Since the last few weeks i've been listeing so deeply to this album. I must admit that i never loved undercover, but now I found out how good it is. It has at least 6 great tracks on it. too bad the rest of the tracks sound a bit like filler tunes, it could have been a great album. Undercover of the night, She Was hot, wanna hold you, all the way down are great. And then Feel on baby, with that great raggae-dub flavour, and Too much blood, with that fantastic chorus-effect arpeggio on the chorus (is that Keith or Ron??).
To me undercover only needs a professional re-mixing re-mastering, the mixing work could have been done better.
Now only two stones albums i can't love, Bridges to babylon and Dirty Work, to me the lowest points in their career..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-07-15 14:54 by farawayeyes2.

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farawayeyes2
Since the last few weeks i've been listeing so deeply to this album. I must admit that i never loved undercover, but now I found out how good it is. It has at least 6 great tracks on it. too bad the rest of the tracks sound a bit like filler tunes, it could have been a great album. Undercover of the night, She Was hot, wanna hold you, all the way down are great. And then Feel on baby, with that great raggae-dub flavour, and Too much blood, with that fantastic chorus-effect arpeggio on the chorus (is that Keith or Ron??).
To me undercover only needs a professional re-mixing re-mastering, the mixing work could have been done better.
Now only two stones albums i can't love, Bridges to babylon and Dirty Work, to me the lowest points in their career..

I think that most people agree that Dirty Work is a pile of shit, but you really should listen more to Bridges. It's awesome.

JumpingKentFlash

I just rediscovered Bridges and it is top draw!

must be the 10th undercover thread since 1997 here, but since everything is deleted before Dec. 2004 it´s just quite logical.

Not a good album IMO. Plain boring. There's a good (not great) song here and there but all in all it's crap.

I would like to add that I think Undercover is amazing, and doesn't need remixing either. It's probably their last good honest album.

DW onwards is where it went downhill, where the music became too forced, too contrived.

Undercover on the other hand sounds fresh, and has some genuine original tunes on it. ie songs they felt driven to play/sing.

I've always liked Undercover. There are a lot of interesting things going on throughout the album. And the mix is great, actually. I've always been curious to hear what ever was left off that record. I know Too Tough was Cellophane Trousers as far back as the Some Girls sessions, off the top of my head anyway. Or was it the B&B sessions?

the guitar on "Too Much Blood" is played by a guitar technician working at the studio--Jim Barber, I believe. Not sure if keith or ron are on that track at all. Great song!

Undercover is a bit dark but I really like it.

There are great leftovers circulating including early version of "Wanna Hold You" and "Tried To Talk Her Into it" which I think should have been finished and released on the Undercover album.

Patchy, and at times laborious.

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cc
the guitar on "Too Much Blood" is played by a guitar technician working at the studio--Jim Barber, I believe. Not sure if keith or ron are on that track at all. Great song!

Yes, Barber certainly started it, but Keith and Ron added their parts later on.

Don't trash Dirty Work, I love it! E.g. Hold Back! (And Undercover!)

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Ringo
Don't trash Dirty Work, I love it! E.g. Hold Back! (And Undercover!)

Sorry Ringo...perhaps I was being a bit unfair.

It has it's moments!

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LOGIE

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cc
the guitar on "Too Much Blood" is played by a guitar technician working at the studio--Jim Barber, I believe. Not sure if keith or ron are on that track at all. Great song!

Yes, Barber certainly started it, but Keith and Ron added their parts later on.

can you say which parts are theirs? I'm not sure there's more than 1 guitar on the track. And as far as I know the song never got a sniff for live performance, a weak sign that they were never involved.

Keith is definitely on it, ronnie I don't know for sure. I'll have to play it again.

It would be cool to hear Too Much Blood live seeing that they have that horn section for the past 50 million years. Why not? It's got a great melody.

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cc

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LOGIE

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cc
the guitar on "Too Much Blood" is played by a guitar technician working at the studio--Jim Barber, I believe. Not sure if keith or ron are on that track at all. Great song!

Yes, Barber certainly started it, but Keith and Ron added their parts later on.

can you say which parts are theirs? I'm not sure there's more than 1 guitar on the track. And as far as I know the song never got a sniff for live performance, a weak sign that they were never involved.

Hi CC. I've just had a look at Martin Elliott's book in which he claims, somewhat confusingly, that although Keith was 'away' when the track was first started, both he (Jesselli) and Ronnie (electric Fender) provided between them, the rhythm upon which Barber added his own work.

I'd always been led to believe that Barber was actually in on it from the very beginning.

Hmmm..

yeah, LOGIE, here [www.timeisonourside.com] mick says it was him, Barber, bill, and charlie in the studio when they cut it, and that he (mick) started off the riff. So mick is listed as another guitar. Sounds like just one at the start to me--maybe Barber picking up on what mick had been playing as they jammed?--then some light overdubs later on, which could be keith or ron. Or maybe it's mick all the way through, and Barber does the overdubs?

I think the drums are looped... and it's a somewhat different sound than bill normally gets, but that goes with the track, I guess. It's probably him playing.

Its an OK LP like so many that followed, but they are just to non committal to throw down to do another Exile...to be honest, I think the last great LP they did, was A Bigger Bang...its really a great LP, if you listen to it.

Thanks, guys..its been a wild ride...

Best regards,

JR

I loved Undercover. A wide range of stuff...from Wanna Hold You (simple rock-n-roll from Keith) to Undercover (dark political commentary from Mick).

Some of my favorite Stones songs are ones with political/social commentary, where Mick spent more than the limo ride over to the studio to think up lyrics. Undercover and Too Much Blood fill that bill.

PS: Don't get me wrong, I love the fun/silly/light Stones too....but also know they have more to them than that.

I love Undercover. Great album.

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cc
yeah, LOGIE, here [www.timeisonourside.com] mick says it was him, Barber, bill, and charlie in the studio when they cut it, and that he (mick) started off the riff. So mick is listed as another guitar. Sounds like just one at the start to me--maybe Barber picking up on what mick had been playing as they jammed?--then some light overdubs later on, which could be keith or ron. Or maybe it's mick all the way through, and Barber does the overdubs?

I think the drums are looped... and it's a somewhat different sound than bill normally gets, but that goes with the track, I guess. It's probably him playing.

Now THAT makes much more sense!

I'm gonna listen to it tomorrow (several times) and try to decipher where and who is doing what. Should be fun. I mean, what else are Wednesdays for?

Spelling the day wrong. I always spell Wednsday wrong. I never could get used to the E in it when it's not even pronounced that way.

No, it's not. The first 3-4 tracks are good, then it goes downhill.

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skipstone
Spelling the day wrong. I always spell Wednsday wrong. I never could get used to the E in it when it's not even pronounced that way.

...oops, a bad habit of mine as well!

One of many.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-07-16 14:40 by LOGIE.