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The Rolling Stones... My God...


Mr. Not
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I've been listening to a lot of them lately, and they explore guitar tones which, to this day, I don't hear any other bands make use of... And it's not like they're bad guitar tones either (well, okay, maybe they are, but they work very well for the groove the band is looking to accomplish)...

 

Examples are found in the heavily distorted guitar during the choruses of "Satisfaction" and "Under my Thumb"

 

It just amazes me... Are there any other bands that go to completely unique lengths with their guitar tones? And if so, just how long ago did they "trademark" this tone? It probably wasn't in '65/'66 ;)

Edited by Mr. Not
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Brian May

Eddies tone on the early van halen albums

David Gilmour has a cool , unique tone

Ty Tabor from Kings X has rather unique tone

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I read in Keith Richards' autobiography that he recorded "Street Fighting Man" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" on acoustic guitars distorted through an ordinary cassette recorder.

 

From "Life" by Keith Richards: "That grinding, dirty sound came out of these crummy little motels where the only thing you had to record with was this new invention called the cassette recorder. And it didn't disturb anybody. Suddenly you had a very mini studio. Playing an acoustic, you'd overload the Philips cassette player to the point of distortion so that when it played back it was effectively an electric guitar. You were using the cassette player as a pickup and an amplifier at the same time. You were forcing acoustic guitars through a cassette player, and what came out the other end was electric as hell. [...] In the studio I plugged the cassette into a little extension speaker and put a microphone in front of the extension speaker so it had a bit more breadth and depth, and put that on tape. That was the basic track. There are no electric instruments on "Street Fighting Man" at all, apart from the bass, which I overdubbed later. All acoustic guitars. [...] I wish I could still do that, but they don't build machines like that anymore. They put a limiter on it soon after that so you couldn't overload it. Just as you're getting off on something, they put a lock on it. The band all thought I was mad, and they sort of indulged me. [...] "Street Fighting Man," "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Gimme Shelter" were all made just like that, on a cassette machine. I used to layer guitar on guitar. Sometimes there are eight guitars on those tracks. You just mash 'em up. Charlie Watts's drums on "Street Fighting Man" are from this little 1930s practice drummer's kit, in a little suitcase that you popped up, one tiny cymbal, a half-size tambourine that served as a snare, and that's really what it was made on, made on rubbish, made in hotel rooms with our little toys."

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This is how Dave Davies got the sound for "You Really Got Me":

 

While recording the Kinks’ debut album in 1964, Dave Davies altered the course of guitar history with the help of an Elpico AC-55 amp. Unhappy with the sounds he was getting from it, he slashed his Elpico’s speaker with a razor blade and inadvertently created one of the rawest sounds in early rock, as heard on the classic “You Really Got Me.”

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I read in Keith Richards' autobiography that he recorded "Street Fighting Man" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" on acoustic guitars distorted through an ordinary cassette recorder.

 

From "Life" by Keith Richards: "That grinding, dirty sound came out of these crummy little motels where the only thing you had to record with was this new invention called the cassette recorder. And it didn't disturb anybody. Suddenly you had a very mini studio. Playing an acoustic, you'd overload the Philips cassette player to the point of distortion so that when it played back it was effectively an electric guitar. You were using the cassette player as a pickup and an amplifier at the same time. You were forcing acoustic guitars through a cassette player, and what came out the other end was electric as hell. [...] In the studio I plugged the cassette into a little extension speaker and put a microphone in front of the extension speaker so it had a bit more breadth and depth, and put that on tape. That was the basic track. There are no electric instruments on "Street Fighting Man" at all, apart from the bass, which I overdubbed later. All acoustic guitars. [...] I wish I could still do that, but they don't build machines like that anymore. They put a limiter on it soon after that so you couldn't overload it. Just as you're getting off on something, they put a lock on it. The band all thought I was mad, and they sort of indulged me. [...] "Street Fighting Man," "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Gimme Shelter" were all made just like that, on a cassette machine. I used to layer guitar on guitar. Sometimes there are eight guitars on those tracks. You just mash 'em up. Charlie Watts's drums on "Street Fighting Man" are from this little 1930s practice drummer's kit, in a little suitcase that you popped up, one tiny cymbal, a half-size tambourine that served as a snare, and that's really what it was made on, made on rubbish, made in hotel rooms with our little toys."

 

While i've known about this for years, it's still cool to read again how those songs were created. It's easier to tell it's an acoustic guitar on SFM than it is on JJF, I think.

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I'm a HUGE Stones fan and this is my favorite song from Sticky Fingers... and Keith is not playing on it.

 

The Mick Taylor years are the best !!!

 

 

Edited by custom55
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I'm a HUGE Stones fan and this is my favorite song from Sticky Fingers... and Keith is not playing on it.

 

The Mick Taylor years are the best !!!

 

 

 

 

Fantastic album and a great song. Not a bad song on that album. For myself, it was the last great Stones' album. After Sticky Fingers, I began to lose interest in them.

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I'm a HUGE Stones fan and this is my favorite song from Sticky Fingers... and Keith is not playing on it.

 

The Mick Taylor years are the best !!!

 

 

 

 

Fantastic album and a great song. Not a bad song on that album. For myself, it was the last great Stones' album. After Sticky Fingers, I began to lose interest in them.

 

Sticky Fingers is a great album.

 

Did you ever hear Exile On Main Street? Just a great, raw rock n roll album. The Stones were still pretty good in the 70s, it was in the 80s that they started to decline, though every album still has some good songs on them. Steel Wheels was a good comeback album for them after they broke up for a few years in the mid 80s.

 

They've been my dads favorite band for over 50 years and we'll be seeing them when they come here next month. I grew up listening to all his Stones vinyls when I was a kid. I've been a fan of them longer than any other band I can remember.

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Black And Blue is one of the most criminally underrated albums of all time .. Fool To Cry is as good as it gets

 

Fool To Cry is good but I like Memory Motel better. I really like Hand Of Fate too.

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Goats Head Soup... Not well produced but this album in right up there in my top Stones albums. Love the guitars on Star Star

 

http://youtu.be/YD_CSgIkd_k

 

Coming after Exile, I suppose I understand why GHS is seen by some as the first step down after the Stones' excellent run from Beggars Banquet to Exile. Angie, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo, 100,000 Years, Dancing With Mr. D, and Starf*cker are among my very favorite Stones tunes ever, though, so I think it's one of their best.

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Black And Blue is one of the most criminally underrated albums of all time .. Fool To Cry is as good as it gets

 

Fool To Cry is good but I like Memory Motel better. I really like Hand Of Fate too.

 

Will not be getting out to montauk this year. Always cool passing the memory motel there. Strange when you see it...that's where they were??

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