Rare Rolling Stones Outtakes Appear on YouTube in Copyright-Extending Release

by Jem Aswad



Just hours before 2019 ended on Tuesday, at least 75 Rolling Stones outtakes dating from 1969 suddenly appeared on YouTube in an apparent move to officially release the recordings before they passed into public domain — and thus out of the ownership of the group and Abkco Music & Records, which administers its 1960s catalog.

Such releases have become common as the rock era has passed a succession of half-century anniversaries, and Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Motown Records and others have stealthily issued similar copyright-extending outtake collections for a brief time period (or in ridiculously limited-edition CDs with minimal packaging) before quickly yanking them off the market. Owing to the intricacies of and updates to music copyright law and contracts across the globe, term durations vary widely, but 50 to 70 years is common for recent popular recordings — hence the release of albums like the Beatles’ “Bootleg Recordings 1963” and Dylan’s even more literally titled “Copyright Collections.” The recordings are usually sub-par and of interest only to deeply committed fans, and while the artist may not want them to be part of their official catalog, they also don’t want to lose the copyright and thus allow others to profit from their work.


Yet these Stones recordings — which appear under the title “69RSTRAX” — are apparently the first such collection released by the band. Reps for the group and Abkco did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment, but if it’s a hoax, it’s an elaborate one: The YouTube recordings all bear official copyright language and are available on the Stones and Abkco’s official channels, although the presentation and many of the recordings are bootleg quality or worse. They were not available on Spotify or other major streaming services at the time of this article’s publication; it is unclear how long they will be available.

The 75 tracks include several near-complete 1969 concerts and multiple alternate studio versions of songs from the “Let It Bleed” and “Sticky Fingers” albums, many of which have been available for decades on bootlegs — along with many that have not.

Even for YouTube, the presentation of these recordings is bootleg-level, with often-rough sound quality and some egregious typos — although the copyright line is typographically pristine. Worst of all, the rarest recordings — i.e. the ones not previously available on bootlegs — have a dial-tone-like sound as loud as the music, presumably to prevent them from being used as source material for illicit releases. Those songs are a truly miserable listening experience, even though many of them will be fascinating to fans whose ears can stand it.

The studio outtakes provide a close look at one of the Stones’ most creative eras, and range from rough instrumental workouts to near-complete alternate versions. Highlights include a version of “You Got the Silver” sung by Mick Jagger instead of Keith Richards (along with “Gimme Shelter” sung by Richards instead of Jagger), an acoustic version of “Ruby Tuesday,” and slower, “Blusier” [sic] or alternate arrangements of songs like “Love in Vain,” “Sister Morphine,” “Wild Horses” and “Let It Bleed.” Perhaps most interesting of all, there’s apparently the complete 22-minute choir session for “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” with Jagger and vocal arranger Al Kooper rehearsing the singers, who — contrary to what fans might have envisioned of the ’69 Stones paired with a seemingly stodgy choir — are enthusiastic and frequently laugh throughout.


Also included are multiple live tracks from several concerts on the Stones’ legendary 1969 U.S. tour, including the disastrous Altamont festival. These vary widely in terms of quality and performance, from excellent (the Champaign, Illinois show, where Jagger greets the crowd with a preposterous Southern accent) to just awful (Richards’ guitar was apparently out of tune for the entire Florida concert). They’re nice to have, but better recordings of nearly every song are available on the expanded “Get Yer Ya-Yas Out” live album, taped during the same month-long tour.

Still, there’s more than enough exciting material here to enrage fans who for decades have been clamoring for the release of rare ’60s Stones material in a far more satisfying  manner than this; the group has released a series of quality post-1971 archival albums and videos on their website over the past few years. But the Stones’ relationship with Abkco — the company founded by its 1960s business manager, the late Allen Klein, one of the most successful and tenacious executives in music business history — has been cool and at times very contentious over the past 50 years, and sources say the group are actually the ones blocking the material’s release.

