Lire, c’est bien

Il y a ce bouquin sur les Stones que Bill a pêché sur le web. On n’apprend plus rien mais il y a toujours une ou deux anecdotes à piocher. L’intérêt ici, ce sont certaines informations sur les sessions d’enregistrement. Et aussi, avouons-le, quelques potins, ragots et légendes sur la dope et le sexe (c’est quand même plus intéressant que le nouveau gouvernement). Par exemple, l’enregistrement de Sway. « They set up in an empty parlor off a main hall at Stargroves, the mouldering country manor that Mick had bought years before. The room’s old oak floor and plaster walls gave the music an intimate, woody flavor. The Stones’ thirty-four-foot mobile studio (with a nervous Andy Johns, younger brother of Glyn, at the controls) was outfitted with sixteen-track tape machines, mixing board, microphones, and effects units. “Sway” was the first song cut, with Mick Taylor’s amp placed in the big fireplace and the microphones in the chimney. Charlie’s drums were in a big bay window. Nicky Hopkins was on piano, and Mick Taylor began to deliver the solo virtuosity that marked the first important directional change for the Stones since 1968. ” Ou encore celui de Brown Sugar, la version avec Clapton. « On December 18, a studio party was held for Keith’s twenty-sixth birthday. Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Bobby Keys, and Al Kooper all came, and all but Harrison played on a convulsive live version of “Brown Sugar,” recorded after the party had been cleared away. With Clapton burning blue on slide guitar, this new version of “Brown Sugar” was so good it almost made it onto Sticky Fingers. »

Photographie : Dominique Tarlé