said about the Rolling Stones’ 1971 album Sticky Fingers—which is being re-released this week in one-, two-, and three-disc editions, depending on how deep you want to wade into your own pockets and “previously unreleased” marginalia—is that it opens with the most morally vacant piece of music to ever hit the top of the charts. “Brown Sugar,” which in spring of 1971 became the Stones’ first U.S. No. 1 hit since “Honky Tonk Women” two years prior, is a rollicking and shockingly blithe rumination on slavery and sexual violence that unfolds over the greatest Keith Richards guitar riff that Keith never wrote (the riff, and the song, are Mick Jagger’s creation). The song’s Wikipedia entry describes it as “a pastiche of a number of taboo subjects, including slavery, interracial sex, cunnilingus, and less distinctly, sadomasochism, lost virginity, rape, and heroin” (quite a collection of links between those commas); in a 1995 interview with Jann Wenner, Jagger himself summed it up as “all the nasty subjects in one go.”

The second thing that must be said about Sticky Fingers is that it is one of the very best rock ’n’ roll albums ever made. A perhaps inadvertent effect of the “deluxe” editions is that they drive home just how perfect (and perfectly concise) this 10-track marvel is; the Stones got this one right the first time. The majority of bonus content on the extended versions is live material from 1971, which is predictably great, plus a small handful of “alternate” studio cuts that do little more than confirm their own superfluousness. Maybe there are people who’ve been walking around all these years just dying to hear different versions of “Wild Horses” and “Bitch,” but I’ve never met them. 

Sticky Fingers may not be the most storied work in the Rolling Stones’ catalogue—it lacks the shattering reinvention of 1968’s Beggars Banquet, the Altamontian portent of 1969’s Let It Bleed, and the sprawling hedonism of 1972’s Exile on Main St. (these guys knew their way around some album titles)—but it’s the Stones at their most ferociously focused, during a time when their world was spinning apart. Sticky Fingers was released in April 1971, 16 months since the band’s last studio album, Let It Bleed; at the time this was the longest such hiatus the Stones had ever taken. It was the first collection of new Stones material to be released in the aftermath of both the Altamont disaster and the premiere of Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin’s groundbreaking documentary Gimme Shelter, an enormously controversial film that prompted accusations (most notably from the New York Times’ Vincent Canby) that the filmmakers and the Stones were profiting off murder. Expectations for the album were enormous and salacious—what will the Rolling Stones do next?—as though no one was sure whether they were musicians or provocateurs.

Sticky Fingers was a commercial smash, but reviews were mostly lukewarm. The New York Times wondered if the Stones were still “relevant,” then sniffed that “the verdict is still up for grabs;” Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times conceded that it was “one of the best rock albums we’ll hear this year,” but then asked, “why is it so unsatisfying? One of the reasons is that it is mostly sound and little real fury.” Writing in Rolling Stone (no relation), Jon Landau took nearly 2,300 words to come around to the conclusion that Sticky Fingers sounded “detached” and suffered from “its own self-defeating calculating nature.”

The Stones may have failed to meet expectations, but they did so in the band’s greatest fashion: defiantly and beautifully. Sticky Fingers was a misdirection, in hindsight the only livable option for a band outrunning its own Mephistophelean hype. The album’s cover—a close-up of a tight-jeaned crotch with a working zipper, designed by Andy Warhol—appeared to offer entry into a world of leering male sexual prowess, but instead offered entry into a world of something more honest and more interesting: male vulnerability. Written and recorded in the long wake of Jagger’s breakup with Marianne Faithfull and the early years of Richards’ torrid relationship with Anita Pallenberg, Sticky Fingers was a relationship record, an album about affection, pain, desire, loss, about loving people you’ve hurt and people who’ve hurt you.

The man most responsible for this was the most caricatured, maligned, and misunderstood Rolling Stone of them all: Jagger himself. Among a certain brand of Rolling Stones fan (I am one), blasting Mick is a favorite pastime: He’s the ham, the shill, the suit. In the mythology of the Jagger/Richards dyad, Keith is the perennial protector of the band’s soul, while Mick is that soul’s salesman. (Keith, it should be noted, has promoted this reading enthusiastically over the years.)

Sticky Fingers, though, is Jagger’s finest hour, starting with his songwriting. Jagger had long been a fantastic lyricist, as the wordy dexterity of songs like “19^th Nervous Breakdown” and “Sympathy for the Devil” attested, but Sticky Fingers often found him working in more patient and mature registers, full of pithy imagery and careful, casual eloquence. “Sway,” the album’s second track, is a vaguely metaphysical love song to an unnamed woman described as “someone who broke me up with the corner of her smile,” a tender, beautifully evocative phrase. Or the half-resigned end of the first verse of “Dead Flowers,” “Well I hope you won’t see me/ in my ragged company/ you know I could never be alone.” The tiny emphasis on that last “you” is one of the deftest and funniest middle fingers to an ex ever extended.

