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pmk251

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LuxuryStones
Indeed. Mick Taylors' solo is medicine to me.

I have credited this before, but he has passed away and I feel obligated: This was recorded by Paul Grady who recorded many, many Taylor/Bluesbreakers, etc. shows in the Bay area. There was no bigger MT fan. He was in heaven recording this Sway, but in a moment of paranoia he looked down and to his horror saw the "pause" button was on, hence the clipped beginning. A taper's nightmare. He once set his recorder on the stage at MT's feet in a club. Taylor looked down, perhaps to search for a pedal, saw instead the recorder, shook his head, but let it go.

Aha, it's you. And LuxuryStones, that was me, long time ago. And the medicine still works.

Mick drags the count a bit.

Highwire starts on the 3.

Sway...could only be Sway with MT...genius

Looking back a few pages, live, well, Keith's comments about Mick's electric guitar playing - the reason why the album version is so good because it's not Keith playing on it.

Mick's timing is different than Keith's.

Anyone not knowing would (could) easily assume it's Keith, though.

The album version of Sway is supreme, clearly, than any slaughtering live attempt ever, regardless of Mick Taylor or Ronnie Wood. It's Keith that couldn't deliver.

Then again, it's a song only the 1971 Rolling Stones could do and the BIGGER BANG Rolling Stones, just as with She Was Hot, couldn't deliver. Kudos to playing it, nice nod, but something else would've most likely been better.

Although with the 2005-07 Stones it's unlikely.

100% agreed with this...

Amazing track Taylor solo.
A real masterpiece.
Live version with Ronnie : embarassing.

I don't think these were posted. A pretty cool find,
the Melvins covering Sway:




Melvins - Sway

And ...




Melvins - Sway (acoustic)

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Rollin92
If this song doesn't prove that Watts and Wyman were one hell of a duo, I don't know what does.

Stop Breaking Down and I'm Not Signifying are great examples, too.

What songs weren’t Watts and Wyman not great on?

Quote
liddas
I have tried many times to cover Sway, always ending up with awful results.

It's frustrating, because the song in itself is quite simple.

What is difficult is to get across the emotions of the original studio cut. And when this doesn't happen, the performance just falls flat.

As always with Stones songs, it's extremely difficult to say exactly what "makes" the song. It's just a sum of thousands little nuances. Of course Jagger's vocals and Taylor's solos stand out, but there are so many layers of greatness under and above those vocals and guitar lines!

C

I'm going through the thread looking for one particular thing but seeing things I can't recall if I commented on with some thoughts (staying away from the 'Mick can't play electric' Keith whining bit):

Watch - and listen - to Jagger playing Brown Sugar for Ike and Tina Turner in GIMME SHELTER. Sounds nothing like the Mick on Sway, Stop Breaking Down and/or Fingerprint File - although it's still a work in progress, or as some say, rudimentary, and he's only just getting the "idea" across, he's on top of the beat. He's a nuance ahead of the count.

But when he plays the Robert Johnson song Little Queen Of Spades he's on the count and just a hint of lag. He's just screwing around. The best song to "feel" his count is Stop Breaking Down. He's ON... his phrasing creates a lag but it does not lag. There is no lag. Mick's rhythm is consistent and directly on the beat. His phrasing creates a lag - he hangs the riff a little longer than "normal".

Keith heaves bricks, builds brick walls, rolls bricks, breaks bricks with his rhythms. To this day there are Stones songs, mainly from the 1970s, when I start getting WTF and have to look up the personnel and holy crap, that's Keith on... and it "sounds" nothing like him.

There's no comparing them, overall, but Mick can fool people (Sad Sad Sad intro, Highwire) occasionally, which is possibly an overstatement since he hardly starts Stones songs on guitar, with people thinking it's Keith.

Quote
GasLightStreet

Quote
liddas
I have tried many times to cover Sway, always ending up with awful results.

It's frustrating, because the song in itself is quite simple.

What is difficult is to get across the emotions of the original studio cut. And when this doesn't happen, the performance just falls flat.

As always with Stones songs, it's extremely difficult to say exactly what "makes" the song. It's just a sum of thousands little nuances. Of course Jagger's vocals and Taylor's solos stand out, but there are so many layers of greatness under and above those vocals and guitar lines!

C

I'm going through the thread looking for one particular thing but seeing things I can't recall if I commented on with some thoughts (staying away from the 'Mick can't play electric' Keith whining bit):

Watch - and listen - to Jagger playing Brown Sugar for Ike and Tina Turner in GIMME SHELTER. Sounds nothing like the Mick on Sway, Stop Breaking Down and/or Fingerprint File - although it's still a work in progress, or as some say, rudimentary, and he's only just getting the "idea" across, he's on top of the beat. He's a nuance ahead of the count.

But when he plays the Robert Johnson song Little Queen Of Spades he's on the count and just a hint of lag. He's just screwing around. The best song to "feel" his count is Stop Breaking Down. He's ON... his phrasing creates a lag but it does not lag. There is no lag. Mick's rhythm is consistent and directly on the beat. His phrasing creates a lag - he hangs the riff a little longer than "normal".

Keith heaves bricks, builds brick walls, rolls bricks, breaks bricks with his rhythms. To this day there are Stones songs, mainly from the 1970s, when I start getting WTF and have to look up the personnel and holy crap, that's Keith on... and it "sounds" nothing like him.

