Fleetwood Mac, Taste, Janis Joplin, Rolling Stones – three vinyl LPs, one 2CD set out now
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Fleetwood Mac
Radio and TV 1968-69
Side One
1. If You Be My Baby (Green, Adams)
2. Wine Whiskey And Women (Lightfoot)
3. Peggy Sue Got Married (Holly)
4. Evenin’ Boogie (Spencer)
5. Intergalactic Musicians Walking On Velvet (Spencer)
6. Sheila (Roe)
7. Bee-I-Bicky-Bop Blue Jean Honey Babe Meets High School Hound Dog Hot Rod Man (Spencer)
Side Two
1. Shake Your Moneymaker (James)
2. Lazy Poker Blues (Green, Adams)
3. My Baby’s Sweet (James)
4. Love That Burns (Green, Adams)
5. Oh Well (Green)
6. Like Crying (Kirwan)
7. Linda (Spencer)
Recording Dates
Side One.
Tracks 1– 7 recorded and transmitted for BBC radio Top Gear in 1968 as follows:
Recording Dates:
Tracks 1 & 2 August 27th
Track 3: April 9th
Tracks 5 & 6: May 27th
Track 7: January 16th
Transmission Dates:
Track 1: November 24th
Track 2: October 13th
Track 3: April 13th
Track 5: June 2nd
Track 6: July 7th
Track 7: January 21st
Side Two
Tracks 1 – 7 recorded for TV as follows:
Track 1 Bluesology Festival, Droitwich, September 2nd 1968
Tracks 2- 4 Colour Me Pop, BBC, 19th July 1968
Tracks 5 – 7 Monster Music Mash, BBC, October 7th 1969
Personnel
Peter Green – guitar, vocals, harmonica
Jeremy Spencer – slide guitar, piano, vocals, maracas
John McVie – bass
Mick Fleetwood – drums
Danny Kirwan – guitar, vocals ( Side One, Tracks 1 & 2: Side Two Tracks 1 & 5 – 7)
Christine McVie – keyboards, vocals (Side One, Tracks 1 & 2)
Sleevenotes
This a fine depiction of the band described by Brian Mathews as “undoubtedly the most versatile group in Britain” as they convincingly play r’n’b, electric blues, acoustic blues, psyche and 50’s US pop.
If You Be My Baby is a song from second LP Mr.Wonderful, jointly credited to Peter Green and manager Clifford Davis aka C.G. Adams. This version is slower and has a simpler arrangement than the original. Wine Whiskey And Woman was originally released by Papa Lightfoot on a 78rpm 10” disc in 1954. Fleetwood Mac up the tempo and add a convincing Spencer vocal with Peter Green on harmonica. These two tracks feature the guest keyboards and vocals of Christine McVie, nee Perfect. Next up are two examples of Jeremy Spencer’s Buddy Holly fixation. Peggy Sue Got Married was written by Holly himself whilst Sheila was written by Tommy Roe in 1962 as a Holly pastiche. Both are performed with much affection and authentic Lubbock arrangements. Spencer’s fixation on USA 50’s rock’n’roll reaches its apogee with the next track, most easily referred to as Hot Rod Man. The epic title contains elements of Gene Vincent’s “Bi-Bickey-Bi, Bo-Bo-Go” and “Bluejean Bop” whilst the song itself features doo-wop vocals and period piano. “A classic” opines host John Peel. Evenin’ Boogie is also from Mr Wonderful and is an instrumental written by Spencer in the style of Elmore James and features his slide guitar prominently. Finally with Intergalactic Musicians Walking On Velvet Fleetwood Mac enter Bonzos territory to give their verdict on the burgeoning Progressive ‘scene’ with all manner of sonic weirdness and vocal profundity. An interesting curio, but Jeremy Spencer would hit his target more accurately on his 1970 solo album with Take A Look Around Mrs Brown.
