Let It Bleed Mono Edition (Mecca LX 5025)
Gimme Shelter, Love in Vain, Country Honk, Live With Me, Let it Bleed, Midnight Rambler, You Got the Silver, Monkey Man, You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Bonus tracks, Let It Bleed outtakes and alternative takes: Gimme Shelter (Keith on vocal), Honky Tonk Women, Loving Cup, You Got the Silver (Mick on vocal), Sister Morphine, Memo From Turner, Honky Tonk Women (45 mono mix)
The mono edition of Let It Bleed was released when the stereo format had become standard in the industry. It had such a limited release that the LP is one of the rarest Rolling Stones albums on the market. The rarity of the album is out of all proportion to any merit it may have since there are no differences between the stereo and mono mixes of the individual tracks and Decca simply combined the stereo signal to make it mono. In 2003 a faux Decca label in Germany released Let It Bleed (LK-5025) in a digipack in two editions. The first was a straight needle drop of the LP with the songs only, and the second added additional outtakes and alternative versions from the sessions that produced the album.
Let It Bleed Mono Edition on the Mecca label is a duplication of the second Germany release. This has the LP in mono with bonus tracks added. The outtakes include the ubiquitous “Gimme Shelter” take with Keith on vocals (in stereo), the early version of “Loving Cup,” and “You Got The Silver” with Mick on vocals. Also included is the alternate “Memo From Turner” which wasn’t included on Metamorphosis or the film Performance. The final track is the mono single mix of “Honky Tonk Women” which is also quiet rare. This is packaged in a digipack with a duplication of the artwork on the outside and inside track information. Since there isn’t any difference between the mono and stereo mixes this doesn’t add much to the collection. But for the obsessive this is a very clean transfer of the LP.
