Licorice Pizza

6/26/2010

Rolling Stones: SNL, 1978

I mentioned the other day I was involved in watching season four of Saturday Night Live. Somehow there was a mix-up down at Blockbuster and they sent disk two before they sent disk one. Eventually disk one arrived and I was able to look at that season's opening episode, which featured the Rolling Stones.

American music in 1978 was on the precipice between the punk rock and disco eras. The Stones had just released Some Girls with “Miss You,” a strongly danceable track, opening the album. This SNL appearance would throw all disco pretense out the window as they took the stage for a classically ragged performance.

“Get out of my life / Don’t fuck my wife.” Did that really make it past the censors? Keef, reportedly so drunk at dress rehearsal that he was dropped from a sketch, makes it onstage to play (he’s a trained professional, kids). Mick’s voice blown into ragged hoarseness. The band a mesmorizing mess. This is the Stones in boiled down, punk rock mode. Barely even recognizable as the band we’ll see three decades later in Shine A Light.

These tracks were unofficially released as part of a boot titled Sucking Don on SNL. Along with the SNL appearance, the disk includes performances from Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, as well as the SNL rehearsals. I owe big, big thanks to Dino over at D&P’s Bootleg Tunz World for finding this for me. I had spent quite a bit of time looking for Sucking Don before I reached out to Dino. Within a few hours, one of his readers had located it and passed it along. His site is great and I want to encourage you to visit it early and often.

Beast of Burden.mp3
Respectable.mp3
Shattered.mp3

Labels: classic rock, live music, Rolling Stones, TV

5/22/2010

A Historical Recreation?

I went yesterday and bought a copy of the newly reissued Exile on Main Street. Even though I have a couple CDs of outtakes from the Exile sessions, I wanted to hear how those tracks cleaned up.

Those of you familiar with the Exile session bootlegs know that many of the tracks are either basic, rough tracks or just instrumentals. For the re-release Jagger added vocals to some tracks. He mentioned to Larry King (part one of the interview is here) that he had to write lyrics for a couple of the songs, but didn’t say which ones.

While most of the “new” songs sound like they fit perfectly with the original material, there are a couple where Mick’s voice sounds, as Charlie Watts told Rolling Stone, “like it was recorded yesterday.” The track “Plundered My Soul,” for example, sounds like it could just as easily have came from A Bigger Bang.

No one has been secretive about the Stones enhancing these tracks for the Exile re-release. Engineer Bob Clearmountain told Rolling Stone he electronically “tweaked” Jagger’s voice to make it sound more like it had four decades ago. Jagger even got Mick Taylor to participate in the effort.

I like that some of the leftovers from the Exile sessions are finally seeing commercial release. I’m just not sure if I like that they’ve basically been recreated. Like when I used to go see a historical building and find out the only thing original is a scrap of wallpaper encased behind glass and hanging on the wall of a “historically accurate” recreation. These 10 “new” tracks are at least as good as anything the Stones have released recently, but I do get the feeling I’m listening to a historic recreation, rather than to tracks that have just been cleaned up for release.

The song I have today comes in two versions, which should pretty much sum up what I just said: The first one, which is titled “I Ain’t Signifying,” is from a boot called I Gave You Diamonds, You Gave Me Disease. It is completely unadorned, starting as a bluesy shuffle, gradually picking up steam until the end, where Mick Taylor steps out front for a solo.

The musically (and grammatically!) cleaned up “I’m Not Signifying” retains the blues, but adds Nicky Hopkins’ piano as well as Mick on harmonica. Taylor takes a slide solo in this version, but it’s pushed back under a layer of horns.

I Ain’t Signifying.mp3
I’m Not Signifying.mp3

Labels: classic rock, outtakes, rereleases, Rolling Stones

12/23/2009

Down the Holiday Trail, pt. V

Maybe it’s the colder weather but I’m feeling a little more Christmasy than a couple of days ago. I’d like to see this chill continue on through the weekend, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.

