The Rolling Stones
1968 Surrey Rehearsals
R. G. Jones Studio
Morden, Surrey
England
21st February To 14th March 1968
01. Stray Cat Blues - Instrumental, very embryonic version
02. Jam #1
03. Stray Cat Blues - Riff & Guitar Noodling
04. Unknown Song (With Off-Mic Vocals)
05. Jumping Jack Flash - Early embryonic Instrumental Take
06. Jam # 2
07. Short Jam
08. Hold On I’m Coming (With Off-Mic Vocals) (Isaac Hayes-David Porter)
09. Rock Me Baby (With Off-Mic Vocals) (B.B. King-Joe Bihari)
10. My Home Is A Prison (With Off-Mic Vocals) (James Moore)
11. Slow Blues Jam
12. Phone Ringing Jam
13. River Deep Mountain High (With Off-Mic Vocals) (Spector-Barry-Greenwich)
14. Interview with MJ, KR, CW and Jimmy Miller By NME Journalist Keith Altham
Be aware that many tracks fade in or fade out.
Mick Jagger - Vocals & Guitar
Keith Richards - Guitar
Charlie Watts - Drums
Brian Jones and Bill Wyman are not present at these rehearsals.
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Hi all,
What you are listening to or about to listen to IMHO is the best version one will get to hear of the Surrey Rehearsals 1968.
I've had this version in my possession since late 1975.
My fellow Sydney Stones collector mate, Kim met a well known overseas Stones collector who was on holidays here in Sydney in early 1975.
They remained in contact for a while & in late 1975 Kim received from him a batch of Reel To Reels of the Stones concerts from the not long ended June / July 1975 US Tour.
The Reels were Washington 1st July, Boston 11th & 12th July, New York City 22nd July, Los Angeles 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th & 13th July
(don't think these are Mike Millard recordings) & San Francisco 15th July.
And surprise, surprise on Side Two of the reel to reel with the incomplete recording of Los Angeles 9th July 1975 was the Surrey 1968 rehearsal.
All the Reel to Reels had the set lists either written on the front of the boxes if there was space or written on sheets of paper & put inside the boxes.
The info regarding the Surrey recording simply states it is in Mono recorded at 7 1/2 IPS & is pretty crummy -Ha Ha Ha.
I remember Kim telling me that the overseas collector told him someone at R.G Jones studio sold it for either 50 or 100 pounds.
Don't know who that was but the version we have on the reel to reel can't be that far off from the tape that was sold.
Sometime in the early 80's we borrowed a Reel To Reel Player & transferred all reels onto cassette.
Around the same time Kim gave me all the Reel To Reels to keep which I still have after many moves but these days they reside somewhere up at my parents house - an aeroplane flight away.
Haven't sighted them for years but I do remember that some of the tape boxes are damaged & have no idea of what condition the actual reel to reels are in these days.
The Reel To Reel of Surrey starts with Rock Me Baby which is repeated again later in the recording but seeing its exactly the same version I deleted it.
Apart from that this recording runs in the same order as it does on the Reel to Reel.
A big mystery is Track 4 the unknown song. My old friend Nico's website-
[
www.nzentgraf.de] (go to the 1968 page & scroll down)
states that it could be Jimi Hendrix's Can You See Me but I'm not so sure.
I know that particular Hendrix song & IMHO Track 4 doesn't sound like it.
Even though Jagger's vocals are off-mic some lyrics can be heard.
At one point he sings "Down on my knees", the word knees does appear in Can You Hear Me in the line "Begging you on my knees".
After countless listens I can decipher a few lines such as "I'm coming home" a few times, and something like "Hats off to my baby, in my own store / story??? in my home".
None of those lines appear in the lyrics to Hendrix's song.
So what is it, a new song or some other mid 60's song not as well known as Hold On I'm Coming & River Deep Mountain High?
Any help identifying this song would be welcomed!
Nico's entry for Surrey also mentions Ian Stewart being there during My Home Is A prison but I really can't hear any piano unless my 63 year ears are letting me down.
The tape ends with an interview conducted by Keith Altham from the NME at the R.G Jones studio.
Interviewed are Mick, Keith, Charlie & Jimmy Miller, the Stones' new producer.
This tape is probably Keith Altham's working tape from which he ended up taking portions of what was said for the article published in the NME AKA New Musical Express 16th March 1968 issue.
See that article further below. It's rather a informative & humorous interview.
I love Charlie bitching about non flattering photos of him & the Stones in the press, Jagger says they could have been improved by stating "You can do your hair!"
plus hearing Keith (I think it's Keith saying in a deep voice) "It's one thing I learnt through LSD!".
When Keith Altham asks where Brian Jones is, Keith seems to find it funny by saying he's in Paris having his birthday. Mick adds poor thing he's overdue two weeks.
Looks like Brian was already out of sorts with both of them at that stage & he is certainly being made fun of as laughter can be heard around these remarks.
It's deadset weird also to hear Mick reply when asked when will the Stones be returning to live shows that it will be in wheelchairs!
Christ they'd only be going seven years at this stage! Little did he know that the press in later decades would use the wheelchair line.
Owning the VGP-108 CD 'The 1968 Surrey Rehearsals', the LP of the same name, plus a fan made CD-R, I am of the opinion that this is the best version of the 1968 Surrey Rehearsals so far available.
No doubt not long after its DIME debut this recording will appear on the best set list ever, best show ever, they're on fire & nailing it website, known as It's Only Rock 'N Roll.
I have no problem with that but please don't remaster it as so many recordings there are. It doesn't need any more tinkering with.Thanks to Fill in the ..... for the Reel To Reel recording, Kim for passing it on to me.
Thanks to audiowhore for brightening it up.
Enjoy, Waz From Oz
Size 252.38 MB (264,634,618 bytes)
Added Tue 03rd Sep, 2019 11:15 GMT
Upped by
wazza50[
www.dimeadozen.org]
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019-09-03 15:31 by dcba.