Re: New boot, "Training Wheels", anyone heard it?
Date: January 14, 2009 12:37
ROLLING STONES: TRAINING WHEELS 2 CDs
Label: Social Graces 001-02
Source: Air Studios, Montserrat 29th March through 5th May 1989, except for Track 4: recorded at Tangier, Morocco 16th and 17th June 1989. Mixed at Olympic Sound Studios, London 15th May through 29th June 1989.
Format: 2 cds
Running time: 43.24/39.42
Sound source: Soundboard stereo
Packaging: Double Slimline Jewel Case.
By riccar99
Sound: 9 / Packaging 9 / Performance 8.5
TRACK LIST:
Disc 1 1. Blinded By Love, 2. Terrifying, 3. Continental Drift (Instrumental), 4. Break The Spell, 5. Can't Be Seen, 6. For Your Precious Love, 7. Fancyman Blues, 8. Slipping Away (Instrumental).
Disc 2: 1. Rock And A Hard Place, 2. Ready Yourself, 3. Sad Sad Sad, 4. Mixed Emotions, 5. Almost Hear You Sigh, 6. Giving It Up, 7. Hearts For Sale, 8. Hold On To Your Hat.
REVIEW:
The second chapter allegedly from the estate of the Stones roadie that died some years ago and whose widow asked a family friend to digitalize some of her late husband tapes has arrived. Focus is still on Steel Wheels sessions, this time we get tracks from the album in early versions. Not the polished tracks with different mixes (guitars upfront) we got last time from which many boots have come over the years (Monitor Mixes etc.) but these recordings aren’t that primitive as claimed at times. The whole body of each song is there, well defined and most of the times the difference is due to mumbled vocals that appear as if the singer (Jagger but also Richards) hasn’t decided on which lyrics to sing (or maybe has yet to finalize them). Not much difference musically speaking from the finished product or even the previous chapter. This new label Social Graces has decided however not to follow the original album sequence, but starts the first Disc with “Blinded By Love” that does not have the historical pretentious lyrics talking about Mark Anthony ‘s fate but a more evident guitar interchange, possibly with Jagger playing one of them. On “Continental Drift” for instance we hear Charlie Watts tablas and drums and a synthesizer for most of the track, while the instrumental take of “Slipping Away” presents the song just as we know it. “For Precious Love” is certainly the skeleton of the beautiful ballad that stuck everybody on the previously released S.Wheels bootlegs because it lacks the chorus and presents just Jagger guiding vocals. Disc two is more interesting with different lyrics of “Rock And A Hard Place”, the song “Ready Yourself” that was presented as an instrumental before is here sung by Richards. “Sad Sad Sad” has again a different set of lyrics (no elephant in the bathroom here…) and a different version of “Mixed Emotions” that ends with compliments of an engineer after a prolonged acoustic guitar stroll. It seems that also “Almost Hear You Sigh” is a reworked version of the song originally recorded by Keith in 1987 for his solo album; on this song the chorus sings on Watts drums that acquire the strength lacking somewhere in other songs here. Follows a completely new song “Giving It Up” that resembles “For Your Precious Love” as its sudden approach but it develops as a fine soul ballad with great rhythmic guitars over a steady drumming and keyboards in the back underlining the refrain: another mystery on why the Stones never considered this song that remains a hidden gem up to today. The last track “Hold On To Your Hat” begins with a couple of false starts and a laughter by Ron Wood before the band jumps into this fast song, a bit less obsessive than the released version. Artwork is certainly not impressive, replicating the dull official album both on front and back cover design, while the reverse front cover work reminds “Rock And A Hard Place” official single cover, while each disc has the same label design with swirls.
Audio quality is good with great stereo separation, however it is comprehensible that the audio cassette from which these songs come has lost some fidelity over the years: this is what happens to analogue recordings, not that there is evident hiss but a certain lack of depth presents the sound a bit too flat. Too bad it is barely over 80 minutes, since cassette tapes did last 90 minutes maybe there is still something that’s been left over. It is anyway a great discovery and despite the sad circumstance that has allowed this recording to surface we cannot help thinking how many cassettes are still kept in closed drawers slowly fading away year after year. We can call this release a nice surprise and in a world of copycat labels we are quite sure it is only the first of many replicas to come.