And although Abkco has released a series of superb 50th anniversary reissues over the past decade, as “69RSTRAX” shows, much remains in the vault. Perhaps Jagger, who is also one of the toughest businessmen the biz has ever known, will continue to play the waiting game until he or his future heirs finally find a way to fully capture his youth’s work.


https://variety.com/2020/music/news/rolling-stones-rare-outtakes-youtube-copyright-1203454581/





https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgp_a3lhUXBiDl0o52ueosw/videos

april fools?

Incredibly petty that ABKCO have released something which they've deliberately technically sabotaged to make them an even more unpleasant listening experience.

All the audios are gone!

Voodoo Chile in Wonderland wrote on Jan 1^st, 2020 at 12:39pm:

All the audios are gone!

Well, well, well.........oh well

I told you once and I told you twice


and I told you many more times: ABKCO sucks (the big one)

(UPDATE: The Rolling Stones recordings described below were removed from YouTube early on the afternoon of Jan. 1, approximately 24 hours after they were posted. The brief release apparently extends their copyright, which otherwise would have expired in 2019.)

Here are some tracks from yesterday's short release ...

The Rolling Stones - Love In Vain - (1969 Bluesier version)
https://mega.nz/#!dgYHzYTD!EsAxMzDv-xSNhWtD_0EfVk-hDxDc929pYLEGWz4WR08

Ruby Tuesday
https://mega.nz/#!19QxCCwb!e4PMKYnEUyaujO-GsF3K89BPyxGu9QTbG9fRMHQthjI

Wild Horses (with strings and glass harmonica)
https://mega.nz/#!ptBhHACD!NAY24Ma4zmVK9LzIWE-fd6A4DPhqdaxn8dkYEKKGjmU

You Can't Always Get What You Want - choir sessions
https://mega.nz/#!o1RDSIDK!U5D9DL4pPe3m3k3sNw-dg5L72_xOnVDdHbtcs04AW6I

Sister Morphine - 1969 Early versioN
https://mega.nz/#!55QlmSbC!nU5xAY7zvDMC_cmiwkTPDudK0T3m5Rj_1dcyTMMr2lo

Enjoy!

Thanks axl79

This kind soul Hapsnurker has uploaded the 27th November 1969 MSG show soundboard

with the dialtone noise removed

Sounds great. Enjoy :

https://www.mixcloud.com/Hapsnurker/rolling-stones-new-york-madison-square-garden-27-november-1969/?fbclid=IwAR2mguJoGeiTeMqUPAH1yhFVmc6Vcz6QbgIadYYH5dcYOrL2iD2Y5IozIFY

8-)

Great stuff. Really Happy with it.
Jeroen

Thanks to axl79 (via JMARKO) for uploading some more of the 'corrected' tracks to wetransfer. They'll be available for the next week
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/8c27ca0ff274e325dad4b11074bb431720200104161207/0936bb



Sympathy - R&R Circus outtake, Dec 1968
Stray Cat Blues - instrumental from BB sessions, 1968
Midnight Rambler - short instrumental outtake, 1969
Honky Tonk Women - early instrumental version, similar in style to County Honk, but a more rocking arrangement, 1969
Let It Bleed - early instrumental version, 1969.

Notes on the songs from thkbeercan, who advises that

these dozen or so studio tracks were never in the ABKCO vaults. These tracks come from the Rolling Stones own library of unreleased recordings. The Stones opened their own vaults to the producers of the film "Crossfire Hurricane" a number of years ago to select unreleased musical material for use in the film's soundtrack, especially instrumental tracks over which the Stones could be interviewed off screen. Some of the selections were used in the film. Others were not. These are the ones that were not.