Elmore James’ Shake Your Moneymaker was a highlight of the first Fleetwood Mac LP and this version was recorded at the wonderfully-named Chateau Impney, Droitwich. Green tunes to a harmonica before the band launch into an impressively raunchy work-out, lead by Spencer on slide. The next three tracks are taken from the innovative BBC show Colour Me Pop, which existed between May 1968 and August 1969. In many ways the prototype for the better known The Old Grey Whistle Test, Colour Me Pop featured everyone from The Tremeloes to Giles, Giles and Fripp. Lazy Poker Blues and Love That Burns are both Green / Davis cowrites from Mr. Wonderful. The former shows Green capable of emulating the extended blues innuendo (“she puts some coal on the fire so I can keep my poker hot”) whilst the latter intersperses his powerfully understated vocal with equally sparse lead guitar. Homesick James’ My Baby’s Sweet was a regular live favourite but was never included on a studio LP. Guitarist Danny Kirwan joined the band in August 1968 and he is heard on the last three tracks on Side Two. Monster Music Mash was another shortlived BBC TV music programme, running through October and November 1969 and hosted by Alan Price. The show was described by the Radio Times as “Pop, Blues, Folk, and Whoopee!”. Not much “Whoopee!” in this performance of Oh Well, instead a brooding performance of the first part of the single. Peter and Danny recreate the latter’s Like Crying as a duet and it is a delight. Finally a performance of Spencer’s Linda, again very much in the style of Buddy Holly – it would appear on his solo LP the following year.
Brian Mathews’ verdict is ”marvellous and beautiful”– an accurate summary of Fleetwood Mac, captured here at their peak.
Sleevenotes: Albie Tross
Taste
Radio and TV 1968-69
Side One
1. Same Old Story (Gallagher)
2. Blister On The Moon (Gallagher)
3. Dual Carriageway Pain (Gallagher)
4. Norman Invasion (Gallagher)
5. Born On The Wrong Side Of Time (Gallagher)
5. I’m Moving On (Snow)
6. Sugar Mama (trad. arr. Gallagher)
Side Two
1. Leavin’ Blues (Ledbetter)
2. Hail (Gallagher)
3. Wee Wee Baby (Johnson, Turner)
4. Blister On The Moon (Gallagher)
5. Sugar Mama (trad. arr. Gallagher)
Recording Details
Side One
Tracks 1-5 recorded for BBC Radio Top Gear August 5th 1968. Tracks 1-4 transmitted August 25th, track 5 transmitted October 27th.
Track 6 recorded for BBC Radio Top Gear on February 17th 1969 and transmitted March 9th.
Side Two
Tracks 1-3 recorded for BBC Radio Top Gear on February 17th 1969. Tracks 1&2 transmitted March 9th. Track 3 transmitted April 20th.
Tracks 5&6 recorded live at Bilzen Jazz Festival August 22nd 1969 and shown on BRT German TV
Personnel
Side One Tracks 1-5
Rory Gallagher – guitar, vocals
Eric Kitteringham – bass
Norman Damery – drums
All other tracks
Rory Gallagher – guitar, vocals, harmonica
Richard “Charlie” McCracken – bass
John Wilson – drums
Sleevenotes
Today The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream are lauded for their inventive songwriting and innovative onstage playing: Rory Gallagher’s fellow power-trio Taste have never received the same acclaim. Record company neglect and poor management have both played their part. The tireless efforts of Donal Gallagher – Rory’s brother – resulted in the 2015 box set I’ll Remember which finally represented their studio and live prowess but even this did not include all the great material the band recorded for radio and TV. With this LP we are delighted to fill in some of the gaps.
Guitarist Rory Gallagher started off his live playing in Irish showbands, touring Ireland, the UK, Spain and Germany. In 1966 the teenage Gallagher recruited Norman Damery and Eric Kitteringham, the rhythm section from Cork’s The Axills, to form The Taste. The band settled in Belfast where manager Eddie Kennedy had arranged a residency at the Maritime Hotel, the venue where Them had earlier established their live reputation. In 1968 Taste headed for London, soon selling out The Marquee and being talked up by John Lennon and Eric Clapton – the latter would ensure that Taste supported Cream’s farewell Royal Albert Hall gigs and insisted they join Blind Faith on their ill-fated US tour. John Perry of The Only Ones saw Taste regularly at the Bath Pavilion. “Taste gigged hard, very like Fleetwood Mac. We thought Gallagher easily the best of the younger new guitarists, the next generation following Clapton, Green and Beck. Definitely the find of Spring ’68. These were the days of Marshall stacks, or double Marshall stacks, bigger and bigger amps. And there was Rory playing his Strat through a little Vox AC30 amp and a treble booster. Even at the Isle of Wight, with a crowd of 600,000, just a single AC30 … and a fabulous tone.”
