After almost falling off my chair after hearing the nadir of Jagger's output, i.e. "Charmed Life" (see TOPIC), I researched "Too Many Cooks", the single that never was and that should have been !
MUSIC
Full version with groovy intro : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UTJW6MWN
YouTube version, intro missing :
FACTS
- Not a Jagger original, written by A.J. Bond and Ronald Dunbar, see details in post by "Nasty Habits" below
- Recorded 1973/LA and/or 1974/London
- Produced by John Lennon
From http://fuelfriends.blogspot.com/2007/08/john-lennon-mick-jaggers-lost.html
"The track he laid down with Mick Jagger was, for a long time, just mythical. In 2003, a London record store owner put an unlabeled record up for auction which he claimed had come originally from Ronnie Wood (guitarist for the Stones) and contained a collaboration cover of Jagger singing the old Willie Dixon blues song, "Too Many Cooks" with Lennon on guitar. That unlabeled acetate (made directly from a master tape, and found in a stack of records) sold for £1,400, and Mick admitted that he had forgotten it existed for a number of years."
MY TAKE
First heard it on a bootleg in 1990, possibly "Taxile on Main Street" and this is great groove...and I love of good groove!
Other Mick/Stones "grooves":
- Rain Fall Down/2005 - A
- Goddess in the Doorway/2001 - C
- God Gave me Everything/2001 - B
- Out of Control/1997 - B
- Gunface/1997 - B
- Suck on the Jugular/1994 - D
- Make it Now (Keith VL outtake)/1993 - A
- Use Me (Bill Withers cover with Kravitz)/1993 - A
- Mother of a Man/1993 - B
- Sweet Thing/1991 (SW outtake)/1991 - A
- Sex Drive/1991 (started in Tokyo in 1990?) - C
- Rock and a Hard Place/1989 - B
- Peace for the Wicked/1987 from PC - B
- Too Much Blood/1983 - B
- Pretty Beat Up/1983 - C
- Slave/1981 - B (B&B outtake with Pete Townsend?)
- Disco Muzik/1979 (ER outtake) - D
- Everything is Turning to Gold/1978 - B/C
- Miss You/1978 - A
- Hot Stuff/1976 - B/C
- Hey Negrita/1976 - B/C
- Come on Sugar/1975 (B&B outtake - with Jeff Beck?) - B
- I love the Ladies (aka Sexy Nite)/1975 (B&B outtake - with Jeff Beck?) - B
- Fingerprint File/1974 - B
- Dance Little Sister/1974 - B
- Bitch/1971 - A
Any others ?
[Edited by gotdablouse]
[Edited by gotdablouse]
1st September 2007 07:31 AM
andrews27
What boot is "Make it Now" on?
1st September 2007 08:41 AM
gotdablouse
It originally appeared on the Voodoo Brew/Stew/Residue series in 1995, there might be an instrumental version on Brew, there is a vocal version for sure on Stew.
1st September 2007 10:42 AM
gimmekeef
Jagger did a song called Blue that is very good......
1st September 2007 03:00 PM
mmdog
How about "Slave", and most of the Black and Blue album. Songs like "Hey Negrita", and "Hot Stuff". Also "Dance Little Sister" is a must for this list.
1st September 2007 03:18 PM
sirmoonie
quote:gotdablouse wrote:
After almost falling off my chair after hearing the nadir of Jagger's output, i.e. "Charmed Life" (see TOPIC), I researched "Too Many Cooks", the single that never was and that should have been !
MUSIC
FACTS
- Not a Jagger original, apparently a Willie Dixon Cover
- Recorded 1973/LA and/or 1974/London
- Produced by John Lennon
From http://fuelfriends.blogspot.com/2007/08/john-lennon-mick-jaggers-lost.html
"The track he laid down with Mick Jagger was, for a long time, just mythical. In 2003, a London record store owner put an unlabeled record up for auction which he claimed had come originally from Ronnie Wood (guitarist for the Stones) and contained a collaboration cover of Jagger singing the old Willie Dixon blues song, "Too Many Cooks" with Lennon on guitar. That unlabeled acetate (made directly from a master tape, and found in a stack of records) sold for £1,400, and Mick admitted that he had forgotten it existed for a number of years."
MY TAKE
First heard it on a bootleg in 1990, possibly "Taxile on Main Street" and this is great groove...and I love of good groove!
Never heard this. Very nice. Who is playing on it?
1st September 2007 04:07 PM
gotdablouse
Well after reading the article I linked, your guess is as good as mine, hopefully the tracklisting of the upcoming best of will list the musicians.
