News of this treasure trove appeared out of the blue in Europe on Saturday
20 February 2021 through a low-resolution scan of the covers, it had to pass 5
days until a better resolution copy was posted on a Japan boots news website, but
this is a European release rather than a ‘Japan fan club one’ as claimed, in
fact the address of such Japanese Fan Club reported on back cover Nishi-Shinjuku,
is dummy and refers to a skyscraper business district in Tokyo. Now, according
to some Japanese reports BFR is a spinoff of Crystal Cat label, well known for
being a Scandinavian company, however regardless from where the discs were
printed, they seem to come from Germany; as usual on many underground releases on
tracks
listings there are evident mistakes
(Chirelles instead of Shirelles) let alone the reported recording dates, most
of which are questionable. This is one of the few bootlegs to have been
reviewed on major media like The Sun, among the many speculations on the origin
of these tracks due to the quite modern production style they all seem to have
is that were taken from the Stones’ digital archives, most likely by a hacker;
some other rumors say that w
hat has surfaced now is a part of the infamously
stolen Don Was files or that
several of these are songs that may
have been spruced up for potential deluxe/expanded reissues and were ultimately
rejected. The funniest one is that the Stones themselves put them out for
copyright reasons! So in order to prevent bootleggers to put it out, they released
them on a bootleg, just hilarious. Some thoughts/hints here collected come from
posts from many Stones collectors who have shared their know how in various
fields all over the major boards. For those collectors who whined about these files
being lossy, it should be remembered that a
low bit resolution file converted to
wav format and then burned to cd is still better sounding than converting it
back to 162 resolution mp3 since that second conversion further degrades even
the original low res sound quality. In other words, even though the original
file and the conversion file from wav back to low res mp3 are of the same bit
rate, they are not equivalent in sound quality because further degradations
took place during the second conversion to mp3. If these tracks had been
converted to 320kbps from the wav file they would theoretically sound better
than being converted to the lower bit rate file, not as good as the original
low res mp3 but better than if they were reconverted back to low res from the
wav file.
The key word here is "loss", once something is lost in conversion,
reconverting it back to its original format does not "find" what was
lost. However, these sound pretty good, so it is doubtful all this lossy
conversion had gone on somehow. It is plain that bootleggers work with what
they got rather than what we wish they had. Other comments
found out
there are at least 2 types of tracks in this compilation: very low bitrate
tracks with a very straight cut off above 15k Hz (typical of a 128kbps mp3) and
tracks with a little higher bitrate with a gradual cut off around 17k Hz (it
looks like a 190~220kbps mp3). This may be (or may be not) a hint at two
different sources for this compilation. The lower bitrate tracks with the
straight cut off are mostly the older ones (Blood Red Wine, She's Doing Her
Thing, Scarlet, Living In The Heart Of Love, It’s Only Rock’n Roll demo, etc.),
which may have been planned to be officially released (someone mentioned the
2000 compilation Memory Motel that was later scrapped), while t
hese
5 songs seem to have been overdubbed quite recently and show the same piano
player, allegedly Chuck Leavell: Can't Find Love, Keep It Cool, Part of the
Night, Still in Love With You, I Can't See No One Else.
Regardless of that, what is inside
has fired most people’s imagination, since even the names of many of these
tracks were virtually unknown to the large mass of Stones collectors, let alone
that all 3 discs are about as full as possible. Now, instead of a track by
track review we decided to go session by session and if there is a critic it
just pertains the scattered order these songs have been presented, let alone
the wrong recording dates provided on the back cover:
3 Oct. 67: She’s Doing Her Thing is Title 5,
definitely from 1967, possibly from the early Satanic Sessions, with N. Hopkins
on organ, but has vocals contrary to Title 15/Dream Pipe.
12/23-5-68: Blood Red Wine here is 2 seconds shorter
with regards to the version we all know, the only thing noticed is the extreme
stereo separation.
23-4-69: As for
Curtis (Mayfield?) Met Smokey (Robinson?) this is said to be from the Jamming
With Edward 1969 sessions; it is hard to get personnel on this song, in fact the
guitar can well be Ry Cooder or Keith Richards, Nicky Hopkins (Edwards) is for
sure on piano; anyway this is a fantastic take with a well defined soul groove,
Jagger’s falsetto and pecussions. It would be interesting to know the lyrics.
