Rolling Stones – Time Trip Volume 5 (Scorpio TT5)

Time Trip Volume 5 (Scorpio TT5)

Studio Outtakes & Different Mixes 1963-1966

Go Home Girl, Mercy Mercy, Key To The Highway, Leave Me Alone, Suzie Q, Good Bye Girl, It Should Be You, This Girl Belongs To Yesterday, Con Le Mie Lacrime, Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow, Paint It, Black, Lady Jane, Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow, Paint It and Black, 19th Nervous Breakdown, 19th Nervous Breakdown, The Last Time, Heart Of Stone, Going Home, Going Home, Going Home

Ten years after Scorpio released Time Trip Vol. 4 the latest incarnation of the label comes out with the fifth volume in their groundbreaking set.  And like the other volumes this presents previously unreleased songs in stellar sound quality along with other, hard to find but previously released outtakes and alternate versions.  Scorpio place the new material at the beginning of the disc beginning with the Rolling Stones’ cover of Arthur Alexander’s “Go Home Girl.” 

This dates from a session at De Lane Recording Studio, London on November 14, 1963.  This song is a mid paced Motown ballad recorded in stereo.  This session also produced “Money” and “Poison Ivy” that appeared on their first EP The Rolling Stones, released on January 17th, 1964 (and reaching #13 in the UK charts).  A fourth song, a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Talkin’ ‘Bout You,” was also recorded and remains unreleased to this day. 

The next two songs, “Mercy, Mercy” and “Keys To The Highway,” date from the November 8th, 1964 recording session at Chess Studios in Chicago.  This visit was an artistic pilgrimage for The Stones and was very productive.  “Mercy, Mercy” is an early version played at a slightly quicker tempo and more “funky” than the version found on Out Of Our Heads, recorded on May 10, 1965.  

“Key To The Highway” is a song never released by The Stones and it is rumored that Howlin’ Wolf played guitar on this track and although it is possible, it is unlikely. 

Four songs, “Leave Me Alone,” “Goodbye Girl,” “It Should Be You,” and “That Girl Belongs To Yesterday” were released on How Britain Got The Blues (Bad Wizard BW 6134) and afterwards on Bill Wyman’s Black Box (Vinyl Gang VGP-329).  The liner notes on this release claim “Suzie Q” dates from Regent Sound Studio on February 5th, 1964 but really comes from sessions on September 28th and 29th, 1964.  “Con Le Mie Lacrime” is “As Tears Go By” in Italian and this mono mix hasn’t been released on cd officially. 

“Paint It Black” was recorded at RCA Studios in Hollywood during the March 6th to 9th, 1966 sessions.  This is a mono mix of the instrumental track found also on The Black Box.  The following “Lady Jane” is from the same session as the previous track and also in mono.  Mick Jagger’s vocals can be faintly heard beneath the ringing acoustic guitars and harpsichord. 

The second “Paint It Black” is a true stereo mix also found on the SACD remastered release of Aftermath on ABKCO and the second “19th Nervous Breakdown” is an alternate stereo vocal in much better quality than the take found on Time Trip Vol. 4 and the third and final version of the song on this disc is another take with a different vocal take.   There are two versions of “Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadow?”  The first is a rough, mono mix of the album track (and appears on Yellow Dogs The Black Box (YD-046/8)) and the second in an alternate mix. 

“19th Nervous Breakdown,” “19th Nervous Breakdown,” “The Last Time,” and “Heart Of Stone” all appear on the famous title Darford Renegades (OM 90-64-18) and most recently on Dog N Cat (DAC-018).  All are in real stereo.  Compared to the older releases, on Time Trip Vol. 5 sounds brighter, less hissy, and the tape is slowed down to correct pitch.

“The Last Time” dates from RCA Hollywood Studio from January 17-18 and Febraury 17th, 1965.  The instruments are in the left channel and the vocals in the right in true stereo and this is in truly excellent sound quality. 

“Heart Of Stone” comes from the October 27th to November 2, 1965 sessions at RCA and is in true stereo.  This take is also found in much better quality on the official release Hot Rocks 1964-1971, so nothing is gained with this. 

The final track “Going Home” was recorded on December 3rd – 8th, 1965 sessions at RCA Hollywood Studios and was released on Aftermath the following year.  This is perhaps the first rock song to exceed ten minutes.  “It was the first long rock and roll cut. It broke that two minute barrier. We tried to make singles as long as we could do then because we just liked to let things roll on. Dylan was used to building a song for 20 minutes because of the folk thing he came from. That was another thing. No one sat down to make an 11 minute track. I mean ‘Going Home’, the song was written just the first 2 and a half minutes. We just happened to keep the tape rolling, me on guitar, Brian on harp, Bill and Charlie and Mick.  If there’s a piano, it’s Stu”  Keith Richards says in a 1971 interview published in Rolling Stone.  The first “Going Home” is nineteen seconds of studio banter of Mick speaking about Charlie and to start again.  The second “Going Home” is six seconds of silence (!?!)  The final is a mono mix clocking in at 11:19, sixteen seconds than the version on the LP. 

Time Trip Vol. 5 was a surprise when it came out several months ago and is worth having for the previously unavailable cuts found at the beginning, and maybe this is a sign of further tracks to surface from the Rolling Stones’ archives.