When Taste played the Woburn Abbey Festival on July 7th 1968 John Peel was so impressed that he offered the band a session on his radio show even though they did not yet have a recording contract. From this session Same Old Story features a catchy riff and fluid Gallagher solos. The forthright Blister On The Moon is Gallagher’s proclamation of independence and self-determination where the conviction of his vocal is backed up by the muscularity of the backing. Duel Carriageway Pain is more upbeat, the title a reference to touring the UK before motorways existed. The snappy instrumental Norman Invasion did not appear on either of the two Taste studio LPs. Born On The Wrong Side Of Time includes a thoughtful middle section with near-spoken vocals before the riff comes crashing back.
Throughout the rhythm section provides excellent backing to Gallagher’s guitar and vocals. So it was a surprise to everyone when on the verge of Taste signing to Polydor Records, Kennedy sacked Kitteringham and Damery. Their replacements were Richard McCracken on bass and John Wilson on drums: both came from the band Cheese, also managed by Kennedy. The new line up recorded a further session for John Peel. Their swinging acoustic version of Hank Snow’s I’m Moving On is closer to the country original than the better known version recorded by The Rolling Stones. The more traditional twelve-bar structures of Sugar Mama and Leavin’ Blues both demonstrate Gallagher’s ability as well as his restraint. Hail is another acoustic number, performed solo by Gallagher. Wee Wee Baby is a Joe Turner song also recorded by Muddy Waters which features Gallagher on harmonica. Our final selection is two tracks recorded live for German TV in the of summer of 1968. The intense version of Blister On The Moon features a call-and-response between Gallagher and McCracken whilst Wilson plays a drum kit that says Blossom Toes. This version of Sugar Mama gives Gallagher plenty of room to solo.
By 1970 Kennedy’s mis-management meant that the band were on the same meagre salary as when they had begun, despite having chart records and headlining festivals throughout Europe. Taste played their final gig in Belfast on New Year’s Eve 1970. Freed from Kennedy’s management, Gallagher established himself as a successful solo artist although his work never deviated far from the template he established with Taste. He died in 1995.
“It seems a shame to even suggest that Taste be classed in any way with that great puddle of British blues bands. Everybody else is just woodshedding – Taste have arrived.” Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone magazine
Sleevenotes: Catherine Fish, with thanks to Gath Cartwright
Janis Joplin
Radio & TV 1969 – 1970
Side One
- Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) (Ragovoy/Taylor) 6:21
- I Can’t Turn You Loose (Redding) 7:51
- Combination Of The Two (Andrew) 5:52
- Ball And Chain (Thornton) 6:41
Side Two
- To Love Somebody (Gibb B/Gibb R) 3:16
- Maybe (Goldner/Barrett) 3:39
- Little Girl Blue (Rodgers/Hart) 3:49
- Raise Your Hand (Cropper/Floyd/Isbell) 3:28
- Move Over (Joplin) 3:47
- My Baby (Ragovoy/Shuman) 4:07
Recording details
Side One – Radio
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam April 11th 1969, broadcast by Radio VPRO
Side Two – TV
1 The Dick Cavett Music Show, broadcast July 8th 1969
2 The Music Scene show, broadcast September 8th 1969
3 & 4 This Is Tom Jones show, broadcast December 4th 1969
5 The Dick Cavett Music Show, broadcast June 25th 1970*
6 The Dick Cavett Music Show, broadcast August 3rd 1970*
Personnel
Janis Joplin & The Kozmic Blues Band
Terry Hensley – trumpet
Terry Clements – tenor sax
Cornelius ‘Snooky’ Flowers – baritone sax, vocals
Richard Kermode – organ
Sam Andrew – guitar
Brad Campbell – bass
Roy Markowitz – drums
Except* Janis Joplin & The Full Tilt Boogie Band
Richard Bell – piano
Ken Pearson – organ
John Till – guitar
Brad Campbell – bass
Clark Pierson – drums
Sleevenotes
Janis Joplin was born on January 19th 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas. Janis hated Port Arthur. “In Texas I was a beatnik, a weirdo. They don’t treat beatniks too good in Texas”. At 17 she hit the road and was in San Francisco by 1966. There she met Big Brother and the Holding Company, the house band at the Avalon. Travelling to Chicago they signed to Mainstream Records and released their self-titled LP for which they received precisely no money. However playing the Monterey International Pop Festival in August 1967 proved to be Janis’s big break, as she impressed both Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records, and respected manager Albert Grossman. Big Brother signed with Grossman in January 1968: second LP Cheap Thrills was released by Columbia in September 1968 to both critical acclaim and commercial success. Janis played her last gig with Big Brother on December 1st. Her new band – known as either Main Squeeze or the Kozmic Blues Band – retained only Sam Andrews from Big Brother and did not go down well at its debut at the annual Memphis Sound Party on December 21st. The other acts on the bill were hard-core Memphis soul acts such as Eddie Floyd and Carla & Rufus Thomas, all given to flash and show biz: compared to them, Janis and her musicians seemed out of place. Ralph J Gleason called her new band “a drag, although they can play OK.”