I was looking around the Internet a couple of days ago, trying to find out if the Stones had ever released any kind of a Christmas song. I know there’s Keith’s version of “Run Rudolph Run,” which I posted the other day, but beyond that, it doesn’t seem there are any Rolling Stones Christmas releases . Being the anti-Beatles they were, apparently Christmas music wasn’t their style. About the closest I found is “Winter” from the Goats Head Soup album. I’m not a hundred percent sure what the song is about but it’s – no surprise – a winter sorta tune with the line “And I wish I'd been out in California / When the lights on all the Christmas trees went out.”

Actually, if you look at the lines around that line, the song seems to be about someone being exiled for sexual sins. And if that ain’t Christmas, I don’t know what is.

Winter.mp3 ~ Rolling Stones
Joy to the World.mp3 ~ Pure Defiance
Dead By Xmas.mp3 ~ Hanoi Rocks
Let Me Sleep (Christmas Time).mp3 ~ Pearl Jam
Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me.mp3 ~ Charlie Sexton

Labels: holiday, Pearl Jam, Rolling Stones

10/11/2009

Rolling Stones - Memphis '78

I noticed it’s been a long time since I posted any live stuff. I imagine that sort of falls in line with my overall lackadaisical approach around here lately. But I thought it might not hurt to look through my things and see if I could find something interesting to share. What I came up with is this recording from the Rolling Stones’ 1978 tour.

For the U.S. leg of their ’78 tour, the Stones played 25 shows over the course of about two months: the first was June 10 in Lakeland, Fla.; the tour wrapped up on July 26 in Oakland. A lot of Stones “experts” consider this one of their best tours because of the back-to-basics approach the band took. They played a lot of older stuff, interspersing songs from the newly released Some Girls album, most of which fit nicely alongside the classics.

This recording comes from the June 28 show at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tenn. I believe part of this show was broadcast for the old King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show. One notable thing about this recording is the debut of “Hound Dog,” which the Stones would only play at this show and the following night in Lexington, Ky.

When I first got this recording, the songs were in no type of order. I’ve arranged them in what I believe to be the proper set list, first by listening, to see what seems to logically follow, and by using a couple of sources, including RocksOff.org, a great Rolling Stones fan site.

Let It Rock.mp3
All Down the Line.mp3
Honky Tonk Women.mp3
Star Star.mp3
When the Whip Comes Down.mp3
Miss You.mp3
Lies.mp3
Beast of Burden.mp3
Shattered.mp3
Just My Imagination.mp3
Respectable.mp3
Far Away Eyes.mp3
Love In Vain.mp3
Tumbling Dice.mp3
Happy.mp3
Hound Dog.mp3
Sweet Little Sixteen.mp3
Brown Sugar.mp3
Jumpin’ Jack Flash.mp3

or, if you prefer, you can UnZip it.

** NOTE **
update - I believe all links are back in working order now
thanks!

Labels: classic rock, live music, Rolling Stones

7/21/2009

The Rolling Stones - Oakland '69

I had some Rolling Stones I was going to post the other day; some old outtakes and such, but after giving it a little thought, I decided it was pretty similar to a post I’d already done. Those links are down now, but it’s barely been six months, so I decided I’d post that stuff some other time.

But I still had that taste for the Stones, so I went back to my collection and dug around a little. What I came up with is a portion of a show from the 1969 tour – a tour that has been called “history's first mythic rock and roll tour.”

This was the tour where the Rolling Stones assumed the title “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.” The tour opened Nov. 7 in Colorado, but the two shows a month later, at the Forum in Los Angeles, would be the ones attracting national attention as the official tour openers. The tour would gradually move east, with the New York Times calling the shows at Madison Square Garden “the major rock event of the year.”

While Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! was the official release from the tour, the shows also helped give birth to the bootleg recording industry. One of the earliest live boots was a recording called Live'r Than You'll Ever Be, which was a recording of the Stones’ Nov. 9 show in Oakland.

