A new bootleg sheds new light on the Rolling Stones' legendary vault of unreleased recordings. The new 50-track, triple-disc set, titled Fully Finished Studio Outtakes, spans 1966 to 2002, featuring previously unknown songs — as well as a heap of better sounding versions of long-booted material.
Highlights include the original 1973 track of "It's Only Rock And Roll (But I Like It) featuring David Bowie and Ron Wood, "Tell Her How It Is" — the 1970 Sticky Fingers outtake known only in instrumental form as "Potted Shrimp," the 1967 psychedelic-funk workout, "She's Doing Her Thing," and "Curtis Meets Monkey," a 1969 cut featuring Ry Cooder on lead guitar.
Outtakes from key Stones albums Exile On Main St. (1972), Goats Head Soup (1973), It's Only Rock And Roll (1974), Black And Blue (1976), Some Girls (1978), and beyond are represented on the boot — with the band's 1983 Undercover set represented by no less than 10 tunes.
In 1986 Keith Richards said that more often than not over the years, he's been the one to lead the charge when it comes to the studio: ["I always am for that, because, y'know, the guitars and drums — I have to play and I have to get them to play, y'know? So that Mick has something (laughs) decent to sing to. I mean, I am the winder-upper in that respect, yeah."] SOUNDCUE (:10 OC: . . . that respect yeah)
Back in 1994 while promoting that year's Voodoo Lounge collection, Mick Jagger explained how and why the Stones end up with so many unfinished tracks left on the cutting room floor: ["We were working on about 35, something like that and cuttin' them down — didn't finish them all 'cause I don't do that anymore. It's such a waste of energy when people say, 'Oh, well I don't really like that one, we won't do it,' and you've spent all this time on it. So you invest so much in it that you get very disappointed. So, I only really finish the ones I know we're gonna do."] SOUNDCUE (:15 OC: . . . we're gonna do)
Numerous tracks from the set were posted on YouTube, but have since been pulled due to copyright issues.