http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nASRhvK8ATo&feature=related

love this: anybody know the origin of this song...
I have this on a mid-70s boot - is this the original 73 version?
I know the only thing different on the TY version is the vocals, lyrics etc..so was this the original vocal.
check out Nicky hopkins piano fills...just beautiful.

Yep..appears to be the 'Goats Head Soup' early take from Kingston in Nov-Dec 1972. It's called 'Waiting On My Friend' at this stage as can be heard in the embryonic lyrics.

Musically it sounds quite developed, with Nicky Hopkins' piano quite prominent. The only thing that would have normally had me date it later is that Mick is singing falsetto, which would have been quite unusual for him back in 1972-73 ('Tops' was also cut around that time, but he sings it in a lower register than the released version - the vocal for which was redone in 1979 during the 'Emotional Rescue' sessions, at a time when he was REALLY overdoing the Barry Gibb stuff). WOAF was also redone in 1979 for 'Emotional Rescue' although Sonny Rollins' sax wasn't added until an overdub session in New York in 1981.

here's the 'sax-free' 1979 version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aIRaPg8CdI

[quote author=Gazza link=1259721657/0#1 date=1259798991]
The only thing that would have normally had me date it later is that Mick is singing falsetto, which would have been quite unusual for him back in 1972-73 ('Tops' was also cut around that time, but he sings it in a lower register than the released version - the vocal for which was redone in 1979 during the 'Emotional Rescue' sessions, at a time when he was REALLY overdoing the Barry Gibb stuff).

The falsetto thing is what threw me off too, and that's why i wasn't sure...
but Jagger also uses some of that falsetto in a beggars outtake, "Stuck out all alone" - and he was heavily influenced by Don Covay’s falsetto, who recorded in the 60s...
and when his voice drops back to a 'normal' tone, it sounds like Jagger, 73 - if that makes sense… or maybe something in the recording sound of that period: less polished than the vocal sound from the subsequent versions. In other words, his voice matches the sound of the music – it doesn’t sound added on with a different recording technique of the late 70s, early 80s – and the TY version does. Which makes me believe its from 73....
the song has a different feel in both versions lyric-wise: the first version, more romantic, which fits the overall feel of GHS…while the later, more biting and cynical verions, fits the overall mood of 78-81…(he also uses that lower, exaggerated twang from that period)
also, sounds like he's singing, ''waiting for my friends..' in the early version....
Plus, Worried about You, Lovely Ladies are from 74…. So it could be Jagger was experimenting with the falsetto in the studio back then, but only for rehearsals….because we do hear it before 80, just not on releases.

very good points, Texile.

Oh I agree its definitely from the GHS sessions - its the same style of piano playing for starters thats on the released version (which featured Nicky Hopkins) - it's just that if you'd heard that vocal for the first time without knowing the background of how the song evolved over so many years, it would be natural to have dated it a bit later than that.

What boot(s) is this version on, anybody?

The early version from Jamaica? It's on "Fast Talking", to name one bootleg CD

Yes that was an upgrade from "Could You Walk On the Water" that surfaced at the end of 1995 (or was it 1994 ?) pretty much out of the blue with some mythical titles like the Kingston outtakes and the Rotterdam stuff that had only circulated on 4 90 minute K7s before that. I remember I was in awe when I received the tape a friend made for me from the CD.

These were good years for unreleased songs, after the 1993/94 period when we got the Paris Results 1&2 and Better Results from OBR, with again, all these unknown songs listed in books that were coming out. That stuff was certainly sourced from the Pathe Marconi studios in Boulogne when they were pulled down in 92/93, not sure about the Kingston sessions. They were probably in Boulogne too since they were reworked at the end of the 70s.