PR #5 Beggar's Banquet and the Stones' Mobile Studio

In this episode, I talk about my podcast being available on the
Stitcher app, so you can have the show on the go. Please give a
thumbs up to increase my ranking and visibility. Thanks for doing
that.  It's another 45 year anniversary. This time it's
"Beggar's Banquet". One time I was driving in Seattle in my old red
pickup and a song came on the radio. I'd heard the Stones all my
life, but just the singles. The Chevy started steering itself until
I ended up at a CD store. The song was "You Can't Always Get What
You Want", and I'd never listened to it closely. It made a big
impression on me and started me on a journey.  I used to like
a lot of thrash bands, then grunge. I like melodic music, but the
Stones were off my radar. The journey was expensive, because I had
to buy thirty albums. Same with Bowie. I was buying a CD almost
every day and got obsessed with them and Bowie. "Beggar's Banquet"
was probably the second album of theirs I got. It is very acoustic.
The record cover is simple, white with script writing and said
"RSVP". It was like a formal invitation to a nice dinner. The real
album cover they wanted to use was refused by the record company
but they re-released it with that in 2003 or so. It's a horrible
bathroom like in "Trainspotting" and they use graffiti to great
effect. It's a sepia toned picture with dirty porcelain. It looks
like the Rolling Stones name is written in lipstick. It also says,
"God rolls his own". There's an ankh and a peace sign and someone
has taco thighs. There's a weird not to Bob Dylan. Inside joke,
probably. Kilroy was here, and so was a naked woman. The back cover
has the crediting of the musicians and the song titles, randomly
written. Somewhere it says, "Where is Spanish Tony?" who was their
drug dealer.  It was a transitional album, because the
previous album was the strange answer to "Sgt. Pepper's" called
"Their Satanic Majesties Request". They were messed up on drugs
bigtime. "Beggar's" was a return to their roots, acoustic blues.
"Sympathy for the Devil" is the first song, but doesn't fit with
the rest, since "Sympathy" is an electric rocker.  Brian Jones
had puffy eyes and a bowl haircut. He was always on drugs and
fighting women. He couldn't play much because he was so messed up,
but he would show up at the studio and want to play. Mick and Keith
were pushing him out. Brian would derail their productivity in the
studio because he didn't know the songs. So they kicked him out,
which is real hard to do, trust me. Brian Jones drowned in his
swimming pool about a month later.  About that time, Keef was
making friends with Gram Parsons, who died tragically like many
others around the Stones. He influenced Keef's country sound. Gram
was from Georgia, Bakersfield, and Nashville. He showed Keef how to
tune his guitar to an open tuning, which I don't want to explain.
It became Keith's signature, and it's the reason I never learned
how to play Stones songs because I didn't want to retune all the
time. Crazy, since I have a Stones tattoo.  Mick was getting
more comfortable as a singer and he sounds like a Chicago blues
man. He doesn't get the credit he deserves.  The Stones had a
mobile studio built in '68. Mick lived in a country house called
"Stargroves". They were tired of being in the studio and wanted to
record at their houses, so they made a mobile control unit. That
studio recorded dozens of seminal albums by Lou Reed, Marley, Mac,
Badco, Zep, etc., etc. They recorded Zep at Headley Grange and
Stargroves. They drove the studio around on a flatbed. On the
"Physical Graffiti" album, there's a song called "Black Country
Woman" and Eddie Kramer was the engineer. A plane flew over and
Robert Plant told him to leave it on the recording. The Stones were
from the street, working class, and they never forgot that. At the
height of their fame, Keef had rotten teef. I hope you liked this
episode! My website is www.PaperbackRocker.com. You can find the
podcast archives there. Find my books on Amazon by searching my
name, Matt Syverson. Follow me on Twitter @PaperbackRocker. Email
me at bowiefan1970@live.com. Thanks for listening!