More of the Music of The Rolling Stones

More Recordings with Exceptionally Tubey Magical Guitar Reproduction

Love In Vain is our favorite test track for side one on Let It Bleed.

The first minute or so clues you into to everything that’s happening in the sound.

Listen for the amazing immediacy, transparency and sweetly extended harmonics of the guitar in the left channel.

Next, when Watts starts slapping that big fat snare in the right channel, it should sound so real you could reach out and touch it.

If you’re like me, that Tubey magical acoustic guitar sound and the rich whomp of the snare should be all the evidence you need that Glyn Johns is one of the Five Best Rock Engineers who ever lived. Ken Scott, Stephen Barncard, Alan Parsons and a few others are right up there with him of course. We audiophiles are very lucky to have had guys like those around when the Stones were at their writing and performing peak.

Our Older Hot Stamper Commentary

This is, IMHO, the second or third best record the Stones ever made. (Sticky Fingers is Number One, and either this or Beggar’s Banquet comes in a strong second.) With this pressing we can now hear the power and the beauty of this superb recording.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want sounds amazing here — the breathtaking transparency allows you to pick out each voice in the intro. The vocals are present, full-bodied and textured.

There’s lots of deep, tight bass which is crucial for a song like Monkey Man, which is wonderful here.

Gimme Shelter is pretty tough to get right but it sounds excellent here as well.