I've been listening to the live tracks from 75 that are on Rockpassion, and while the guitars sound loud & raunchy, Jagger's vocals are just f*ckin 'orrible. The slurring and flubbing lines get to be too much to take after just a few songs.

With all of the slagging of the guitar play from recent tours, Mick's voice has improved immensely. Thankfully, he finally started doing vocal exercises under the guidance of a coach. Compare the actual singing from 2002-03 to the shouting of 1975-76. Was it the coke? Was MJ's habit really that bad during those days?

I know what you mean. I actually find Mick's vocals too clean now though - the 78 tour was the last time i really loved his vocals without reservations.
Although still good in 75 the Stones had really gone off the boil since the previous tour in 73 and it's not just Mick's voice or Taylors absence that's to blame.
The 76 tour was marginally worse than 75 but i think the more recent tours poses a different set of problems - a lack of raw edge vocally and musically and also a lack of spontaneity.

I agree Mick Jagger is not an opera singer (or you can argue he cant sing at all) he is at his best in 75, when he had the edge, but lost it.

i don't find anything different with his "voice", per se. His singing style changed a lot during that tour - he was sorta into that R&B, hip, affected style - which more speaks to the times than anything.

Mick Jagger's voice ruled on that tour. It was really awesome IMO.

JumpingKentFlash

Disagree, JKF. The shouting style was good in 1973, but went way over the top in 1975. Jagger came back to earth in 1978, and with each successive tour, he has gotten better. Too clean? No, the growl is still there when he decides to conjure it up. I love his vocals on FF--this is the current benchmark--he's worked hard to make himself better, and I can't fault him for it. IMHO, he's lost nothing. How many 60-year-old singers can say that?

Booze and pills and powders, he chose his medicines. And cigarettes, those'll take down a powerful singing voice in no time. Maybe he was mad at Bianca or something, who knows?

"The wonder of Jimi Hendrix was that he could stand up at all he was so pumped full of drugs." Patsy, Patsy Stone

I like that he sounded different on each tour. I like how he sounded in 75, but I think he sounded the best in 69.

bassplayer617 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Disagree, JKF. The shouting style was good in
> 1973, but went way over the top in 1975. Jagger
> came back to earth in 1978, and with each
> successive tour, he has gotten better. Too clean?
> No, the growl is still there when he decides to
> conjure it up. I love his vocals on FF--this is
> the current benchmark--he's worked hard to make
> himself better, and I can't fault him for it.
> IMHO, he's lost nothing. How many 60-year-old
> singers can say that?

Maybe I just haven't heard enough of it yet. But I think it rocks from what I have seen so far anyway.

JumpingKentFlash

I noticed nothing but the sheer visual/audial 'weight' of the '75 Seattle show. It's impossible to describe to anybody who didn't see them before '75 what the experience was like.

I liken it to Concorde taking off at London Heathrow. Everything and everybody stops. Period; they STOP! Nothing sounds like Concorde and even the jaded air traveller (like me!) stops for a moment and their thought process is halted.

Concorde's take off had the 'presence' of thundering, apocalyptic oblivion. Such as did the 1975 Tour Of the Americas.

I did not notice Mick's voice, except that it was like nothing I'd ever heard on record. He was in absolute control, along with Keith. Nothing like it before or since has thoroughly penetrated me, viscerally and conciously.



"The wonder of Jimi Hendrix was that he could stand up at all he was so pumped full of drugs." Patsy, Patsy Stone

I think there is a black funk influence in Mick's vocals in 1975 that some fans dislike - i find it much preferable to his later more conventional singing.
I do think the Stones were less convincing generally though on this tour.

I loved the looseness of the band on this tour. Jagger included. Seems like they just winged it at each show, just let it loose. Not so structured and so predictable like they are nowadays

Haven't heard so much on those 70's tours, but his voice where not at his best on the 81/82 tour, to dark and screaming. From that point on, his voice has been practicly the same from 89-03.

But his best tour without a doubt where Voodoo Lounge, but voice and physicly in movements and so on.

I never liked his voice during the '75/'76 and '81/'82 tours. I hate it when he is just shouting and screaming instead of signing. He was great during the sixties, from '69 'till '73 he had a very different sound than the early years but it was a real good rock 'n roll vocie. I love his voice nowadays (from '89 on), he sounds great. The rough edges he had in his voice are gone but for someone his age he sounds just incredible!!!!!

Cheers,
Wuudy

I'm with Wuudy. From '75 to '82 Jagger just wasn't trying either due to laziness, disinterest, drugs or lack of fitness (or more than one of these factors). I find it hard to take a whole gig where he's just throwing away the words and nuances as if these godlike songs were disposable or shouting or barking his way through them. I think his vox possibly reached their apex on the last tour.

I think Jagger's voice was beat up during the 75-76 tours because of the drugs, drinking and smoking he was doing during that time. If you have Jean-Marie's book about the 75 tour Mick talks a lot about all the Jack he was drinking in those days and he is pictured smoking a lot. His eyes also look pretty messed up in many pictures during those tours. On some parts of Midnight Rambler at the LA 75 show he sounds like he is screaming and his voice cracks repeatedly. But on certain songs like You Gotta Move and Ain't Too Proud to Beg I think he sounds great.

agree with Woody and Tseverin 100%

Mick's singing on the last tour was consistently superb.