So what’ve we got here tonight? If you can believe the notes that came with the file, this recording comes from the same show as the infamous Live'r recording. This version supposedly came from a 1972 FM broadcast, as part of a series of specials commemorating the closing of the Fillmore West. It is also supposed to have come originally from Bill Graham’s own archives, released to KSAN for those radio programs.

I’ve never had the opportunity to listen to Live'r Than You'll Ever Be, which was widely praised for being a better album than Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!. This recording, however, is great in its own right. The sound, while obviously not a professional mix, is very listenable. The nine songs here are barely half of a typical night's set, but still manage to capture a raw and energetic band: One that sounds like The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.

Sympathy for the Devil.mp3
Stray Cat Blues.mp3
Prodigal Son.mp3
You Gotta Move.mp3
Love In Vain.mp3
Live With Me.mp3
Gimme Shelter.mp3
Little Queenie.mp3
Satisfaction.mp3

Labels: classic rock, live music, Rolling Stones

3/18/2009

Sing Me Back Home

I read a review this morning of the new Marianne Faithfull album, Easy Come Easy Go. To be honest, other than a song here and there, I’ve never been much of a fan of her music. But when I read that she’s dueting with Keith Richards, I had to check it out.

Richards guests on a cover of Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home,” and let me tell you there are no two more suitable voices. They sound hard-living country in a way relative newcomers like Keith Urban or Carrie Underwood never will. Keith and Marianne are veterans, with a long history together and I would love to hear them record a full album of country music. The only thing that could have gone better here is if Keef would have played guitar.

Easy Come Easy Go is a double album of cover songs, ranging from this Merle Haggard song to covers of songs by artists as diverse as Randy Newman and The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (the BRMC song, “Salvation,” is a duet with Sean Lennon, by the way). Although the album just hit U.S. shelves yesterday, it’s been out in Europe since November and was released in Australia last month. Pick it up when you get a chance.

Sing Me Back Home.mp3

Labels: country music, covers, new stuff, Rolling Stones

1/06/2009

A Stripped Companion

My friends, this is my FIVE HUNDREDTH POST.

As such, I thought it might be appropriate to dig around the back corners of my hard drive and see if I could find something kind of special to mark the occasion.

What I came up with is a Rolling Stones boot, known as the Stripped Companion. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that Stripped was the Stones’ 1995 acoustic live album. This unofficial “companion” album is a compilation of outtakes, “B” sides, and a couple of other miscellaneous unplugged tracks, all from the 1993-1995 era. A listener review written on Bootleg Zone called the Companion disk “Amazing,” and said, “This is what boots should always do: Surpass the original.”

Recording info:
1-6: Toshiba-Studio sessions: Tokyo. March 3-5, 1995
7: Backstage rehearsals, Olympia, Paris. July 3, 1995
8: Paradiso, Amsterdam. May 26, 1995
9-10: Brixton Academy, London. July 19, 1995
11-13: Paradiso, Amsterdam. May 27, 1995
14-15: Brixton Academy, London. July 19, 1995

1. Honest I Do.mp3
2. Let’s Spend the Night Together.mp3
3. No Expectations.mp3
4. Beast of Burden.mp3
5. Memory Motel.mp3
6. Let It Bleed.mp3
7. Tumbling Dice.mp3
8. Gimme Shelter.mp3
9. Live With Me.mp3
10. Black Limousine.mp3
11. All Down the Line.mp3
12. Dead Flowers.mp3
13. Shine a Light.mp3
14. Sweet Virginia.mp3
15. Rip This Joint.mp3

Labels: live music, outtakes, Rolling Stones, unplugged

12/14/2008

The 12 Days of Xmas (day 1)

On the first day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
A Partridge in a Pear Tree

With minimal thought, I’ve decided how to approach the annual heaping of holiday sounds this year. Unlike in years past where I’ve done a five-day countdown to Xmas, this year I’m stepping it up. I’m going to celebrate the 12 days of Xmas.