And of course it’s not just what he’s singing, but how he’s singing it. By 1971 Jagger’s trademark mix of swagger and abandon had already made him the definitive rock frontman, and there’s no shortage of that here. The vocals on “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ ” and “Bitch” are absurdly charismatic and spectacularly musical: note the perfectly in-the-pocket faux hiccup Jagger slips in after the word drunk on the line “I’m feeling drunk/ juiced-up and sloppy” on “Bitch.”

Sticky Fingers also showcased Jagger’s startling range as a soul singer. “I Got the Blues” is a master class in slow-burn balladry, nestled against Charlie Watts’ best approximation of an Al Jackson Jr. backbeat, while the final verse of “Sway” is full-on gospel shout, fitting for a song about “that demon life.” And while the pristine guitars and honky-tonk piano of “Wild Horses” are straight country, the vocal is blues through and through—compare Jagger’s performance with Gram Parsons’ on the Flying Burrito Brothers’ “original” version of the song, released a year before the Stones’ own, and the difference is remarkable. Parsons’ pretty, careful vocal glides on top of the beat, while Jagger’s is ragged and laconic, the song’s famous chorus sounding less like celebration than tired and pained resignation.

Sticky Fingers ends with perhaps the strangest and most unique recording in the Rolling Stones’ entire catalogue, the haunting, modal epic “Moonlight Mile.” “Moonlight Mile” is an intoxicating mix of exotic and intimate, a song that builds a studied and stately distance, then collapses it with an immediacy as forceful as this band ever mustered. Jagger’s vocal drifts in and out of falsetto, his words stark and impressionistic: “When the wind blows and the rain feels cold/ with a head full of snow,” a line too pretty to be about drugs, which means it’s almost certainly about drugs. By the time enormous slabs of electric guitar start crashing into the track like thunderbolts, nearly 3½ minutes in, you’ve almost forgotten what you’re listening to.

And then we’re back to “Brown Sugar,” and you remember. In the 44 years since it came out, many have grappled with this song, so much so that grappling has become part of the lore. Robert Christgau called it “a rocker so compelling it discourages exegesis,” a masterful critical throwing-up-of-hands if ever there was one. More recently Lauretta Charlton penned an impassioned, if qualified, defence of “Brown Sugar” for Vulture. Is “Brown Sugar” a great song? Yes. Is “Brown Sugar” an inexcusable song? Also yes. But a lot of bands have made excusable music; only one made Sticky Fingers. 

The Rolling Stones Undercover (1983)

From rollingstone.com

By now, the Rolling Stones have assumed something of the status of the blues in popular music — a vital force beyond time and fashion. Undercover, their twenty-third album (not counting anthologies and outtakes), reassembles, in the manner of mature masters of every art, familiar elements into exciting new forms. It is a perfect candidate for inclusion in a cultural time capsule: Should future generations wonder why the Stones endured so long at the very top of their field, this record offers just about every explanation. Here we have the world’s greatest rock & roll rhythm section putting out at maximum power; the reeling, roller-derby guitars at full roar; riffs that stick in the viscera, songs that seize the hips and even the heart; a singer who sounds serious again. Undercover is rock & roll without apologies.

There is a moment early on in “Too Tough,” a terrific song on the second side, that sums up all of the Stones’ extraordinary powers. With the guitars locked into a headlong riff and Mick Jagger hoarsely berating the woman who “screwed me down with kindness” and “suffocating love,” the track is already off to a hot start; but then Charlie Watts comes barrelling in on tom-toms and boots the tune onto a whole new level of gut-punching brilliance. That the Stones are still capable of such exhilarating energy is cause enough for wondrous comment; that they are able to sustain such musical force over the course of an entire LP is rather astonishing. Undercover is the most impressive of the albums the group has released since its mid-Seventies career slump (the others being Some Girls, Emotional Rescue and 1981’s remarkable Tattoo You) because, within the band’s R&B-based limits, it is the most consistently and energetically inventive.

Although the hard-rock numbers that make up the bulk of the record have the Rolling Stones’ stamp all over them, they are also distinguished by a heightened creative freshness that recalls their song-rich 1967 LP, Between the Buttons (from which such numbers as “Too Tough” and the sentimentally salacious “She Was Hot” could almost pass as outtakes). The raw vitality of the performances is matched by the thorniness of the lyrics, which glimmer with all the usual veiled allusions and inscrutable ambiguities.

