Premise: when I bought Rolling Stones records and tapes in the 1980s, as an adolescent, I only rarely happened to stumble upon Bootlegs. Most of their quality was poor, and it was very expensive to procure even a few of them. Now I see many things have changed. I have been able to download more than 20 Bootlegs in a few days (mid Dec. 2006) and I must say some of them are impressive.
Few will disagree on that the faithful core of RS music was 1968-1974, the period in which they had dismissed the nearly ridiculous habit of early sixties music style (I do find early RS more outdated and less original than early Beatles) and they hadn't yet run out of the qualitative, blues and crossover freshenss of that time, lost later in more commercial (pop-dance) contaminations which spoiled at least some songs in the next years LPs...
There are GREAT unofficial recordings available for the period 1969-74, and with this I mean that both the music quality and the recording quality is at standard if not better levels than on contemporary CDs. There are very good LIVES (the famous "Brussels Affair"/"The Lost Brussels", Oct. 17, 1973 is probably the best, if we also want to consider recording quality), but I mean to focus on Studio Outtakes here...
Try to procure (easy in mp3) these recordings: "Itchy Fingers", "Sticky Fingers. The Alternate Album", "Tricky Fingers and Slicky Ringers", with some different versions of great songs like Brown Sugar, Wild Horses... (some mono and badly recorded, other perfect, different mixes with different solos, without lead guitars or wit h lead gtr instead of voice...).
"Main Street Revisited" has also some jewels, and rec. is very good with enlarged sound dynamic range, while "It's Only Rock n Roll Outtakes", "Acetates" (1970.1974) and the splendid "It's Only Goat's Head Soup..." have unreleased tracks, different mixes, longer versions of 1972-1974 songs. The latter is a monumental album, sounds much better than the original G.H.S. and has the following tracks
IT's ONLY GOAT'S HEAD SOUP ... BUT WE LIKE IT
01.It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (rough mix)
02.Ain't Too Proud To Beg (alternate mix)
03.Winter (alt. mix)
04.Silver Train (alt. mix)
05.Drift Away (unreleased song)
06.Time Waits For No One (long version)
07.Criss-Cross Man )unreleased song)
08.Through The Lonely Nights (1974 b-side only)
09.Living In The Heart Of Love (unreleased song)
10.Too Many Cooks (unreleased Mick Jagger solo-single)
11.Angie (rough mix without reverb & 2nd keyboard overdub)
12.Dance Little Sister (alt. mix)
13.Till The Next Goodbye (alt. mix)
14.If You Can't Rock Me (alt. mix)
15.Fingerprint File (alt.longer mix)
This 'bootleg' comprehends studio sessions of both It's Only Rock n Roll and Goat's Head Soup. I don't know who made these mixes but after a few listens they sound great (no overdub. or repetitions), and in many cases the songs frankly quite overshadow the official versions!
