Don Was on the Stones and the Sticky Fingers deluxe :
http://radio.com/2015/04/22/don-was-interview-rolling-stones-sticky-fingers-reis...Speaking of the Stones, they just announced that they’re reissuing [1971’s] Sticky Fingers. I know you work on all of their reissues. Anything you can tell me about working on this one? Unlike the other two that we worked on, [1972’s] Exile on Main Street and [1978’s] Some Girls, the actual outtake stockpile for Sticky Fingers is pretty much depleted. The stuff that didn’t go on Sticky Fingers went on Exile on Main Street. And the stuff that might have been left over from that ended up on [1981’s] Tattoo You. And a couple of songs that maybe didn’t make it on to Tattoo You, we worked on and finished for the [2010] Exile reissue. There’s a lot of over bleed—no pun intended—between [1969’s] Let It Bleed, [1968’s] Beggars Banquet, Sticky Fingers and Exile, but particularly Sticky Fingers and Exile. There just wasn’t enough stuff that no one had heard before.
The thing that will make this one different is the alternate takes, like “Brown Sugar” with Eric Clapton and the acoustic “Wild Horses.” But they’re all just different versions of songs. The bonus disc is rounded out with some live performances. It’s a little different from Exile and Some Girls in that we didn’t go back and try to finish anything.
When did the Stones record “Brown Sugar” with Eric Clapton? I think it was recorded at a party in the studio and Clapton was there. It was a casual undertaking. They have a lot of versions of a lot of songs. They always chose the right ones, by the way.
Even without bonus tracks, Sticky Fingers is such a classic. I’ve often spoken with the Stones about one of the advantages of vinyl being that it was just 36 to 40 minutes long, and there was no tolerance for filler. You had to self-edit constantly. A couple of the records we’ve done together, I’d prepared 36 minute versions for them. I know we did it for [1994’s] Voodoo Lounge and I think we did it for 1997’s Bridges to Babylon too. Some of them, if they were 36 minutes instead of 72 minutes, they would absolutely hold up to Let It Bleed and those older albums. But those days are gone.
I think that Keith Richards came into his own as a balladeer during your era as the band’s producer (1994- the present). On Voodoo Lounge, he sang “The Worst” and “Thru and Thru.” My favorite was “How Can I Stop” from Bridges to Babylon. It’s almost a bonus track because it comes way at the end of a record.
You once told me that you had to include “How Can I Stop” as sort of a bonus track because Keith already sang “You Don’t Have To Mean It” and “Thief in the Night” on that album, and Mick didn’t want Keith to sing three songs on an album. [Laughs] That song, I thought that was their version of what Brian Wilson just did with “The Last Song.” I thought that was their coda when they did it. It was such a contentious album to make. And it was the last song that we cut. Charlie had a limo waiting in the alley behind the studio to take him to the airport to fly back to England as soon as we got the take. We had to get the take done. I remember thinking, “Wow, this is the last song the Rolling Stones are ever going to record.” I thought it was a historic moment.
But as it turned out, Charlie came back [later] and we recorded something else for the album, and 20 years later, they’re still going.
I think that “One More Shot” [one of the two new songs on the 2012 compilation GRRR!] would be a great final song. The next line is, “that’s all I got.”
Well, it would be a good coda, if it is, in fact, their last song.
I think they’ll play until they drop, but I don’t know if they’ll make records anymore.
Will you see them on this tour? Oh absolutely, I’m going to be in my hometown of Detroit when they play there, so I’m absolutely going to go see them.
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Sticky Fingers reissue June 8, 2015 (new release date) (Read 51,687 times)
