Rolling Stones in Mono - 2016 - Content Discussion Only (Mixes, Tracks, etc.)*

I don't have any of the 2003 reissues but do own the 2010 box. I expect the duplicated albums in the new box to sound better but not by much. They're not the greatest sounding recordings to begin with.

 

Digital masters. Mastered in Maine, lacquers cut in London.

Yes, Heart of Stone was that weird hybrid on there as well. I had Singles Collection and Hot Rocks first, and was blown away when I later got Now! and Heart of Stone remained true stereo. I'm still not sure what the purpose was. The stereo intro sounds *far* more squashed than the full stereo mix elsewhere, which much more closely matches the mono mix that follows.

YCAGWYW starts out in stereo and has the French horn, but it is narrowed somewhat. After the first line it edits to a wider stereo version, somewhat clumsily.

I'm not familiar with the various 45 releases. Was a stereo version issued? The intro on the 1989 Singles Collection can't simply be an edit from the LP mix, as the opening choir overlaps the guitar there.

Many/most, but not all, iterations of 19th Nervous Breakdown have some sort of breakup, often described as "static", in the intro. Apparently ABKCO had not located a tape without it, and as a "fix", they created a new intro, either from the unreleased stereo mix or the multitrack. The balance of the guitars does not match the mono mix.

Also, unless I was seriously screwing something up the other day, I noticed there's an odd issue with the speed as well. I tried to line up the 2002 version with an earlier version, but the speeds are slightly different in the intro. I went to adjust the speed, but then the pitches were different. It seems as if when they remixed (?) the intro, they did some sort of odd manipulation that adjusted the speed and pitch independently.

Some of the Got Live tracks are obviously on Out Of Our Heads and December's Children, but it seems that in general they ignored the live material, as the Got Live LP isn't included either.

The studio EP tracks are on Stray Cats:

1. Come On (single A-side – Decca F.11675, 1963)
2. I Want to Be Loved (single B-side – Decca F.11675, 1963)
3. I Wanna Be Your Man (single A-side – Decca F.11674, 1963)
4. Stoned (single B-side – Decca F.11674, 1963)
5. Fortune Teller (from Saturday Club – Decca LK 4583, 1964)
6. Poison Ivy (from Saturday Club – Decca LK 4583, 1964)
7. Bye Bye Johnny (from The Rolling Stones EP – Decca DFE 8560, 1964)
8. Money (from The Rolling Stones EP – Decca DFE 8560, 1964)
9. Poison Ivy (Version 2) (from The Rolling Stones EP – Decca DFE 8560, 1964)
10. Not Fade Away (single A-side – Decca F.11845, 1964)
11. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (from Got Live If You Want It! – London Records LL 3493 (U.S.), 1966)
12. The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man (Single Version) (single B-side – Decca F.12220, 1965)
13. 19th Nervous Breakdown (single A-side – London Records 45LON 9823 (U.S.), 1966)
14. Sad Day (single B-side – London Records 45LON 9823 (U.S.), 1966)
15. Con Le Mie Lacrime (single A-side – Decca F.22270 (IT), 1965)
16. Long, Long While (single B-side – Decca F.12395, 1966)
17. Who’s Driving Your Plane? (single B-side – Decca F.12497, 1966)
18. We Love You (Single Version) (single A-side – Decca F.12654, 1967)
19. Dandelion (single B-side – Decca F.12654, 1967)
20. Child of the Moon (single B-side – Decca F.12782, 1968)
21. Jumpin’ Jack Flash (single A-side – Decca F.12782, 1968)
22. Street Fighting Man (Single Version) (single A-side – London Records 45LON 909 (U.S.), 1968)
23. Honky Tonk Women (single A-side – Decca F.12952, 1969)
24. You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Single Version) (single B-side – Decca F.12952, 1969)

 

SORRY. I meant the CHOIR intro, not the french horn. The single mix was mono, they either couldn't find it for that release or decided they wanted to replicate it in stereo.

 

I only ever had the single edit of YCAGWYW on the Decca 'Slow Rollers' comp, and it was mono - so I was surprised it was in stereo on the Singles Collection.

My guess is that any versions of 'Honky Tonk Women' or the single edit of YCAGWYW in mono are folddowns of stereo mixes (even though I'm not aware of any release featuring the latter in stereo until 1989).

As for 'Heart Of Stone', possibly the mono tape they worked from back in the 80's had some kind of problem at the beginning? And having no other mono version to work from, they spliced in the stereo intro? (they should have at least folded down the intro).

Right. But I still don't understand why they wanted to 'replicate it in stereo' when they used a mono version of the A-side (and as I said above, I'm not aware of any stereo version of the YCAGWYW single edit before this).

 

Probably because they included the EP's (the studio ones, NOT the 'Live' GLIYWI EP) on the '1964-1969' Abkco 2010 Vinyl Box set.
Also, in that box they did NOT include Get Yer Ya Ya's Out because they had already released that in the Remastered Deluxe Vinyl Box I believe in 2008 or 9.

Now why they are including some US pressings does seem like a lot of duplication.....BUT..... let's look at it this way.......

