Studio: 1969
Live: 1972

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KRiffhard
On Black and Blue and Tattoo You

Good pic. 1968 also. Two trains being an example.

He IMO sounded the best in 1968. He still had that youthful voice combined with maturity

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GasLightStreet
Between EMOTIONAL RESUCE and UNDERCOVER he really hit something. The work he did on the vocals for TATTOO YOU are incredible, and then he was even better on U. What he did with Dance, She's So Cold and pretty much the rest of ER is really good. That is a fantastic era for him regarding his vocal qualities.

His work on LET IT BLEED and STICKY FINGERS is exceptional as well and, really, IT'S ONLY ROCK'N'ROLL.

Agree with all of that. I also think Black and Blue was fab...thinking about cuts like Hand of Fate and Hey Negrita. Fantastic.

It's hard for me to pick a "peak", so I'm left thinking more about....at what point did I start to notice his voice even remotely dipping and then go backward from there.....so under that metric....I'd say he was pretty fantastic from '62 to '97 (studio) with '81-83' perhaps being a "peak" with '16 'Blue and Lonesome' being an amazing late burst, especially "All of Your Love", and live performance-wise....he still seems pretty solid but maybe that's because I'm so excited when I'm at a show! That said, when I listen back to the '19 Chicago shows that I saw.....yeah, pretty nasal. Alas. But good lord, he's 77.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-05-18 00:32 by floodonthepage.

Hey dont forget Micks vocals on
Little Queenie with Little Boy Blue .....1961

And his black jive on Cops & Robbers ......amazing stuff



ROCKMAN

what year did they cut that rice crispies jingle?

recorded 6 Feb 1964 ......... ^^^^^^



ROCKMAN

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ryanpow
I think the peak was '71. His voice had matured at that point but was still raw. Some wonderful stuff though as his singing has evolved over the ensuing decades.

Agreed! Love pretty much all his vocals, but he hit some kind of peak there before he started slurring and growling through '73.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-05-18 09:45 by LieB.

Even though he sang to a sped-down tape, his vocals on Angie are fantastic and deserves a mention.

Yeah Dandeeeee ....

Micks Angie vocals still slay me big time ......



ROCKMAN

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DandelionPowderman
Even though he sang to a sped-down tape, his vocals on Angie are fantastic and deserves a mention.

True! Really nasal but fantastic and makes much of the song.

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DandelionPowderman
Even though he sang to a sped-down tape, his vocals on Angie are fantastic and deserves a mention.

I agree. In fact I love all of his studio vocals from -68 to - 75. And I’m in the minority here but live -75-77 I really like. Live -72 was the best though.

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DandelionPowderman
Even though he sang to a sped-down tape, his vocals on Angie are fantastic and deserves a mention.

Agree Mick is great on Angie, but what do you mean "he sang to a sped-down tape"??

C

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liddas

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DandelionPowderman
Even though he sang to a sped-down tape, his vocals on Angie are fantastic and deserves a mention.

Agree Mick is great on Angie, but what do you mean "he sang to a sped-down tape"??

C

That's what he did, allegedly. Some of the notes were a bit too high for him, so they sped down the tape while he added the vocals, so he was able to reach up there strainlessly.

All according to Jimmy Miller. Makes sense when we hear Angie live, too.

...and doesn't make sense when we watch the official video.

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DandelionPowderman

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liddas

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DandelionPowderman
Even though he sang to a sped-down tape, his vocals on Angie are fantastic and deserves a mention.

Agree Mick is great on Angie, but what do you mean "he sang to a sped-down tape"??

C

That's what he did, allegedly. Some of the notes were a bit too high for him, so they sped down the tape while he added the vocals, so he was able to reach up there strainlessly.

All according to Jimmy Miller. Makes sense when we hear Angie live, too.

First time I hear this!

True that Angie has a couple of points that can be hard for Jagger live. But in studio?

Also quite odd, if you consider the Stones studio habits.

C

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liddas

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DandelionPowderman

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liddas

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DandelionPowderman
Even though he sang to a sped-down tape, his vocals on Angie are fantastic and deserves a mention.

Agree Mick is great on Angie, but what do you mean "he sang to a sped-down tape"??

C

That's what he did, allegedly. Some of the notes were a bit too high for him, so they sped down the tape while he added the vocals, so he was able to reach up there strainlessly.

All according to Jimmy Miller. Makes sense when we hear Angie live, too.

First time I hear this!

True that Angie has a couple of points that can be hard for Jagger live. But in studio?

Also quite odd, if you consider the Stones studio habits.

C

They were fiddling about with the tape speed on Can You Hear The Music as well. Maybe they were on a roll?

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DandelionPowderman

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liddas

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DandelionPowderman

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liddas

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DandelionPowderman
Even though he sang to a sped-down tape, his vocals on Angie are fantastic and deserves a mention.