This is why so many of the selections have no vocals-the vocal tracks for these versions were either never recorded or were removed for possible inclusion in the film. Also included in this group are some obviously different arrangements of familiar songs that DO have vocals ("Wild Horses", "Ruby Tuesday", "Love In Vain", "Sister Morphine" and SFTD). These, too, were on a short list for inclusion in "Crossfire Hurricane" but never made the cut


His notes on the other previously uncirculated outtakes posted earlier :

Ruby Tuesday-a complete, early attempt at the song with Brian Jones on piano. (He also played piano, and recorder, in the final version.)  (1966)
Love In Vain-one of the earliest attempts at the song, similar to the Robert Johnson arrangement  (1969)
Sister Morphine-the same early version found on many bootlegs, but this is the complete take, 90 seconds longer (1969)
YCAGWYW-22 minutes of the London Bach Choir working on their vocals...lots of giggling and no complete performance of the song...interesting to listen to...once.  (1969)
Wild Horses-the acoustic Muscle Shoals take from December 1969 but with strings added sometime in 1970.

The 'early take' of Gimme Shelter that ABKCO made available isnt from 1969 as claimed but is (bizarrely) a 1978 tour rehearsal

Here comes a re-upload of the first part.

I have re-tagged the files and removed some remaining "bleeps".

Gazza's notes...
Ruby Tuesday-a complete, early attempt at the song with Brian Jones on piano. (He also played piano, and recorder, in the final version.)  (1966)
Love In Vain-one of the earliest attempts at the song, similar to the Robert Johnson arrangement  (1969)
Sister Morphine-the same early version found on many bootlegs, but this is the complete take, 90 seconds longer (1969)
YCAGWYW-22 minutes of the London Bach Choir working on their vocals...lots of giggling and no complete performance of the song...interesting to listen to...once.  (1969)
Wild Horses-the acoustic Muscle Shoals take from December 1969 but with strings added sometime in 1970.

Gimme Shelter that ABKCO made available isn't from 1969 as claimed but is (bizarrely) a 1978 tour rehearsal

https://we.tl/t-pAKCWAFOGM

Thanks for that, axl.

Did anyone make a note of the full list of recordings that were made available? The post at the top of this page mentions 'at least 75 outtakes'

Here are my notes and what I got.... (some tracks were uploaded twice).

1969-11-07 Fort Collins, Moby Gymnasium
- Honky Tonk Women
- I'm Free

1969-11-08 Los Angeles, Inglewood Forum (late show)
- Introduction (posted twice)
- JJF

1969-11-09 Oakland (1st show)
incomplete show (13 Tracks)
missing JJF and Midnight Rambler

1969-11-09 Oakland (2nd show)
incomplete show (9 tracks)

1969-11-11 Phoenix
- You Gotta Move

1969-11-15 Champaign (1st show)
complete show (13 Tracks)
(Love In Vain, Prodigal Son, Under My Thumb and Street Fighting Man were posted twice)

1969-11-27 New York City, MSG
complete show (15 Tracks)

1969-11-28 New York City, MSG (1st show)
- JJF
- Carol
- SFTD

1969-11-28 New York City, MSG (2nd show)
complete show (14 Tracks)

1969-11-30 West Palm Beach
incomplete show (13 Tracks)
missing  Honky Tonk Women

1969-12-06 Altamont
complete show

Studio Alternates (17 tracks)
- Brown Sugar (alternate Hot Rocks version)
- Gimme Shelter (alternate version)
- Gimme Shelter (early version)
- Gimme Shelter (Keith on lead vocal)
- Honky Tonk Women (alternate lyric version)
- Honky Tonk Women (country rock instrumental version)
- Let It Bleed (Olympic Sound April 1969- instrumental)
- Love In Vain (bluesier version)
- Midnight Rambler (Olympic Sound April 1969 - instrumental)
- Ruby Tuesday
- Sister Morphine (1969 early version)
- Stray Cat Blues (instrumental Olympic Sound 1969)
- Sympathy for the Devil (Olympic Sound April 1969 - with vocals)
- Wild Horses (alternate Hot Rocks version)
- Wild Horses (with strings and glass harmonica)
- You Can't Always Get What You Want (choir sessions)
- You Got The Silver (1969 Mick Jagger on lead vocal)

far out

Here are the rest of the alternate studio tracks (Part 3).

