For those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to pick and choose from "Handsome Girls", how about picking out the best performances/sound quality to construct the "live album that should've been" ?

The setlists didn't change much over this mini-tour, so let's start with track number one: "Let it Rock".

IMHO, the version from Disc 3 (Detroit July 6) is much better than the July 18 Ft. Worth version on Disc 1 -- how can you top the intro of "...and now from England it's the Rolling f*cking Stones!". Mick doesn't flub the second verse, and Ronnie's solos have no bum notes.

(note: I relied on the source info provided on Hendrik Mulder's "Love You Live" site)

Track 2: "All Down the Line". Again, I opted for the Detroit performance over Ft. Worth.

Generally speaking, the Detroit show (7 songs on the 4 discs) is much better than Ft. Worth, so my personal choices lean towards this one.

the best song on Handsome Girls is the version of Tumbling Dice from (I think its Detroit, cant be arsed checking) which begins with a really long intro after Keith loses his pick. IMO the best version of that song ever.

Great versions of Shattered (Memphis) and Just My Imagination (Detroit) too

I'd probably with the version of Hound Dog from, oh, say, Memphis....

Gazza Wrote:
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> the best song on Handsome Girls is the version of
> Tumbling Dice from (I think its Detroit, cant be
> arsed checking) which begins with a really long
> intro after Keith loses his pick. IMO the best
> version of that song ever.
>
> Great versions of Shattered (Memphis) and Just My
> Imagination (Detroit) too

The Detroit "TD" is the one that's 5:30, right?

An appropriate challenge might to be choose a set of LP length. I would still keep the opener, "Let It Rock." And "Just My Imagination," which is quite long. The 2nd side would need at least 1 cover too, though we could probably squeeze in both "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Hound Dog."

And we have our versions of "All Down the Line," "Tumbling Dice," and "Shattered." "@#$%&," and "Beast" also need to be on there, as well as "HTW" and "JJF." I propose we could lose "Love in Vain," "Happy," and "Brown Sugar" (last one is a maybe) for this album. "...Whip...," too, since it was on Sucking In the Seventies (or was that an '81 version?).

Side 1
1. Let it Rock
2. All Down the Line
3. Honky Tonk Women
4. @#$%&
5. Beast of Burden
(6. Maybe cram Respectable or Far Away Eyes here, out of sequence, but I'd bet the stones would have left it at that)

Side 2
1. Shattered
2. Just My Imagination
3. Tumbling Dice
4. Hound Dog
5. Sweet Little Sixteen
6. Jumping Jack Flash

bonus 7" - Street Fighting Man/Happy

StonesTod Wrote:
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> I'd probably with the version of Hound Dog from,
> oh, say, Memphis....

StonesTod, I left this one off of my playlist, but I suppose that a notional "official" live LP may have thrown it in.

My Playlist is this (I'll fill in the rest of the sources later):

1. Let It Rock (Detroit)
2. All Down The Line (Detroit)
3. Honky Tonk Women
4. @#$%&
5. When the Whip Comes Down
6. Lies
7. Miss You
8. Beast of Burden
9. (Just My)Imagination
10. Shattered
11. Respectable
12. Far Away Eyes
13. Love In Vain
14. Tumbling Dice
15. Happy
16. Sweet Little Sixteen (Houston)
17. Brown Sugar
18. Jumping Jack Flash

Total running time 1:30:24 (more than enough for a 2-LP set if it had been released in 1979)

This would've been the longest Stones album ever released. Remember than EOMS only clocked in at some 66 minutes.

Why they didn't? Simple : "Some Girls" came out in 1978, and 8 songs would've been repeated here. The critics would've torn it apart as a quick cash grab (sound familiar?)






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-01-07 02:43 by bassplayer617.

I would say a single LP suits the tour. Still Life was a single LP, and that set was much longer.

But hey, different exercises, I guess... offhand, I'm not that familiar with what version is from which show.

cc Wrote:
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> An appropriate challenge might to be choose a set
> of LP length. I would still keep the opener, "Let
> It Rock." And "Just My Imagination," which is
> quite long. The 2nd side would need at least 1
> cover too, though we could probably squeeze in
> both "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Hound Dog."
>
> And we have our versions of "All Down the Line,"
> "Tumbling Dice," and "Shattered." "@#$%&,"
> and "Beast" also need to be on there, as well as
> "HTW" and "JJF." I propose we could lose "Love in
> Vain," "Happy," and "Brown Sugar" (last one is a
> maybe) for this album. "...Whip...," too, since it
> was on Sucking In the Seventies (or was that an
> '81 version?).
>
> Side 1
> 1. Let it Rock
> 2. All Down the Line
> 3. Honky Tonk Women
> 4. @#$%&
> 5. Beast of Burden
> (6. Maybe cram Respectable or Far Away Eyes here,
> out of sequence, but I'd bet the stones would have
> left it at that)
>
> Side 2
> 1. Shattered
> 2. Just My Imagination
> 3. Tumbling Dice
> 4. Hound Dog
> 5. Sweet Little Sixteen
> 6. Jumping Jack Flash
>
> bonus 7" - Street Fighting Man/Happy

