🎵 12" SotW The Rolling Stones: "Miss You" b/w "Far Away Eyes" (Rolling Stones Records DK 4609, released 1978)

The Rolling Stones
"Miss You" b/w "Far Away Eyes"

Rolling Stones Records – DK 4609
Released 1978
Speed: 33⅓ RPM

A1: Miss You (Special Disco Version) [8:36]
B1: Far Away Eyes [4:24]



The album and 7-inch single versions were originally mixed by Chris Kimsey, where this 12-inch version was remixed by Bob Clearmountain. The version pictured here is the US release; elsewhere in the world, the single had a pink-hued picture sleeve and were pressed on pink vinyl, matching the sleeve.

The Rolling Stones - Miss You (Special Disco Version)

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1978 Vinyl release of "Miss You (Special Disco Version)" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

 

[GDBY2LV]

I have the pink vinyl version you mention.

 

[Rudy]

This song has an interesting background. From what I've read elsewhere, this 12-inch version and the album and single versions were all extracted from a long take of the song recorded in the studio. The difference here being the Bob Clearmountain mix.

I have the pink vinyl version you mention.

I didn't luck out on that. All I found was a slightly ratty looking US copy, used, many years ago.

 

[GDBY2LV]

I always thought Mick and company were mocking disco on side A, and country music, especially Buck Owens on the B side. It was a huge radio, and club hit though. Again, I had an advantage of working in a local mom & pop record store from 77’-90’, before working for chain stores. So first pick on most everything we received. I did all the ordering too. We were the only store in town with European & Japanese imports.

 

[Rudy]

If I'd had an unlimited budget back in those days, working in a record store would have been like dropping a kid in a candy store.

The song came about more as a jam between Jagger and Billy Preston, although there was conflicting feelings about whether they were targeting it as a disco record or not.

"Miss You" was written by Mick Jagger jamming with keyboardist Billy Preston during rehearsals for the March 1977 El Mocambo club gigs, recordings from which appeared on side three of double live album Love You Live (1977). Keith Richards is credited as co-writer as was the case for all Rolling Stones originals written by either partner or in tandem.​

​

Jagger and Ronnie Wood insist that "Miss You" wasn't conceived as a disco song, while Richards said, "'Miss You' was a damn good disco record; it was calculated to be one." In any case, what was going on in discotheques did make it to the recording. Charlie Watts said, "A lot of those songs like 'Miss You' on 'Some Girls' ... were heavily influenced by going to the discos. You can hear it in a lot of those four-to-the-floor and the Philadelphia-style drumming."​

Miss You (Rolling Stones song) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Nemily]

I love this disco Miss You mix. 1978 surfaces back hearing this again. There is a comment in the Discogs review...According to him (Mick Jagger) (in liner notes of "Jump Back"), "the song 'Miss you' was never meant as a disco song at all; that harmonica isn't exactly disco, right?"

Harmonica meets disco ball and a beautiful thing happened

 

[AM Matt]

"Flintoid" (known as Flint, Michigan) (music video) (formerly 105.5 FM WWCK when it was a hard rock station from September 1972 till December 31, 1988 & became a Top 40 station since)!!

 

[Rudy]

Part of the problem is with how "disco" was defined in the minds of many who heard it. Anything with a 4-on-the-floor beat was lumped in with disco. I just saw it as a trend overall in music, where various bands from rock and jazz to instrumental music took on the beat. Like with this 12-inch single, the Stones took a popular beat of the day and added it to their sound. In the link I posted above, it is hinted that Bill Wyman was learning a different style of bass to fit the rhythm. What I hear, essentially, is a funk bass line. And you hear this more on a later single, "Undercover," especially towards the end. It almost sounds like he was doing that "bass slap" thing that funk bassists had been doing for a few years by then. (Even "Peg" by Steely Dan had it ever so faintly.)

Another thought--the Stones were allowed to evolve, like any other band. Otherwise we'd have had 50+ years of "Satisfaction" and "Sympathy for the Devil."

Many 80s bands still hung with that same 4-on-the-floor rhythm, even a band as "out there" as Frankie Goes to Hollywood. ABC's Lexicon of Love II from a few years ago goes full tilt with it on that album, especially on "Viva Love."

 

[Nemily]

Anything with a 4-on-the-floor beat was lumped in with disco. I just saw it as a trend overall in music, where various bands from rock and jazz to instrumental music took on the beat. Like with this 12-inch single, the Stones took a popular beat of the day and added it to their sound. In the link I posted above, it is hinted that Bill Wyman was learning a different style of bass to fit the rhythm. What I hear, essentially, is a funk bass line.

Good observation on the funky bass style. Discotheque was the segue to a more funky, electro, boogie sound that led to the techno beat. That new beat diminished the popularity of the 4-on-the-floor drumming which was initially came to be years before to amplify the beat. Interestingly, the last disco hit was Funkytown.

Many 80s bands still hung with that same 4-on-the-floor rhythm

Thank goodness. One of my favorite 80's 4-on-the-floor songs was Eurythmics Sweet Dreams in 1983. But my heart belongs to the pioneer The Love I Lost, Melvin & the Blue Notes 1973

 

[Rudy]

Interestingly, the last disco hit was Funkytown.

Also the first big hit of the Minneapolis sound. Cynthia Johnson was originally a singer and saxophonist with the group Flyte Tyme (famous for Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and Jellybean Johnson), and both Johnson and David Rivkin (known as David Z) worked with Prince. A lot of local ties there!

Pseudo Echo's version of the hit turned it quite successfully into a rocker. I have that on a 12" single here somewhere, I think.

But my heart belongs to the pioneer The Love I Lost, Melvin & the Blue Notes 1973

Or "Bad Luck." I have always liked the Blue Notes! Especially "Wake Up Everybody" and "If You Don't Know Me By Now."