@mmdog - thanks for the suggestions, added them to the list
@gimmekeef - Blue is an excellent song, but I'm not sure it qualifies as a "groove" song ?
1st September 2007 04:54 PM
BONOISLOVE
Why "too many cooks" when you can have one?
1st September 2007 05:40 PM
mmdog
Gotdablouse,
This is a good topic. I always liked "Sex Drive" a lot. Even though I liked the version on the original release, more than the one on the Virgin re-release a few years later.
How about "Gunface"? I know that's a track that divides a lot of fans around here. But, I always thought that one had a killer groove.
1st September 2007 05:52 PM
gotdablouse
Being a sucker for a good groove, I tried to like "Sex Drive" too, but it lacks a memorable hook, like say "Sweet Thing" to really stick. It almost gets there at some point, the bridge maybe, but not quite. More of a jam that was put into shape for the Flashpoint CD I think.
I like Gunface, but I wouldn't call it a "groove song", with all the stop and go action ?
I remember the Q review of WS in March 1993 where the idiotic writer trashed that most excellent album by writing "the rest is groove rock, which the man apparently holds to be his forte" or something like that. If memory serves the guy liked "Put Me in the Trash" singling out it's middle-eight as being the best, since I don't remember which song.
On second thougt I wonder if "Wired all Night" is not a "groove song" ? Which reminds me I need to add "Peace for the Wicked" from PC ! Not a bad one actually. Oh and "Fingerprint File" !
[Edited by gotdablouse]
1st September 2007 11:31 PM
texile
too many cooks is a real gem -
i first heard it on a bootleg CASSETTE.....
this will be the ONLY reason i buy the jagger compilation.
2nd September 2007 01:19 AM
mmdog
"Gunface" does have that stop and go, with the Guitars, but the rythm section is so tight underneath it, that I think it qualfies as a groove. I think we have forgotten one of the best. How about "Bitch"?
Also, another one from the Wandering Spirit album, "Mother Of A Man".
2nd September 2007 01:23 AM
The Wick
It's pretty good, but it does sound a little bit like two old friends getting together and just jamming instead of a serious cut. It's so frustrating with Jagger outside the Stones and his recent Stones efforts. We all know he's a genius but always wish he would show his true talent. As good as this is, it could have been so much more.
2nd September 2007 06:11 AM
gotdablouse
True, but it's still better than most anything that you can hear these days or that the Stones have produced since...hum...25 years ? I think it could have done very well as a single!
@mmdog - sold ! Added Gunface, Mother of a Manand Bitch, which is hybrid I guess. As well as "Use Me" and God Gave me Everything. Maybe a bit more/different from "groove songs".
The definition of a "groove" is a bit loose, originally I had a repetitive soul/funk rythm pattern in mind, but it can be extended I guess. My all-time favorite groove is Curtis Mayfield's "Billy Jack", this is an absolute killer !
2nd September 2007 10:36 AM
Egbert
Dance Pt. 1 / If I Was A Dancer
2nd September 2007 11:48 AM
aladdinstory
Too Many Cooks is excellent, first heard on a boot in early 90s. Did a google and here's what came up:
The track
features an all-star lineup that includes guitarists Danny Kotchmer
and Jesse Ed Davis, keyboardist Al Kooper, bassist Jack Bruce, drummer
Jim Keltner, and, on background vocals, singer-songwriter Harry
Nilsson.
As far as groove songs, I always liked the ones from the B&B sessions, like Come On Sugar, I Love Ladies...
But a killer one for me, and underappreciated is Pretty Beat Up, a vicious groove on that one.
Everything is Turning to Gold, I forgot about that one too.
[Edited by aladdinstory]
2nd September 2007 08:30 PM
gotdablouse
Three tunes co-written by Ronnie, eh ! PBU and ETG are not bad, but they lack a bit of sparkle and don't really go beyond the original riff.
On TMC, that's more likely Danny Kortchmar, a session musician I think, who helped Bill on his solo albums and then Don Henley, among others I'm sure.
2nd September 2007 09:09 PM
Nasty Habits
In an attempt to make things clear and dispel decades of bad cover version scholarship: This is NOT the Willie Dixon Too Many Cooks. There is a Willie Dixon song CALLED Too Many Cooks, recorded by among others Jesse Fortune and Buddy Guy (both early 60s recordings, I think) but this song is not that song at all.
The song Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup) was actually composed by A.J. Bond and Ronald Dunbar, who were members of a band called the 8th Day, who worked on the Invictus label in the early 70s. The song was also recorded by 100 Proof Aged in Soul for the Hot Wax label and released by them guys as a 45.