There's no comparing them, overall, but Mick can fool people (Sad Sad Sad intro, Highwire) occasionally, which is possibly an overstatement since he hardly starts Stones songs on guitar, with people thinking it's Keith.

Jagger plays great on "Fingerprint File".For 40+ bloody years I thought it was Keith.

Quote
TheflyingDutchman

Quote
GasLightStreet

Quote
liddas
I have tried many times to cover Sway, always ending up with awful results.

It's frustrating, because the song in itself is quite simple.

What is difficult is to get across the emotions of the original studio cut. And when this doesn't happen, the performance just falls flat.

As always with Stones songs, it's extremely difficult to say exactly what "makes" the song. It's just a sum of thousands little nuances. Of course Jagger's vocals and Taylor's solos stand out, but there are so many layers of greatness under and above those vocals and guitar lines!

C

I'm going through the thread looking for one particular thing but seeing things I can't recall if I commented on with some thoughts (staying away from the 'Mick can't play electric' Keith whining bit):

Watch - and listen - to Jagger playing Brown Sugar for Ike and Tina Turner in GIMME SHELTER. Sounds nothing like the Mick on Sway, Stop Breaking Down and/or Fingerprint File - although it's still a work in progress, or as some say, rudimentary, and he's only just getting the "idea" across, he's on top of the beat. He's a nuance ahead of the count.

But when he plays the Robert Johnson song Little Queen Of Spades he's on the count and just a hint of lag. He's just screwing around. The best song to "feel" his count is Stop Breaking Down. He's ON... his phrasing creates a lag but it does not lag. There is no lag. Mick's rhythm is consistent and directly on the beat. His phrasing creates a lag - he hangs the riff a little longer than "normal".

Keith heaves bricks, builds brick walls, rolls bricks, breaks bricks with his rhythms. To this day there are Stones songs, mainly from the 1970s, when I start getting WTF and have to look up the personnel and holy crap, that's Keith on... and it "sounds" nothing like him.

There's no comparing them, overall, but Mick can fool people (Sad Sad Sad intro, Highwire) occasionally, which is possibly an overstatement since he hardly starts Stones songs on guitar, with people thinking it's Keith.

Jagger plays great on "Fingerprint File".For 40+ bloody years I thought it was Keith.

I thought it was Taylor, as Keith was playing the lead guitar

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
TheflyingDutchman

Quote
GasLightStreet

Quote
liddas
I have tried many times to cover Sway, always ending up with awful results.

It's frustrating, because the song in itself is quite simple.

What is difficult is to get across the emotions of the original studio cut. And when this doesn't happen, the performance just falls flat.

As always with Stones songs, it's extremely difficult to say exactly what "makes" the song. It's just a sum of thousands little nuances. Of course Jagger's vocals and Taylor's solos stand out, but there are so many layers of greatness under and above those vocals and guitar lines!

C

I'm going through the thread looking for one particular thing but seeing things I can't recall if I commented on with some thoughts (staying away from the 'Mick can't play electric' Keith whining bit):

Watch - and listen - to Jagger playing Brown Sugar for Ike and Tina Turner in GIMME SHELTER. Sounds nothing like the Mick on Sway, Stop Breaking Down and/or Fingerprint File - although it's still a work in progress, or as some say, rudimentary, and he's only just getting the "idea" across, he's on top of the beat. He's a nuance ahead of the count.

But when he plays the Robert Johnson song Little Queen Of Spades he's on the count and just a hint of lag. He's just screwing around. The best song to "feel" his count is Stop Breaking Down. He's ON... his phrasing creates a lag but it does not lag. There is no lag. Mick's rhythm is consistent and directly on the beat. His phrasing creates a lag - he hangs the riff a little longer than "normal".

Keith heaves bricks, builds brick walls, rolls bricks, breaks bricks with his rhythms. To this day there are Stones songs, mainly from the 1970s, when I start getting WTF and have to look up the personnel and holy crap, that's Keith on... and it "sounds" nothing like him.

There's no comparing them, overall, but Mick can fool people (Sad Sad Sad intro, Highwire) occasionally, which is possibly an overstatement since he hardly starts Stones songs on guitar, with people thinking it's Keith.

Jagger plays great on "Fingerprint File".For 40+ bloody years I thought it was Keith.

I thought it was Taylor, as Keith was playing the lead guitar

That's the biggest compliment you can give to Taylor!!

I love Sway. As I love Hand of Fate. On their respective albums. But live, I like them, I don’t love them, because they both just can’t quite replicate the slightly off-kilter lilt of the recorded versions.

Rod

video: [youtu.be]Here is a pretty good cover of Sway.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025-03-13 15:48 by Taylor1.

Very nice….Like to T-shirt too!

What I was looking for in the thread, and gave up, was the difference between the LP version and the B-side 7" version, which is the vocals are different.

Same backing track, it sounds like, just different vocal recordings (and more harmony from Keith). Either there were enough tracks leftover to do the LP vocal(s) or it's a working version they mixed and mastered but continued to work on.

They were using 8 track 2 inch tape, as far as I know, in 1969 even though some studios had jumped up to 16 track.

Digitally this version is available on...? Aside from the Wild Horses 45 and YouTube, it's on which box set? The ABKCO one has a different running time than 1971-2005.