By the time Janis toured Europe the following spring, a new brass section and further live work had helped pull the band together. Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) was the first track on Janis’ first solo LP I Got Dem Ol Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (September 1969), the version here driven by Brad Campbell’s bass. Originally recorded by Lorraine Ellison, this version illustrates Janis’s journey from the psychedelic rock she sang with Big Brother towards more R&B. An uptempo version of Otis Redding’s I Can’t Turn You Loose is performed here as a soul revue duet with Snooky Flowers and gets the audience clapping along. Combination Of The Two is a Big Brother number and features writer Sam Andrews’s guitar prominently. Ball And Chain was written and performed by Big Mama Thornton and had been a highlight of Janis’s Monterey performance. Janis had seen Thornton performing the song at a bar in San Francisco and the lyrical message of how her love for a man is tying her down seemed to resonate.
The brief spring 1969 European tour was ecstatically received by fans and critics. The Daily Telegraph described the London date at the Royal Albert Hall on April 21st as “one of the most electrifying ‘happenings’ since the first great international poetry reading in the same hall in June 1965. Forget all you may have read or heard. Here in fact was the comfortingly embodied voice of love, pain, yearning, freedom and ecstatic experience, a fire that speaks from the heart of warm, rounded flesh.” Janis was less impressed, claiming to Dick Cavett on his TV show that in Europe “nobody gets loose…they are all too cerebral”. Janis was a regular guest on Cavett’s show, performing her version of the Bee Gees To Love Somebody on her first appearance and transforming the song into a slice of deep soul. Maybe was first released by the Chantels in 1957: a tight arrangement highlights Janis’s passionate vocal, ably supported by the horns and Kermode’s organ. By the time Janis appeared on Tom Jones TV show, he was very much the all-round family entertainer, but his roots were in R&B, so he was the ideal host for Janis. According to Jones, she didn’t fancy performing amidst plastic raindrops, so together they dismantled that part of the set. Janis performs a restrained solo version of showtune Little Girl Blue beforeduetting with Jones ona rousing rendition of Eddie Floyd’s Raise Your Hand, where they are both clearly having a great time despite being surrounded an audience of appallingly naff dancers.
Janis Joplin played her last gig with the Kozmic Blues Band at New York’s Madison Square Gardens on December 29th. On June 12th she debuted her new Full Tilt Boogie Band in Kentucky. The horns were no more, as can be heard on two further performances from The Dick Cavett show. Move Over is a rare Joplin composition, addressing male-female relationships in unflattering terms: it would appear on Pearl, the second solo LP that would be released after Joplin’s death in October 1970. Finally we have the August 1970 performance of My Baby, originally released by Garnet Mimms.
In 1981 Ellen Willis wrote in Rolling Stone magazine “among American rock performers Janis Joplin was second only to Bob Dylan as a creator / recorder / embodiment of her generation’s history and mythology. She was also the only woman to achieve that kind of stature, in what was basically a male club, the only Sixties culture hero to make visible and public women’s experience of the quest for individual liberation, which was very different from men’s.” This LP shows Janis at her best – a strong interpreter of songs, a soulful vocalist, a dynamic performer and a harbinger of the future.
