The Complete Rolling Stones Audio Recordings (@ demonoid)

[Mr Walker]

I'll have to check this out tonight.
Have you seen this FORD?
Looks like it will be a motherfucker of a collection.

http://www.demonoid.me/files/details/2573083/19967136/

A truly gargantuan task. I hope they stick around to complete the 50 years. For now, the years 1962-1968 are available, + additions & upgrades provided by fellow demonions.
Hope you like it - cheers - m

Here the original text info:


Having got tired of buying/downloading hundreds, nay, thousands of Rolling Stones official and unofficial vinyl records and CDs, only to find that there's a constant overlapping of tracks and a lot of confusion surrounding their studio output, there was one wish on my mind. That there was someone who would take it upon himself or herself to try and make sense of the many variations, overlappings etc. in the Stones catalogue and try and find the best possible audio for each and every track the Rolling Stones have ever recorded in their career. And of course I waited in vain. So I started assembling as many RS records as I could get, bootlegs and official releases, in order to try and get the complete RS discography in the best possible quality.

A very important website which has helped me with this is the one by Felix Aeppli (google is your friend). I wish to make clear that I am not him, nor am I in any way affiliated to him, hell, I don't even know the guy. But what he has done is a marvellous job, in trying to construct a complete picture of all available (and, sadly, unavailable) Rolling Stones audio.

With his work as an indispensible guide (and, indeed, using his numbering system - PLEASE check Felix Aeppli's website how to use the numbering system!) I set out to find all of the tracks mentioned on his website. I think I can say I have found most, if not all, tracks, and I am presenting you these tracks, in chronological order. This has been a labour of love for the past few years now, so I hope you all can appreciate the work that has gone into this.



I am not saying it is perfect - there are tracks missing (and where they are, it is noted), and for some tracks there may be better sources. In these cases, I hope you can help me out in trying to get this work complete and in even better sound quality.

In each track's description I have mentioned the source. These can vary from bootleg recordings to official CDs, YouTube rips and some vinyl rips. Where I used mp3s as a source, this is also pointed out. Where tracks were issued both in mono and stereo, I have included both. Where I have multiple sources for a track which sound markedly different, I included every one of them.



Not only have I tried to find all of the Stones material, I also searched for each original recording of cover songs they recorded (be it live or in the studio). These will also be presented. Where I was in doubt which version the Stones would have based their cover version on, I have included more than one track.

I am presenting you all of this material in folders which are catalogued by year. These are not presented as cut-and-dried 80 minute audio CDs, but as complete folders. Whatever you want to do with them, do so. My aim was to get it all into one place.



Please do not ask me for artwork, please do not ask me to up this as mp3s, or why I didn't include md5-files or whatever other stuff people seem to find important (I'm no good/too lazy at that stuff), but please do offer constructive criticism where due, and above all, please upload better quality tracks or missing tracks when you have them. I think the Rolling Stones' catalogue is totally underpresented and well worthy of a thorough remastering job, but since that is unlikely to happen (especially with the 1960s material), I have started this project in the hope that I/we could achieve something similar.



Where I used my own CDs, I ripped them using EAC, where I downloaded stuff I kept them as FLAC-files, unless they were mp3, in which case I converted them to FLAC as well, to keep some kind of continuity (but, again, where this is the case, I have made mention of this). After converting everything to FLAC, I used Foobar's Scan-Per-File-Track-Gain function to get similar audio levels for the tracks.

I could not have done this without some great torrent sites like Hunger City (and indeed, Demonoid) and I would like to thank each and everyone that uploads stuff, now it's (finally) my turn to give something back.



I have also taken a shot at their solo outings, but that will come later (if you'll all be nice).



I sincerely hope you will appreciate all the work that's gone into this project and hope you can help wherever possible, and for now let's shut up and enjoy

the first installment of what I have named THE ROLLING STONES - 50 YEARS OF DIRTY WORK

[FORD]

Well, it looks like the guy's definitely making an effort to be "complete", that much is certain. Of course this means he's mixing official material, FLAC files and MP3 all up together (by his own admission) so it's going to be a roller coaster of sound quality. I'd really rather see an ambitious project like this over at The Traders Den or someplace where the official stuff and the MP3 crap would NOT be factors, due to the rules, but it's permitted at Demonoid.

I do appreciate the fact that he listed all the sources in the file details, so you know what your getting. That can be helpful for those of us who might be sifting through the list trying to find something we don't already have. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with when he gets up to the 1977-78 era (Some Girls sessions)

[Kristy]

A lot of their live materiel I don't care for particularly their early years due to the quality of recording equipment in those times. However, some of their studio work from early 70 - early 80's would be phenomenal as far as outtakes, demos, unreleased which you know there must be vault full of that shit. Why Mick won't release it or didn't release it on the Virgin "remasters" is a mystery.

