The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones In Mono (2016) [DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC]

This sprawling 15 disc box set contains the US and British albums released by the Rolling Stones between 1964 (The Rolling Stones) and 1969 (Let It Bleed) in monaural with a bonus disc of singles and non-LP tracks, all remastered for mono by Grammy-winning engineer Bob Ludwig. Of the 186 songs included here, 56 are available in mono for the first time in the digital era.

Spanning the era between 1963 and 1969, The Rolling Stones in Mono covers the formative years of "The Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World". During this era, most rock and pop recordings were originally recorded in mono, with stereo often an afterthought, dealt with only following the completion of the original (mono) version of a given track. In short, mono reigned and this was, indeed, the case for the Rolling Stones during the period. While typical playback systems of the time were less than sophisticated, the original mono recordings, especially as heard through quality components, were of the highest audio quality and had a powerful and very direct impact. "You felt you were in the room . . . listening to exactly what went down in the studio, no frills, no nothing", Keith Richards wrote in his autobiography, Life. "Rock was a completely new musical form," Mick Jagger explained in a 1995 Rolling Stone interview. "It hadn't been around for ten years when we started doing it . . . You felt like one of the chosen few, one of the only ones in the world who would get to play with this new toy. We had evangelical fervor". Late recording engineer Dave Hassinger explained how he mixed his ’64-’66 work for the Stones in mono, "They always played together at the same time," Hassinger said. "They would run the parts down, work out the changes here and there, nail it down, then start recording".

The British version of the Stones' first album has a nearly identical cover to its American equivalent, issued six weeks later, but a slightly different song lineup. Among these 12 songs, absent is "Not Fade Away," which was a hit single in England (where singles and LPs were usually kept separate), and in its place is the Stones' cover of Bo Diddley's "Mona (I Need You Baby)" (credited here as "I Need You Baby"), which had to wait until Rolling Stones Now!, a year later, for its U.S. release. It's not a big switch, a Bo Diddley-style cover of a Buddy Holly song bumping an actual Bo Diddley cover on the U.S. version. Otherwise, the main difference lies in the version of "Tell Me" included here, which sounds about two generations hotter than any edition of the song ever released in the U.S. – it's the long version, with the break that was cut from the single, but the British LP and the original late-'80s Decca U.K. compact disc (820 047-2) both contain a version without any fade, running the better part of a minute longer than the U.S. release of the song, until the band literally stops playing.

Tracklist:

01 - Route 66
02 - I Just Want To Make Love To You
03 - Honest I Do
04 - Mona (I Need You Baby)
05 - Now I've Got A Witness
06 - Little By Little
07 - I'm A King Bee
08 - Carol
09 - Tell Me
10 - Can I Get A Witness
11 - You Can Make It If You Try
12 - Walking The Dog

The evolution from blues to rock accelerated with the Rolling Stones' second American LP. They turned soul into guitar rock for the hits "It's All Over Now" and "Time Is on My Side" (the latter of which was their first American Top Ten single). "2120 South Michigan Avenue" is a great instrumental blues-rock jam; "Around and Around" is one of their best Chuck Berry covers; and "If You Need Me" reflects an increasing contemporary soul influence. On the other hand, the group originals (except for the propulsive "Empty Heart") are weak and derivative, indicating that the band still had a way to go before it could truly challenge the Beatles' throne.

Tracklist:

01 - Around And Around
02 - Confessin' The Blues
03 - Empty Heart
04 - Time Is On My Side (Version 1)
05 - Good Times, Bad Times
06 - It's All Over Now
07 - 2120 South Michigan Avenue
08 - Under The Boardwalk
09 - Congratulations
10 - Grown Up Wrong
11 - If You Need Me
12 - Susie Q