I never liked that breathless, barking growl from around 75-76. Which is the main reason why I find most of "Love you Live" almost unlistenable.

I think thought he was "larger than life" at that period. That reflects in his vocal performances...

I liked Jagger best in 1969! - his antics on stage, his presence, humor...
that was Mick at his best - MLC

Dandelion put it very well I think. I love that tour and think Mick is at his best there. He sings and talks like only Mick can. Love it. And the clothes! Keith was of course fantastic althoiugh he played a little better in '72 and '78.
On LYL he plays good though.

I like his voice in that period..he was crazy!!!Back then.

JumpingKentFlash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mick Jagger's voice ruled on that tour. It was
> really awesome IMO.

for once I agree with you, brother (hehehehe, lets forget our minor bitching about ourselves). all in all it was really awsome, sometimes a bit over the top but all in all awsome and very different than today. he sings superb today, agreed, but sometimes a bit too controlled to really touch you. but then he does that to save his voice probably, in such a long tour one has to be careful not to @#$%& one's voice ut getting OUT OF CONTROL too much. but decades ago he did not seem to care, he sang like he felt and if he shot his voice well what the fock.

on a related note, Ronnie and Keith, especially Ronnie, were rockin' on that 76 tour. (at least from the video i've watched of it on youtube...

A great performance,

Ahhh!!!They stopped the mud-cage fight..well that nice!!Jagger was so loose and relaxt in those years despite the set-list mind you.And the Paris Kick rocked..on boot and video!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-10-16 16:39 by rooster.

For comparison just listen to the bootlegs SLICK/OUT ON BAIL/GARDEN STATE '78.
If I remember correctly, these are all the same shows. Soundboard recording
with Mick's vocals being very prominent in the mix. Fastforward to 1989's Steel Wheels comeback tour when they had all cleaned up to some degree....especially Mick.

I remember from some interviews back then...they basically relearned their entire catalog...wanting to be true to the sound of their studio recordings. I think they succeeded. Whereas the 1981 tour was loose and minimal...the 1989 tour was a tight
production of great tunes that spanned their entire career (27-28 songs per show).
Mick's (live show) vocals since 1989 have been GREAT! And in general, the playing
has been GREAT!

Back in the 1970's...when they were in their drug, Studio 54, "we're invincible rock stars" stage......health and tight playing may have taken a back seat. The fact that they shaped up for the Steel Wheels tour is why they are still so strong today...17 years later.

And in 1978 he was on top!!!

If you look at the videos you noticed that Jagger began to move a lot more on stage during the 75 tour..if you compare.

I never saw them till 89. But from the various LPs and boots I've heard

72/73 - awesome Mickage
75/76 - awesome overdubs on Love You Live! everything else he used a weird
pseudo-Jamaican accent and sang though his nose.
78 - back to awesomeness
81/82 - sang though his stuffed nose the whole time!
89-now has moments, rarer the older he gets. No snarl, cheats on notes, sings through nose. Announciation almost laughable sometimes.

As an eager observer of Mick's voice through the years, I must comment upon some of this.

First, to the people who thinks Mick sings better today than ever: In concert Mick sings flat and doesn't growl properly at all anymore. He is clearly saving his voice. On record however, he screams and growls and goes for it. This indicates that this is the way he himself wants to sound, right? Therefore the concert singing must be regarded as not his best singing, according to himself in a way. Compare the Voodoo Lounge version of You Got Me Rocking to any live version, vocally.

To the claim that Mick's voice sounds more or less the same since 1989: His voice is alot thinner sounding today compared to pre 1995. For reference; compare JJF from Glasgow this year to the same song on Atlantic City'89.

To the claim that Mick never sang better than in 1994/95: This is the tour that Mick sang the dullest. His voice was not yet thin, but he never sang flatter before or since. Compare Midnight Rambler from Tokyo 1990 to any from 1994/95 and again to the Licks ones. There are more examples. The quieter sung songs like Angie and Sweet Virgia are OK mind!

In my opinion, Mick's singing in 1975/76 is occasionally over the top, but on songs like If you can't rock me, All down the line and Hand of Fate he sounds just perfect!
The singing on the 1972- and to a lesser extend the 1973 tours is great all the way. The same goes for the fantastic singing on the 1978 tour. So a little slump in 1975/76 I agree with. The 1981/-82 tour singing is great in places particularly in the first half of the 1981 tour, but exhausted on occations.

1989/-90, until the Japanese shows, is better than anyting since. Although I must say I was impressed by SOME of the Licks singing. Great singing as witnessed on the MSG part of Four Flicks, while dull dull dull on the Twickenham part.

Agree to a lot of your post, especially this:

>>In my opinion, Mick's singing in 1975/76 is occasionally over the top, but on songs like If you can't rock me, All down the line and Hand of Fate he sounds just perfect! <<