Mick Jagger talking about the Bridges to Babylon
recording sessions:
"I mean, in the end, it's not like, you know, Bitches Brew.
We're not going off into the stratosphere. Just a little bit.
The grooves are a little bit different."

Wikipedia on Bitches Brew:
"As usual with Miles Davis's recording sessions, he gave a few
instructions, a tempo count, a few chords or a hint of melody,
and suggestions as to mood or tone. Davis liked to work this way.
He thought it forced musicians to pay close attention to one another.
Bitches Brew also pioneered (for jazz) the application of the studio
as a musical instrument, using editing as a form of composition."

1) Indulge me for a minute. What if we are to take the
title "fully finished outtakes" literally? What if
the 28 tunes i've highlighted have indeed been worked
on substantially and are in their INTENDED final form?
What then?

2) I'll tell you "what then": the Stones would have
invented a new genre of rock music.

3) Like all new music genres, it certainly has antecedents.
Besides the Miles/jazz connection, if we are just referencing
the Stones, the earliest is the final 8 minutes of "goin' home".

4) The radical thing about many of the tracks on
The Love Volumes is they purposely exist in this
unexplored territory between jams and songs. Including
vocalizing emotive semi-words.

5) Obviously this is not far removed from what the Stones
have done in the studio for decades. Start with a riff
and run with it. The problems started when Mick got sick
of being left holding the bag, of having to complete
the lyrics/melodies/song structures in order to get the
material into shape for the market.

6) So up til recently there have been only two choices.
Shape the band's real music into something commercial,
or abandon it. But now we suddenly have this new third
choice. Like Miles Davis, use the studio to perfect the
groove you've already found, not to make it more palatable
to the average consumer (who is no longer interested in
the Stones) 

7) We need a name for this new genre. A name that encompasses
some very different tracks, from "keep it cool" to "covered
with bruises". I've looked through at least a thousand
names of musical forms and styles hoping to find one I
could adapt or steal, but no luck. A not-catchy-enough
name would be "charlie watts rock", because charlie doesn't
like rock, but he does like this kind of playing, because of
its similarities to jazz. (charlie's performances on
"the love volumes" are a particular treat, often so powerful
that he's not just guiding the band, he's leading it)

8) short music lesson: "keep it cool". a lot of people
apparently hear this track as not-much-happening.
I hear it as the band seamlessly moving through
about 10 variations on a theme.

and all these variations are achieved without harmonica,
sax, or background singers. remarkable.

also, its not coincidental that both Outtakes and Bitches contain
a track called "sanctuary"

9) In acting and in jazz, the phrase "polished improvisation"
is sometimes used. Bitches Brew is also often called jazz-rock.
but The Love Volumes are too distinct from Bitches to share a
category. Names like "groove rock","cool rock","babylon rock",
"voodoo rock" are all in use to some extent and not encompassing
enough.

10) So for now, "finished outtakes" is not just the title
of the bootleg, its also the best name we have so far for
this new genre. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but I
can't come up with a better one.

11) Hey. Wait a minute. I said I hated the title "dog shit"
for one of my favorite tracks. But I gotta admit "dog shit rock"
or just plain "dog shit" as the ironic genre name is kinda perfect.

12) "Dog Shit" it is!

"There is nothing I want so much as some more dog shit."

"Next album I hope the Stones don't go back to cleaning
up all the dog shit"

"Oh man, Love volume 3 is just as great. The Stones have
really stepped in it again!"

13) Yeah, "dog shit" works. But I still like "God Shit" better.
I don't know, whichever is less offensive.

(otis redding's original is a straight-forward remembrance
of romance past, and the hope of re-kindling it. mick instead
preaches about the importance of remembering sleep dreams.
fyi, both keith and i were seeing the same shrink in NYC,
anita stevens. circumstantial evidence, including this song,
indicates that mick probably saw her as well at an earlier time.
She always asked about any dreams you could remember. They gave
her important insight. And my sleep dreams give me insight about
myself to this very day)

(approx lyrics, corrections invited)

(when you remember a strange or hot dream)

(most of the time)

(here mick tells a dream he had about keith.
ronnie is referenced too)

The Love track that came closest to not making my compilation
was "dream about", because of its conventional song structure
and finished lyrics. Mick obviously brought this one into the
studio completely written.

But it made the cut because of the intimate vocal, the
sorta-Sade beat, the misty instrumental washes, and frankly,
because it brought a tear to my eye...

a 5:45 tour de force from keith

nobody else can play like this,
not taylor, not clapton, not hendrix
nobody

to be honest, keith can't play like this
except he did, for 5 minutes and 45 seconds
on this one particular night in the studio
captured on tape.

i feel like i've sighted a thylacine

whatever mick's singing, its not important,
i think he's just saying a stream-of-consciousness version of
"go fuckin keith go", like a surreal carnival barker,
like an invocation of his demon brother

as keith just crushes it
("20 nil" is a measurement of crushed stone)*
completely in the moment, totally visceral 
pure feeling no thought
chords and notes squeezed and pulled til they're all but vocalized.
i can't say i've ever heard anything cooler, in terms of playing, from
the forever king of cool

and mick's not the only one hyped up on what keith's laying down --
charlie's drums are in a conversation with keith, egging him on

perfectly realized god shit. *sigh* wish more could hear it.

Yeah wish more could hear it

(approx lyrics)

its kinda unfair to mick, from a literary perspective,
to put into writing approximations of unfinished lyrics,
but from a musical perspective, these unpolished vocal
takes of his are just so damn refreshing.

i've watched the noomi rapace "doom and gloom" vid
at least 25 times. Love it. And how many times have
i put on the audio version for a musical thrill? zero.
Its a soundtrack tune, for the vid, for Avengers Endgame
(but certainly not for a Scorcese movie)

so in contrast here we have an audio track i've grooved to at least
50 times already. No vid, no forced bridge, no uninspired
chorus, no news commentary, just the band at full tilt.

i'm obviously not criticizing any of Jagger's market/media
manipulations, which i greatly admire, and which have
maintained the Stones as a significant commercial force
for six decades. And i look forward to more such nonsense
shortly, when there is a 60th greatest hits package to flog.
but as far as my personal preference in 2021, give me more
finished outtakes please. Give me more of keith and charlie's
version of the Stones. Its time to put the bow on the package.

On this track Mick meditates on that critical moment in a
love affair, when its not smooth sailing anymore, when
you have to decide if it's still worth the effort...