The group's second British album actually appeared after their second U.S. LP, mostly owing to the fact that the British rock & roll audience wasn't focused on the long-player as a medium (singles and EPs were the driving force of the business in England then). It uses the same David Bailey cover shot that had graced the U.S.-issued 12 X 5 album two and a half months earlier, but only four songs – "Under the Boardwalk," "Suzie Q," "Grown Up Wrong," and "Time Is on My Side" – overlap on the two albums. Rather, Rolling Stones No. 2 offered seven songs that weren't to make it out in America until four months later on The Rolling Stones Now!, and they're all solid numbers: "Off the Hook," "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," "Down Home Girl," "You Can't Catch Me," "What a Shame," "Pain in My Heart," and "Down the Road Apiece," plus one of the group's best blues covers, their version of Muddy Waters' "I Can't Be Satisfied," which wasn't released in America until 1973 and features some killer slide playing by Brian Jones. The U.K. LP also had the advantage of only being released in mono, so there are no "rechanneled stereo" copies with which to concern oneself.

Tracklist:

01 - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love (Version 2)
02 - Down Home Girl
03 - You Can't Catch Me
04 - Time Is On My Side (Version 2)
05 - What A Shame
06 - Grown Up Wrong
07 - Down The Road Apiece
08 - Under The Boardwalk
09 - I Can't Be Satisfied
10 - Pain In My Heart
11 - Off The Hook
12 - Susie Q

Although their third American album was patched together (in the usual British Invasion tradition) from a variety of sources, it's their best early R&B-oriented effort. Most of the Stones' early albums suffer from three or four very weak cuts; Now! is almost uniformly strong start-to-finish, the emphasis on some of their blackest material. The covers of "Down Home Girl," Bo Diddley's vibrating "Mona," Otis Redding's "Pain in My Heart," and Barbara Lynn's "Oh Baby" are all among the group's best R&B interpretations. The best gem is "Little Red Rooster," a pure blues with wonderful slide guitar from Brian Jones (and a number one single in Britain, although it was only an album track in the U.S.). As songwriters, Jagger and Richards are still struggling, but they come up with one of their first winners (and an American Top 20 hit) with the yearning, soulful "Heart of Stone".

Tracklist:

01 - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love (Version 1)
02 - Down Home Girl
03 - You Can't Catch Me
04 - Heart Of Stone
05 - What A Shame
06 - Mona (I Need You Baby)
07 - Down The Road Apiece
08 - Off The Hook
09 - Pain In My Heart
10 - Oh, Baby (We Got A Good Thing Goin')
11 - Little Red Rooster
12 - Surprise, Surprise

In 1965, the Stones finally proved themselves capable of writing classic rock singles that mined their R&B/blues roots, but updated them into a more guitar-based, thoroughly contemporary context. The first enduring Jagger-Richards classics are here – "The Last Time", its menacing, folky B-side "Play With Fire", and the riff-driven "Satisfaction", which made them superstars in the States and defined their sound and rebellious attitude better than any other single song. On the rest of the album, they largely opted for mid-'60s soul covers, Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike", Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me", and Sam Cooke's "Good Times" being particular standouts. "I'm All Right" (based on a Bo Diddley sound) showed their 1965 sound at its rawest, and there are a couple of fun, though derivative, bluesy originals in "The Spider and the Fly" and "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man".

Tracklist:

01 - Mercy Mercy
02 - Hitch Hike
03 - The Last Time
04 - That's How Strong My Love Is
05 - Good Times
06 - I'm Alright (Live)
07 - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
08 - Cry To Me
09 - The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man
10 - Play With Fire
11 - The Spider And The Fly
12 - One More Try

Early Stones recordings don't get much better than this. Firmly established as celebrities, the band began to use the pandemonium they inspired as an artistic source. Nowhere is their initial reaction to fame and music business drama more apparent than in the humorous, mocking "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man", in which the Stones effectively skewer the sleazier side of the record industry.

