(...)Getting everybody together for a month in Paris, I didn't mind if we came out with no tracks at all. But as it turned out, we came out with 30 tracks! On our very first night in Paris we got three tracks down. Everybody went, Yeah. Out of the 30 songs we recorded, we mixed four or five. We're still dickering between them right now, figuring out what will go on the album. But my strategy worked, I think. Everyone's got their chops together and they're really looking forward to this tour. It's not just a regurgitation. It's still a working band.

- Keith Richards, July 2002

I thought it was important to get the boys playing new stuff. When we were recording in Paris in May, I thought we might get 4 or 5 tracks down. We got 30.

- Keith Richards, October 2002

...if they needs new stuff i think there are no problems!

OK, but what about the quality?

It's very easy to produce 30 mediocre jams. I doubt there is really good song material among that stuff. You only have to look for those 4 FL's songs.
If those were the best ..

Something for a new rarities LP?

"But I had some outtakes from the last sessions we did [for A Bigger Bang] and said, 'Just to jog your memory ...' Keef 2 days ago

...this isn't a good news if you think to the awful 'Don't Wanna Go Home'

Or any other song on ABB.

Quote
CousinC
You only have to look for those 4 FL's songs.
If those were the best ..

Eggzactly what i was thinking ... Keys To Your Love <-- ooh is that one pathetically awful!

Those in "the-Stones-have-sucked-since-MT-left" crowd will think I'm a moron, but among my favorite Stones tracks are the new ones on the 40 LICKS album (take for Keith's) and although I like a lot of A BIGGER BANG, a lot of its tracks have a kind of "filler" feel, and I've since wished they'd returned to the 40 LICKS sessions when they made that next album, versus recording a whole new one at Mick's chateau in the Loire Valley. I love everything about DON' STOP, for instance; Mick's lyrics and vocals, Keith's and Ronnie's licks, Charlie's drumming. I wish they'd returned to "mine" those sessions; to polish stuff and flesh stuff out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-27 22:18 by Title5Take1.

They should have recorded a full length album of new material there and then. They could have released it during the middle of the lengthy "Forty Licks" tour and have another success whilst they were still going. That would have been awesome.

And yes indeed, those 4 new Licks songs have been whetting my appetite for the outcome of the rest of those sessions ever since I first listened to them.
It would be great if they could finish those songs and release them, maybe calling it "Fourteen Licks" or something, effectively making this one their 2002 album.

Thanks for bringing up this subject again. Talk about these (presumed) songs has been too quiet as of late. They are to the Rolling Stones of the 2000s what "Fragile Thread" is to Blondie Chaplin's recording career: the one album that got away.

Quote
CousinC
OK, but what about the quality?

It's very easy to produce 30 mediocre jams. I doubt there is really good song material among that stuff. You only have to look for those 4 FL's songs.
If those were the best ..

Exactly. The way they work is to:

A. Undertake a jam and see what might pop out
B. Jam the concept at length whilst recording it.
C. Edit the best portion(s) of said jam down to a basic backing track.
D. Figure out a chorus placement and a bridge. Record and edit them into place.
E. Add vocals and other insturments.
F. Edit further and add overdubs.

There are likely 30 snippets of ideas of similar quality and finish to the "bonus jams" on the Live Licks DVD collection.

The Stones reportedly recorded fifty plus songs for Some Girls. Listening to the circulating outtakes you get an idea what the quality of these songs and songideas is. Mostly sketches for songs, ideas for riffs, jams with guidevocals. It's very unlikely there's a albums worth of completely finished songs lying around.

...I'm not so sure Mick wants to necessarily sing what keith writes anymore....well there is always hope...

Quote
KRiffhard
(...)Getting everybody together for a month in Paris, I didn't mind if we came out with no tracks at all. But as it turned out, we came out with 30 tracks! On our very first night in Paris we got three tracks down. Everybody went, Yeah. Out of the 30 songs we recorded, we mixed four or five. We're still dickering between them right now, figuring out what will go on the album. But my strategy worked, I think. Everyone's got their chops together and they're really looking forward to this tour. It's not just a regurgitation. It's still a working band.