Agree Mick is great on Angie, but what do you mean "he sang to a sped-down tape"??

C

That's what he did, allegedly. Some of the notes were a bit too high for him, so they sped down the tape while he added the vocals, so he was able to reach up there strainlessly.

All according to Jimmy Miller. Makes sense when we hear Angie live, too.

First time I hear this!

True that Angie has a couple of points that can be hard for Jagger live. But in studio?

Also quite odd, if you consider the Stones studio habits.

C

They were fiddling about with the tape speed on Can You Hear The Music as well. Maybe they were on a roll?

Well, they sped up Fingerprint file too, but first time I hear it done to help Mick sing. I just can't imagine Mick composing the vocal melody and then trying to sing it. All Stones vocal melodies reflect Mick's ability (or inability) as a singer, meaning that he sings what he can sing.

C

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liddas
I just can't imagine Mick composing the vocal melody and then trying to sing it.

He probably tried and was not satisfied...lucky the speedtrick didn't make him sound like a chipmonk. When recalling the Angie vocals, his timbre is a bit more feminine and sweet.

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Rockman
Hey dont forget Micks vocals on
Little Queenie with Little Boy Blue .....1961

And his black jive on Cops & Robbers ......amazing stuff

Indded Cops & Robbers is one of his best ever vocal performances. Amazing how good he was back when he was just starting out. He pulled out all the stops on that one.

This very morning. Release a Stones LP Mike.

The 60's and 70's were prime! By the 90's, not so good. I think you notice how different his voice sounds if you compare and listen to the Rolling Stones re-issues where Jagger came back and re-did and/or polished up vocals on some of the bonus tracks on Some Girls, Exile (and I think Goats Head Soup re-issue with the one bonus track of All the Rage according to a Jagger interview).



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2021-05-20 03:05 by Sighunt.

My go-to Jagger is probably the IORR album and the -75 tour. I think he was great on both. And how about El Mocambo 1977.

Mick has sounded good all along, imo. However, I don't think VL was his best tour.

1963

He sounded okay up until the mid 90s when his voice changed for the worse. But I guess I'm the only one who noticed that.
He changed his singing style from the 1989 tour and onwards. More controlled, less shouting.

Hmm.. that's a difficult question. Like Dandie above I think Mick has generally sounded good all along. His quality standard is a pretty high, altough there've been some lower periods - such as the barking period during the mid-80's and over-nasal singing during the 00's or so, but even within those periods he sounded brilliant occasionally. BLUE & LONESOME contains some of his best singing ever.

Just straight from the beginning there were some incredible vocal performances when this Dartford boy started making his own interpretations of American black music: "Mona", Confessin' The Blues", "It's All Over Now", "That's How Strong My Love Is", "Cry To Me"... Then all those early Jagger/Richards hits were all Mick doing something no-one else had done before and like defining the voice and tone of youthful passionate aggression and frustration (=rock): "Heart of Stone", "Play "The Last Time", "Play With Fire","Satisfaction", "Get Off of My Cloud", oh man... The whole AFTERMATH album is an incredible showcase of Mick's fresh, personal-sounding voice - finally mixed upfront.

Hmm.. if put a gun against my forehead, I probably would pick a year starting from 1971 Goodbye England Tour and ending up when the vocal tracks for EXILE were finished. Especially Mick has not done rockers ever better than he does in that album (and the rest there is equally great). EXILE is also - and even more clearly - Keith's peak as a singer as well (although his 60's back-up harmonies are wonderful too).

- Doxa



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2021-05-20 13:10 by Doxa.

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Redhotcarpet

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DandelionPowderman
Even though he sang to a sped-down tape, his vocals on Angie are fantastic and deserves a mention.

I agree. In fact I love all of his studio vocals from -68 to - 75. And I’m in the minority here but live -75-77 I really like. Live -72 was the best though.

I really like that stuff too. I have always taken that 'odd' singing as an artistic choice - a kind of Dylanesque moment of Mick going 'damn, I am tired to sing these same old songs in a 'proper' way any longer, let's do something else with them'. Even in that L.A.Forum show relaesed as a DVD that isn't that strong performance from any of them generally, Mick showcases occasionally how damn strong and rich voice he had at the time, and doesn't hold his horses one bit in showing that - in a way that is unimaginable to almost, say, post 1989-show. There is also that natural, powerful edge in his voice there that I think he had already lost by the time of 1981/82 (when he started taking vocal coaching and to sing more 'properly' from a stomach while running around - although sounding like a monotonic horse sometimes. He mastered the lessons live not until 1989).

I guess we should distinguish between singing technically well or 'properly' and voice sounding best...

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-05-20 13:34 by Doxa.

Always really loved his vocals on side 2 of Tattoo You.