Tracklist:

01 - She Said Yeah
02 - Mercy Mercy
03 - Hitch Hike
04 - That's How Strong My Love Is
05 - Good Times
06 - Gotta Get Away
07 - Talkin' 'Bout You
08 - Cry To Me
09 - Oh, Baby (We Got A Good Thing Goin')
10 - Heart Of Stone
11 - The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man
12 - I'm Free

The last Stones album in which cover material accounted for 50 percent of the content was thrown together from a variety of singles, British LP tracks, outtakes, and a cut from an early 1964 U.K. EP. Haphazard assembly aside, much of it's great, including the huge hit "Get Off of My Cloud" and the controversial, string-laden acoustic ballad "As Tears Go By" (a Top Ten item in America). Raiding the R&B closet for the last time, they also offered a breathless run-through of Larry Williams' "She Said Yeah," a sultry Chuck Berry cover ("Talkin' About You"), and exciting live versions of "Route 66" and Hank Snow's "I'm Moving On." More importantly, Jagger-Richards' songwriting partnership had now developed to the extent that several non-A-side tracks were reasonably strong in their own right, such as "I'm Free" and "The Singer Not the Song". And the version of "You Better Move On" (which had been featured on a British EP at the beginning of 1964) was one of their best and most tender soul covers.

Tracklist:

01 - She Said Yeah
02 - Talkin' 'Bout You
03 - You Better Move On
04 - Look What You've Done
05 - The Singer Not The Song
06 - Route 66 (Live)
07 - Get Off Of My Cloud
08 - I'm Free
09 - As Tears Go By
10 - Gotta Get Away
11 - Blue Turns To Grey
12 - I'm Moving On (Live)

This 1966 release includes the classics "Mother's Little Helper", "Under My Thumb", "Lady Jane" and "Out Of Time" (found here in its extended version). The first album to feature all Jagger-Richards compositions, just like its U.S. counterpart, it reached No. 1 on the U.K. album charts in 1966. It was recorded entirely at RCA Studios in Hollywood, CA in December 1965 and March 1966. Featuring guest musicians Ian Stewart and Jack Nitzsche, the release also showcases Brian Jones' versatility as an instrumentalist. He's heard playing bells, dulcimer, harpsichord, marimba and sitar as well as guitar and harmonica.

Tracklist:

01 - Mother's Little Helper
02 - Stupid Girl
03 - Lady Jane
04 - Under My Thumb
05 - Doncha Bother Me
06 - Going Home
07 - Flight 505
08 - High And Dry
09 - Out Of Time (Version 1)
10 - It's Not Easy
11 - I Am Waiting
12 - Take It Or Leave It
13 - Think
14 - What To Do

The Rolling Stones finally delivered a set of all-original material with this LP, which also did much to define the group as the bad boys of rock & roll with their sneering attitude toward the world in general and the female sex in particular. The borderline misogyny could get a bit juvenile in tunes like "Stupid Girl". But on the other hand the group began incorporating the influences of psychedelia and Dylan into their material with classics like "Paint It Black", an eerily insistent number one hit graced by some of the best use of sitar (played by Brian Jones) on a rock record. Other classics included the jazzy "Under My Thumb", where Jones added exotic accents with his vibes, and the delicate Elizabethan ballad "Lady Jane", where dulcimer can be heard. Some of the material is fairly ho-hum, to be honest, as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were still prone to inconsistent songwriting; "Goin' Home", an 11-minute blues jam, was remarkable more for its barrier-crashing length than its content. Look out for an obscure gem, however, in the brooding, meditative "I Am Waiting".

Tracklist:

01 - Paint It, Black
02 - Stupid Girl
03 - Lady Jane
04 - Under My Thumb
05 - Doncha Bother Me
06 - Think
07 - Flight 505
08 - High And Dry
09 - It's Not Easy
10 - I Am Waiting
11 - Going Home

The Rolling Stones' 1967 recordings are a matter of some controversy; many critics felt that they were compromising their raw, rootsy power with trendy emulations of the Beatles, Kinks, Dylan, and psychedelic music. Approach this album with an open mind, though, and you'll find it to be one of their strongest, most eclectic LPs, with many fine songs that remain unknown to all but Stones devotees. The lyrics are getting better (if more savage), and the arrangements more creative, on brooding near-classics like "All Sold Out", "My Obsession", and "Yesterday's Papers". "She Smiled Sweetly" shows their hidden romantic side at its best, while "Connection" is one of the record's few slabs of conventionally driving rock. The best tracks on the American edition were the two songs that gave the group a double-sided number one in early 1967: the lustful "Let's Spend the Night Together" and the beautiful, melancholy "Ruby Tuesday", which is as melodic as anything Mick Jagger and Keith Richards would ever write.

