Rolling Stones Single-By-Single Thread

Can anyone tell me the differences in that recent singles collection and the Singles collection that came out a decade or so ago? I know we had a thread on it, and lots of people had opinions about the sound and mixes, but which set gets closest to the U.S. singles?

 

I just downloaded 19th nervous BD from mono box set . the vocals seem a little clearer than the London 3cd box set but I'm not sure anymore due to old age and wishfull thinking.
I also downloaded sympathy for the devil for the mono mix .

 

It's a new remix with extreme levels of tape hiss between vocal lines.

 

I'll take tape hiss for clearer vocals these days

 

It's not any clearer.

 

So what's the difference in the remix

 

A high level of compression that pushes up the vocal track between lines, causing the aforementioned tape hiss.

 

Elvis had stated that he had been listening to Aftermath a lot when he made that album. Also, "You Belong To Me" has a similarity to "The Last Time".

 

Interesting part of that Ed Sullivan appearance - at around 1:50, the camera shows Brian Jones sitting and playing the sitar, just left of Mick Jagger.
It’s a strange optical illusion; it as if a slightly shrunken Brian is perched on a white table top next to Mick.
A trippy image while listening to the raga-like music.

 

Well, "Paint It Black" is what it is- a classic, very creative arrangement and lyrics...but admittedly it's also a song I've heard so many times over the years I don't care if I ever heard it again.
"Stupid Girl", like the music, but as for the lyrics I like them about as much as I like the rest of Mick's misogynistic lyrics in this period- which is to say, not very much...
"Long Long While"...another one I haven't heard in years (one o' these days I should pick up another copy of The London Years methinks) but I liked it, nice blues/soul fusion. Scorsese used "Long Long While" in one of his movies, as I recall, damned if I can remember which one, though...

 

I don't mind As Tears Go By but the Marianne Faithfull version is much better IMHO.

I've never heard Gotta Get Away before but I like it! Better than the A-side for sure. Very much in the style of Tell Me, Under My Thumb or I'm Free.

 

That sounds a bit different from the version I'm used to. It seems to have a clarinet or oboe in unison with the main melody, which frankly the song doesn't need.

This one doesn't:

 

19th Nervous Breakdown is a fabulous song, one of my Top Six. I can't really add to what others have said about it.

I've never heard Sad Day before either, and it's pretty good. Probably not quite as good as Gotta Get Away though, but both still really good.

 

Paint It Black is another one of my top 10 Stones songs. The band was really peaking this year!

The B-sides aren't quite up to the previous two but they're still pretty good. Listening to Stupid Girl right now, which I've heard before. I'd say I prefer it to Long Long While.

I'm still trying to remember which Stones track, one which must have been from right around this period judging from its style, featured in a car commercial about 10 years ago. I found out, then promptly forgot again ...

 

I really like "Paint It, Black." It's just outside of my top 5 Stones songs of all time. When I first heard it, I interpreted it somewhat literally; I imagined the singer with a gallon container and a big brush and painting, or wanting to paint, everything black.

I guess today, I see it like this: In 2017, Grace VanderWaal wrote and recorded a song called "Darkness Keeps Chasing Me." The "darkness" can be interpreted in several different ways. In "Paint It, Black," the darkness has caught up to the protagonist and has not only won, but thoroughly consumed him. It remains a fascinating song after all these years.

I guess we now know that the comma isn't supposed to be in the title, but after all this time, it just looks wrong without it. In the same way, the Simon and Garfunkel song will always be "The Sounds of Silence" to me even though Paul Simon's original copyright of the music uses "Sound" and thus the title has been amended the past 25+ years.

"Paint It, Black" was the first Stones single to be released in stereo at more or less the same time as the mono version. It appears on the U.S. version of Aftermath, as does the American B-side, "Stupid Girl." The British B-side, "Long Long While," wasn't issued in the U.S. until the 1972 album More Hot Rocks (Big Hits and Fazed Cookies).

At least four different lengths of "Paint It, Black" exist. The original length, in both mono and stereo and on 45 and LP, is 3 minutes 21 seconds; until the 1980s, every release of the song was this length, give or take a couple seconds, with one exception. The second length, an edited version, was released on a West German EP in 1968 and nowhere else. The third length emerged when ABKCO put the Stones' catalog on CD in the 1980s; the first U.S. editions of Aftermath, Hot Rocks and Through the Past, Darkly contain a mono mix lasting 3 minutes 44 seconds. This seems to be the standard length on most Stones CDs today, even though it was unavailable in 1966. (The stereo 3:21 mix was restored to the U.S. Aftermath in 2002.) The fourth length, with a cold ending, appears not on LP or CD but a game; it was used on Guitar Hero III in 2007.

As new stampers and mothers began to be made for some Rolling Stones 45s in the 1970s, some unadvertised changes took place. All of the "45" or "45 LON" prefixes from 1966-74 are mono, but some (but not all) of the "5N" copies are in stereo -- on both sides.