When Jagger sings in “Tie You Up (The Pain of Love)” that “You get a rise from it/Feel the hot come dripping on your thighs from it,” and that “Women will die for it,” you might conclude that he’s just being provocative (or, alternatively, that he’s still the pathetic sexist asshole you always figured him for). But the song isn’t simply about male domination of women; it’s about the omnisexual oppressiveness of romantic obsession. Similarly, the black woman at the center of “She Was Hot” turns out to have been more than just a great lay — the simple sincerity of the singer’s “I hope we meet again” adds a sudden emotional resonance to what at first appears an empty-headed sex anthem — while the title of the sinuously slippery “Pretty Beat Up” refers not to the song’s female subject but to the singer’s condition since she left him. And in between the shout-along choruses of “All the Way Down,” where Jagger looks back on his beginnings and says, “I was king, Mr. Cool, just a snotty little fool” — and then slyly adds, “Like kids are now” — he sounds more self-aware than his detractors have ever given him credit for being.

This admission of emotional vulnerability, so far removed from the usual phallic strutting of most hard rock, is a familiar theme from at least the last two Stones albums. And while it coexists here with the indomitable self-assertion of “Too Tough” (“But in the end, you spat me out/You could not chew me up”), it also achieves its most childlike expression in Keith Richards’ unadorned declaration of love and hope, “Wanna Hold You.”

One suspects the Stones wouldn’t approve of all this rummaging around in their lyrics — they’ve never bothered to pose as poets, and their words have always melded with the music quite well. On Undercover, the music offers continuing proof of the band’s commitment to black music. There are numerous young performers in Britain today who are lauded for adopting the trappings of Tamla-Motown or the dance-tested beat of black disco and pop reggae, but the Stones have been covering this turf (and more originally, at that) for years. It is a happy irony that at least two of the central songs on this album are prime examples of their commitment to the now-resurgent notion of black pop primacy.

On the flamboyantly grisly “Too Much Blood,” they bring in Sugar Hill Records’ former horn section (a four-man unit called Chops) for a rough and rambling rap tune that shows they’ve been listening to more than the occasional Grand Master Flash twelve-inch. The horns, coupled with the rampant clatter of Moroccan percussionists Moustapha Cisse and Brahms Condoul, plus reggae stalwart Sly Dunbar on electronic drums, churn up a marvelous, murky funk. And when David Sanborn comes screaming up on solo sax and Jagger rides in on a descending riff, singing. “I wanna dance, I wanna sing, I wanna bust up everything,” the track transcends MTV-style racial considerations and emerges as a colorblind dance-floor hit.

And while there is a dark Jamaican dub groove running through “Feel on Baby,” a somewhat poignant lament, the dub sensibility crops up most strikingly on the title track and single, “Undercover of the Night,” a dance mix of which appears on the album instead of the less expansive 45 version. Like the careening “It Must Be Hell,” “Undercover” exhibits a sense of political scorn that seems fueled by more genuine disgust than the Stones have spewed up in years. Rich in repugnant detail, the latter cut chronicles current Latin American political agonies, and its music, resounding with coproducer Chris Kimsey’s sirenlike dub echoes, slams the message home with inarguable power.

If there are disappointments on Undercover, they can only be claimed in comparison to past Stones triumphs. If the album lacks the epochal impact of, say, Sticky Fingers, then perhaps it’s because the mythic years of pop are past — by now, even the Stones have long since bade them goodbye. But Undercover seems to be more felicitously concentrated than Exile on Main Street, and while it may lack that album’s dark power and desperate atmosphere, it does deliver nonstop, unabashed rock & roll crafted to the highest standards in the business. And that, rest assured, will do just fine.

The Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge (1994)

From rollingstone.com

Gone are the smooth moves, trendy nods and lackluster songcraft of Dirty Work and Steel Wheels, the Rolling Stones‘ last two studio discs. The band’s new album, Voodoo Lounge, is ragged and glorious, reveling in the quintessential rock & roll the Stones marked as their own some 30 years ago. Plumbing the past to cop riffs from their classics, the Stones perfect their rebel stance in the service of pleasure, with producer Don Was working to bring it all up to date. Together, they keep the grooves short and mean, making for an album that’s tight without being overprocessed, neat without being nice.

