[Eagle_Driver]

Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed -- and today, Aftermath (UK). Though my local Best Buy carries the US version of Aftermath, I simply went slightly farther - to Borders Books, where they have the UK version of that album. Whereas the US version of Aftermath contained "Paint It Black", the UK version features a true stereo mix of "Mother's Little Helper" (the mix on the remastered SACD/CD Hot Rocks is mono, and on the previous CD edition of Hot Rocks, pseudo-stereo), and -- *jaw goes dropping

* -- the "legendary" unedited 5-minute, 37-second version of "Out Of Time" (before the ABKCO hybrid SACD/CD remasters, all of the versions of "Out Of Time" ever issued in the U.S. faded out after 3 minutes 40 seconds).

 

[FCJ]

Quote:

Originally posted by Eagle_Driver the UK version features a true stereo mix of "Mother's Little Helper" (the mix on the remastered SACD/CD Hot Rocks is mono, and on the previous CD edition of Hot Rocks, pseudo-stereo),

Eagle,

What do you think of the verision of "Mother's Little Helper" on Aftermath? This is one of the few tracks that I don't like in the SACD version. Jagger's vocals sound very strange, like they were "tacked on" to the rest of the recording. He also sounds disembodied. Do you hear it this way, or am I way off?

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally posted by FCJ Eagle, What do you think of the verision of "Mother's Little Helper" on Aftermath? This is one of the few tracks that I don't like in the SACD version. Jagger's vocals sound very strange, like they were "tacked on" to the rest of the recording. He also sounds disembodied. Do you hear it this way, or am I way off?

It's only for the stereo, I guess. That song actually sounds better in mono than in either true stereo or pseudo-stereo. I wish ABKCO had left "Mother's Little Helper" mono.

And I thought it was Keith Richards who's the lead vocalist on most of the Rolling Stones classic songs.

 

[FCJ]

Quote:

Originally posted by Eagle_Driver It's only for the stereo, I guess. That song actually sounds better in mono than in either true stereo or pseudo-stereo. I wish ABKCO had left "Mother's Little Helper" mono. And I thought it was Keith Richards who's the lead vocalist on most of the Rolling Stones classic songs.

I haven't heard "Mother's Little Helper" on the SACD Hot Rocks, so I can't comment, but I bet it sounds better than the version on "Aftermath."

Keith's best-known 'Stones song is "Happy." Jagger is lead on all the classics.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

I stand corrected. Although I have to admit that Jagger's vocal on the Aftermath "Mother's Little Helper" - with its echoing and incoherency - sounds more like it should be on that "drug-song" that many people had made "Mother's" to be (in other words, all those disjointed, echoing vocals actually enhance that song in a weird way). They make Mick sound as if he was on dope.

On Hot Rocks, ABKCO has finally corrected itself as to which version of "Time Is On My Side" should be included. Every previous edition of Hot Rocks had included an earlier, rougher, inferior (IMHO) version of that cover of an Irma Thomas R&B record. The SACD/CD remastered edition of Hot Rocks now includes the actual single version of "Time Is On My Side" (the Stones' first Top 10 hit in the US) - and in true stereo, to boot.