The London picture sleeve is a 5 on a rarity scale of 1-10. It also exists with a printing error that is missing the "LONDON" and the catalog number 45-901; this is quite rare.

 

"Paint It Black" is my favorite song released as a single from the Rolling Stones. It may even be my favorite song by them, period. This song has some of the best lyrics that the band have over put on record, and Jagger's vocal performance really sells it. The dark ambiance presented from the excellent drumming and sitar make for something truly amazing.

 

Paint It Black is another jewel in the Stones crown of mid 60s singles. I like the UK b-side and of course Stupid Girl is on the UK Aftermath. I think Long Long While (UK B-side) first made it onto 12 inch vinyl on More Hot Rocks. Someone on here will know - are their both mono and stereo versions of this
(Long Long While) available officially or is it mono only? Sorry I cannot remember.

 

Yes the 3 boxes are great I just wished they had done them on sacd as well. I think there are a few errors in the sets but they are well worth purchasing.

 

Next we have another U.S. single:

Mother's Little Helper (1966)



Released: 7/66
B-Side: Lady Jane
Charts: #8 (US) ("Lady Jane" went to #24)

"Mother's Little Helper" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It first appeared as the opening track to the United Kingdom version of their 1966 album Aftermath.

It was released as a single in the United States and peaked at #8 on the Billboard Singles Charts in 1966. The B-side "Lady Jane" peaked at #24.[1] The song deals with the sudden popularity of prescribed calming drugs among housewives, and the potential hazards of overdose or addiction. The drug in question is variously assumed to be meprobamate (Miltown),[2] or diazepam (Valium).[3]

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Mother's Little Helper" was recorded in Los Angeles from 3–8 December 1965.

The song begins with the line that is also heard as the last line in the repeated bridge section: "What a drag it is getting old".

“ Kids are different today, I hear every mother say
Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she's not really ill, there's a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day.[4] ”
The bridge section, which is repeated, has the line: "Doctor, please/Some more of these/ Outside the Door/ She took four more."

Toward the end of the song, the mothers are warned:

“ And if you take more of those
you will get an overdose
No more running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
They just helped you on your way
through your busy dying day.[4] ”
The song is based around folksy chords and an eastern-flavoured guitar riff sounding like a sitar, but is a slide riff played on an electric 12-string.

Keith Richards stated in 2002: "(The strange guitar sound is) a 12-string with a slide on it. It's played slightly Oriental-ish. The track just needed something to make it twang. Otherwise, the song was quite vaudeville in a way. I wanted to add some nice bite to it. And it was just one of those things where someone walked in and, Look, it's an electric 12-string. It was some gashed-up job. No name on it. God knows where it came from. Or where it went. But I put it together with a bottleneck. Then we had a riff that tied the whole thing together. And I think we overdubbed onto that. Because I played an acoustic guitar as well." Richards also remembers the ending of the song being the idea of Bill Wyman,[5]who also contributed a powerful and distinctive bass riff.

The song is in the key of E minor, but ends in the key of G major.

Personnel[edit]

• Mick Jagger – lead vocals, percussion
• Keith Richards – acoustic guitar, electric twelve-string slide guitar, backing vocals
• Brian Jones – acoustic guitar
• Bill Wyman – bass guitar
• Charlie Watts – drums
• Jack Nitzsche – Nitzsche-Phone

 

It would happen if the writer felt that the song's performers would not be able to play something more complex. Your first question does not address the point. The point is that the song as written DID conform to a limited facility on the sitar.

 

Their strongest USA 45 both sides being awesome. I couldn't afford many albums but the 45s were my life.

 

Like the music to Helper but the words are a bit of a downer. Not one of my favorites.

....but I love the b-side, Lady Jane.

 

Mothers Little Helper
I think this is one of The Rolling Stones’ best psychedelic songs. I like that strange sound they get out of what I assume is the 12 string slide. The song has a driving sound reminiscent of “Paint it Black.” It’s cool how Mick Jagger sings this one in his natural accent instead of faking an American accent like usual.

Lady Jane
I don’t really care for this song. The backing track is interesting, but otherwise the song is kind of boring and cheesy.

 

I never really warmed to "Mother's Little Helper". Don't love it don't hate it. It seems minor , coming after "Paint it Black" and before "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing in the Shadow?"

It wasn't even released as a single in the UK, which I find interesting .

I think it would have worked better as a Kinks song, with Ray Davies doing his wry vocal style.

I really like "Lady Jane".
That Elizabethan style or whatever it is always worked for the Stones in my world. It's too downbeat and low key for an "A "side but works as a "B" side I guess . I always think of it as an album track only.

 

Really? Their strongest US single ?
Different tastes but I strongly disagree .

Sincerely,
Jumpin Jack Flash/ Child of the Moon
etc.etc.