16-6/27-7-70:
Walk
on Wendy from the Sticky Fingers era is just a jam with Mick yelling over it,
but has a fantastic 1970s feel and Taylor’s guitar solos shine.
28-5-73: Criss Cross is the 4th version featuring 2
saxes and spoken reprise vocals, no overdubs.
4/6-12-73 : It’s Only
Rock ’n Roll is the very first 1973 demo version featuring David Bowie and Ron
Wood on backing vocals, the latter also on acoustic guitar and bass, which was later
overdubbed at Stargroves, Newbury in the spring of 1974 by Willy Weeks;
attending this session were Kenny Jones on drums and like I said D. Bowie
(handclapping but that can also be heard, although buried, especially at 3.40
and 4.05-4.08 singing backing vocals). Funny that although being a demo take this
sounds so finished, with background vocals that include Jagger and a nice
guitar solo, maybe this was taken into consideration too to be officially
released at some point? This has always been thought one of the Holy Grail
recordings by Stones collectors and its presence here highlights how
significant this release is.
18-12-73:
Too Many Cooks should probably not be
here, since it was solo Jagger with J. Lennon from late 73, however this version
is different from the one offically released on Jagger’s The Best Of, much
cleaner, lacking the funky guitar but with brass upfront, that is strange since
it was claimed the master take could not be located. Too bad the other recorded
track from this session, Bring It On Home To Me, has not surfaced yet.
8-2-74/ 94:
Living in The Heart Of Love is not
the version that is featured on lots of bootlegs, but a second shorter attempt,
with a different mix and vocals redone maybe 20 years later, with K. Richards
backing vocals erased.
8-2/3-74:
Fast Talking, Fast Walking comes Munich,
so it is the 2nd version, always with N.Hopkins on piano, but sporting a
different bridge and vocals.
4-10-74:
Another point of satisfaction for Stones fans is the
chance to hear original versions even of recently released tracks with no
overdubs, like Scarlet that presents tasty guitar exchanges between Richards
and Jimmy Page.
6/9-2-75:
Built
That Way was previously known as Boogie Jam, possibly inspired by Martha &
The Vandellas song Heatwave which is how the instrumental take was called at
those times that was featured on many Stones bootlegs over the years, but of
course here we have vocals as well as Billy Preston on piano, hard to say if
there is Jeff Beck on guitar though, it could be from after he left (9 Feb.)
and thus have Robert A. Johnson playing.
10-10-77/3-78: Covered
in Bruises is a song that will be later given to Ron Wood and become 1,2,3,4 and
here is in its early version, sung by Jagger & Wood sharing the microphone.
Everytime I Break Her Heart has been said to come from the 1977 sessions. Some
fan saw in this the blueprint for Faraway Eyes, however lyrics are completely
different. Fiji Jim is version 3, Never Make You Cry also version 3 has clearer
mix, being shorter than version 2 but with more developed lyrics; You Win Again
is version 2 with redone vocals and less instruments at about 0.47
5-9-78: Not The Way To Go is the 2nd version
presenting an earlier fade out.
22-1-79: Trouble’s A Coming is version 2 (version 1
being Break Away)
10/19-6-79: It’s a Lie is 4.19 m. long, 26 seconds
longer than the previously known version and has harp intro (Sugar Blue?),
however I disagree with those saying this could be their very first attempt.
11-11/19-12-82: I’ve
Got Dreams To Remember is a variation on the theme of the Otis Redding tune of
the same name lasting 7.43 m. with great ad lib Jagger vocals. Eliza Upchink is
version three, (You Better) Stop That is version 4, Part of the Night is 5.37 m.
long, longer than the known version and is in fact Golden Caddy with vocals. Keep
it Cool here in version 3 also known as So Smoothe lasting just 5.24 m. much
shorter than all the previously known takes. Can’t Find Love is the definitive
all band version lasting 7.22 m. long, longer than previously known versions. The
fifth version of Cookin’Up
is shorter
and basically is a different stereo mix of version 4. Still In Love With You is
version six of the well known outtake Still In Love and lasts 4.25 m. It has
fully deveploped lyrics with piano still leading the melody and pedal steel
guitar added as well as K. Richards backing vocals. This take of I Tried To
Talk Her Into It is the second one without echo, but with pedal steel guitar
and still Jim Barber on twelve strings guitar. Don't Lie To Me was at first
thought to come from the 1972 Burbank rehearsals,
but then ascertained to be coming from 1982 although
sounding like a
rehearsal;
Jagger vocal
seem to be straight out of the late 70s, but definitely this post Some Girls
tour and there is Keith chugging away underneath, if not definitely in the
first solo.