In one fell swoop they can appease collectors who desire BOTH the UK Mono albums AND the US mono albums. So even though it APPEARS to be a lot of Duplication, for Collectors of the Stones Mono 60's albums, this is sort of like a holy grail.........
ESPECIALLY when you see just ONE Mono Stones US album going, sealed, for $5oo + dollars. Like this one:

The Rolling Stones Flowers SEALED USA 1967 1ST PRESS MONO VINYL LP »

So, try to look at this in perspective, One original US Stones Mono album, in New condition=$524.

FIFTEEN BRAND NEW audiophile mastered/pressed Box= $389 or less......
It's-FOR THE COLLECTOR-a no brainer.
But, for the casual fan/collector it's too much and those of you who fall into this category would be best just to buy your favorite INDIVIDUAL LP's when they release those.

Both sides win.

Love,
the beave

 

@lukpac

I've just looked at the contents of the ABKCO tapes that you posted on Page 24 (thanks for that BTW, very interesting), and that includes both mono and stereo versions of the Honky Tonk Women/You Can't Always Get What You Want single, so that probably explains where the stereo 'single edit' of the latter came from for the 1989 Singles Collection. My money's still on the 'mono' versions being folds of the stereo versions though.

EDIT: The mono YCAGWYW appears twice - one with the annotation 'Edited Single Master'. This one is at 15 ips, whereas the other copy and HTW are only at 7 1/2 ips.

 

Just noticed in Fremer's AP article about the box that at the bottom he calls out that Music Direct is now selling the "import" box for the same price. Then I notice that MD says the box is being pressed at GZ. SoundstageDirect says "supervised" at GZ. MD also mentions getting a "numbered" copy and SSD does not. I know there is the uber-limited box with the 7" singles but I wasn't aware of multiple versions of the basic mono box itself. Is this simply the case of bad copywriting by eirher SSD or MD; or are there indeed multiple versions?

Forgive me if this has been answered elsewhere.

 

None since then either

 

The single version of YCAGWYW is the single edit in stereo on the GRRR compilation.

 

Yes, one time afterwards: On "Grrr!!!" in 2012, they used the edited stereo version.

 

My bad. Does it have the funny edit at the start?

 

The version on GRRR is wide stereo, like the 2002 Let It Bleed, and no odd edit after the first line. The only odd thing is the left channel is muted until the horn comes in; possibly to hide the Midnight Rambler bleed-through? It's not digital silence; it's hard to tell with certainty, but it seems like it may have been mixed that way.

 

There's also the tape drag right before the fade out begins that exists on many versions of the song. (But, again, not all.)

 

A couple of questions about YCAGWYW:

Where does the Midnight Rambler bleed through come from?

Apart from being edited (isn't it just no choir intro and an early fade?), is the stereo single edit an identical mix to the stereo LP version?
I would guess that the choir intro was a separate edit piece that was slightly crossfaded with the song proper for the LP.

 

Nope, at least one verse is shortened as well.

 

Thanks, I forgot about that.

 

I like mono BtB's, but mostly just due to the slightly longer Yesterdays Papers, were it the same time length in stereo I wouldn't really be bothered about the mono mix. Not keen on the levels on mono mix of Cool, Calm, Collected. The electric dulcimer is so quiet during verses compared to the stereo mix.

 

One verse (the demonstration one) gone entirely, and the "Mister Jimmy" one shortened.

 

Good question.

- no choir intro
- first verse edited out
- second half of second verse edited out ("We decided that we would have a soda...")
- second chorus after last verse edited out ("...standing in line...")

The fade on GRRR is about a second and a half shorter, but it isn't clear if the 45 mix is actually shorter or if the end got cut off in mastering. The fade on GRRR stays louder longer than the 2002 LIB, but again, it isn't clear if that's a mastering difference or not.

The acoustic guitar is brighter on the LP, but again, that could be a mastering difference.

If there are any mix differences they aren't leaping out at me.

 

Boy, that's one well played Single!!!!
And speaking of 'Mr. Jimmy' he was a real guy living in Minnisota. And that story is true as Jagger talked to
Jimmy as he waited for a soda at a local drug store. My friend Dave, who lives in Eagan, Mn. Knew Mr. Jimmy.
And I belive this happened in 1965 on their tour. Funny how the story shows up 4 years later on LIB.
the beave

 

That's the story. It's not clear if it's true or not though.

Apparently James Phelge claimed he was "Mr. Jimmy". But it seems more likely it was Jimmy Miller.

 

Midnight Rambler bleed through? Huh?

 

Yes. Listen to the left channel of the 2002 Let It Bleed from 0:51 to 0:55. It seems to correspond to 1:10-1:13 of Midnight Rambler.

 

And the Worm Still Turns...

I always heard that Mr. Jimmy was Jimmy Miller and that "death" was a hip word used in London back then to describe certain situations.

 

I can't find it, but I've seen a few references to an interview with Jagger where he indicates that Miller would utter "dead" if the Stones ran something by him that he didn't like.

"In The Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, the line “I sang my song to Mr Jimmy” is a reference to their producer Jimmy Miller, not Jimi Hendrix as is often believed. The rest of the line says “and he said one word to me and that was dead”. At this time The Rolling Stones and Jimmy Miller used “dead” to refer to something they really liked, so when Mick Jagger sang the original song idea to Jimmy Miller, his response was “dead”!"

The Rolling Stones release "Let It Bleed" - The History of Rock Music »