Tracklist:

01 - Yesterday's Papers
02 - My Obsession
03 - Back Street Girl
04 - Connection
05 - She Smiled Sweetly
06 - Cool, Calm & Collected
07 - All Sold Out
08 - Please Go Home
09 - Who's Been Sleeping Here?
10 - Complicated
11 - Miss Amanda Jones
12 - Something Happened To Me Yesterday

Flowers was dismissed as a rip-off of sorts by some critics, since it took the patchwork bastardization of British releases for the American audience to extremes, gathering stray tracks from the U.K. versions of Aftermath and Between the Buttons, 1966-1967 singles (some of which had already been used on the U.S. editions of Aftermath and Between the Buttons), and a few outtakes. Judged solely by the music, though, it's rather great. "Lady Jane", "Ruby Tuesday", and "Let's Spend the Night Together" are all classics (although they had all been on an LP before); the 1966 single "Mother's Little Helper", a Top Ten hit, is also terrific; and "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing in the Shadow?", making its first album appearance, is the early Stones at their most surrealistic and angst-ridden. A lot of the rest of the cuts rate among their most outstanding 1966-1967 work. "Out of Time" is hit-worthy in its own right (and in fact topped the British charts in an inferior cover by Chris Farlowe); "Backstreet Girl", with its European waltz flavor, is one of the great underrated Stones songs. The same goes for the psychedelic Bo Diddley of "Please Go Home", and the acoustic, pensively sardonic "Sittin' on a Fence", with its strong Appalachian flavor. Almost every track is strong, so if you're serious about your Stones, don't pass this by just because a bunch of people slag it as an exploitative marketing trick (which it is). There's some outstanding material you can't get anywhere else, and the album as a whole plays very well from end to end.

Tracklist:

01 - Ruby Tuesday
02 - Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?
03 - Let's Spend The Night Together
04 - Lady Jane
05 - Out Of Time (Version 2)
06 - My Girl
07 - Back Street Girl
08 - Please Go Home
09 - Mother's Little Helper
10 - Take It Or Leave It
11 - Ride On, Baby
12 - Sittin' On A Fence

Without a doubt, no Rolling Stones album – and, indeed, very few rock albums from any era – split critical opinion as much as the Rolling Stones' psychedelic outing. Many dismiss the record as sub-Sgt. Pepper posturing; others confess, if only in private, to a fascination with the album's inventive arrangements, which incorporated some African rhythms, Mellotrons, and full orchestration. What's clear is that never before or after did the Stones take so many chances in the studio. (Some critics and fans feel that the record has been unfairly undervalued, partly because purists expect the Stones to constantly champion a blues 'n' raunch worldview.) About half the material is very strong, particularly the glorious "She's a Rainbow," with its beautiful harmonies, piano, and strings; the riff-driven "Citadel"; the hazy, dream-like "In Another Land", Bill Wyman's debut writing (and singing) credit on a Stones release; and the majestically dark and doomy cosmic rocker "2000 Light Years from Home", with some of the creepiest synthesizer effects (devised by Brian Jones) ever to grace a rock record. The downfall of the album was caused by some weak songwriting on the lesser tracks, particularly the interminable psychedelic jam "Sing This All Together (See What Happens)". It's a much better record than most people give it credit for being, though, with a strong current of creeping uneasiness that undercuts the gaudy psychedelic flourishes. In 1968, the Stones would go back to the basics, and never wander down these paths again, making this all the more of a fascinating anomaly in the group's discography.

