I luv this one!

Did you notice how beautifully the instrumental part is constructed?

By the way, I was strumming over london years cd 2 the other day, and noticed that keith in his late pre-open tuning period did some truly great work armonizing chords changes with the voc line. Smart single note passages between chords that are not directly coming from the blues or country tradition. I guess he fished more from the English tradition (?), as led zep did years later with stairway.

Also brillant use of different types of guitars (12 strings, nylon strings, etc.), capos and flat tunings to "create" different contrasts with mick's voice.


C

the instrumental backing track is around on a few bootlegs, and it's gorgeous.
the way they worked the bowed bass is one of my favourite moments in Stones History.
when you hear that a track needs a bowed bass and none of you knows how to play it,
what do you do?


- november 1966, by Tom Keylock (courtesy of BrownEyedGirll)

But they must have known how to play it, its easy! Bill was too short!

I read somewhere that either Bill or Keith fretted while the other one bowed.

Brian's beautiful piano and recorder (not flute) playing make the song!

Still don't like the ABKCO re-released version from 2002 which is missing vocals in the chorus.

my favorite part of the recording is when Brian audibly counts off - 1,2,3,4 - before his final recorder part at the end of the song. You have to listen to it very carefully, but it's there.....

i hope to hear it in Buenos Aires!!!

Hi T&A. On the London release from 85, you can clearly hear the count off so I was actually surprised that on the 2002 rereleases, it's not as audible.
Is that Brian or Keith that is counting off? I sort of thought Keith does the counting, similar to No Expectations on RNR Circus.

I've always heard it clearly but I thought it was Mick.

kyle m

Have you ever lent somebody $20 and never seen them again? It was probably worth it.

You read it in Bill's book A Stone Alone. He describes it the way you see it on the picture (which is great, thanks for posting!) that he fretted and Keit bowed.

As far as I can tell, it sounds like Keith doing the count in. I guess he does the counting 9 out of 10 times in the studio, judging from all the recordings we have.

You don't hear it really well on the SACD version of The Singles Collection because it is in MONO. It's beyond me why ABKCO choose to release this set in SACD but in MONO, while stereo mixes are available for 75% os the songs.

Mathijs

It's my understanding that the Singles Collection is in mono because all the singles were originally mono.

Even on the SACD stereo version, it's hard to hear the counting.

Yeah Singles version is mono because singles were mono...but the other SACD's of Ruby are all stereo....Between The Buttons US...Flowers...Through The Past Darkly & Hot Rocks...yeah and I've always thought it was Keith countin'..



ROCKMAN

>> As far as I can tell, it sounds like Keith doing the count in. <<

thanks Mathijs - sure sounds like Keith to me too.
it's nice and clear in this backing track (which i've decided to post here for that sense-surround effect):
[s21.yousendit.com]


- november 1966 (don't know who took it, sorry!)

sounds like Keith? We know what a whispering Keith sounded like in 1967? Sure. I say it sounds like Brian.

smile: 66.
and yeah, there are examples of the Stones' speaking voices in the 60s.
but of course you're entitled to think it sounds like whoever you want.

T&A Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> sounds like Keith? We know what a whispering
> Keith sounded like in 1967? Sure. I say it sounds
> like Brian.

Well, Keith always had a voice that is quite recognisable. I am not a native English speaker, but he has this hoarse, high voice with a New York kind of slur. He has this slow way of talking. I don't know exactly how to explain. But, there's quite an amount of outtakes with keith doing a count in (for example the Sympathy outtakes), and the voice on Ruby Tuesday sounds really like Keith. Also, if you do overdubs, it's more natural you first do the bass overdub, and you would need a count in for the bowed bass track. After the basic tracks are done, you add instruments like piano and recorder. So it's a bit unlogical to have Brian do a count in. Also, according to the Stones and people around them, starting from about Aftermath, Keith really became the "conductor", the musical leader of the band while recording. You can se that for example at the One+One movie, Keith clearly calling all shots, and even Jagger sits back and let Keith lead the session.

Funny thing is that with today's recording techniques such a count in would never survie the editing table, as cutting it out takes exactly 1 second in Protools and the like.


Mathijs

Slightly OT, but does anyone else agree that the version of RT on Through The Past Darkly is slightly slower than any other available versions? (eg Flowers, Between The Buttons, 40 Licks)

sure, Mathijs, but my take on this is that Brian was counting to himself and it just happened to catch the mike recording his recorder.

And you know, Keith had to do the count in because he also played the recorder and piano as well! Brian was just picking his nose in the corner . . .

the releases on london from the 80ties are still superior! no SACD or whatever for me vinyl rulez too!

Life's just a cocktail party on the street