As a teaser for the Rolling Stones' upcoming Goats Head Soup box set coming on September 4th, the band has dropped a lyric video for “Scarlet,” their long-unreleased 1974 team up with Jimmy Page. Keith Richards shed light on the track in a statement, explaining, “My recollection is we walked in at the end of a (Led) Zeppelin session. They were just leaving, and we were booked in next and I believe that Jimmy decided to stay. We weren’t actually cutting it as a track; it was basically for a demo, a demonstration, y'know, just to get the feel of it, but it came out well, with a lineup like that, y'know, we better use it.”
Rolling Stone posted Jimmy Page's then-recent thoughts on the track when talking to Cameron Crowe — with Page telling him in 1975 he believed they were cutting a B-side for a new Stones single: “It sounded very similar in style and mood to those (Bob Dylan) Blonde On Blonde tracks. It was great; really good. We stayed up all night and went down to Island Studios where Keith put some reggae guitars over one section. I just put some solos on it, but it was eight in the morning of the next day before I did that. He took the tapes to Switzerland and someone found out about them. Keith told people that it was a track from my (solo) album.”
Yesterday (July 22nd), Mick Jagger appeared on BBC Radio and spoke about the long-fabled track — and had yet another differing recollection of the recording session: “'Scarlet' — I'd completely forgotten about this one. It was recorded in Ronnie Wood's basement of his house. It was Keith, and me, and then Jimmy Page turned up for some reason. And we had various other musicians. Since then, I've completely forgotten about it. And then someone told me it was Ginger Baker on drums. And I rang Jimmy Page up and Jimmy Page remembered everything: 'No, this was the person that played on it. . . ' and 'It wasn't Ginger Baker. . . ' But he seemed so certain about it, and I said, 'Alright.' Here it is — it's one of the extra tracks that we've put on Goats Head Soup.
Jagger was pressed on the Stones' long-awaited new album, which will mark the first new Jagger/Richards-written collection in 15 years: “We recorded some, y'know, the same time we did '(Living In A) Ghost Town,' we recorded a bunch of tracks. So, actually I've been finishing up the vocals and some other instruments on them — and doing some mixes on them. I'm workin' on it. I mean, we've got to get together and do a couple more sessions, I think, y'know? And we're not really gonna get together right now, y'know? But, what we've already done sounds pretty good to me, y'know?”
AUDIO: MICK JAGGER ON ONGOING STONES SESSIONS
AUDIO: MICK JAGGER ON JIMMY PAGE PLAYING ON ‘SCARLET’