Tracklist:

01 - Sing This All Together
02 - Citadel
03 - In Another Land
04 - 2000 Man
05 - Sing This All Together (See What Happens)
06 - She's A Rainbow
07 - The Lantern
08 - Gomper
09 - 2000 Light Years From Home
10 - On With The Show

The Stones forsook psychedelic experimentation to return to their blues roots on this celebrated album, which was immediately acclaimed as one of their landmark achievements. A strong acoustic Delta blues flavor colors much of the material, particularly "Salt of the Earth" and "No Expectations," which features some beautiful slide guitar work. Basic rock & roll was not forgotten, however: "Street Fighting Man," a reflection of the political turbulence of 1968, was one of their most innovative singles, and "Sympathy for the Devil," with its fire-dancing guitar licks, leering Jagger vocals, African rhythms, and explicitly satanic lyrics, was an image-defining epic. On "Stray Cat Blues," Jagger and crew began to explore the kind of decadent sexual sleaze that they would take to the point of self-parody by the mid-'70s. At the time, though, the approach was still fresh, and the lyrical bite of most of the material ensured Beggars Banquet's place as one of the top blues-based rock records of all time.

Tracklist:

01 - Sympathy For The Devil
02 - No Expectations
03 - Dear Doctor
04 - Parachute Woman
05 - Jigsaw Puzzle
06 - Street Fighting Man
07 - Prodigal Son
08 - Stray Cat Blues
09 - Factory Girl
10 - Salt Of The Earth

Mostly recorded without Brian Jones – who died several months before its release (although he does play on two tracks) and was replaced by Mick Taylor (who also plays on just two songs) – this extends the rock and blues feel of Beggars Banquet into slightly harder-rocking, more demonically sexual territory. The Stones were never as consistent on album as their main rivals, the Beatles, and Let It Bleed suffers from some rather perfunctory tracks, like "Monkey Man" and a countrified remake of the classic "Honky Tonk Woman" (here titled "Country Honk"). Yet some of the songs are among their very best, especially "Gimme Shelter," with its shimmering guitar lines and apocalyptic lyrics; the harmonica-driven "Midnight Rambler"; the druggy party ambience of the title track; and the stunning "You Can't Always Get What You Want," which was the Stones' "Hey Jude" of sorts, with its epic structure, horns, philosophical lyrics, and swelling choral vocals. "You Got the Silver" (Keith Richards' first lead vocal) and Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain," by contrast, were as close to the roots of acoustic down-home blues as the Stones ever got.

Tracklist:

01 - Gimme Shelter
02 - Love In Vain
03 - Country Honk
04 - Live With Me
05 - Let It Bleed
06 - Midnight Rambler
07 - You Got The Silver
08 - Monkey Man
09 - You Can't Always Get What You Want

The new compilation Stray Cats pulls together the essential non-album B-sides & rarities from the ABKCO era entirely restored in MONO for the very first time!

Tracklist:

01 - Come On
02 - I Want To Be Loved
03 - I Wanna Be Your Man
04 - Stoned
05 - Fortune Teller
06 - Poison Ivy (Version 1)
07 - Bye Bye Johnny
08 - Money
09 - Poison Ivy (Verison 2)
10 - Not Fade Away
11 - I've Been Loving You Too Long (Remastered 2016)
12 - The Under Assistant West Coast Promo Man (Single Version)
13 - 19th Nervous Breakdown
14 - Sad Day
15 - Con Le Mie Lacrime (As Tears Go By)
16 - Long, Long While
17 - Who's Driving Your Plane?
18 - We Love You (Single Version)
19 - Dandelion (Single Version)
20 - Child Of The Moon
21 - Jumpin' Jack Flash
22 - Street Fighting Man (Single Version)
23 - Honky Tonk Women
24 - You Can't Always Get What You Want (Single Version)


DSD sources were mastered by acclaimed GRAMMY award winning engineer Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering.
DSD files were created from the original first generation analog tapes by Teri Landi at ABKCO Records in 2016.
Thanks to the Original customer!