For My Money, They Never Sounded Better!!!!!!!

The Stones always featured some great piano/keyboard work. In the early days Ian "Stew" Stewart played some great Otis Spann influenced Chicago blues. In addition Brian Jones, one of rock's most versatile instrumentals, who'd play everything from flutes and harmonica to sitar and mirimba, as well as piano and organ. Then consider the great output of Nicky Hopkins aka Edward during the Let It Bleed, Exile and Black & Blue recordings. Even today, when on tour, the band's in the more than capable hands of Chuck Leavall. That brings to to 1977's Love You Live. Who steps up to fill the slot, the inimitable Billy Preston. Employing some brillant organ and soulful vocals, Billy spices up If You Can't Rock Me and Honky Tonk Woman. Nice job Billy!



But the real reason why I grab this CD and run out to my car with it is for the El Mocambo sides. Here we find the boys on familar turff. Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and Ellis McDaniels, (shame on you if you didn't recognize Bo Diddly's real name). El Mocambo is surely the greatest recording capturing The Stones stripped down to the bone. Raw and unbridlled in a small Toroto Club, the band positively sizzles. For my money, they never sounded better!!!!!!!!!!!













That brings us to 1977's Love You Live. Who's that new

Good ol' greasy rock n' roll, as only the Stones can do it

I hadn't heard this album in years (why hasn't it been released in the States on CD?), so I wasn't sure it was going to be as good as I remembered back in the '70s. What a pleasant surprise! Remastering has brought Charlie Watts' drums up in the mix, which means you get a nice Charlie-thud & thump throughout. Mick is his typical over-the-top self, but the vocals aren't as mannered as I found them on the last tour. And Keef --- despite being seriously strung out at the time, the man's riffs continue to be a revelation, even 20 years on. This album kicks like a mother start to finish. I'd buy it and turn it up REAL loud...

It's only rock and roll and not much more...

Interesting but hardly great. Especially interesting as a keepsake if you were a fan during their mid-1970s burnout phase. Disc two starts off with what was Side 3 in the lp format, a small club appearance (the El Mocambo?) in Toronto that coincided with Keef's infamous heroin bust. It's the best part of the CD or LP, this 20 or 25 minutes of bluesy, ballsy, bare-bones bashing about. This is the way the Stones should have been playing, in small clubs, where the crowd could see the band and the band could talk, really talk, with the crowd. There's great interplay here between Jagger, the rest of the band, and the audience that's both humorous and intimate. The CD is worth buying for these tracks along. The rest of the CD is pretty lifeless.



The other interesting thing is the artwork by Andy Warhol, a much more interesting take on a portrait of the band than the disco-like cover of Black and Blue. The art was even better in LP format where it was larger, but what can ya do?



The Stones were past their live performance peak once Mick Taylor and his virtuoso playing were gone. The arena gig portion of this is a fascinating look at a band in decline; what's also fascinating is the stark contrast of the El Mocambo gig and how oddly great they sounded in front of small beer-y audience playing a simple little blues tune.

The Emperor's New Stones - But I Like It!

If you went to a bar, paid an $8 cover to hear a band, and they sounded like the Stones do on Love You Live - slurred vocals, botching a lyric here or there, sometimes indifferent musicianship - you'd probably want your money back, or at least not go see them again. But this is THE ROLLING STONES!!!! So people fall all over themselves to praise this recording of the Stones not exactly at their very best. That's why I allude to The Emperor's New Clothes in the title of the review.



But you know what? This album rocks and is a lot of fun! That's why I like it!



There's plenty of good stuff here: The "Fanfare for the Common Man" and spoken introduction in French. "If You Can't Rock Me" live is excellent, and the excitement builds as it bridges over into "Get Off of My Cloud." Keith rips the cover off "Happy." Live "Star Star" is a must for any Stones fan's collection. The four El Mocambo oldies that open Disk 2 are great (they were recorded in an intimate setting in Toronto, and the band interacts with each other and with the crowd far better than on the rest of Love You Live). Best of all though are the last four songs. The Stones start with an awesome version of "It's Only Rock 'N Roll" - not one of my favorite Stones songs either - then bring it up 50 notches at a time as they move into "Brown Sugar" and then "Jumpin' Jack Flash." The concluding song, "Sympathy For the Devil," is notably different from the studio version or the one on Get Yer Ya-Yas Out but you'll come to love it as it extends out to the finish.



Most of the songs not mentioned above are done indifferently. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is dragged WAAAAAYYYY out and even includes an audience singalong - a bit self-indulgent by the Stones. And as already mentioned in this and other reviews, the Stones of 1976 and 1977, when this was recorded, were much, much more into substance abuse and living the high life as rockers than they were into putting on excellent presentations of their music. This is the most underachieving of their live releases. If that bothers you, skip Love You Live.



But if you enjoy the Stones, and want to hear what they sounded like at this period in their lives - they sobered up by the late 70s and all of their tours since that time have been almost machinelike in their precision - get Love You Live. The Stones at their worst play circles around most other bands at their best.