Any adept fan boy has seen or at least heard of the flick Cocksucker Blues. And as that disc reflected the group's dismissal of social norms, it can be figured that the stuff in that film was only a portion of the debauched nonsense that members of the Stones participated in. The title of that oft bootlegged flick does double as a song, that for obvious reasons, wasn't properly issued - until it found a place on a German compilation during the early '80s. That version of the disc, though, was soon rethought and pulled - good choice record label.

Apparently, though, the Stones have a pretty enormous catalog of unreleased stuff - not just outtakes and the like, but songs that no one has ever officially issued. There's apparently a disc from as early as '66 entitled Could You Walk On Water?. And judging from that title, there can't be too many guesses as to what some songs on that disc touched on.

After the initial period of artistic fervor - let's say between '64 and '71 - the Stones were primed to release a companion compilation to Hot Rocks called Necrophelia. Yeah. Good choice for a title. But apart from the fact that the title alone probably precluded the release of the album, inner circle entourage problems sparked some sort of battle between Andrew Loog Oldham and Allen Klein as to what tracks were to be included. Oldham, the name sake of "Andrew's Blues" figured it could be released, but with the pretty explicit sexual images being painted by Mick, the song and moreover, the album, were nixed.

Even with these problems, the production of the disc got far enough to be assigned a catalog number and even had an album sleeve worked out by Fabio Nicoli utilizing an image from the Stones' official photographer Gered Mankowitz. It looked nice at least.

A few years later, all of these problems were eased a bit as Metamorphosis was released in '75 with a slightly altered track listing and Oldham's song notably absent. Whereas Metamorphosis is only afforded a modicum of respect amongst collectors, the earlier Jamming with Edward is generally dismissed as a nonsensical assortment of outtakes. No one can argue that point. But on Necrophilia, a few numbers stand out pretty starkly from not just this set, but in the Stones catalog.

The musical acumen of the boys wasn't ever called into question, but they very rarely raved up some instrumentals subsequent to their first few albums. And present here are two pretty astounding summations of the group's talent.

"Hear It" is a simple acoustic blues work out, but considering the love which Richards gave the medium, its brief minute and forty five seconds is imbued with a passion that not too may were able to reach during the time in which this was recorded. A few tracks latter, another blues based track, "Aftermath," finds the full band jumping into a simple progression. But bolstered by Mick's harmonica, the track, and moreover this album, makes for an important addition to the Stones' catalog.