Whatever jackass (and it was by NO means anyone in this thread) originally reported that the Lennon/Jagger thing was a Willie Dixon cover was talking out of his ass, and said ass talking is now been taken as "fact".
2nd September 2007 10:08 PM
gotdablouse
Wow, excellent information, thanks, first message updated !
With your info I found some links of interest http://www.answers.com/topic/8th-day?cat=entertainment (odd way to create bands !) and http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/8th%20Day.html
About Danny Kortchmar, it seems that news travels fast, Too Many Cooks is already listed on his website here http://www.dannykortchmar.com/Danny/disco.htm !
"2007
Mick Jagger “The Very Best of Mick Jagger”
Guitar in “Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup)”, previously unreleased, produced by John Lennon in 1973"
[Edited by gotdablouse]
3rd September 2007 01:22 AM
glencar
I first heard Too Many Cooks in the late 80's. I have it on a 3 LP collection (bootleg, natch) that also contains some of the Stones 60's covers (Hi Heeled Sneakers, Fannie Mae, Down In The Bottom) & that Exile On Main Street song. I believe it was done during Lennon's lost weekend when he dumped Screechy for a record company steno gal.
3rd September 2007 02:00 PM
texile
can you if jagger had done his solo work back then (73-75) when he first started hinting at it?
then again, i always think of GHS and B&B as virtually solo jagger.
3rd September 2007 02:06 PM
gotdablouse
well that's also what we though for ABB and we have to at least thank Keith for potentially nixing "Charmed Life" !
3rd September 2007 03:53 PM
fireontheplatter
quote:The Wick wrote:
It's pretty good, but it does sound a little bit like two old friends getting together and just jamming instead of a serious cut. It's so frustrating with Jagger outside the Stones and his recent Stones efforts. We all know he's a genius but always wish he would show his true talent. As good as this is, it could have been so much more.
you hit the nail on the head with this post. i couldn't agree more.
3rd September 2007 04:35 PM
aladdinstory
quote:texile wrote:
can you if jagger had done his solo work back then (73-75) when he first started hinting at it?
then again, i always think of GHS and B&B as virtually solo jagger.
interesting, i used to think that but mick taylor had alot to do with GHS, and it seems keith wasn't as absent from the process as previously thought from quotes and i've read in later years. though much less involed than Exile. B&B really does feel like a Jagger solo album in alot of ways, the emphasis of groove for one thing, songs like Melody & Fool To Cry for another.
4th September 2007 06:32 AM
gotdablouse
Yes Keith was there and I think he always made it a point to come up with songs and guitar parts in spite of all the rest...too bad he's not doing that anymore...
Anyway I found another version of Too Many Cooks with a pretty groovy intro, I uploaded it here http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UTJW6MWN
It's possible the youtube vid is a truncated version.
4th September 2007 02:43 PM
guitarman53
John Lennon helped produce this?? after what he said about the Stones in his Rollin' stone Interview in '71, I'm surprised Jagger would even say hello to him.
4th September 2007 03:17 PM
polytoxic
quote:Nasty Habits wrote:
In an attempt to make things clear and dispel decades of bad cover version scholarship: This is NOT the Willie Dixon Too Many Cooks. There is a Willie Dixon song CALLED Too Many Cooks, recorded by among others Jesse Fortune and Buddy Guy (both early 60s recordings, I think) but this song is not that song at all.
The song Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup) was actually composed by A.J. Bond and Ronald Dunbar, who were members of a band called the 8th Day, who worked on the Invictus label in the early 70s. The song was also recorded by 100 Proof Aged in Soul for the Hot Wax label and released by them guys as a 45.
Whatever jackass (and it was by NO means anyone in this thread) originally reported that the Lennon/Jagger thing was a Willie Dixon cover was talking out of his ass, and said ass talking is now been taken as "fact".
Indeed. Even Nico Zentgraf has this wrong.
The 100 proof version Kicks Ass (and by the way has Funk Brothers legend Dennis Coffey on guitar) and I encourage everyone who's into early 70's funk/soul to seek it out.
4th September 2007 03:19 PM
Saint Sway
I'd say "nice list"... but I immediately stopped reading after 'Rain Fall Down" scored an 'A'
4th September 2007 03:32 PM
glencar
You should have kept reading. Dance Little Sister got a B!
4th September 2007 04:20 PM
gotdablouse
hehe, to each his own, eh ? ;-) I guess you can spend some time on your list if you don't like mine sway ! RFD got an A because it's one of the better songs the Stones recorded over the past 10 years, yes I know that's not saying much...
@polytoxic - you wouldn't have that version handy would you ?
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