Interesting choices, cc. In my above post, I'm assuming that the 78 Live Albums offered an alternative to the release of "Love You Live", but, yeah, more covers made LYL an inevitability. "The States in 78" relies very heavily on then-recent material.

bassplayer617 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gazza Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > the best song on Handsome Girls is the
> version of
> > Tumbling Dice from (I think its Detroit, cant
> be
> > arsed checking) which begins with a really
> long
> > intro after Keith loses his pick. IMO the
> best
> > version of that song ever.
> >
> > Great versions of Shattered (Memphis) and
> Just My
> > Imagination (Detroit) too
>
> The Detroit "TD" is the one that's 5:30, right?
>
>
>


yeah its the version on disc 3, which starts with Jagger saying "Keith's lost his pick - has anyone got a pick for Keith?" and then they play a longer than usual intro. Jagger sings off-mike at one point after the solo (I think hes getting the crowd to sing along) just before Charlie kicks in for the final coda, which goes on for a couple of minutes and is absolutely majestic. This is not only my fave version of this song, but one of my favourite Stones live performances ever.

It's ragged, dirty and magnificent. Three words that sum up this version and (at its best) this tour.

I wonder to what extent it was the El Mocambo side that drove the decision to make LYL a double.

I actually just listened to the non-Mocambo tracks for the first time a few weeks ago. What a mess! Obvious overdubs.

Perhaps it's more than just an exercise in "what-if". Given the documentation we were officially offered from the "Licks" tour, will this mean that the 2005-2006 tour will produce yet another concert DVD and/or CD?

The '77 recordings are still miles better than the '76 recordings though (which were also heavily overdubbed)

Its interesting that the whole purpose of the club shows in '77 were to record a live album, which would indicate that they reckoned what they had from 75-76 wasnt good enough on its own merits to make a live album. They were meant to play five shows but with all the commotion surrounding Keith they were only able to play two in the end. Pity, with sufficient rehearsal time, a double live album culled exclusively from 5 nights at the El Mocambo would have been truly wonderful. I've never liked Mick's singing on the 1976 recordings that were released on Love You Live.

bassplayer617 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Perhaps it's more than just an exercise in
> "what-if". Given the documentation we were
> officially offered from the "Licks" tour, will
> this mean that the 2005-2006 tour will produce yet
> another concert DVD and/or CD?


guess

every full length Stones tour since 1975 has produced a live album so this wont be any different, even if its more pointless than the last one.

And every world tour since 1981/82 has produced a home video/DVD, so its obvious that this one will too....

I've asked this before......how in the hell does Handsome Girls sound so great? Compare it to Still Life........it's not even close. Listen to sound of Keith's guitar on Shattered....much better than the recorded version.

Just take the entire Capital Theater Passaic NJ show, much better than Handsome Girls IMO

Dont agree. I think theyre very messy on that show and Mick's singing is nowhere near as good - you can sort of tell its the start of the tour!

Great recording, though!

Gazza Wrote:
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> Dont agree. I think theyre very messy on that show
> and Mick's singing is nowhere near as good - you
> can sort of tell its the start of the tour!
>
> Great recording, though!


Respectfully Disagree..I mean I like both sets but...

The Cap Theater show just has that raw Energy JJF is so smokin' they're still playing it during SFM.

It's funny I love the good 78 boots but the shows I actually saw that tour sucked

Very clever observations about the El Mocambo recordings Gazza, I think you could be right.The recordings from 1977 that we have, are one of the best performances from the Stones in the "Ronnie Wood era" IMHO.

Nah, the passaic show is good, but it has some problems. They are sloppy, and keith's guitar is too trebly. Sounds like he's playing through a toaster oven. And that's before he gets way out of tune.

I like the "Street Fighting Man" encore though... I don't know if they meant to rearrange it, but it fits right into the '78 set, with a current drum beat and more cocaine-y vibe.

I've just posted Handsome Girls CD3 over in the Buy/Trade section for those who don't have this