THROUGH THE VAULTS DARKLY

Sound 9.5 Packaging 9 Performance 10 Video

Label: The Godfather Records
Source: Studio Outtakes 1968-1983
Format: 2CD
Running time: 160 Minutes
Sound / source: Excellent/Soundboard
Packaging: Triple Gatefold
Features
Video / source

Through The Vaults Darkly front

***image2***

Review by BALK More articles by BALK

Track list

DISC ONE: 1. Dear Doctor, 2. Child Of The Moon, 3. You Got The Silver, 4. Downtown Susie, 5. Travellin' Man, 6. Gimme Shelter, 7. Highway Child, 8. Schoolboy Blues, 9. Cocksucker Blues, 10. Sister Morphine, 11. Brown Sugar, 12. Wild Horses, 13. Good Time Woman, 14. Gimme A Hamburger, 15. Ain't Gonna Lie, 16. Too Many Cooks, 17. Criss Cross Man, 18. Drift Away

DISC TWO: 1. Dance Little Sister, 2. Everlasting Is My Love, 3. Fingerprint File, 4. Fool To Cry, 5. Let's Go Steady, 6. Yellow Cab, 7. Claudine, 8. You Win Again, 10. Misty Roads, 11. We've Had It All, 12. Indian Girl/, 13. Summer Romance, 14. Slave, 15. Waiting On A Friend, 16. Undercover Of The Night

The review

I often complained about how many times vintage but well known Stones material is rehashed by bootleggers, well here we have an exception.

The material you see in the tracklisting has mainly been available before but NOT IN THIS STUNNING QUALITY! I don't know where the "Good Father" got it all from but these reels are amazing. Not unlike an original release these recordings sound (for the most) crystal clear, organic, full of details and with nice lows and highs, not to forget uh "middles" :-)

Instead of mediocre different takes to the released versions they opted for unreleased tracks and very different outtakes like a finally complete and 12 minute long version of "Slave" and the full and totally different 9 plus minute version of "Fingerprint File". For the most part, you have the feeling like you are listening to an all new 1970's era Stones album with killer material like "We Had It All", "Everlasting Is My Love", "Criss Cross Man", "Travellin' Man" and "Drift Away".

All in all this is by far one of the most enjoyable collections of unreleased studio material by the Stones because of the quality in sound and song material and instead of being bored with half finished songs, slightly different studio takes or poor quality material, you get two CD's with only killer and no filler!