Side Trips: The Rolling Stones – “Winter” 1971-1974 (Made in the Shade LP 2)

In 1975, about to go on tour with Ron Wood and unable to get Black and Blue out in time, the Stones released Made in the Shade, a canon-building, tour-supporting compilation drawn from their four most recent albums: Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup, and It’s Only Rock and Roll. The album defined the early Seventies as “Bitch,” “Angie,” “Tumbling Dice,” “It’s Only Rock and Roll,” etc. – the foundation of what would become the permanent post-Sixties Rolling Stones brand. 

This companion compilation is drawn from the same four albums as Made in the Shade and is intended to be its opposite. 

Jagger ran the band in the long decade of Richards’ drugged marginality, and this compilation highlights Mick as the emerging, ambitious, essential songwriter, exploring options for his band in a new decade. My focus here is on his developing “sincere” mode, which also generally highlights the degree to which his melodies were almost always the decisive shapers of the Stones’ songs, post-Brian Jones. Ultimately, this faux album documents the early Seventies origins of the late Seventies Jagger-Stones (“Beast of Burden,” “Emotional Rescue,” “Tops,” “Heaven,” etc.). And there are a lot more excellent 1970s Stones songs in that mode than there are in the tongue-lolling rocker mode. If you’re going to stick up for the post-“Exile” Stones, you’re sticking up for Mick Jagger. 

Of course, you know all these tunes by heart, and you see no reason to download a mix you could compose as a playlist in your iTunes library anytime. But that’s a hassle, and you probably will never bother to do it. Why not trust me and download this distinctly-tagged, volume-equalized mix now and give it a spin? You can always delete it. 

It’s not a compilation of my favorite nine tracks from these four albums that weren't included on “Made in the Shade”; it’s a proposition about a particular, excellent band The Rolling Stones were that isn’t the one we mostly experience or valorize. And, as usual, when you separate tunes like these from their more bombastic album kin, they all get bigger. If you imagine the mix as the moody half of a double album that The Stones put out to match “Physical Graffiti,” you’ll hear what I was looking for, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed to have these tunes recontextualized. (The recent remaster of “Exile” makes this mix sonically possible.)

45 minute 192kbps mp3 folder here

  • Loving Cup
  • Hide Your Love
  • Till the Next Goodbye
  • Coming Down Again
  • Shine a Light
  • Moonlight Mile
  • If You Really Want to be My Friend
  • Winter
  • I Got the Blues

7 responses
Not sure how I wasn't aware of Made in the Shade. Thanks for the tip and your companion comp.
Yeah, I guess it has ceased to exist at this point, despite being a canon-shaper in the 1970s. Now that there has been a new greatest hits release every five years for 40 years, it probably looks like a K-Tel record in retrospect/for younger people. Wait, you don't know K-Tel?
This could be the very best compilation I'v heard. What is particularly spot on - is the flow and order of songs. This is perfect. Question- Do any of the Goats Head Soup Expanded songs get added and where? Yes, I am thinking of the 100 years ago piano demo... but where does it fit here, if at all?
Hazel, I am so glad you experience this mix the way you do. Me too! Always grateful when someone comments on sequencing. I would absolutely add the piano demo of "100 Years Ago." Good question about where to put it! Maybe between "Hide Your Love" and "Last Goodbye?"
Thanks, John. Also-that slot works perfectly for 100 Years Ago. Also, there is an solid (but more contemporary) acoustic version of Memory Motel (Stripped Companion) that fits nicely as Track 10 and bookends Coming Down Again appropriately. Thank you for your awesome mixes!!!
Great idea! I just made this into a Spotify playlist, incorporating the GOATS HEAD SOUP demo of "100 Years Ago." "Sister Morphine" would also fit this bleary, depressive mood nicely.
1 visitor upvoted this post.