I mentioned in my write-up for "Some More Girls 1" that I was found myself unable to post these albums for over two years. That was almost entirely due to this album (and I wanted to post them together). The other one was easy, because it mostly contained the songs from the deluxe edition of the classic 1978 album "Some Girls." This one contains all the other good outtakes I could find from the same time period.
For a long time, I felt this one just didn't hold up musically, compared to the other album. As I mentioned in my write-up for that album, the Rolling Stones recorded a surprisingly large number of songs in 1977 and 1978 - about 50 in total. Of the unreleased ones, nearly all of them have been bootlegged in some form or another. But the problem is that a lot of them just aren't very good. As I mentioned for that other album, the band was stockpiling songs because of a worry that lead guitarist Keith Richards would have to serve a long prison sentence (although in the end he didn't have to). In many, many cases, the band was just brainstorming ideas, with no vocals or only a hummed or mumbled melody. I suppose the idea was that if Richards had to go to prison, lead singer Mick Jagger was the band's main lyricist, and he could write and sing the vocals later. That's why, when the deluxe edition of "Some Girls" was released in 2011 with a dozen extra songs, most of the extra songs had new vocals added by Jagger, often with newly composed lyrics.
The short version of all that is that while there are many unreleased songs from this era, most are lacking intelligible lyrics (since they largely hadn't been written yet) or any vocals at all. Furthermore, the sound quality of these bootlegs varies wildly. Some of the songs I found I thought were pretty good, but the sound quality was lacking.
In a way, my dithering paid off, because in late 2021, the band's 1981 album "Tattoo You" was rereleased as a deluxe edition, with an entire second album of extra songs. But despite being a classic album, "Tattoo You" was made up of revamped outtakes from the 1970s, so the extra songs were also all from the 1970s. It turns out four of those were from the 1977-1978 "Some Girls" sessions. So I was able to include them on this album and get rid of some of the more dodgy selections I'd previously had.
Furthermore, in the last couple of years, audio editing technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, thanks to artificial intelligence breakthroughs. So I was able to use this new technology to improve the mixes of some of the other songs, most especially by boosting the lead vocals on some of them.
I also ultimately decided less is more. I had some iffy songs that I wasn't sure to include on the album or not, or as bonus tracks or not. In the end, I decided to let most of them go. The end result is pretty decent, I think, though it still obviously doesn't compare with the "Some Girls" album itself, an undisputed classic.
Tracks 1, 2, 10, and 11 are from the "super deluxe edition" of Tattoo You, as mentioned above. Note that includes an early version of the classic hit "Start Me Up" that's different enough to be interesting. Also, the released version of "It's a Lie" is about five minutes long, and I thought that was too long. The song started to get boring for me. So I edited about a minute out of it.
The only other released song is "Don't Look Back," which was released as a single in 1977. Some might argue that it doesn't belong here, since it's not actually a Rolling Stones song. It was a duet performed by reggae star Peter Tosh and Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger. In my opinion, having Jagger's voice prominently featured makes it fit with the other songs. Besides, this was well before Jagger began a real solo career, so there's no better album from this era to add it to.
That leaves six unreleased songs on the album proper. Most of them had issues, which is why you see "[Edit]" included in the song titles for some of them. In some cases, I thought they went on too long, so I cut them down to a reasonable length, like I did with "It's a Lie." Keep in mind that the band was figuring these songs out as they were playing them, so they often went on extra long in their efforts to find the right groove. I have no doubt that most or all of them would have been shortened up eventually if they even were included on studio albums.
Note that one song, "So Young," also appears on "Some More Girls 1." But that was a full band version, and this one is basically just accompanied by a piano. So I thought both were worthy of inclusion. Also note that "Covered in Bruises" is sung by band member Ronnie Wood. It's an early version of the song "1 2 3 4," which ultimately came out on his 1981 solo album "1 2 3 4." But while that album has a solo version, this is an actual Rolling Stones version, done at the same time as most of the others here (typically, December 1977). I figured it also is different enough for inclusion, even to the point of having a different title.
As with the other album, I wanted the vast majority of the songs to be originals. So only one is a cover, "Shame, Shame, Shame," originally by Jimmy Reed. Most of the covers were put on the album "Some Covers 1" instead. In case you don't have that one yet, here's the link:
https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-rolling-stones-some-covers-volume-1.html
This album still has its flaws. For instance, some songs still just have mumbled vocals instead of fully completed lyrics, like "Everlasting Is My Love" (call me crazy, but I think I hear Bruce Springsteen's name mentioned in that one). But still, I think this is a worthy album. While it can't compare with "Some Girls," some of these songs are as good or better than the ones that made it on their next album, the very uneven "Emotional Rescue."
The bonus track "You Don't Have to Go" is another example of a song that wasn't really finished. It was too rough for me to include on the album proper.
This album is 40 minutes long, not including the bonus track.
01 Fiji Jim (Rolling Stones)
02 Shame, Shame, Shame (Rolling Stones)
03 Everlasting Is My Love [Edit] (Rolling Stones)
04 The Way She Held Me Tight [Misty Roads] (Rolling Stones)
05 Don't Look Back (Peter Tosh & Mick Jagger)
06 Never Make You Cry [Edit] (Rolling Stones)
07 So Young [Piano Version] (Rolling Stones)
08 Covered in Bruises [Early Version of 1 2 3 4] [Edit] (Rolling Stones)
09 Not the Way to Go [Edit] (Rolling Stones)
10 It's a Lie [Edit] (Rolling Stones)
11 Start Me Up [Early Version] (Rolling Stones)
You Don't Have to Go [Edit] (Rolling Stones)
https://www.upload.ee/files/16307883/TROLLNGSTNS1977-1978SmeMreGrls2_atse.zip.html
Check out the write-up of "Some Girls 1" for a better explanation of what this cover art is all about. Basically, I was trying to imitate the style of the official "Some Girls" cover, which was based on a vintage advertisement for female beauty products. I found another real vintage ad with a similar vibe, then added the text in the same style and locations the official album.
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