Some Girls Re-release controversy (for me at least)

Jack-Flash-Jr

I'll probably get it. I quite liked Some Girls as an album but what I find interesting about The Stones these days is that they are re-releasing albums (Exile On Main St another case in point) with additional material from that period (outtakes or whatever) but here is the interesting/dodgy thing: some of the songs were completed and are being released as they were recorded in the 70s. Some have newly recorded parts including vox... and some songs you can tell by the singing style, others not really. Nowhere on the release does it tell you which of the numbers have newly recorded parts. Is this a problem? I suppose it shouldn't be but for the Exile additional tracks I kinda felt like it would have been cool to have the originals as they were, cleaned up but not added to. Especially since there's a looseness from the early 70s particularly that they just can't recreate if they tried.
Here is the track list for Some Girls "new" songs, some/all of them may have 2011 vocals, guitar or drums added to the 1978 originals (would this bother anyone else?):

2011 Reissue of unreleased tracks
No. Title Length
1. "Claudine" 3:42
2. "So Young" 3:18
3. "Do You Think I Really Care?" 4:22
4. "When You’re Gone" (Ronnie Wood) 3:51
5. "No Spare Parts" 4:30
6. "Don’t Be a Stranger" 4:06
7. "We Had It All" (Troy Seals/Donnie Fritts) 2:54
8. "Tallahassee Lassie" (Bob Crewe/Frank C. Slay/Frederick A. Picariello) 2:37
9. "I Love You Too Much" 3:10
10. "Keep Up Blues" 4:20
11. "You Win Again" (Hank Williams) 3:00
12. "Petrol Blues"

Original track listing for those who don't remember which album it is:

1. "Miss You" 4:48
2. "When the Whip Comes Down" 4:20
3. "Imagination" (Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong) 4:38
4. "Some Girls" 4:36
5. "Lies" 3:11
6. "Far Away Eyes" 4:24
7. "Respectable" 3:06
8. "Before They Make Me Run" 3:25
9. "Beast of Burden" 4:25
10. "Shattered" 3:48

Bob-Dubery

Jack Flash Jr wrote I'll probably get it. I quite liked Some Girls as an album but what I find interesting about The Stones these days is that they are re-releasing albums (Exile On Main St another case in point) with additional material from that period (outtakes or whatever) but here is the interesting/dodgy thing: some of the songs were completed and are being released as they were recorded in the 70s. Some have newly recorded parts including vox... and some songs you can tell by the singing style, others not really. Nowhere on the release does it tell you which of the numbers have newly recorded parts. Is this a problem?

Apparently a lot of this stuff has been available on bootleg albums for some time now. I think with bootlegs there are various responses, one of which is to decide that the people who BUY bootlegs are just fans who want whatever they can get their hands on, and so the smart response is to service that demand yourselves. You get some money out of the deal, and the fans are happier to buy official, hopefully better quality product.

It's quite likely that a lot of material from this time was taken from studio to studio and individual tracks were enhanced or redone. Masters may have been lost or damaged... you can't always get what you want.

Jack-Flash-Jr

I think what bothers me is that the "enhanced" tracks actually feature newly written and recorded (as in 33 years later) lyrics and guitar parts... I don't feel they should be packaged with a re-release, maybe a seperate album?

Bob-Dubery

Jack Flash Jr wrote I think what bothers me is that the "enhanced" tracks actually feature newly written and recorded (as in 33 years later) lyrics and guitar parts... I don't feel they should be packaged with a re-release, maybe a seperate album?

That recent?

I don't know what the answer to all of this is. It bugs me sometimes, but also there are things that wouldn't get out at all unless there was some jiggerypokery.

EG the live Sandy Denny album "Gold Dust". Recorded many years ago (it was the last concert she ever performed, though obviously nobody knew that at the time). The tapes lay in various storage facilities for years then eventually were dug out. But they were damaged and some tracks (notably the lead guitar) were as good as gone. So they got Jerry Donohue in to record new guitar parts (there was a different guitar player for the actual show), they added some backing vocals, did some digital cleaning up and released the album.

However, there would see to be less of a need for that with a Some Girls outtake. Probably the liner notes for the re-release will explain it all. You might even find that you got what you need.

Jack-Flash-Jr

They don't explain a thing. They pretend it's all 1978 and admit to some new tweaks. In the case of Exile, Jagger came out and said some lyrics and vocals recorded in 2010/11 but refused to say which (although for vocals it's obvious on some tracks due to changed vocal tics). They know a 78 recording has more cache than a new one. That annoys me, I'd like to know but maybe I'm just too demanding ?
A Sandy Denny equivalent would be her re-releasing (if she wasn't on the other side already) a new album and pretending the 2nd disc of previously unreleased tracks were also recorded in 1971, when in fact only some guitar parts, bass and drums were. The concert is different.