[Jesus Christ]

Well, there is a lot of material, but most of it isn't ready for commercial release, as is. Of course Mick has done this twice. Tattoo You was rolled out as a "new studio album" back in 1981, even though in reality it was a collection of outtakes recorded between 1970 - 1979, with vocal overdubs, and an occasional guitar part and sax solo added here and there. And of course last year, the "bonus" disc for the Exile On Main Street remaster was, for the most part, done in the same way. Only it was more obvious this time with a 67 year old Mick singing over the material, rather than the 38 year old Mick of 1981

Yes, the Son of Man is a Stones fan. Surprised?

[Kristy]

Sympathy must be your all-time fav tune, huh?

[Jesus Christ]

Not exactly. I prefer "Far Away Eyes", but that does NOT mean I would encourage thee to run 20 red lights in My honor!

[Kristy]

Nothing like having your prayer said on the radio.

[Mr Walker]

I checked into it last night... too much... I passed.

[Terry]

An ambitious undertaking...while I'm more than a passing fan of the band, I can't say it is crucial to me to have every single track they ever recorded/released in my own collection. They've done precious little post-Tattoo You that is worthwhile; even the recent Exile "upgrade" wasn't something I thought was worth the hype, mostly because it struck me as somewhat desperate for the band to be overdubbing over thirty + year old backing tracks left in the can. I suppose the same case could be made for Tattoo You, as that album had some mixed results (can't recall the last time I wanted to hear Tops, Black Limosine or Slave), but don't fuck around with a masterpiece. Most of the Stones recordings up to about Beggar's Banquet are a bit dodgy sonically. A product of their times in that sense. For me, the best the band had to offer was in the range of 1968 to 1978, and the original releases from those years will suffice.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

even the recent Exile "upgrade" wasn't something I thought was worth the hype, mostly because it struck me as somewhat desperate for the band to be overdubbing over thirty + year old backing tracks left in the can.

I agree, I even found it pathetic from Mick to sing along those legendary tracks, as he definitely doesn't have the same voice anymore, and it makes those tracks sound made-up, almost like a hoax IMO.
I listened to their new edition of "Exile", once on Deezer and a second time at my bass player's, who had bought it and hadn't noticed the trick, though it is obvious I think, but well, he isn't a Stones fan.
I own all the Stones albums, plus about two dozens of boots. I will keep my Virgin remaster, and let Mick karaoke alone on the "malus" tracks.

Most of the Stones recordings up to about Beggar's Banquet are a bit dodgy sonically. A product of their times in that sense. For me, the best the band had to offer was in the range of 1968 to 1978, and the original releases from those years will suffice.

The Stones had the sound of the times until 1968's Beggars Banquet, you're right. 1968 was a really "revolutionary" year as far as sound recording.
I especially enjoy the same decade ('68-'78), but...
If (only) they had had the same recording conditions in the 60s as they had in the early 70s... I mean, much of their pre-68 stuff could tally a lot of
what they did in hte 70s , couldn't it? I imagine if "Get off of my cloud", "I'm free", "It's not easy" or "Mother's little helper" could have been spared
that thin, sharpish sound that you hear on the whole production of the 60s - mostly in voice recording.
You can have an idea by listening to "Stripped", bu the Stones were all over their fifties by then already;
I just wish they had done that club tour 20 years before...

Well, while writing this post I checked the song lists of the Decca albums, and honestly I have to confess there aren't that many tunes that would have
made it on their albums in the 70s...
Sound was not the only element, their inspiration was different as well.

Anyway, I might have been dreaming, but I think I heard they'd entered or planned to enter a recording studio... Next year being the Stones' 50th anniversary,
this is probable; but I have no evidence...
Maybe FORD does?

[Kristy]

For me, the best the band had to offer was in the range of 1968 to 1978, and the original releases from those years will suffice.

It was the cream of the Stones era as far as I'm concerned. I'm not discounting the Brain Jones era other than it was far too experimental: sitars, cellos, flutes, mellowtrons where Keith's vision all along was for them to be a straight up rock and roll guitar band. The years 68-78 demonstrated that perfectly. Tattoo You was a decent record but it wasn't really a Stones record in that you can't really sense any kind of energy there. The sound is too contrived, production too forced, lack of cohesive songwriting between Mick and Keith. At first listen of Tattoo you think it's a fluke that worked unfortunately, they kept with the same formula pretty throughout the 80 and well into the 90's. It wasn't until I heard Gunface where they brought back a little of the old school, but even this lacks substance.

[78/84 guy]

Get Keiths book. Great read. And I don't read. A book that big would take me 2 months. Down to the last chapter in 2 weeks. Interesting stuff. Then onto Touched By Magic. A Tommy Bolin book. The bass player Gerry McAvoy that played with Rory Gallagher wrote a book, I got it in the mail last week and flipped it open too the middle and the first thing I read is Rory telling Gerry that Keith blocked Mick from hiring him as the new Stones guitarist after Taylor left.

[flyingv58]

ok ill do