This is going to be quite an ambitious project here at the Licorice Pizza: A total of 72 songs over the next 12 days (if I mathemapplied correctly). Starting today with one song, then tomorrow with two, and so on and so on. But it won’t be a case of “today you get Keith Richards and tomorrow you get Keef plus one.” Each day will be new songs. Some days there might be themes, some days it might be totally random. I had considered trying to link the music thematically to each “gift,” i.e. today’s music would have been partridge related. But once you get to lords a leaping, what do you do? So that didn’t happen.

So – let’s get things started. And nowhere better to start than with Keith Richards’ version of “Run Rudolph Run.”

Run Rudolph Run.mp3

Labels: holiday, Rolling Stones

3/30/2008

Play it Rough

The Rolling Stones’ 1976 album Black and Blue has sometimes been called an audition album; the disk was recorded while the band was looking for a replacement for departed guitarist Mick Taylor.

After Taylor left the Stones in late 1974, the band returned to Musicland Studios in Munich and began recording their new album. Following the holidays, the remaining four Stones regrouped in the Netherlands to continue working – all the while auditioning new guitarists as they recorded. Among the hopefuls were Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher, Harvey Mandel, Wayne Perkins, Peter Frampton, and Ronnie Wood (although only Mandel’s, Perkins’ and Wood’s guitar work would appear on the finished album).

Following the conclusion of their 1975 Tour of the Americas, the Stones went in October to Montreux, Switzerland, to complete overdubs, then returned to Musicland Studios in December for additional work. Upon their arrival, the Rolling Stones were reportedly amazed that Led Zeppelin had recorded and mixed Presence there in a mere 17 days, with Jimmy Page having stayed awake for two days straight to perform all of the guitar overdubs just before the arrival of the Rolling Stones.

After some final touch-ups, Black and Blue was completed in New York City in February 1976.

If the finished product serves as a document of those “auditions,” the session jams and outtakes on Play it Rough give an even deeper look behind the scenes. Included among these recordings is an almost 12-minute “Hey Negrita,” and a couple of instrumentals that are early versions of the final songs. There are also early versions of “Worried About You” and “Slave,” both of which would appear a few years later on Tattoo You.

Hand of Fate.mp3
Munich Reggae.mp3
Cellophane Trousers.mp3
Worried About You.mp3
Memory Motel.mp3
Let’s Do It Right.mp3
Cherry Oh Baby.mp3
Crazy Mama.mp3
Hey Negrita.mp3
Fool to Cry.mp3
Slave.mp3
Melody.mp3

On a mostly unrelated note, I’ve also included the album versions of “Tumbling Dice” and “Imagination” because a new friend wanted to hear them. Other than that, they have no relation to Black and Blue.

Imagination.mp3 from Some Girls
Tumbling Dice.mp3 from Exile on Main Street

Labels: classic rock, outtakes, Rolling Stones

12/17/2007

Exile Stones

There are at least a couple of boots in circulation from the Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street sessions. Probably the best known is Taxile on Main Street. One of the others, Exile Stones, which is tonight’s post, has some of the same tracks as Taxile, but there are also a few tracks unique to this recording.

The Stones’ 1972 double album is, without a doubt, one of the greatest rock albums ever. Even the circumstances surrounding the recording have become the stuff of legend. Exile was recorded, for the most part, in the south of France at Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice. It was there where Keith Richards had rented Nellcôte, a 16-room mansion he claimed was a former Gestapo headquarters. Photographer Dominique Tarlé, in her book “The Making Of Exile On Main Street,” confirmed Keith’s claim: “I found a box [in the basement] with a big swastika on it, full of injection phials. They all contained morphine. It was very old, of course, and our first reaction was, ‘If Keith had found this box....’ So one night we carried it to the end of the garden, and threw it into the sea.”

Most of Exile dates to the years from 1968 to 1972, outtakes culled from other sessions, with some originally recorded at Olympic Studios in London. Exile Stones catches those sessions in progress, presenting an even grittier, dirtier Stones than what appears on the final product.

