The Rolling Stones - Fancyman Blues (1989)

I may have mentioned previously that I'm not the biggest fan of the Rolling Stones, although I do love all their stuff from the 60's, and a few albums from the early 70's, so I've never heard either 'Steel Wheels' or 'Voodoo Lounge' from the 80's. I recently discovered a bootleg of outtakes from those two albums, and the comments seemed to indicate that some of the songs left off the albums were better that those which made it, and on listening to 'Fancyman Blues' and 'For Your Precious Love' I could see their point, as they were both superb recordings which somehow were not considered good enough for the final track listing. Using that as a starting point I investigated further and found that some of the tracks on the bootleg had eventually turned up on b-sides, including the afore-mentioned 'Fancyman Blues' in a shortened version, and so I listened to those b-sides and found that a lot of them were surprisingly good songs. I've therefore taken all the b-sides from the singles extrated from those two albums, added in the best outtakes, including a great track with Keith on vocals, a sublime reading of 'For Your Precious Love', and the extended version of 'Fancyman Blues', and come up with an album that I actually enjoy listening to. It helps that on a number of the songs the band have gone back to their blues roots, and by mixing those with some fine rockers it makes for an album which sits nicely between 'Steel Wheels' and 'Voodoo Lounge', and which some people (not necessarily me) might say is even better than one or the other of those two. 

Track listing    

01 Jump On Top Of Me (b-side of 'You Got Me Rocking' 1994)
02 Wish I'd Never Met You (b-side of 'Terrifying' 1989)
03 I'm Gonna Drive (b-side of 'Out Of Tears' 1994)
04 Ready Yourself (outtake 1989)
05 Fancyman Blues (b-side of 'Mixed Emotions' 1989 - extended version)
06 So Young (b-side of 'Love Is Strong' 1994)
07 Cook Cook Blues (b-side of 'Rock And A Hard Place' 1989)
08 The Storm (b-side of 'Love Is Strong' 1994)
09 You Got It Made (outtake 1994 - Keef vocal)
10 For Your Precious Love (outtake 1989)