Trying To Get To You

Friday, October 26, 2007

Bootleg Friday: The Rolling Stones

First things first. I need to apologize for not putting up Bootleg Friday last week. No excuses, but I'm still working on finding a final file hosting solution. The one's that I'm using now have very limited daily bandwidth, so if you cannot access the file today, try the following day, etc. I will have this issue resolved by the middle of next week.

Ok, now that business is taken care of, today's episode of Bootleg Friday is short (due to the bandwidth issue) but very sweet. It's two Rolling Stones songs; an alternate version of Let It Bleed's "You Got The Silver" with Mick Jagger instead of Keith Richards on vocals. I've always been more of a Keith guy and I slag Mick pretty casually, but Mick's vocal on this is incredible, and is a revelation. The other song is an outtake called "Highway Child," recorded around 1970 with Ry Cooder at Keith's house.

I haven't been listening to the Stones all that much lately, but their music from this period, 1968-1972, continually occurs for me as the greatest rock n' roll ever. Better than Dylan, better than the Beatles. Why? Because the Stones brought sex and groove like no one else, and in doing so, they exemplified the form of rock as music. If an alien came to me and said, "Play me one song so I'll understand what rock n' roll is," I'd probably play them "Gimme Shelter." Or "Rocks Off." Or "Brown Sugar." Or "Sway." You get the idea.

Download: "You Got The Silver"
Download: "Highway Child"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just bought a bunch of Stones remasters- right now I'm listening to Exile and it sounds so amazing- I'm hearing guitars I've never heard before.

If you haven't grabbed the Some Girls Memphis show off my site, I highly recommend it- a completely different feel from the 68-72 period, but still nasty and hedonistic. Misses that Mick Taylor edge but there's an anger to it that they never captured again.

Anyway, thanks for the outtakes. Great stuff.

Private Beach said...

So where is your site, Brian?

Anonymous said...

Ben
why is it that Stones' fans ALWAYS feel the need to compare the band to the Beatles? When I discuss the Beatles, I never even mention the Stones.

re: your statement that the Stones' "music from this period, 1968-1972 ...[is] better than the Beatles

I'll agree that the Stones music from 1971-72 is better than the Beatles (bc the Beatles were no longer in existence).

HippieGirl said...

I want to know why everyone always has to compare the Beatles to the Stones. There's obviously more differences between the Beatles and Stones. Both are good in their own ways, and ever since I started listening to the Stones, I've been a Mick Jagger kind of girl