1-4/8-83: Dog Shit
is 6.05 m. long, provided with vocals and with the brass in the background.
5-4/17-6-85: Putty
In Your Hands is a cover of the Shirelles (mispelled) 1962 song which was tried
in 1985 at the Pathè Marconi sessions in Paris, hard to tell who played drums
on this. I Can’t See No One Else is no.3 and comes from the Dirty Work
sessions, previously called Beside You, is 2 minutes shorter here.
16/17-8-85: Nobody’s
Perfect which features some guitars hard to say played by whom, is the most
Jagger solo track that seems to come from the Primitive Cool sessions; Deep
Love has Jagger vocals that sound new RE "Deep Love" I vs II and the
bunch of 1997 tracks sung by Keith and you can clearly hear its impact on the
structure of Deep Love: the bridge is earlier and not only once.
Strictly Memphis version 5 is much shorter than the
other known version, but always with B. Womack backing vocals, this time also
with brass from the Uptown Horns
.
29-3/5-5-89:
Giving It Up
version 2 is a nostalgic ballad furnished with an additional piano, clearly
from the Steel Wheels sessions and is exactly as the known version, just
shorter
13-3/7-97: 20 Nil:
this one sounds very much like an
early version of Low Down, so it clearly comes from the B2B sessions, although
someone stated that can also be heard
some
Love Is Strong licks with Keith's
guitar which could mean it originally
was tried in '93. Lowdown, Flip The Switch & Might As Well Get Juiced are
all 1st versions, the former 2 with KR on vocals. Dream About has a very modern
feel, with Darryl Jones bass upfront and some vocal melodies that remind those
heard on Streets of Love. Sanctuary is one of the most surprising song here, featuring
assorted percussions by Kenny Aronoff and Blondie Chaplin on a futuristic take
with a prominent organ by Billy Preston and backing vocals by Bernard Fowler,
Blondie Chaplin, Darryl Jones and possibly Waddy Wachtel. Someone compared it
to Zulu fun mix grown version from the Voodoo Lounge sessions but actually it
comes from the 97 Bridges to Babylon sessions as well as Desperate Man, which
can be considered in the same musical range of that and of Dream About. Prairie
Love too is from these sessions: in a way it remindes Rain Falls Down from ABB,
but here Darryl Jones bass provides a funky groove over which Jagger develops descriptive
spoken vocals, rather than just singing the lyrics, until the melody starts
unfolding; there are remarkable guitars that lead the tune coupled with the
driving bass and the percussions in the background that create an almost sci-fi
atmosphere. Too Tight is sung by K. Richards and features a fiddle, possibly by
Frankie Gavin which underlines a different riff deviation that was left out in
the final version.
9-7/12-93:
Concerning Ivy League many
collectors may have thought hard to believe there could be anything this well
done left from the huge amount of tracks from the Voodoo session we already
have, but this is a really finished version that has been speculated it could
be something they picked up again for Babylon/40 Licks, actually this version
is the third one and has full vocals.
3-11/11-12-93:
Hands Off too is
the 2nd finished version, used to be called Get Your Hands Off on Voodoo
Residue and It’s Alright on Voodoo Brew with Darryl Jones upfront;
13-5/7-6-02: The 2
Studio Jam Sessions that end the third disc, however, are exactly the same as
the officially published versions on the Four Flicks DVD set and can rightfully
be called fillers.
20-9-09/17-10-70: As
said before a few things sound like they were considered for the
deluxe/expanded versions but not used - especially Tell Her How It Is. Modern
vocals made to sound old over a Trident Outtake track, which was formerly known
as Potted Shrimp which were sung for the Exile 2009 Reissue, but still
featuring Steven Stills on guitar. The song seems to have been reconsidered at
a later stage but then left out again.
What can we say
about this release then? It can rightfully be called the best of the century so
far and be only surpassed ife ver the full flac version will appear. Meanwhile
all Stones collectors and fans can enjoy this fabulous compilation, wondering
why on earth the band never put some of these out, probably the Glimmer Twins
could not agree and thus deprived their fans of such stunning outcome. Rumors
say there are still 3 other sets to come, for a total 12 volumes/discs to see
the light of day. Never has the future look more exciting for Stones fans.
