Rolling Stones Mono

I'm sure the Dead were making lots of coherent decisions in 1967. That also explains why their first album is such a sonic marvel.

 

To show people, my dinner guests, what a hotch potch the early Stones recording were, I put on "Out of our Heads".
The UK Decca press export copy with the American track list.
I play "Mercy Mercy" and/or "That's how strong my love is", then I'll play "Satisfaction" for 'em.
They look at me and say, "Hey, I never realised how bad a recording Satisfaction actually is...."

As a note, "Mercy Mercy" and "That's how strong my love is" are both original mono mixes, not Stereo fold-downs. So you're even comparing like with like....

If I wanna be mean, I'll play the French 1978 reissue of "Rolling Stones No. 2" with all the Chess tracks in real stereo and watch the faces

 

I've found the best sounding UK Deccas are the later "Boxed" pressings.
Apparently it took several goes for the Decca engineers to work out how to make them sound the best. Plus advances in their equipment.
In any case, the best "sounding" earlies I have are the early '80s reissues....
Weird, innit...

 

I would love an all-mono UK Aftermath CD. As limited as the sonics are, the mono mixes from those sessions, on the 3-CD "London Years" singles collection, are stronger sounding than the stereo: Stupid Girl, Paint it Black (yes, I know, not actually on the UK album), and the like. They are less reverbed, and you don't get that weird sense that Mick is in a different room from the rest of the band.

 

I hadn't thought of that! I have the box. I will check!

 

A few random thoughts:

As has been stated, a "mono box" for the Stones is a lot more problematic than for The Beatles. A lot of stuff is only available in mono anyway, and some material (the 1964 Chess tracks and most of Beggars Banquet) was just folded down in mono. There's a relatively small amount of material that's available in unique mono and stereo mixes, and in some cases the mono is already the default (with the stereo mixes being either unreleased or hard to find).

It's worth noting that Aftermath was recorded in two sets of sessions, December 1965 and March 1966, and the sound from each of those is distinct. I believe Steve has suggested the 12/65 session was 3-track and the 3/66 session was 4-track, and it certainly sounds like that could be the case. The tracks from the earlier session follow the same basic format: backing track left, lead vocal center, overdubs right. There's also essentially no bleed between the channels. Mother's Little Helper is a good example: the vocal reverb is mixed center, but if there's any reverb on the backing track, it is mixed hard left: there's essentially *no* sound from the backing track in the right channel, not even from reverb. On the other hand, the 3/66 tracks are a bit more spread out, and the reverb is applied to everything. For example, you can hear reverb from the guitar and harpsichord on Lady Jane in the left channel, and reverb from the drums on Under My Thumb in the right channel.

Some sort of stereo collection would actually be most welcome. There's a handful of material available in stereo that is either unreleased or very hard to find (Everybody Needs Somebody To Love, The Last Time, Play With Fire, Satisfaction, Get Off Of My Cloud, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby), and there's quite a bit from from 1964-66 that has never shown up in stereo (the 1965 Chess tracks and the majority of the RCA tracks other than Aftermath). I thought perhaps the 1965 Chess multitracks were unavailable, but The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man is a (mono) remix on the 1989 Singles Collection, so apparently at least some still exist.

 

Along these lines, I was listening to Stone Age the other night, and the true stereo mix "Paint It Black" found there jumped out as sounding pretty good. That was recorded at RCA, right?

 

Yes. March 1966.

 

Aftermath has a better mono mix IMO, but a nice analogue mono reissue is still going to sound fairly poor if they replicate the original - it's too long for a single lp. My choice would be to turn it into a special edition double with some additional singles tracks, which could improve the sound but then that would disappoint those who want to preserve its original form.

 

Or they could reissue the U.S. tracklisting with "Paint It, Black".

 

We have gone down this road before here with Aftermath, RCA recordings & Dave Hassinger. I grew up on the Mono (dirty with it's packed groove's distortion) UK Decca which I still own . When I did hear the stereo Aftermath it was a revelation in sound for what it was worth then.

I must say I'm a fan of those terrible wide stereo mix's for what they were in that era. Listening to them now ... It's like what where they thinking ?

 

+1!

Mark

 

any opinions as to why the Stones liked what they were hearing from RCA, if the sonics seem to us so clearly compromised?

 

I believe more than anything they liked the atmosphere and attitude.

 

I would have to think this was true. L.A. probably seemed like Mars (in a good way) to guys who had grown up in post-war London.

 

I love this succinct description! It was a total revelation to the 12-year old me back in 1965 that my favorite bands didn't play/perform the songs from start to finish, that they were involved in studio "trickery". Indeed, that absolutely seemed like "cheating" to me back then.

 

that's correct, but I think it's only because the engineer happened to leave RCA.

 

I'm guessing it had more to do with the fact that they weren't touring the US anymore, in addition to the fact that they had settled into a routine of working with Glyn Johns at Olympic.

 

topic offED:

In the UK for "Rock" maybe [how bout "Olympic"?]; enjoy early/mid 60's stuff out of LA in particular & elsewhere in the US tho.

 

"GRRR!" has mono tracks, GReat!
http://www.last.fm/music/The Rolling Stones/GRRR!
[don't know why butt you must click on the album too get too the tracklisting]
in HiDef no less on Blu!

 

Plus they were working and/or hanging with Jack Nitzsche and Phil Spector.

 

the Stones weren't entirely deaf to SQ issues, though -- they would talk about the better sound and engineers they got in the US when they went back to the UK in this period.

 

They were working within the limits of the gear they were using and so cheating is what they were thinking I love how it turned for music history.