Another WCF number mix up: ‘STONED – M.S.G.’ (# 102, WCF original) and ‘YELLOW MATTER CUSTARD’ (# 102, WCF copy)

Insert with corrected track list. Whoever was behind the WCF releases, they certainly weren’t  informed Rolling Stones fans.

The correct track list for the A side is: Jumpin’ Jack Flash / Carol / Sympathy for the Devil / Under My Thumb – I’mFree (medley)

and for the B-side: Midnight Rambler / Love In Vain / Satisfaction / Honky Tonk Women

Also found with blank white labels:

Matrix: 102 A / B

USA: 1971

Source: Audience recording from Madison Square Garden, NYC on 27 November 1969. Two songs from this evening’s performance, the first and the last song on the bootleg, made it onto the official Get Yer-Ya Ya’s Out! live album (several more are on the 40th anniversary deluxe box set) and so “Stoned-M.S.G. provided the earliest look at the level of overdubbing that took place on Ya-Ya’s.

Stoned-M.S.G. is a very good recording for the time, and I would go as far as to say that it is the work of the infamous Trade Mark of Quality (TMoQ), under one their many aliases [ my comment: This is not correct based what we know today: TMOQ and WCF were run by different people]. There is virtually no audience noise which leads me to believe that it was recorded with the same “shotgun” microphone that was used by TMoQ for the West Coast shows [ “They recorded the Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland and Phoenix shows.” Source: Ken’s blog, episode: “It Coulda Happened this Way — LiveR Than You’ll Ever Be” It has never been reported that Dub traveled to the East Coast to record further shows.]. ” (rollingstonesnet.info)  The fact that some of these tracks appeared years later on a couple of  Ken’s ‘smoking pig’ Stones releases as filler – Mick’s Birthday Party 2LP (72017), Gimme Shelter 2LP (73009) and Play With Fire (HHCER 108) does not provide further proof (to complete this list, four tracks can also be found on the LP THE BEST OF THE ROLLING STONES LIVE IN CONCERT (BRS 775)).

Regarding the sound quality, while HOTWACKS grades the album only as “Gm”, it does appear to sound significantly better than this. Stones bootleg specialist site dbboots even assigned an excellent stereo rating.

Further cover and insert variations:

I was not able to find a reissued ‘folder-cover’ version for this title.

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A 1967 photo to go with tracks that almost everyone would have guessed were recorded years earlier? Perhaps the folks at WCF weren’t Beatles fans either.

Matrix: YML – 102 – A / – B

Why it says “YML” is probably anyone’s guess. This was changed for the reissue (see last entry in this post).

USA: 1971

Was it copied from TMOQ’s original by the same name (matrix BBL – 513)? I am pretty confident that WCF’s version along with the other records in their 100 series was produced in 1971 but the TMOQ record wiki originally stated that TMOQ did not release it until January of 1972.

We know that John Lennon himself was presented with a copy of Yellow Matter Custard and in exchange gave a signed album cover with the date “Dec. 7th 71.”. I had always assumed that this had been a copy of the TMOQ version but maybe that is not correct anymore?

On the other hand, the fact that WCF got all the song titles correct (misspellings on the insert aside: “I Got A Women“, “Trying, Waiting, Hoping“, see below ) tells me that they copied all of this from someone else, that this ‘someone’ could only have been TMOQ and the original version must have been released at least a couple of months earlier than January 1972, likely in September of 1971.

 

In anyway, WCF (and TMOQ) churned this album out by the hundreds, if not thousands – a lot more copies than the Stoned – M.S.G. album – as the Beatles title turned out to be a good seller and they were joined in this by another label, which (again) ripped off WCF’s insert design:

CBM/Shalom/King Kong # 3316, adding the subtitle “AS SWEET AS YOU ARE”, the CBM logo and the statement “with two bonus tracks”, which, if they meant as opposed to the versions by WCF and TMOQ, are nowhere to be found:

Matrix: CBM2 C1 RI 3316 C  /  CBM2 D1 RI 3316 D

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Yellow Matter Custard was reissued in WCF’s folder-cover series ca. ’73/’74 and the matrix had now changed to YMC – 102 A/B

 

The job of putting Beatles names after each track was supposed to indicate who sang on it, plus in some cases who sang lead; it looks like John singing lead on Ray Charles’ “I Got A Woman” stymied them. At least someone at WCF listened to the songs – A for effort.

The folder version’s back cover design, they were going to stick with 1967 photos and nothing could persuade them otherwise, it seems:

 

 

 

• Rolling Stones Beatles WCF bootlegs