něk'rə-fĭl'ē-ə

I recently got my hands on what I think is a Rolling Stones rarity. Although these days, nothing’s really rare - you just need to look a little bit. I will admit, though, I had never heard of this album until I found it.

Necrophilia is a Stones outtake sort of disk – it was actually planned to follow Hot Rocks 1964-1971 as yet another compilation issued by ABKCO Records. This set was to have featured 17 previously-unreleased tracks including alternate takes of “Heart of Stone,” “Out of Time,” and “Pay Your Dues,” which was the original version of “Street Fighting Man.”

The story goes that the Stones’ then manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, and their recently discharged manager, Allen Klein, had a major disagreement on the track selection – specifically the vulgar “Andrew's Blues.” It would have been unprecedented at the time for such a song to be released to the public.

While that project failed to materialize – with More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) being released in its place – most of the unreleased songs were held over for a future project. In 1974, in order to give it an air of authority, Bill Wyman involved himself in compiling an album he titled Black Box. However, Allen Klein wanted more Mick Jagger/Keith Richard songs in the project for monetary reasons, and Wyman's version remained unreleased. Metamorphosis was issued in its place, including nine of the tracks originally slated for Necrophilia.

Although Necrophilia was never released, it was given an ABKCO catalogue number (AB4224), and cover art and an acetate were made. I believe today's posted music may originally be from an acetate, as it sounds a little less than high fidelity, although certainly listenable.

I’m listing all of the tracks on Necrophilia, but I’m only posting the ones not included on Metamorphosis. To the best of my knowledge, these songs were not officially released anywhere else. And while I could be wrong about some of the songs, I’ll betcha I’m not wrong about “Andrew’s Blues.”

Out of Time
Don't Lie to Me
Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby (Standing in the Shadows).mp3
Think
Hear It (instrumental).mp3
Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind
Aftermath (instrumental).mp3
I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys
Andrew’s Blues.mp3
Pay Your Dues.mp3
Let the Good Times Roll.mp3
Heart of Stone
Each and Every Day of the Year
Sleepy City
Try a Little Harder
Blue Turns to Gray.mp3
We're Wasting Time

Labels: classic rock, demos, outtakes, Rolling Stones

posted by aikin @ 8:42 PM