Sleevenotes: Mercy, Des, Ben & Ben
The Rolling Stones On Tour ’66 2CD set
CD One
1. The Last Time (Jagger, Richard)
2. Mercy, Mercy (Covay, Miller)
3. She Said Yeah (Jackson, Christy)
4. Play With Fire (Jagger, Richard)
5. Not Fade Away (Hardin, Petty)
6. That’s How Strong My Love Is (Jamison)
7. Get Off Of My Cloud (Jagger, Richard)
8. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Jagger, Richard)
9. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Jagger, Richard)
10. As Tears Go By (Jagger, Richard)
11. 19th Nervous Breakdown (Jagger, Richard)
12. Not Fade Away (Hardin, Petty)
13. The Last Time (Jagger, Richard)
14. Paint It, Black (Jagger, Richard)
15. Lady Jane (Jagger, Richard)
16. Mothers Little Helper (Jagger, Richard)
17. Get Off Of My Cloud(Jagger, Richard)
18. 19th Nervous Breakdown (Jagger, Richard)
19. (I Can’t Get No) (Satisfaction (Jagger, Richard)
20. Paint It Black (Jagger, Richard)
21. Lady Jane (Jagger, Richard)
22. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow? (Jagger, Richard)
23. 19th Nervous Breakdown (Jagger, Richard)
24. Interview with Eamonn Andrews
CD Two
1. I Am Waiting (Jagger, Richard)
2. Under My Thumb (Jagger, Richard)
3. Paint It, Black (Jagger, Richard)
4. The Last Time (Jagger, Richard)
5. 19th Nervous Breakdown (Jagger, Richard)
6. Get Off Of My Cloud (Jagger, Richard)
7. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Jagger, Richard)
8. Mercy, Mercy (Covay, Miller)
9. She Said Yeah (Jackson, Christy)
10. Play With Fire (Jagger, Richard)
11. The Spider And The Fly (Jagger, Richard)
12. Time Is On My Side (Meade)
13. I’m Alright (McDaniel)
14. Around And Around (Berry)
15. I’m Movin’ On (Snow)
16. Mercy, Mercy (Covay, Miller)
17. She Said Yeah (Jackson, Christy)
18. Play With Fire (Jagger, Richard)
19. Not Fade Away (Hardin, Petty)
20. The Spider And The Fly (Jagger, Richard)
21. That’s How Strong My Love Is (Jamison)
22. Get Off Of My Cloud (Jagger, Richard)
23. 19th Nervous Breakdown (Jagger, Richard)
24. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Jagger, Richard)
25. The Stones in Australia – Feature / Interview
26. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow? (Jagger, Richard)
Recording Details
CD One
Tracks 1 – 8 recorded live at the Palais Theatre, Melbourne for Radio 3 UZ on February 24th
Tracks 9-11 recorded for The Ed Sullivan Show, New York City, February 13th
Tracks 12-19 live at the Honolulu International Centre, Hawaii on July 28th and broadcast on Radio K-POI
Tracks 20-22 recorded for The Ed Sullivan Show, New York City, September 11th
Tracks 23 & 24 recorded for the UK TV ABC The Eamonn Andrews Show, February 6th
CD Two
Tracks 1-3 recorded for UK TV Ready Steady Go, Studio One, Wembley, May 27th
Tracks 4 – 13 recorded live at the Olympia, Paris for RTL Radio
March 29th (Second Show)
Tracks 14 & 15 recorded live at the Olympia, Paris for RTL Radio March 29th (First Show)
Tracks 16-24 recorded live at the Commemorative Auditorium Showgrounds, Sydney, Australia (first show) on February 18th and broadcast by Australian 2UW FM Radio
Track 25 recorded for UK TV at Sydney Airport on February 16th plus an interview with Austin Ward for 2UW FM radio, also February 16th
Track 26 recorded for BBC TV Top Of The Pops on December 17th and transmitted on December 22nd
Personnel
Mick Jagger – lead vocals, harmonica
Brian Jones – guitar, sitar, dulcimer, marimba
Keith Richard – guitar, piano, vocals
Bill Wyman – bass
Charlie Watts – drums, percussion
Sleevenotes
Strap yourselves in, it’s going to be quite a ride…
We start our review of the Stones busiest-ever year with a live vocal performance of 19th Nervous Breakdown, recorded in February for Eamonn Andrews’ mainstream TV programme. The preceding interview with Jagger inconclusively discusses the meaning of the song and the issue of social responsibility. Next stop New York, for The Ed Sullivan Show later the same month. Ed Sullivan introduces the opening performance of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction as for “all the youngsters in the country and Canada” and certainly the youngsters in the audience are entranced, even if Charlie Watts is not. Just Mick and Keith appear for a rare acoustic version of As Tears Go By which can just about be heard over the screams. The full band are back in imperious form for 19th Nervous Breakdown,Bill Wyman’s dive-bombing bass runs to the fore.
