Wow, don’t know how long this has been up but it’s fascinating. The “stems’ (21st century word for “tracks”) from Like A Rolling Stone – Bob’s vocal, guitar and harmonica on one, drums and organ on another, another guitar on the next one and finally bass and piano. The latter is intriguing – they are just NOT TOGETHER! But as with so many of these things, once you hear the whole mix it is of course brilliant. The piano is quite low in the final mix but it’s there.
I’ve heard a few of these things – there are Fabs examples all over the internet. At the Rolling Stones exhibition a few years ago there were, from memory, 8 songs you could listen to, and the two things that stood out for me were, first of all Nick Hopkins’ piano (on I think Angie) – he had such a beautiful melodic sense and his sense of time and rhythm was immaculate. The other one that was a surprise was Start Me Up – Mick Jagger’s solo vocal is full of spit and mutterings that most engineers would get rid of these days.
Anyway, I’m off to, er, play a decent » Continue Reading.