Rolling Stones

Hot Rocks 1964-1971(DSD Remastered)
$24.98
"Hot Rocks" was certainly a popular album in its day, but on reflection, it is woefully incomplete. There are only 3 songs here that pre-date "Satisfaction", creating a poor overview of their early period. The set then rushes through the rest of the band's catalog up to and ending with the "Sticky Fingers" album and the two hits from it. This is an OK collection for the more casual fan who wants most of the major hits, but the followup set "More Hot Rocks" is far more interesting overall, scooping up the hits that this set missed plus giving the more involved Stones fan a good number of rarities. "Hot Rocks" seemed to have been put together hastily, but great tracks are in abundance, no question about that. There just doesn't seem enough of them.

Gimme Shelter
$0.99
Kudos to Merry Clayton, who sings a truly great bridge solo. One of the great 16-bar intros in rock.

Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert [40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set] [3 CDs + 1 DVD]
$59.98
"TRUTH IN PACKAGING" time first: OK, truth be told - the nay-sayers were (for the most part) correct. Less than a half hour's worth of footage from the remnants of "Gimme Shelter," and 15 additional songs - OH, and a "book," and something that looks like a postcard with a naked lady and the the words "The Rolling Stones" atop her head - don't really justify paying $45 for this.

THAT said: Listening to "Ya Yas" now, repackaged, refurbished, "rechanneled," whatever, is akin to going to see "Gone With The Wind" with a pair of sunglasses on - and taking them off just as you hear the words "Quittin' time!" I play my CDs thru the same setup as my DVD, 5:1, whatever-it's called, and it's no longer merely "my favorite CD," it's now more like being there in the middle of the front 2 rows at Madison Sq Garden and pushing and shoving with all the hippies who obviously didn't "just say no." The sound is PHENOMINAL! And re the "unreleased tracks," "Prodigal Son" WAS already available on the Criterion "Gimme Shelter," and I already had "Under My Thumb" and "Sastifaction" on the "Ya Yas" bootleg I'd purchased..."overseas." But, again, the sound has been "re-whatever-ed," plus the song are the Madison Sq concert versions, not "boot-bootlegged" off the "Gimme Shelter" soundtrack, as was the CD I owned courtesy of my Russian friends.

OK...the "other things": well, the "mini-poster" of the tour is. at best, a post card, and I think I have already read (and RE-read) everything that was in the little book, "last century," to be exact.

BUT: CD #3, the BB King & Ike 'n Tina sets: WOW!!!!!!!!! I (almost) recant my statement, agreeing with the "it's overpriced" whiners. BB King is - STILL - a Gentleman, but to hear him in 1969 when he was still young & virile - a "veil will be lifted" from many a young person who was only familiar with "The Thrill Is Gone." And Ike and Tina....there are no adjectives to describe their performance without sounding like Cameron Crowe with a thesaurus. My only disappointment is that the version included here of Otis' "I've Been Loving You Too Long" is NOT the version from "Gimme Shelter" that is almost porno-lite. Regardless: Tina's performance here - as in, probably, EVERYTHING she has ever done - was, most definitely, the inspiration for Mick's last line in "Start Me Up," where he sings of the (ahem) "recuperative powers" of the "Chanteuse-in-question," you know, "You make a dead man..."

Oh.............and the "gift box," in which the whole conglomeration is sort of "encased," will make an EXCELLENT container for my Minister's Christmas present, too! (It's cool, he was my friend, "another bass player," before he became my minister...Thankx, Doug....)

The Rolling Stones Classic Tongue T-Shirt X-Large
$12.95
The Stone's logo is great, but the quality of the shirt is poor. I had to mend the hem after one washing.