- Keith Richards, July 2002

I thought it was important to get the boys playing new stuff. When we were recording in Paris in May, I thought we might get 4 or 5 tracks down. We got 30.

- Keith Richards, October 2002

...if they needs new stuff i think there are no problems!

Hardly.

They recorded for about 2-3 weeks. How many of those songs do you seriously think evolved into anything more than sketches or loose jams?

And if they need 'new stuff' - despite having already gone six years since they last recorded new material - then relying on discarded ideas from almost a decade ago is all the evidence you need that the game's up.

How desperate can people be to think that resurrecting this stuff would be a good idea?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-28 01:18 by Gazza.

30 tracks is not equal to 30 songs

Maybe one of yhem was Plundered My Soul!!!!!

30 tracks, most likely, of loose jams that no doubt sound very much like the "Western Grip" outtake we got on Four Flicks.

Quote
Britney
The Stones reportedly recorded fifty plus songs for Some Girls. Listening to the circulating outtakes you get an idea what the quality of these songs and songideas is. Mostly sketches for songs, ideas for riffs, jams with guidevocals. It's very unlikely there's a albums worth of completely finished songs lying around.

Seeing that some (very little) ended up on Emotional Rescue and some on Tattoo You (very little) and one as a B-side four centuries later (So Young) they certainly did record a lot of worth while tunes that they kept listening to over the years (whenever you read the word 'playback' on whatever websites implies that they still had interest in working on the tracks etc).

Based on the bootlegs I've heard over the years they really screwed up with Some Girls by leaving off some great tunes.

So the ball can roll anywhere - and with Some Girls, as good as it is, it didn't roll in the best direction possible, just a good direction.

Not so with Forty Licks. More like Four Icks. A load of crap, a bunch of trollop. Don't Stop makes Rough Justice sound like Bitch (Don't Stop would be Rock And A Hard Place).

Judging from the four songs they mixed and released we shouldn't have too high hopes for the rest of the material.

Of course we got gems like Well, Well and Extreme Western Grip, too

I don't know about the quality of the tracks from the Licks-sessions. But I like the general
idea of producing an album in jam-like sessions. I think there is a lot to be won, by having
the creative powers of Ron and Charlie at hand to work around the basic ideas that Mick
and Keith provide. Maybe add a bit of Bobby Keys to the process as well.

I think they need a creative keyboard/piano and bass player too in the jam sessions.
Somehow I don't think Chuck would fit the role. I've never heard any interesting ideas
from the man (didn't he get a writing credit for Back to zero?). And Don Was (who was
present at the Licks sessions) doesn't seem to be the new Stu or Nicky (or Preston) too.
It seems essential to me though to have a creative key player at the jam sessions as well.
Maybe a Benmont Tench or an Ian McLagan could give the boys a hand in the creative process.
And why not bring Ivan Neville in to add some creative bass parts?

they could release this planned but scraped at last minute oiuttakes album from 1999.
Or they do a new one, but I doubt that.
Or they keep on releasing their deluxe versions with polished outtakes.

three possibilities

a last one, they do nothing and tour/don´t tour

Quote
marcovandereijk
I don't know about the quality of the tracks from the Licks-sessions. But I like the general
idea of producing an album in jam-like sessions. I think there is a lot to be won, by having
the creative powers of Ron and Charlie at hand to work around the basic ideas that Mick
and Keith provide. Maybe add a bit of Bobby Keys to the process as well.

I think they need a creative keyboard/piano and bass player too in the jam sessions.
Somehow I don't think Chuck would fit the role. I've never heard any interesting ideas
from the man (didn't he get a writing credit for Back to zero?). And Don Was (who was
present at the Licks sessions) doesn't seem to be the new Stu or Nicky (or Preston) too.
It seems essential to me though to have a creative key player at the jam sessions as well.
Maybe a Benmont Tench or an Ian McLagan could give the boys a hand in the creative process.
And why not bring Ivan Neville in to add some creative bass parts?

Good ideas. I would rather have had Ivan Neville to come up with creative keyboard parts, though.