69RSTRAX
Remastered - tone removed, level adjustment.
Studio Alternates (6 tracks)

- Brown Sugar (alternate Hot Rocks version)
- Wild Horses (alternate Hot Rocks version)
- Gimme Shelter (alternate version)
- Gimme Shelter (Keith on lead vocal)
- Honky Tonk Women (alternate lyric version)
- You Got The Silver (1969 Mick Jagger on lead vocal)

https://we.tl/t-kYuzx0f3Eq

Some more wetransfer links :


BNiene's download consisting of lossy audience recordings of the following :
Fort Collins 7/11
Los Angeles 8/11 (late show)
Oakland 9/11 (both shows)
Phoenix 11/11
Champaign 15/11 (early show)
West Palm Beach 30/11
Altamont 6/12
(note - Phoenix and Fort Collins songs are in the same folder)
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/0242b396b8de970b57327101b4cc9c8820200102125455/a2b697

Altamont 6.12.69 full show, featuring 'Gimme shelter' in soundboard quality (lossy)
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/99a6f6f818886c56e859c36a3aa5d0e820200105084558/4654f9bc29ea569f46272af3236feaf720200105084558/fcd32a

New York  27 & 28.11.69

keesie's download
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/95d6f7a5857b209dfa79d3d54577cd3c20200103225012/f02cfc

A missing piece between I'm Free and Midnight Rambler was fixed with a patch from an audience recording (first gen transfer).
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/5b093c04088dae0a1d80eacdeb4b4a5620200104111838/c4ca2b572a8688c9db9fb2ae4f1434ba20200104111838/89724a


wiredallnight's edit of 27/11/69 and 28/11/69 (2nd show) from honestman's download
27/11 -
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/33dd1c5505097d8e29fb8efd20cee1d420200104085056/589de1
28/11 (2nd show)
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/82448df77da413d59bb8da51a1901aff20200103085319/a1fe22

Re-edit of 'Rambler' from 28.11.69 (2nd show) by keithpinkmoon :
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/dc735cee369539249c47e694559f9a0a20200105070946/8a043b

All three shows by Honestman :

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/902f282ffa159e9be3046b464af9a11e20200101170612/1a69099914a4e9bb3adb4a3aa3ba766920200101170612/c0fbee



'Brown Sugar' and 'Wild Horses' 'Hot Rocks early mixes' (by Tonstone)
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/c37e991c2ed2ee3610bf41e997be850320200101140118/b7731fe15be2955b2be4ab31dca566b220200101140118/6d4fc0

'Olympic Sound Studios 1969 New Versions' (Lossy Source)
All 16 studio tracks Downloaded and edited by blakeeik and uploaded to wetransfer by Chris L
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/6959b2f9e348254676e3b0cd3fe685ce20200101210328/81f4fe


Many thanks to everyone who has gone to the trouble of sharing these and/or who has worked on making them listenable

Remember, that wetransfer files are only available for a week and some of these may have already been uploaded for a couple of days already

Above hyperlinks corrected and should now all work OK

So it seems there are 75 studio tracks. We have 16, so where are the other tracks???
Jeroen

Just 16 are studio. By 'at least 75 outtakes' I assume they just mean thats the total of unissued recordings that were made available.

I've now added to the above links a lossy download of the full show from Altamont. Aside from a soundboard recording of a glorious performance of 'Gimme shelter', its the existing audience recording.

One of our facebook posters (thanks, Richard), suggests that the first link by BNiene of several audience recordings isnt the ABKCO copyright files but stuff hes downloaded off youtube.

Can anyone verify this? If so, we'll remove the link and hopefully someone will make the real thing available.

Thank you to all who made this possible. A true gift!

That Altamont show is an RAR file - what do I do with that? The other shows are downloaded as zip files and I can access the tunes through that.

Thanks to all of you.

That version of Ruby Tuesday is magnificent. Listening to Stray Cat Blues, I'm starting to wonder if besides Sympathy For The Devil, some of theses studio outtakes are in fact RNR Circus outtakes ? It's a bit surprising that they would spend studio time in 69 to re-record songs that had already come out earlier. Nonetheless it's very interesting to (finally) be able to hear Brian's slide guitar on Stray Cat Blues !