The February Australian tour is represented by concerts from Sydney and Melbourne. The Sydney show was performed on a rotating stage that was handcranked by stage hands – at one point an exasperated Jagger says “Will you stop this thing going round?”. Mercy Mercy and a brief She Said Yeah get the set off to a scream-drenched start before Play With Fire provides a rare moment of calm. Not Fade Away restores the pace with Jagger’s vocal a call-and-response to Jones’ harmonica. The Spider And The Fly is the second brilliant B-side to be played before Jagger totally convinces on That’s How Strong My Love Is. Despite starting well Get Off Of My Cloud falls to bits towards the end. A strong version of 19th Nervous Breakdownwith some potent dual vocalsrestores the set’s momentum before set-closer Satisfactionincreases the scream-level still further. Jagger gets lost in the song early on (“Where are we?”) but recovers well. Eye-witness accounts suggest that The Last Time was played as the opening song that night, but this is unconfirmed. The song was certainly played in Melbourne six days later as you can hear. Also included here is a report on then Stones arrival at Sydney Airport and a radio interview from the same day.
Paris was always a stronghold for the Stones as can be heard from the crowd reaction on the two radio broadcasts from L’Olympia in March. Covers of Around And Around and I’m Moving On are taken from the first show, the other eleven tracks are from the second show. The latter features some classy slide from Brian Jones and fine harmonica from Jagger. A brief snatch of Hang On Sloopy acts as the introduction to Get Off Of My Cloud. It’s followed by I’m Alright, a rare return to the Crawdaddy and a chance for Jagger to really work the crowd and generate some screams.
By July the Stones were in Hawaii, the last gig on their fifth North American tour. Also on the bill were Herman’s Hermits and Johnny Green and the Greenmen. Ticket prices ranged between $2.50 and $6.50. It would prove to be Brian Jones’ final appearance in the USA. A flavour of the gig is given by a florid live review from the Toronto Star earlier in the tour. “The young nubiles surged forward, arms undulating like tentacles of sea anemones writhing in warm fluid. Mick is a phenomenon of utter sexuality, beyond simple distinctions of maleness or femaleness”.
Not Fade Away makes for a great, up-tempo set opener. By now original songs such as The Last Time are greeted with screams of recognition from the audience. An uptempo Paint It, Black trades subtlety for intensity. Charlie Watts then makes a rare song introduction. Unfortunately he introduces The Last Time, which they had already played, instead of Lady Jane. Lady Jane is the only non-raver in the set and the crowd are noisy throughout, but the intricate acoustic arrangement shines through. Mother’s Little Helper was released as a single in the US and makes for a great live song, with both guitars playing the riff in unison and more effective Jagger/Richard joint singing. Get Off Of My Cloud features powerful shouted backing vocals, 19th Nervous Breakdown is taken at breakneck speed and Satisfaction sounds like the soundtrack to a riot, from Richard’s heavily fuzzed intro to the relentless Charlie-driven outro.
Back to London in May for a live performance on legendary TV programme Ready Steady Go! I Am Waiting receives a sensitive interpretation with Keith on acoustic guitar and Brian on dulcimer, and even a brief glimpse of Sixth Stone Ian Stewart. Under My Thumb returns us to more familiar up-tempo territory with Brian emphasising his versatility by playing the marimba, moving to sitar for Paint It, Black. Talking to Andy Neill, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg cites the latter as his favourite Stones RSG appearance. “I’d had this idea that after every verse we’d take out a bank of lights in the studio and by the end, it would just be a light on Mick alone and the rest of the place in darkness. What also makes it great is that you can’t hear Mick singing at the fade, his mike lead had gotten kicked out, but you can hear the music going on and this kind of raga beat. The whole thing is really mysterious…”.
The Stones second appearance with Ed Sullivan followed recording sessions at RCA Studios in Los Angeles. Paint It, Black features Brian Jones playing a sitar cross-legged, and despite a truly appalling haircut Jagger is in fine form vocally. Lady Jane provides an acoustic interlude, Brian on dulcimer and chalk-stripe suit. Charlie stands up to play vibes, or possibly hide an ill-advised moustache. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Hiding In The Shadow? restores the Stones raunch. Keith pretends to play piano and provides his characteristic backup vocals. We finish back where we started, in London where the band record a live vocal version of Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow? for the BBC TV programme Top Of The Pops.
Fifty tracks, five countries, one year. They also released 4 singles and two LP’s (and recorded a third). The Stones would never again do so much, so quickly and in so many places. Listen and be amazed.
Sleevenotes: Nat & Faye d’Away
Only Rock 'n' Roll 