I was listening to Rocks Off just now and was trying to imagine it without the horns. Basically guitar and piano driven with no horns. It would make the subtle guitar riffs stand out more. I was wondering if it would sound better. What do ya think?

Good question. The outtake instrumental discovered a couple of years ago has even more brass overdubs I just read (Aeppli).

I think the horns contribute a lot to the drive of the song.

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Horns Off

Rocks Off with Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) back to back is excellent. The horns are awesome.

Less horny, so, maybe Mick's dancer friend wouldn't pirouette on him?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-11-26 17:56 by EddieByword.

Eddie is taking all my best material. [Grumble]

Rocks Off without the horns?
That would be like Angie with no piano...or 100 Years Ago without Billy...not good

No No ya need the horns .... They give it that Walls of Jerico bring-down sound right to the end ... ...... even into the fade ...



ROCKMAN

check the baton rouge 1975 version with no horns

The horns are great even if they sound more overdubbed than necessary.
One of the absolutely greatest songs they've done.
I would love to hear it nailed live like the studio version.

It would sound like the first 1:10 minutes of it (aka still awesome)

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Koen
Horns Off

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I've posted this before on an Exhibitionism thread.

". . . There's a section on Stones in the studio where you can listen to several tunes with a fake studio mixing board. You can adjust the faders up or down for vocals and instruments. Listen to Rocks Off with just Nicky's piano. A true revelation of his subtle but important contribution to the band's sound in those years. Lovely."

I'm pretty sure one could also strip off the horns and answer the question posed by this thread.


HBK

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HouseBoyKnows
I've posted this before on an Exhibitionism thread.

". . . There's a section on Stones in the studio where you can listen to several tunes with a fake studio mixing board. You can adjust the faders up or down for vocals and instruments. Listen to Rocks Off with just Nicky's piano. A true revelation of his subtle but important contribution to the band's sound in those years. Lovely."

I'm pretty sure one could also strip off the horns and answer the question posed by this thread.


HBK

The Exhibitionism "mixing board" does not allow you to even adjust the brass on Rocks Off, much less remove them altogether.

maybe its the rocks odd horns that keeps blowing my headphones.

the horns takes an otherwise great song, and makes it sublime.

They are there for a reason, and on the album in general. They were interested in a 50s rock sound and they achieved that. You need the horns, you need Bill Wyman's bass pushing the whole thing forward, you need Mick's murky vocals. And of course Charlie.

Not as good.

Rocks Quite Off

Keef's banging on the B chord in the chorus would be more prominent.

It wouldn't be as good, although if there were never horns to begin with it's hard to say.

Flip the coin and ask what would Sympathy, Gimme Shelter, or Midnight Rambler be like with horns?
Probably not as good, but if they were there from the beginning and I was conditioned to know the tunes that way, they would have been great?!

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

The horns are the linchpin of the song...yank those out and it's completely altered, for the worse IMO.

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Hairball
It wouldn't be as good, although if there were never horns to begin with it's hard to say.

Flip the coin and ask what would Sympathy, Gimme Shelter, or Midnight Rambler be like with horns?
Probably not as good, but if they were there from the beginning and I was conditioned to know the tunes that way, they would have been great?!

I believe the Stones added horns to Sympathy on the No Security tour since it was the encore finale, and they were really into incorporating the full horn section into whichever song closed out the set in the late '80s and '90s (Satisfaction, JJF, Brown Sugar).

From what I can remember, it sounded fine...totally shoehorned in, but fine. I think the Stones just liked having their full ensemble on the stage to close out the shows back then.

The big Jumpin' Jack Flash finale on the Voodoo tour was the most successful version of adding the horns in...it was totally rocking and epic.