Welcome bleachboy!!! Great first post

bleachboy wrote on Jan 7^th, 2020 at 8:52am:

Thanks to all of you. That version of Ruby Tuesday is magnificent. Listening to Stray Cat Blues, I'm starting to wonder if besides Sympathy For The Devil, some of theses studio outtakes are in fact RNR Circus outtakes ? It's a bit surprising that they would spend studio time in 69 to re-record songs that had already come out earlier. Nonetheless it's very interesting to (finally) be able to hear Brian's slide guitar on Stray Cat Blues !

Quite probably.

Just because ABKCO suggest these recordings are from 1969, doesnt mean that they are.

Welcome to RO.

Hapsnurker has now also kindly made the 2nd show from MSG 28/11/69 available on mixcloud.

Thunderous stuff !!

https://www.mixcloud.com/Hapsnurker/rolling-stones-new-york-city-madison-square-garden-28-november-1969-late-show/?fbclid=IwAR3Di3_rSsRhtS7ad18UsW7may2xCCbrfziOLYwXaK4SdjkXJcor9rQrwbs

Thanks y’all. I might add that this version of Ruby Tuesday really doesn’t sound like it’s from 1966, it’s a lot tighter and clean sounding, especially the vocals. But they are double-tracked in the choruses, so that indicates a studio recording rather than a in-studio rehearsal. And maybe that excludes R’n’R Circus ? And the piano part is radically different (def. Nicky Hopkins on this one as opposed to the more classical-sounding part that Brian - I assume - played on the 66 version). Stray Cat also sounds different than the version on Beggars, especially Charlie’s drums which sound more like the way he played it later on the 69 tour. This could have been a contenter during Circus, for sure. Maybe they chose to record and present their newest material for Circus and opted to cut out Ruby Tuesday. Also, Circus occurred in december of 68, so it’s more than likely that the copyright of the Circus recordings (if they are indeed Circus outtakes) was established in early 69 instead of 68, that would explain why they just showed up now instead of last year. BTW, does anyone have more info on the previous Abcko dumps from 2018 and 2017 ? Are they worth tracking down ?

Its almost certainly from later. Most people reckon its Nicky Hopkins on piano, not Brian

The 1967 copyright dump was released on i-tunes at the end of 2017 called '67 sessions'. 18 songs.

2 Satanic  Majesties instrumental outtakes - Bill's Tune (early version of 'In Another Land'), In Another Land
2 tracks from Top of the Pops - LSTNT and Shes a rainbow
10 tracks from L'Olympia, Paris 11 April 1967 (radio broadcast)
2 tracks from Ed Sullivan Show rehearsal 15.1.67 (Ruby tuesday/LSTNT)
2 tracks from Ed Sullivan Show 15.1.67 (same two songs)

Quality is mostly pretty good. The Olympia show is an upgrade on the bootleg.


The 1968 copyright dump, like this new one, was briefly made available on Youtube at the end of 2018. 9 tracks

Mickey Mouse Blues ('Child of the Moon' instrumental demo)
Sympathy for the Devil (alternate take)
Family (demo)
Pay Your Dues (demo)
Jumpin' Jack Flash - Promo film version #2 (the 'without makeup' version)
Dear Doctor - alternate version
Family - alternate intro and mix version
Sympathy for the Devil - 'Frost on Saturday' 30.11.68
Jumpin' Jack Flash - Promo film version #1 (the 'makeup' version)

Again, quality is fine, but the material isnt much to get excited about.

Thanks for that !

just finally go to DL and listen.... thx

This year will be the last occasion ABKCO can put out a copyright extension release.

It'll be interesting to see how they deal with giving an official release to 'Cocksucker Blues'.

Quite a few live shows in 1970 - there was a European tour although none of them are soundboards - plus there is already a fair amount of studio material available.