Tulip Frenzy

Those very clever folks at Google Music have figured out a way to get confirmed iTunes customers, such as the entire crew at Tulip Frenzy, to sign up — by releasing exclusives one must have, or at least check out.  Brussels Affair has long been one of the most widely distributed, best-sounding Stones boots, recorded off a soundboard during the Stones ’73 tour, and then broadcast as a radio show.  Now thanks to Google Music we can hear it in its “official” form, with Bob Clearmountain having been brought in to tidy up Andy Johns’ recording for release.  We’d have been more joyous if it had been something from the ’72 tour, of course, for the substitution of Billy Preston for Nicky Hopkins was not a step up.  But still… And it sounds great.  (The bummer is if you have an iPhone, you can apparently listen to your music only with Safari open and connected to your spanking new music.google.com account.  Surely there’s a work around to get the music to actually download onto the device?  Please tell, oh army of Tulip Frenzy readers.)

RollingStones.com also has concurrently launched something called The Rolling Stones Archives, promising to release stuff from the vaults.  Is it possible the Stones have gotten smart enough to go the Dylan route and actually let us hear what they recorded in their prime?  We shall see.

UPDATE: listening to the bootleg and the “official” release back to back, there’s no question they’ve done some work to make it sound like a “real” live album — the bass comes through, the guitars sound less tinny, and the overall sonic quality is akin to what was broadcast over the radio.  It’s definitely worth going through whatever contortions Google forces upon us to listen to it.

This entry was posted on November 17, 2011 at 9:50 pm and is filed under Music with tags Brussels Affair, Google Music, Rolling Stones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.