A lot of these tracks will probably be familiar to you. “Good Time Woman” I hadn’t heard of before I got this boot, but the guitar riff and melody sounds strangely like “Tumbling Dice.” The “Highway Child” track is straight up one of the rockinest Stones’ songs I’ve ever heard. I don’t think this saw official release, unfortunately. “Exile on Main Street Blues,” whether intentional or not, sounds like an old blues recording. This whole set has a loose, bluesy feel – like the way you want a Stones record to sound.

Shine a Light.mp3
Sweet Virginia.mp3
Good Time Woman.mp3
Loving Cup.mp3
Stop Breaking Down.mp3
Shake Your Hips.mp3
Let it Loose (instrumental).mp3
Sweet Black Angel (instrumental).mp3
Know the Reason Why.mp3
Highway Child.mp3
All Down the Line.mp3
I Ain’t Lying.mp3
Ventilator Blues.mp3
Exile on Main Street Blues.mp3

Labels: classic rock, demos, outtakes, Rolling Stones

12/01/2007

The Rock and Roll Circus

Here’s an example of muscle memory. I lived in Southern California for a little more than 35 years. Up until mid-1998, my TV came from Los Angeles, where CBS is on channel 2. So last night, after a few or so beers, I put the TV on to watch a Letterman rerun before calling it a night. What remote button does my beer-soaked finger automatically push? You guessed it.

Here in Mee-yami, the CBS affiliate is channel 4 or 6 or something; I’m not sure. Anyway, my point is that channel 2 here is the local PBS station. And when I hit that channel last night, I saw a clip of Mick Jagger and John Lennon talking. I squinted at the screen and sort of cocked my head, like, “What the hell is going on here?”

Turned out this is PBS fundraiser week and they were airing “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.” Unfortunately, I had missed about half of the program – Mick and John’s conversation was the introduction to Lennon and the Dirty Mac doing “Yer Blues.” After that, I saw “Whole Lotta Yoko,” then a few Stones performances.

I gotta admit that I have never seen the entire “Rock and Roll Circus” show. I was bummed about missing Marianne Faithful, especially since even the PBS guy was raving about her. I also understand that Tony Iommi’s performance with Jethro Tull is notable as part of his very short time with that band before moving on to other things.

The history behind “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus” is well known, so I probably don’t need to get into it here. The Wiki entry is pretty concise if you need some quick background.

In the Magic City, “Rock and Roll Circus” airs again Dec. 10 at midnight. The rest of you, check your local PBS schedules. And maybe send ‘em a few bucks if you can.

Something Better.mp3 - Marianne Faithful
Yer Blues.mp3 - John Lennon and the Dirty Mac
Salt of the Earth.mp3 - Rolling Stones

Labels: classic rock, live albums, Rolling Stones, TV

11/21/2007

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

9/03/2007

It's a summer romance and it's through

I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do as a follow-up here. Making such a “popular” post sort of puts the pressure on me to not make any more shitty posts. I’m glad I posted that a month ago and there’s plenty between then and now.

That being the case, I’ll proceed as planned.

Today is Labor Day. Most of the rest of the world celebrates Labour Day in May and calls it May Day, but like our refusal to use the metric system, we need to be different here in the U.S. According to Wiki, Labor Day is a federal holiday that takes place on the first Monday in September. The holiday began in 1882, originating from a desire by the Central Labor Union to create a day off for the “working man.” It is still celebrated mainly as a day of rest and marks the symbolic end of summer for many. Labor Day became a federal holiday by Act of Congress in 1894.

My point being that, traditionally, Labor Day marks the end of summer. By now, kids are back in school and summer vacations are winding down. And that age-old tradition, the summer romance, comes to an end.

It’s been years (probably 20 or so) since I’ve had a summer romance. Once you’re out of school and on with life, things don’t revolve around summer as they once did. Romances come and go at random times of the year. But like your first girlfriend (first boyfriend for my female readers), or your first kiss, the summer romance is something you’ll always remember fondly.

Summer Romance.mp3 Rolling Stones, from Emotional Rescue

Labels: classic rock, Rolling Stones