The incomparable Charlie Watts is Voodoo’s secret weapon, from the album’s opening snare-drum volley to the effortless swing of its sign-off, “Mean Disposition.” Watts’ command allows new bassist Darryl Jones to easily click into place. (Bill who?) Keith Richards plays fast and loose, and Ron Wood adds his own torn and frayed finesse to Richards’ vamps. Mick Jagger’s singing is pure pleasure.

While they echo the usual catalog of references — Chuck Berry in “Mean Disposition,” Gram Parsons in “The Worst” — the songs on Voodoo Lounge find the Stones charged with renewed musical nerve: the skewed R&B of “Baby Break It Down”; “Moon Is Up,” where the “mystery drum” Watts brushes is an upside-down garbage can; the country-Celtic folk of the Richards-sung “The Worst” (with Wood on sweet pedal steel); the Caribbean skip of “Sweethearts Together.” On “Love Is Strong,” Jagger’s skanking harp (shades of “Miss You”) and predatory vocal chart a dangerous path, though not without humor: “My love is strong/And you’re so sweet/And someday, babe/We got to meet.” “You Got Me Rocking” is a throwback to Exile on Main Street-vintage bar-brawl tunes like “Rip This Joint.”

On the stunning ballad “Out of Tears” (featuring Chuck Leavell’s dreamy piano), Jagger drops attitude to sing couplets of crushing pain: “I can’t feel/Feel a thing/I can’t shout/I can’t scream.” On the other hand, “Thru and Thru” demonstrates that the Stones are still capable of extreme daffiness, as Richards, by now a full-fledged admiral in the nasal academy, sings passionately of a love as constant … as a 24-hour market (“You know that we do takeaway/But we deliver, too …”).

Just as Jagger’s latest solo outing, Wandering Spirit, proved far stronger than his first two, so Voodoo Lounge is leagues ahead of the last few Stones records. Not surprisingly, the record is suffused with sex, ironic or otherwise. But now, while still pussy crazy after all these years, Jagger asserts his unflagging drive while singing tenderly about his fears of aging and loss of potency.

Hence the procession of sweet things ready to fuel the flagging flames. Wandering Spirit’s immortal motto (“I’m as hard as a brick/Hope I never go limp,” from “Wired All Night”) has ballooned into Voodoo Lounge’s cornucopia of concupiscence: “You make me hard/You make me weak” (“Love Is Strong”); “Sparks will fly/When I get myself back on you, baby” (“Sparks Will Fly”); “Jack her up, baby, go on, open the hood/I want to check if her oil smells good/Mmm — smells like caviar” (“Brand New Car”). Jagger can’t help it; he’s just afraid of running out of time. It’s not odd in this context to find the horny funk of “Holetown Prison (Suck on the Jugular)” with lyrics like “All get together and fuck all night…. Let’s live lasciviously” side by side with a lovely study of faith and fate, the anti-violence “Blinded by Rainbows”: “Do you fear the final hour/Do you kneel before the cross….”

While Jagger and company are busy logging time on the sex beat, their sex-and-romance lyrics can also be read as a metaphor for career. The assertion that they can jolly well keep up artistically and commercially peeks out from under the tellingly titled “New Faces.” With its “Lady Jane”-style harpsichord, the song mock-dramatizes a lover’s comeuppance by a “figure of youth”: “He stands so aloof/With an indolent air/And an insolent stare.” Still, the upstart may end up “rotting in hell” for presuming to take the mantle.

On “Out of Tears,” Jagger faces down mortality: “I just can’t pour my heart out/To another living thing/I’m a whisper/I’m a shadow/But I’m standing up to sing.” But just in case you think he’s gone all sensitive, meet “I Go Wild,” on which a “raggedy dog” sniffs out some girls: “And the doctor says/You’ll be OK/And if you’d only/Stay away/From femmes fatales/And dirty bitches/And daylight drabs/And nighttime witches… And politicians’ garish wives/With alcoholic cunts like knives.”

From Beggars Banquet to Sticky Fingers, the Stones tantalized me into adolescence. I was 10 or 11 when I heard “Stray Cat Blues” and “Live With Me.” That they also sang about “stupid girls” was lost on me then but not for long. The Stones, however, haven’t much changed on this score. They maintain their Stone Age attitudes about women and sex even as they pass through middle age with lyrics that today’s alternahunks wouldn’t be caught dead singing.

The other day a friend dismissed the bravado of one line off of Voodoo (“I’m gonna fuck your sweet ass,” from “Sparks Will Fly”), grumbling, “Why don’t they sing about stuff that really concerns them, like chronic back pain or tax dodging?” Worthy topics, to be sure, yet I maintain that Mick still means it — this grandfather is still high on hormones and happier for it.